Don't forget that pays for coverage of a land area roughly twice as big as the entire EU[0] with no roaming charges. Also, this article is from 2012 and has outdated prices. If you go prepaid you can get 2.5 GB for $35 with unlimited voice and text[1] or 5 GB for $30 with 100 minutes voice and unlimited text[2]. Or pay-what-you-use for voice, text, and data[3] (great for people who need a phone but hardly use it or with highly-variable use). Of course you can also pay a lot more for worse plans, but savvy shoppers have decent options available to them these days.

[0] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28land+area+of+the+us+... (I excluded Alaska because most of that state doesn't have cellular coverage and the parts that do make up for the parts of the mainland that don't.)

[1] https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans

[2] http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans#other-month...

[3] https://ting.com/rates