Data has recently been released showing that while postpaid cell phone contracts have gone into decline in the United States, prepaid plans have experienced an increase.

Postpaid cell phone contracts have become very popular across the United States over recent years, particularly given that they often come with inclusive or heavily subsidised handsets. However, in the current financial climate many people have been forced to rethink their cell phone usage and this has been reflected in recent figures relating to cell phone contracts.

The figures show that postpaid/contract cell phone subscriptions in the United States have experienced their first ever drop, with operators said to have lost up to 52,000 subscribers. At the same time, pre-paid or no contract customers are said to have rocketed to record levels. As a result of this around a quarter of all mobile phone users in the United States are now on no-contract plans.

One industry analyst involved with the report stated: "While one data point doesn't make a trend, we are approaching the peak of the curve where new, traditional postpaid subscribers will be hard to find. It is possible that the newly minted prepaid subs might return to postpaid subscriptions. The shift is correlated to the economic woes. Majority of the new subscribers will come from connected devices as we have been saying for the last couple of years."

Another official commented on prepaid services and their rising popularity, stating: "The key advantage is that then you can tailor your usage according to your cloth, so to speak. It can be considerably cheaper, and there's an increasing amount of competition for prepaid services."