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Recently I'd told myself - this was prior to AT&T's announcement of the iPhone rate plans - that if I could somehow get an iPhone rate plan for $40 a month, even without a data plan and only a few voice minutes, that would be enough for my modest needs, and I'd do it. I'd buy an iPhone.

Of course I really didn't think it would be possible. Back then people were assuming AT&T's minimum voice plan would be pricey, probably at least $50/month, with data on top of that, so I wasn't going to hold my breath.

But when the rate plans were announced they were much better than I expected, though still more than the $40/month I wanted as the $20/month data plan is mandatory. That kept me in a bit of a quandry. Sixty dollars wasn't that much more than $40, was it? But twenty bucks is twenty bucks. You have to draw the line somewhere, and I just didn't feel comfortable spending that much on cellular service.

Then last week as I studied the rates on AT&T's website, I noticed something interesting. The way that AT&T is handling existing customers is mandating that to get service for an iPhone you keep your existing rate plan and just tack on the data plan fee ($20). For an individual, the total turns out to be pretty much exactly the same as the iPhone plan. For instance, my mom's on the 450 minute plan and pays $40/month. Adding an iPhone is just $20 more per month -- the same total as the $60 regular iPhone plan.

However, when you move into the family plan, AT&T's old rate and the iPhone rates are $10 apart. AT&T's minimum non-iPhone family plan is $60 for 550 voice minutes (shared) with two lines. Adding two iPhones is just $40 more ($20 each) for their data plans. That's $100 total. But the same iPhone family plan is $110 -- $10 more. That does include an extra 150 shared minutes (700 versus 550), but it raises the minimum monthly cost.

This got me thinking. My mom was already an AT&T customer paying $40/month for her service. We could switch her to the family plan and add me on her account for $60, and then I could add an iPhone data plan for just $20 more. Her cost would be exactly the same ($40/month), leaving me the balance: $40. Ka-ching! $40/month means iPhone for Marc!

By now you're surely thinking there's some catch here and you're right. The catch is that on the family plan the minutes are shared. My mom used to have 450 minutes all to herself. On the family plan we get 550. Since she's not changing anything on her end it's unfair for her to get less minutes, so letting her keep the 450 minutes she's used to leaves me with a measly 100 minutes per month. That's not much voice time.

However, I don't really need a cellular phone. I use it for emergencies or convenience, not everyday calling. With my old pre-paid cell I used about 800 minutes a year -- considerably less than than 100 a month! My usage tends to be seasonal, but since unused minutes roll over to the next month, that's ideal. Some months I might use a little more than 100, but other months I'll use less, and it'll work out in the end.

Another help is that several of the key people I talk with are on AT&T and those calls are free! (AT&T doesn't charge for calls between wireless customers.) It's also possible that down the road VOIP services might be rigged to work with iPhones so one could make calls via the Internet using your unlimited data plan. I'm not sure if that would work over AT&T's Edge network or only over WiFi, but either way it'd help you avoid using voice minutes.

So the lack of minutes doesn't really bother me. If I actually start to use the phone enough to where the low minutes are a problem, well then I'll bite the bullet and upgrade to a higher minute plan. After all, for me it's not really the extra $10 or so per month that bothers me -- it's that I'm being forced to pay in advance for minutes I may not use. I hate that. If I'm actually using them I don't mind paying -- but I want them to be used.

I figured all this out during iWeek and even called AT&T to confirm my math was correct. I was told it was: you can add an iPhone to a family plan for just $20/month more. This sounded great: I'd figured out a way to cut my monthly iPhone costs from $60 to $40, which fit a lot better into my budget.

After I explained all this to my mother, she also agreed it sounded fine: in fact, she wanted an iPhone of her own! This changed the math slightly: our monthly total is now $100 ($60 for the regular 550-minute family plan plus $20 for her iPhone and $20 for my iPhone). Since we aren't splitting the minutes equally, she'll pay an extra $20 from what she's used to paying ($60 instead of $40) and I'll pay $40 (the extra for the family plan and iPhone data service). I'll have 100 minutes per month and she can have 450. Sweet!

By keeping the existing 550-minute family plan we save an extra $10 off the iPhone family plan. That's just $10, but the only difference is the extra 150 voice minutes. If she or I decided we wanted extra minutes -- which could happen as we get comfortable using iPhone -- either or both of us can pay the extra and upgrade the plan.

This strikes me as a great way to go. Our initial costs are low (I'm not counting the cost of the actual iPhone, only the monthly fees), but we've got an upgrade path if we need it. My thinking is that the iPhone's true value -- and my main interest -- is as a portable Internet device. If I could have bought one without cell phone capabilities that would have been fine. But a WiFi-only iPhone would be extremely limited -- the benefits of Internet anywhere are tremendous so I like having a cellular data network as an option.

On Friday, before the AT&T store closed for the iPhone launch, my mom and I stopped by and adjusted her account. We went ahead and switched her over to the family plan and added me to her account. We also transferred the phone number of the pre-paid cell I'd been using to my new line on her account. This wasn't easy as pre-paid cell numbers are apparently more difficult to transfer (it wouldn't have worked using the iPhone's self-activation feature). AT&T's computers were having trouble that day and it took some time (about an hour), but we finally got everything switched over. There were no costs to do this, either.

This turned out to be the ideal way to do this. First, it greatly simplified the self-activation feature. All I had to do was put in my transferred phone number, the Zip code on my mom's account, and the last four digits of her social security number (which she'd given me). In minutes my iPhone was active. She activated hers the next day in the same way.

Another benefit was that because we were both AT&T customers, there was no $36 activation fee. The only cost we were presented with within iTunes was the notice that this would add $20 to our monthly AT&T bill (that was $20 for each of us), exactly as we'd been told.

This may not exactly be a loophole in AT&T's system, but it is a way to cut some of the fixed monthly costs. The savings over two individual iPhone accounts over the two-year contract is $480 -- that's nearly a free iPhone! For spouses who mostly call each other (which is free) and both want an iPhone, this is a great deal.

For some, the lesser minutes might make this unattractive, but if you're like me and want an iPhone primarily for the data services -- this could be a good way to go if you can find someone who will let you tag on their family plan.

However, an AT&T rep did tell me that the 550-minute family plan is scheduled to be eliminated at the end of July. Existing customers would stay on the plan they signed on with, but new customers wouldn't be offered that plan any more. So I guess this is a limited time shortcut. Jump on while the getting's good!

macopinion@designwrite.com