[macintologist]

I've had an iPhone since 2007 when they first came out. I'm graduating from grad school and getting a full time job by the time my contract ends and will want to pay back school loans quickly and need to buy a car. I was thinking of just giving up my iPhone and going back to a dumbphone. Has anyone ever done this? I figure when all is said and done I can go without the constant internet connection.

I can keep my iPhone 3GS and use OffMaps to use GPS and have offline maps for car navigation, but not pay for a smartphone plan.

[Cold Warrior]

I've read that at&t 'sweeps' its activity records to identify iphone users then checks to see if they are on a data plan. If not, it automatically adds it.

The only way around this would be to use a prepaid SIM like H2O Wireless, which is an MVNO riding at&t's infrastructure. IIRC H2O sims will work just fine in at&t-locked iPhones.

[CharlesS]

You could unlock the iPhone and go to T-Mobile. Since you wouldn't need a new phone, you could get one of their Even More Plus plans which are $10 cheaper per month ($20 if you have a data plan) and include no phone subsidy. The only thing you'd lose out on would be 3G, but without a data plan, being on 2G likely wouldn't be that much of an issue, and you could still use the Internet stuff on Wi-Fi.

[Doofy]

I never went iPhone - stayed with dumbphone.
And bought a TomTom for nav.

Works for me.