So most of us here have a cell phone in our pocket, but no two phones are alike, and certainly no two cost alike either! This thread is about how much you pay versus how much you actually get! Be as detailed as you like, as people might take your word for it should they decide to switch!

-------------------------------------

Carrier: US Cellular (CDMA 3G; LTE Still In Development)
Device 1: ZTE Unite II Mobile Hotspot
Cost: $20/mo for device, $20/mo for 2GB data
Device 2: Motorola Moto E (1st Gen)
Cost: $60 for Device, $0/mo (Call/Text on Google Voice)

I was one of the early adopters of the Hangouts Dialer App which came out last year. This allows me to make free calls and texts to anyone in the US and Canada from any Android device using my Google Voice number. So ideally, all I wanted to pay for was data. The ZTE Unite II allows me to do that.

On US Cellular, 3G has a speed of about 1.5-3.0 MBit/sec, which is comparable to DSL. Calls are clear but there is an audio delay of about half a second. Since I don't make calls too often it's really no big deal for me, and it should get better when LTE becomes available in my area (6.0-8.0 MBit/sec).

US Cellular has better coverage in rural areas than AT&T but slightly worse coverage than Verizon. Their customer service is also really great. They were also surprisingly lenient about unlocking my Moto E on day one, so that I could root it and put a custom ROM on it (but I think they only did that because I already have a device through them!)

My contract is until August 2016. If they continue to expand their LTE network, then I will stick with them, personally.