MONEY-SAVING MOMENT: T-Mobile's Project Black marketing initiative will offer customers basic unlimited calling starting at $49/month. It's yet another nail in the coffin of the "bucket of minutes" model, where you pay for a set number of minutes each billing period.

Unlimited calling is the future of cell phone calling. If new stats that Clark recently saw are to be believed, more people are now signing up for unlimited non-contract plans than for contract plans that offer a bucket of minutes.

We're approaching the day when you'll buy a phone and then be able to bring it to any provider you want. No more being handcuffed to a 24-month contract in return for having your phone subsidized.

AT&T and Verizon will keep pushing contracts hard because they remain central to their business models. However, you as a customer want to be the a free agent and avoid contract plans so you can benefit from the savings to come.

In fact, the new issue of Forbes has a cover story titled The $10 Phone Bill. Metro PCS is being touted as one of the players that may drop your phone bill to this ridiculously low level in the next few years.

Already, it only costs Metro about $16/month to provide phone service for a customer and it's dropping as technology improves.

So, it all means you should be very wary of signing a contract with anybody. Be a free agent and benefit as the price points in the industry change.