Competition finally seems to be having some effect on the major US wireless carriers. For a couple years, prepaid MVNO carriers have been taking a bite out of the market, while the contract carriers did their best to act like an Old Media industry, blocking phone features, limiting selections, and leveling exorbitant "cover charges" on voice and data, particularly for smartphones. AT&T and Verizon all but ignored prepaid, offering less and charging more than anyone in the game.

Starting in June, though, AT&T started offering a $50/mo prepaid unlimited plan--still more than the discount carriers, but tied to a robust network, presumably with higher priority than carriers renting their towers, and with an enormous selection of phones: basically anything that will take a SIM card, though if AT&T recognizes the IMEI as a smartphone, they'll block data unless you add a package ranging from 10MB/$5 to 500MB/$25 (on contract, they won't let you block data on a smartphone ). Last month, Verizon followed suit with an identical ppu plan, and AT&T added a $25/mo unlimited text + 250min prepaid plan.

As it happens, my contract with AT&T ran out in July, and I was about 80% certain I'd be firing them because of their rigid contract plans. I hadn't even considered their prepaid, because the last time I looked it was outrageous (and voice still is expensive, but I use voice less than anything else).

Instead, I now have an Android phone that I like (and got for cheap, secondhand) and a $30 phone bill--the $25 plan plus 10MB data, which is plenty for here-and-there browsing if I shut off background syncing and keep my app updates to WiFi. Honestly, I can probably pare it down further and dump more into data. If you use an unlocked non-AT&T smartphone, you can often get away with using the unlimited plan, though many phones will only get EDGE speeds that way.

For the first time in years, I feel like I'm actually in control of my cell service, paying for what I want and need rather than having the carrier tell me what I can have.