actually, if 20-35 is the price range, Koodo basic plan (15/month) + data saver is a very reasonable choice.

Koodo doesn't offer a $15/month plan anymore. The cheapest one is $20. But even that one + data saver ($10/mo at my usage) isn't too bad. For all other mobile carriers, it pays to stay prepaid. Check to see how many monthly plans from Rogers, Telus, Bell, Virgin, etc. include call display (usually an $8 add-on!) - almost none. It seems that carriers are finally catering to people with their own phones/smartphones by offering fairly reasonable talk, text and data plans. When I joined SO in December 2010, there were literally zero options when it came to prepaid. Now, like this thread proves, there are many reasonable options.

PC mobile is actually quite good too. $45/month for 150 minutes, unlimited incoming calls, unlimited 7pm evenings and weekends, unlimited texts and 250 mb data. Yikes...that's not too bad, but I don't need that much.

Since my iPhone (3GS on IOS 5 with baseband 05.15.05, so it cannot be unlocked even by jailbreaking yet) is scammed (read: locked) to Rogers, I really have no choice but to switch to Rogers. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Rogers offers cheaper texting plans than SO ($3/30, $5/250) which suits me better. $10/100mb of data may be pricey, but at least it's real data and overage charges are not too bad at $0.15/mb.

i am just cheap and use the bell iPad 250MB @ 15 for data only, as the phone is locked to bell network and my gevey doesn't like SO sim

I have found that Telus may have the best deal: 250 MB + unlimited text/picture/video messaging for $20/month.

"Data plus messaging 20" interesting. $0.20/min, $0.40/min LD.

Compared based on 60 mins / mth of callin , and 50 incoming/50 outgoing SMS

60 mins of calling would be $12, free SMS, for a pretax/911 fee of $32/mth with 250mb of unrestricted data.

Compared to say someone on SO/Petro:
60 mins of calling is $15, 50 SMS is $5, and UMB is $10 for a total of $30 pretax/911 fee but unlimited "browsing" port 80.

Very close.

You shouldn't need APN settings with Virgin, as it will be a real data plan. I am the same as you - checking out all the other prepaid companies now that SO closed the taps on UMB. I have found that Telus may have the best deal: 250 MB + unlimited text/picture/video messaging for $20/month. Unfortunately my iPhone is locked to Rogers and Rogers wants $50 to unlock it. What a scam!

and mine is locked to Bell and they don't even have an option(paid or not paid) to unlock, even worse.

Name – Bell
APN – pda.bell.ca
Proxy – web.wireless.bell.ca
Port – 80
MCC – 302
MNC – 610
APN Type – default

You might want to also look at PC mobile, which also uses the Bell network as does Virgin. Their calls are 20 cents a minute, and have a 500 meg $25 add on. The SIM costs $10, but it comes with $10 of airtime. And loblaws has a tax free sale every so often, so the airtime can be cheaper. Only downside is that you have to cut the SIM card to fit in an iPhone4, but that is not a big deal.

http://www.pctelecom.ca/LCLOnl.....p#features

I hardly use voice minutes, maybe just 10/month but I use data. So I was thinking on moving to Virgin Mobile and getting their pre paid .35/ minute and then add the 500/mb per month.

I called Virgin and they could only confirm that voice and text will but couldn't confirm that the data would work, even though my phone is factory unlocked so I wanted to know if anyone knows if I will be able to configure to Virgin. Is it a matter of the configuration tool and what are the specifications if that is what you have to do? Thanks