Prepaid wireless service is almost always less expensive than postpaid monthly plan rates. On average, 20% of all purchased minutes on contract plans go unused month to month. Also the average postpaid wireless bill is 20% higher when it arrives in the mail than what the user was told it would be at point of sale; this is due mainly to hidden fees not discussed during the transaction.

With prepaid cell phone service there are no surprises and no hidden charges. Roaming fees simply do not exist, and because users pay in advance there is no opportunity for a vendor to pad a bill with unexplained charges.

Prepaid cell phone services allow you to pay only for the airtime minutes and text messages that are actually used. Simply load your account with exactly what you need, and never have to worry whether or not your chosen monthly plan is the right fit.

In recent years prepaid cell phone services was reserved for people with bad credit and low financial means. No longer is this the case. Consumers everywhere and in all income brackets are moving away from monthly contract plans and plugging into prepaid cell phone services.

Simply put: people are tired of being pushed around by the major wireless companies. Unfair contract terms, hidden costs, and outrageous monthly bills are taking a major toll on public opinion, and at the time of this writing over 60% of the world population uses some form of prepaid calling plan.

Modern prepaid cell phone services offer their customers the same wide range of brand name handset models sold by the major contract firms. Motorolla, Nokia, and other top-of-the-line phones are available through many prepaid wireless providers and in many cases phones are free with a first purchase of airtime!

And since prepaid networks are now offering their users broadband Internet access, there is no longer a major advantage in choosing contract plans over prepaid service.

It's actually not unreasonable to suggest the postpaid contract services could vanish altogether in the future. In the same way $1,000 cell phones are a thing of the ludicrous past, ten years hence the idea of signing a one-side contract to secure wireless service could be absolutely laughable.

Whether or not this comes to pass soon, one thing is for sure:

More people every day are walking away from their contracts and signing up with prepaid cell phone services. At the current rate of growth it's likely the prepaid wireless industry will encompass 75% of the world wireless market share in less than a decade.

Within the past two years we have seen all the major wireless players adopt prepaid plans and even bring these options to the fore of their marketing campaigns. This is a clear sign the marketplace is changing in a big way, and is expected to continue doing so.

The next five years will be interesting to watch. The mass consumer migration toward prepaid service could mean better options for all pay as you go subscribers; clearly as more cash gets pumped into the prepaid industry greater user benefits are sure to follow.