[VLM]

"what good reasons still exist for having a cell phone bill?"

Ultra high interest rate subprime loan to buy a phone.

Can't afford a once time charge of $599 to buy a phone? Save tons of money by paying $100/month on a 24 month contract!

Based on your post you would be very interested in some of the services republic wireless offers. I've been a customer since the very earliest beta days, first wave and all that. RW used to have legendary issues with MMS (I don't use MMS so I don't care)