Regional Cell Phone Plans?

Whatever happened to them? I used to have a regional plan that had - I swear - almost infinite minutes, for less money and I was perfectly content. Now, I keep having to go up and up and up on my minutes with this national plan. When would I, or half my neighbors, ever need to call someone beyond the North East - and why should we have to pay for such a wonderful privilege? I'm sensing there's more here than meets the eye, because all the national chains stopped even offering the regional plans a few years ago (at least as far as I can tell). Anyone more familiar with this kind of stuff who wants to weigh in?