Recently I gave up my very cool, very small, very high-tech cell phone and went back to the basics.  I used to have one of the coolest cell phones around, the HTC Touch Diamond.  This was a fabulous phone.  Touch screen, same size as the Blackberry Pearl, has your contacts on it, calendar, games etc.  The only thing was, the contract was with Alltel, and it was  a 2 year contract!  Prior to that, Verizon.  Prior to that T-mobile.  I finally got fed up with the contracts and the high-tech, and went basic. 

Now I have a basic phone, its the Motorola W385.  Kinda like a mini-Razor.  It doesn't have the style, or beauty of my old HTC, however, it also doesn't start dialing by itself in my pocket if I accidentally hit it or kneel down.  But, I do confess, I miss my HTC, the screen, the operating system, etc.  I do not miss the contract.  Straight Talk is the company I am with now, it is economical, and there is nothing around that beats it.  I am not endorsing this company, there are plenty of others out there, but none beat the price that I can see.  It is $45 for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and unlimited internet.  How can you beat that?  None of the major carriers come close.  T-Mobile recently came up with a no contract plan, that is comparable, however, they do not allow unlimited text and internet. 

The only downfall to Straight Talk is the customer service is not that great, it also uses the Verizon towers, which can be good or bad depending on your location.  The other negative is the lack of phones.  When I first started on the service, you had 3 phones to choose from.  Until now!  I recently saw online their new line of phones, they are not an Iphone or HTC Touch, but much better than the basic cheap ones they offered before. 

I believe the days of the 1 or 2 year contracts are coming to an end.  I say, good riddance!  I never could understand why we put up with it for so long in the first place.  There are many different no contract cellular phone companies out there, if you are tired of the 2 year rip off, check them out.  They will save you time and headaches.  Just don't expect the newest and best cell phones to be available.  But, even that will change.