With the acquisition of Gizmo5, Google Voice users will soon be able to receive and send phone calls without the need for a standard GSM forwarding phone number. Current Gizmo5 users can already do this, as described here and here for a jailbroken iPhone.

I'm already using Google Voice to send and receive free text messages, but I'd like to be able to take advantage of the truly free phone calls when it becomes available. I'm guessing that Gizmo5 will be integrated in to Google Voice by January 5th, in time for the Nexus One release, but it may take more time than that. Regardless, I'm currently stuck with the iPhone for another year and a half, so I need to work around the iPhone contract obligations.

What I'm wondering is if anybody has ever tried to drop the rate plan (minutes) from their iPhone bill? I would like to only pay the $30/month for the unlimited iPhone data plan and use google voice + gizmo5 to negate the need for minutes and text messaging (currently the lowest rate plan is $50/month for minutes I'll never use). Has anyone converted to a data-only iPhone plan yet, without minutes? If so, how did you go about doing this?

There isn't an option to drop the rate plan on the AT&T website, and I don't want to reveal my hand to AT&T until I've figured out exactly what reasons I'll use for not needing minutes anymore. I was thinking of requesting a pay-as-you-go plan for minutes, similar to the super expensive text messaging fees when you don't choose an SMS plan. It would probably be good to have the number still available for at least a while to catch the stragglers who still haven't started calling my google voice number, and I guess 911 is important too.

To avoid the lmgtfy quick replies, I want to make it clear that I want to keep the data plan and drop the minutes plan. All of my google queries thus far have returned pages with people trying to do the opposite, and the sites that describe the gizmo5+GV trick do not discuss dropping the rate plan.

Looks like the Google Nexus One is exactly what you need. Runs Google Voice easily on Android and is rumored to be sold direct from Google in January. You can get a T-mo sim and add data only to it.

I believe AT&T requires that you have a voice plan with the iPhone. I remembe reading somewhere that they may start offering Blackberries with just a data plan and no voice plan and calls could just be made via Skype or Google Voice, which is what it sounds like you are trying to do. But if i remember correctly, the article mentioned that they require a voice plan with the iPhone. Someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

Ahh, "Voice" plan was the keyword I needed, not "Rate" plan. I found a report of someone successfully dropping his voice plan, and apparently the terms and conditions allow it as long as you keep the data plan.

One of the commenters there suggested that AT&T was sued by a deaf user who wanted a data only plan with the iPhone because he/she couldn't use the voice functionality. Hopefully I don't need to be deaf to get this.

atm... have you looked into how easy it is to get just the data plan?

Id be very interested in doing data only ($39) + nexus one + google voice.

I know their 3g coverage isn't the best but cutting my cell phone bill in 1/2 would be worth it.... sprint is cheaper than everybody else but I still really hate paying $70/month for a stupid phone.

jag...I know T-Mo was doing it for G1 users (data only plans) a few months back. They already do it for sidekick, blackberry and WinMo devices...I am sure they would do the same for an unlocked/unsubsidized Nexus 1. Hell, they will still get your $35 a month for data.