U.S. cellphone users are no longer held hostage by the four major cellphone carriers with two-year contracts. Most cellphone plans are less restrictive nowadays. If you can spend time on research, you can buy cellphone access from third party providers.

However, whatever cellphone plan you choose, you will need to compromise on your choice of phones, amount of data you can use, the rate at which you paying for voice and data, as well as the coverage area in which you can roam, even inside U.S.

In many parts of the world, 'prepaid' cellular plans are bigger business than "postpaid" cellular plans.

Whatever cellphone plan you choose, from a third party provider or a MVNO, know that lower price doesn't mean you will get the same level of service, which shouldn't be the case, You are paying the provider in advance!

But you have the freedom now!

If you only use your phone to make calls, you will buy a cellular plan that give syou more talk time for less dollars. If you use your cellphone to browse the internet all the time, you will buy a data friendly pack.

Cellphone service providers in U.S. include:

AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid and its prepaid brand Cricket Wireless
Sprint’s prepaid and its VirginMobile USA and Boost Mobile subsidiaries
T-Mobile’s prepaid and its MetroPCS operation
Verizon Wireless prepaid
Consumer Cellular, an AT&T and T-Mobile reseller
Credo Mobile, a Sprint reseller
Project Fi, Google’s intriguing but invitation-only service based on resold Sprint and T-Mobile coverage.
Republic Wireless, a Sprint reseller that will soon be adding T-Mobile to its networks
Ting, a Sprint and T-Mobile reseller
TracFone and its Net10 and Straight Talk brands, which resell all four networks
Consumer Cellular

Best cellular network: Consumer Cellular (good network coverage, great prices)
The best cellphone plan for minimal voice use but regular text and data use: T-Mobile
The best cellphone plan with the cheapest unlimited voice and text plan, but minimal data: Republic Wireless
The best cellphone plan for usage that varies month by month but doesn’t get too high: Ting
The best cellphone plan for multiple lines: Cricket Wireless
The best cellphone plan for a temporary supplement to your existing service: TracFone’s AT&T/Verizon SIM