It's kinda both. Back in the day, there were only a couple companies doing the "free" phone with a 2 year contract. Sprint even used to sell you the phone at full price and you didn't have to be in a contract. The old AT&T wireless did this too for awhile. When the Telco wireless companies combined to form Cingular, that's where the idea of a "free" phone became popular. Of course, they locked you into a 2 year contract and charged high rates and, at the time, provided ridiculously horrible service, but the phone was "FREE!"
I think it was because of the high quarterly profits that Cingular managed to pull off that other companies started going the same direction. There are some, mostly regional, companies that still do the "buy the phone and no contract" thing. Cricket is one of them. Helio has a one year contract I think.
Cricket is completely unlimited for a flat fee. $50 gets you unlimited calls, texts, picture messages, and mobile web. But there's a catch. You can really only use it in a Cricket area. If you're in a big one and don't travel, it's great. For the people that travel a lot, it's not a good idea.
I think it's because of the trend of the big cell phone companies giving away "free" phones with a 15 year contract and ridiculous fees for even thinking about extra features that has caused a lot of the sticker shock. If companies aren't happy about everyone wanting free phones, they have no one to blame but themselves. I remember many years ago when people weren't at all surprised by paying $200 for a basic cell phone. It was the norm that you buy the phone and could cancel the service whenever you wanted. The cell phone companies did it to themselves and to the rest of us. We all got screwed in a model that was solely designed to dupe people into getting stuck with sub-par service for 2 years or more.
