If you've ever struggled with a monthly cell phone bill, you've probably looked for cheaper alternatives like prepaid plans from big box stores or start up carriers. Well, what's cheaper than free? That's exactly what Scratch Wireless aims to offer with what it claims is the world's first free mobile service, which launches today. It manages to do so with a modified Android OS that pushes the phone to connect to WiFi for pretty much everything -- calls, text and data. However, if you do want to use your phone outside of a WiFi area, that's when the charges come in. Scratch Wireless has a partnership with Sprint to offer $1.99 per day for up to 30 minutes of cell calls and another $1.99 per day for up to 25MB of data. There's also a monthly $14.99 pass for either 250 minutes of voice calls or 200MBs of data.

Both daily and monthly passes are entirely optional, and it's up to the consumer to add those services. Payment is not recurring, and there's never a contract. Regardless of which you choose, Scratch promises us that text messaging is always on and free. CEO Alan Berrey tells us that Scratch Wireless wanted to take a different tact from traditional cell phone service. "There's no unnecessary cost with us," he says. "We have no towers, no FCC, no leasing locations to deal with." Because of this so-called "WiFi First" strategy, the phones will work internationally as well, as long as you have access to a WiFi network of course.

Right now Scratch only offers one phone with the specially modified OS, and that's the Motorola Photon Q for $269. While the non-WiFi daily and monthly data allotments seem mighty skimpy to us, Scratch is clearly aiming its service primarily for those who are constantly in range of a WiFi network.



 Set-up of the phone is simple! It takes about 5 minutes to have the phone ready to send your first text or call. The set-up links with your Google account so that you have access to everything. Now, one thing is you are automatically selected a phone number so it may not be your area. For example, I am in Alabama and my number is for Massachusetts.

I have been using this phone for a few days now and love it! As long as I have Wi-Fi, I am good to go! The phone itself is great as it is on the Android market, Bluetooth and HDMI. Also, for just $3 you can change your phone number to your area code.

Check out Scratch Wireless online and on these social media channels:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scratchwireless
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/scratchwireless