Can inexpensive prepaid plans for iPhone work in the USA? How can I minimize total cost of ownership (primarily means low monthly rate) for an iPhone if my voice and data usage is light?
Update: The following rate plan is no longer available.



AT&amp;T has a $(25+5)/month GoPhone service plan that works with an iPhone that you acquire yourself.

The $25/month GoPhone service provides 250 minutes (extra cost $0.10/minute). The $5/month data package provides 50 MB data (extra costs $5/50MB). To save 10%, don't buy credit directly from AT&amp;T. Instead, purchase a discounted electronic refill card such as the TMI Wireless $100 refill for $90 and paste the card number into the AT&amp;T GoPhone website. This brings the actual total cost to $27/month for base usage.

There are also the one-time costs of a GSM-compatible iPhone (e.g. used from eBay, either unlocked or locked to AT&amp;T) and an AT&amp;T GoPhone Micro SIM Card ($4). Setup involves installing and activating the SIM card.

If you need more than 50 MB data, there is the $40/month plan, which has 500 minutes and 200 MB data ($36/month after 10% off).

Per the rate plan terms, you could in theory buy the $60/month plan for one month, and use it to buy 1 GB data packages for $10 each, then switch back to the $25/month plan and keep the data from expiring using a $5 for 50 MB auto-refill. However, the $25/month rate plan has an undocumented data package cap of 150 MB; data above that is lost when you switch rate plans.