gdgt

Thanks for the reply.

Here's my calculation. The fone on contract would cost me 170 from wirefly/amazon and say the 60 $ plan so over 2 years total cost of ownership of the phone is 1440+170 = 1610. If I buy the phone outright (550 approx with tax) and get the monthly plan for 30 $ (1500 text+talk and 30 mb data) that would be 1270 over 2 years. A saving of about 340 $. The only concern with this plan is it has 30 mb of data, but considering the minimum amount of time spent outside of a wifi area I think its acceptable. If needed I can always get the day pass for 1.50. Worse case scenario if I take the 1 day web pass for all weekends of all months I would spent 216 $ over 2 years (unlikely) which still saves 124 $.

What do you think

You might want to actually walk around and see how many wifi hotspots you can jump on throughout your average day. You'd be surprised how difficult it can be to find free wifi.

I would rather just get a plan with the least amount of minutes and no texting plan. Google Voice is free SMS (FYI, no MMS) and you won't have to worry about finding wifi to use data on your phone.

@chinster: so you're recommending a plan with only voice and no text or data?
And how would google voice work for sms if there is no wifi connection available in the vicinity?

No, you'll definitely need the data plan.

If you want to take full advantage of your smartphone, it's going to be expensive. Open wifi spots, from my experience in suburban and urban areas, are few and far between.

@chinster: so following you're recommendation on the minimum minutes and no text(using goog voice for text) I see the pay as you go to be the best option 10 usd for 30 mins, 30 usd for 160 mins, 50 usd for 400 mins valid for 90 days and 100 usd for 1000 mins valid for a year. Could add the unltd 1 day web pass for 1.50 usd for days when internet connectivity is needed. Even if the 1 day web pass is added for each day of the month it would come to 45 usd a month for data and 10 usd a month for the voice bit. Sorry for the large blob of text. Let me know what you think

Correction above: with the contract there is not 60 $ plan. I'd have to take the 80 $ one which increases the total cost by another 480 $, it has the added advantage of 5 gb data though

If you want to get an unsub. phone you can use T-Mobile's Even More Plus plan. Last time I checked, you can get 400min. and unlimited data for $55 (plus taxes). If you want txting in there, it's just $5 more.

This is as of a couple of months ago.