not true. cricket is a sprint mvno.

Since Verizon uses CDMA phones, you will have to get a new phone as the unlocked iphone that you used previously on Tmobile will not work. It will work on AT&T, which is why people here are mentioning AT&T prepaid as an alternative.

I assumed migration to Vz also meant a new iPhone [4s], sorry for the oversight :D

We might wait and try to Cricket, or wait till Sept for iPhone 5....

The second part is just not true. MANY prepaid plans allow you to port. As for the first part, there are lots of very affordable prepaid plans. I like straighttalk - runs on AT&T's network and offers unlimited talk, text, and data for $45/month. $42 if you pay three months at a time. Post-paid can't touch that - and your wife would get data to boot. Even if you found a carrier where you couldn't port, you could always port the number to Google Voice and direct that to the phone.

Again sorry for bad communications on my part - I was referring to Vz only.

You're both partially right. In about one third of the country, Cricket operates its own network. In the rest of the country, it's an MVNO.

Won't work with cricket either. CDMA again. Basically, that phone will only work on the At&t or T-mobile networks.

Just for the record, I have had iPhones on ATT with no data plan for a couple of years. I already had the numbers, just bought the phones used. In each case ATT told me I had to have a data plan and I told them my contract was years out and I did not need a data plan. It worked. This was for two lines on a family plan & a third line did have a data plan.

Those plans still had data available so I would pay if any data was used. I kept data turned off on the phones so they only did data on wifi. This also disabled MMS texting and texts to multiple numbers.

I tried the TMO $30 prepaid plan but it doesn't work in China. In the end I got a RAZR Maxx & two years to life on Verizon.

Just want to confirm above. Went to AT&T store, talked with a real tech savy sales guy re prepaid and post paid accounts. Got a prepaid account for my wife's iPhone 3gs [currently on TMO], paid $10 plus tax for 100 minutes with option to upgrade to $50 unlimited plan any time we want. No data plan. Got home and behold, full bars of service.

Sales guy told us we can port her TMO anytime we want. With prepaid, no data required, with post paid, require data but no two year contract. So far so good.

An even better option is to go prepaid with H2O Wireless. It's way cheaper than ATT

It's super easy and super cheap, just $.05/min and $.05/sms or a $30 unlimited talk and SMS plan. They have other plans too with data and the like.

H2O works with all ATT phones.

It's almost free to try, just go onto Ebay and you can buy a SIM for $1. Log on to their website to activate.

Pop it in, and you're going!

I use this when I'm back in the states with my iPhones and they're awesome, highly recommended.