Aio (pronounced A-O)

This isn't intended to be an endorsement, but I do really like the service I have with Aio. They are the no contract arm of AT&T, more likely than not created to compete with T-Mobile. I get unlimited talk and text and 2.5 GB of high speed data for $45 per 30 days. My reception isn't quite as good as it was with Verizon, but for 2 smart phones, we pay slightly more than half of what we paid for Verizon. I bought my phone outright, but with high quality smartphones for less than $400 that works out to around $30 per month over two years. If I keep my phone longer than 2 years, it gets even more appealing.

Back to the beginning. About 5 years ago we were on a Verizon contract. The service was good, but we were paying around $180 a month for two phones (unlimited talk, text, and data). We couldn't afford it anymore because our circumstances changed, but we still had over a year left on our contract. So we changed to a basic phone plan which was still around $90 a month, and we were using our old flip phones. Once our contract was up we bought unlocked GSM phones (Verizon and Sprint are CDMA while T-Mobile and AT&T are GSM. For some reason GSM phones are almost always cheaper than their CDMA counterparts) jumped over to T-Mobile and were paying $35 a month per phone. T-Mobile service was OK at our house, but not so good in other areas where we often traveled. Since we weren't on a contract we could switch, so we did. We went with StraightTalk, but that wasn't any better and it was a little more expensive. I was considering going back to T-Mobile when AT&T launched Aio. I did a bit of research and found that they were a branch of AT&T which I knew had better coverage than T-Mobile in the areas I was concerned about, so we gave it a try. It has only been 3 months, but already it has been pretty great. Last month they re-structured their pricing and we are actually paying less now than when we started.

If you are thinking about changing providers look around. There are several reliable resources where you can purchase used, unlocked, smartphones for a reasonable price. I use http://www.sensorly.com/ for checking signal strength wherever I am going, and I turn it on whenever I am away from home, especially if I am in a place where I know there isn't much data already.