Whiney americans. In europe we've been spending $200 - $800 on phones for years. Our companies provide only the SIM card and service. True, MetroPCS doesn't have SIM cards, allowing you to take an unlocked phone anywhere in the world. If you want to gripe about that go ahead, but the concept of paying a resonable price for the phone you want is nothing new, you've just been pampered by bloated companies who spend too much time on proprietary features instead of embracing often better and cheaper global standards.

And MetroPCS is not cheaper. No it really isn't. My mom can live off a $20 virgin mobile card for 2 months, for her metroPCS is triple the money she needs to spend. But for the person who is spending $200 on virgin mobile metroPCS is a godsend. For other people the cash might not be the issue. COming up with $200-$300 for a phone once or twice a year may not be an issue, but paying a $500 deposit or risking not getting the house they want by having a cingular inquiiry show up on they're credit 5 times while they were trying to choose the phone the really wanted...to those people it is also awesome. And let's not forget the no social# required. There are people out there who won't get a phone with the other companies because they don't want to give their social out. Or even (gasp) they don't have a social because they're an immigrant worker!

MetroPCS is not for everyone. They're customer service isn't the right flavor for everyone. But for the prepaid customer looking to get big name brand style and features with a resonable, repeatedly similar price range, it rocks.