I've tried to find this discussion here, maybe didn't know enough about how to locate, but can't imagine the question hasn't been asked. Maybe someone can guide me to the thread if already here somewhere. If not, I'll ask the question: what's the story with Walmart Straight Talk and other retailers' prepaid plans offering unlimited talk/text/internet for $45-50/month? These plans don't even require a contract, just buy whichever phone you want from selection offered (admittedly limited and not the hottest new models), buy as many months as you want, or have automatic charge to your bank account for each month until you say to stop, and you're on your way. What's the hook? Is talk quality somehow sub-par, is your call the first to be dropped when tower gets full, is your 3g somehow not equal to others' 3g, is a text not a text, can't you connect to any other mobile or line phone, what? We all know you can't get something for nothing, and if it sounds too good to be true it's probably not, so what's the story with these prepaid plans?

To those of you with much more knowledge about these things than me, many thanks in advance for taking the time to answer. This always has been a big question in my mind ...