The iPhone dilemma

Its hard to believe its been only four years since the iPhone completely changed the wireless world.  I can still remember the first person to walk into my job, proudly displaying the wave of the future, and all of us coworkers drooling over it and nearly losing our minds over its sleekness.

And yet, four years later, I'm still grappling with the decision to purchase an iPhone and pay exorbitant amounts of money each month just to hold it in my hot little hands and occasionally (okay, obsessively) check Facebook.

It just doesn't seem fair that there is a limited amount of choices when it comes to wireless carriers for the iPhone.  There's AT&T, known affectionately in my house as Public Enemy # 1, and then there's Verizon.  The voice and data plan packages are similar in price and because of the lack of competition right now, they're not going to drop anytime soon.  So what's a girl to do?  I know for a fact that I am not going to use $80 worth of talk, text and data minutes a month.  As it is, the only people that call me are my mom, two of my friends and my husband.  That accounts for about 30 minutes a month ... what could I possibly waste the other 470 minutes on?

Then, just this weekend, I was turned on to a great idea.  What if I bought an iPod Touch and used it like an iPhone?   How, you ask?  The answer is shockingly simple, as explained to me by a brilliant coworker.  Its called Pinger, an Internet phone service application that you can download to an iPod Touch.  Using this app, you can make outbound calls, receive incoming calls, and send and receive texts, all using a unique phone number assigned to you by Pinger.  As long as you have a WiFi connection, you are good to go.  However, unless you're at a coffee shop, a bookstore, an Internet cafe or somewhere urban with free WiFi, you're not going to be able to use Pinger.  It seemed this solution wasn't going to work, but then I dug a little deeper.

What if I just wanted a data plan for an iPod Touch so that I could have reliable Internet service to support a phone?  I found my answer in the ZTE Peel.  Its a MiFi device that provides 3G service through a cradle dock that mounts to your iPod Touch and the data plans are offered through Sprint or Virgin Mobile for $30 a month, and that's with no long-term contract required.  Eureka!

The ZTE Peel often sells for $80 but I did some more searching and found it through Amazonwireless.com for $0.01, as long as you sign up for the Sprint data plan through their website.  I've read about the pros and cons of the ZTE Peel. Some people say it is a little clunky ( it adds about 3.2 oz to the weight of the phone), and its best used with the iPod Touch 2 or 3 version.  The 4 version is too slim to fit tightly in the cradle.  The Sprint data plan also caps out at 1GB of data and then charges you $0.50 for each MB after that, but again, I don't expect to use that much data.  There's also the fact that the iPod does not have an actual receiver because it is not intended to be a phone, but that's easily solved by purchasing a pair of headphones with a mouthpiece attached.

Overall, I think I may have solved my iPhone dilemma.  What do you think, should I take the plunge?  I'm curious to hear your thoughts.