I hate contracts and haven't had one for a few years. I only have Pay-and-Talk with Telus, and recently had text messaging disabled. I also have Tracfone in the US that has nation-wide calling (no LD charges), can be used anywhere in the US, and the rates are significantly cheaper (about $0.05/min)! Another free feature that Tracfone offers is to assign a Canadian number to the phone so that friends in Canada could call me without paying LD charges.
I just don't understand why we are paying so much more here for cellular services. I sure would like to see some of the US service providers come to Canada and provide competition to Rogers, Telus and Bell.