Cause people be sane.

Verizon has at least broken the phone payments out, so a customer can compare the upfront price and a purchase contract. I guess the others have also.

Their advertising is still ridiculously misleading. They say the "Verizon Plan" starts at $35 a month, but that's before activating a device (which is $10 for a tablet and $15 for a phone) and taxes/fees. Cheapest phone is going to be ~$55 per month, it's ridiculous that they emphasize the $35 in their advertising.

The last few years I've not been offered a contract, but the ability to finance the phone. An inversion of the prior contract model, it's more what you expect. There are separate fees for the service, and for the monthly payment for the phone. After X number of months (choosable on purchase, affects per-month phone payment), the phone is paid off and is no longer part of the bill. It's much more straightforward and easy to reason about, and you don't have to immediately try to upgrade when your contract is up so you don't feel like you're paying for more than you're getting.

That's great, but they arent buying top-end phones then, and they have lots of optona, so new premium phone announcements aren't interesting.