This is a hot topic and there's no single best solution for which cell phone provider to choose. It really depends on where you live and what your needs are. But the best deal I've found for myself is currently the T-mobile "pay-as-you-go" for $15 per month with unlimited texting. But this plan only works for those who are heavily into texting and rarely need voice calls. Because with this plan you get unlimited texts (including picture and video messages). But phone calls cost 10 cents a minute!
Now before you decide this is certainly not the plan for you, take the time to evaluate texting or SMS. This technology has come a long way since the 1980's. Today, you can get weather reports, find the nearest Radio Shack, get sports scores, even get driving directions, all for free and all delivered right to your phone, in a simple, easy to access manner. And if you get a phone with a qwerty keyboard, its like having a mini computer in your pocket.
Texting is the currently the cheapest method of communicating on the planet. I was paying $173 a month for 3 phones with another company. I now have service on 3 phones for $47.70 a month including taxes! And each phone has about 33 minutes of talk time that never expires month to month. Because the minutes are not charged to the account as long as you don't use them. Each T-mobile phone comes with $3.34 loaded on the account. By paying the full $15.90 each month, the $3.34 stays in the account for future calls. I will get the balance built up on each phone to allow for 2 hours talk time. And then its back to $15.90 per month, per phone.
The trick is to save your voice minutes for only the most critical times. It took only a short time to convert my co-workers from voice to texting. I simply refused to answer their calls. And when they did call, I'd send them a text asking what they wanted. Even my boss eventually started using SMS instead of calling. Suddenly I noticed that my co-workers were not only texting me, they were now texting each other as well. My boss still calls me every other day while I'm out on the road. But I try to keep it under 1 minute before hanging up.
I do have magic jack at home. Unlimited minutes for $19.99 a year is hard to beat. But the computer has to be turned on and online to use it. So its not really a dedicated house phone. But its great for making calls on the weekends.
The only thing that comes close to my T-mobile plan is perhaps Boost Mobile. But only because Boost offers unlimited everything for as little as $37.10 per month (after 18 months of on-time payments). HOWEVER, boost doesn't cover as much of the country as T-mobile. And boost has really crappy phones in my opinion. I tried boost and they "almost" had what I wanted in a cell phone plan. But their only flip phones with a qwerty keyboard are the Blackberry Style ($10.60 extra per month because its a blackberry) and the Motorola Rambler. There were a lot of complaints about the Rambler, primarily that the ringer was so quiet that you couldn't hear the phone ring even if it was right next to you. Text alerts were the same way, you never heard them. So after a short offering, the Rambler went extinct. Although you can still get the Rambler from Amazon.com and it might be a good choice with a bluetooth headset.
Back to the T-mobile for $15.90 per month. DO NOT get the Samsung T139 phone. Samsung makes great phones. But this one uses T9 input as the default text entry method. Which means that EVERY time you create a text message, you first have to go into settings and switch from T9 to Abc. At least I have to do this. I've tried using T9 and I just cant figure it out. And its VERY annoying to have to go through this ritual every time I want to send a text!
I found the LG GS170 RED flip phone on sale for $15 a my local 7-eleven store. Don't know if its at all 7-eleven stores or just the one nearest to me. But its the same phone that Wal-Mart had for $39.99 and it goes for up to $65. You have to buy a $50 T-mobile refill card to get the phone @ 50% off (comes to $14.99+tax). But that's okay because you are merely prepaying the first 3 months of service and getting 56 minutes of talk time as a bonus. Only thing is, I gotta visit a T-mobile store first and check the text input on this phone to make sure it doesn't default to T9 as well.
Finally, if I've sold you on the T-mobile plan for $15 a month + tax (total $15.90 in Michigan), there are some more tricks to save you money. First, DO NOT get a phone from a T-mobile store! They will charge you a $35 activation fee and their phones are way overpriced. Buy your phone from eBay or Amazon.com. If you can find a good used T-mobile phone, you will need a new SIM card (even if the used phone already has one). New SIM cards cost $20-$25 each at the T-mobile store. But I bought 3 of them on Amazon.com for about $8 total and that included shipping! And each card came with $3.34 on the account, so I actually made almost $2 on the deal after deducting the cost of the SIM cards!
Once you have a working T-mobile phone, get on your computer and type in "google SMS" to learn about all the neat things you can do with simple text messages. This is where you learn about getting the weather reports, sports scores, driving directions, plus tons of other stuff. Store the numbers into your contacts and you are good to go. Google makes the SMS plan from T-mobile worth having. And you don't need a computer after you get the info you need stored on your phone.
