hm another solution is buying a sprint world phone, like the photon then get it sim unlocked. I think it'll work on other US carriers, not sure if you have to get it altered like the touch pro 2...
but that's what I did with my tp2 on sprint :S $30/month, I don't mind the slow speeds since I don't really use phone much. But I paid off the contract so I'm on a month to month now and I can get them to pause account so I don't get charged. Then I put in sim card in (I tend to keep 1 $10 t-mobile prepaid sim in it incase sprint service drops for some reason, I can switch to it)
i think sprint's iphone is also a world phone with a sim card.
the htc evo design also has sim card on sprint too i believe.
it's just that aside from t-mobile's $30/month plan, the rest are around the $50/month mark (aside from boost/virgin mobile). So sero kind of wins out for me since I can switch between the $50 and $30 plans as I need to. I just have to put up with slow speeds
yeah the 2 year contracts become month to month after you complete the contract, nothing forces you to buy another subsidized phone to sign another contract. Verizon will do this with the old unlimited data plans. Buy outright for phone and keep using plans