Greetings, all. I've been researching this for the past several hours and have decided that I should just outright ask instead of reading info from one or two years ago that is no longer relevant. My issue is this: I would like to get an iPhone, used or new, doesn't matter to me, but I do NOT want to be under contract to AT&T, primarily because the thought of paying $70+ monthly for a phone makes me queasy. T-Mobile doesn't have service in my area, so my other options are to either use a GoPhone SIM card or one from Pure Talk USA (or Pure Prepaid USA, same company, different plans). I'm okay with the idea of only having internet access via wifi, though if it's at all possible, of course I would prefer to have constant, reliable access. From what I've read, though, it seems as though AT&T removed unlimited data from their GoPhone plans late last year, so that creates a problem. I've also read about people getting some oh-so-friendly reminders from the company that they're using an iPhone without a data plan so here, we're tacking it on anyway! And honestly, I think I'd even be okay with the additional $30 monthly fee as long as I was free to still buy the cheaper prepaid minutes plan.

My main concern is this: would it matter if I added the data package? I've read horror stories about people getting charged outrageous sums for running up data charges, but in theory a plan would take care of that, right? Except that I'm sure AT&T is just as likely to say no, you're using a data plan on an iPhone without the actual approved iPhone plan, so you get no data, period. Okay, fine. So then if I don't add that data plan and just rely on wifi access, would that then incur massive fees deducted from my prepaid balance? I'm completely clueless in the ways the magical wifi/data stuff works, obviously.

I'm guessing that since they officially ruled yesterday that it's not illegal to jailbreak iPhones that there's no legal recourse AT&T has for people who get around the contract issue, though they might still try to bully and scare people into signing up. I'd just like a little more *recent* info on what I might be getting myself into.

To anyone who actually read all that, I'm sorry. But thank you very much anyway for your patience and any help you can offer!

This was the best summary I could find about the situation.

AT&T signals an abrupt end for some prepaid iPhone plans (updated)

You can also try and politely contact the author directly to clarify if there have been any changes since that article was written. She is very knowledgeable.