Prepaid has become much more popular over the past few years as the U.S. mobile phone industry matures. The line is now blurred: It wasn't too long ago that prepaid customers had to deal with shoddy, expensive, and/or poor phone selection. Now many carriers give the user the option to purchase top-end phones without the discount, and offer plans that are not much different from those available on contract.

AT&T needs to do better with its prepaid offering. 1GB of data is a pittance and could be consumed quickly by even an average user streaming video or audio. It also seems like a rip-off compared to contract data plans.

AT&T's prepaid users spend $25 to get that single gigabyte of data. On the other hand, the contract user gets 3GB of data for $30. Do a little math, and that contract user is paying only $10 per gigabyte. That's quite the difference and doesn't seem fair.

Yes, contract consumers should expect more for signing their mobile lives over for two years to a wireless carrier. At the same time, that carrier shouldn't be taking advantage of someone just because they refuse to sign a contract, and that's what this pricing seems like.

For that reason, AT&T still remains near the bottom of the heap when it comes to most bang for your prepaid buck.