There is no reason to ever have to sign a contract for a cell phone anymore.
I ditched my iPhone contract with $100+ monthly bills with limited data years ago.
Go to Walmart and buy any type of inexpensive or expensive phone and pick up a straight talk card. They start at 25.00 a month up to 65.00 a month with UNLIMITED DATA. They have an entire isle of phones to choose from!
Walmart had a sale on Motorola Moto phones for $29.99! I bought two of them. By far the slickest smart phone I have owned and it always works no glitches, mandatory upgrades, or constant patches, etc etc.
And "NO" contract.
Every month I just pick up a Straight Talk card for $65.00 and reload the phone with the code. Going on 5 years now and have never been without service.:C
Layman's terms here; but they used to have a att straight talk card and a Verizon straight talk card you could choose from. Now they merged them together so you get both towers/coverage.