The purpose of this topic is to inform you that I save a lot of money by not having a cell phone and to find suggestions on what kind of phone service I should subscribe to for my 1 month vacation. Why do I not have a cell phone? I live in a college campus for 11 out of 12 months a year. I am a student. I am an employee. I go home for one month every year with my family for christmas and New Year. I could afford and buy an iPhone 4 but I stay away from AT&T because Verizon is in the crosshairs of Apple. I will wait until this has been finalized before taking a step. I love the iOS. I've had a cell phone since high school. I had the first generation iPhone when it came out. As a college student you realize how much money you are spending in terms of going clubbing, parties, alcohol, books, classes and most importantly your loans. I was blindly paying $80 a month for a 450-minute voice plan, unlimited data with no texting from AT&T. I was barely using 1 mb of my cell phone data plan because what do you know; our college is filled with wifi hotspots! I only use the cell phone to communicating to meet at a physical location. I prefer to talk in person. I realized that I do not need a cell phone. I do have Skype, I pay $30 a year for the phone number and $3 a month for unlimited data. This is $66 a year as compared to the iPhone's $960, over $900 saving. Now I will be traveling from down south in San Diego, up to LA and into San Francisco then roundtrip back to San Diego. I have friends all over California and would like to meet up with them. Plans change while your one the road and it will be unfortunate that if something went wrong and out of plan while on the road. I have several criteria's that would be in hierarchy Criteria 1 is to have no contract (I will only be away for a month). Criteria 2 I do not want any dead zones. Quality of service over price is preferred. I do not want to be in a contract. I do not care about the cell phone as I will be getting an iPhone 5 (or whatever is after iPhone 4) from Apple. I just need a disposable phone. Criteria 3 Some sort of data plan so that I may receive emails. If we can throw all three of the criteria above and simply use some sort of portable mifi device. I already have an iPod touch, use its wifi to make calls through Skype. This would be the ideal