How to Cut Your iPhone Charges

It never ceases to amaze me how many real and prospective Apple(AAPL Quote) iPhone users don't know they can get service for half the price, and in some ways improve the functionality.

The lowest pre-tax price at which you can obtain cellular service for your iPhone and laptop today is $130 per month -- $70 for the iPhone and $60 for the laptop.

You can cut that to $60, or more than half, by using the newest 32-gigabyte version of the Apple iPod Touch in combination with Novatel's(NVTL Quote) MiFi device offered by Verizon(VZ Quote) Wireless and Sprint(S Quote). In this latter configuration, the Novatel MiFi device provides for ubiquitous service to up to five simultaneous devices, including your iPod Touch and laptop(s).

What about voice service, you say? This is clearly the point at which this "synthetic iPhone" solution will not be acceptable to every single consumer. Using the iPod Touch, you can use any of numerous available VoIP programs such as Skype and Vonage(VG Quote), just to name a couple. Some of these providers have choices between pay-as-you-go a-la-carte pricing and monthly subscriptions. Unlike a traditional wireless circuit-switched carrier such as AT&T(T Quote), these can take many forms and for many users cost well below $10 per month, depending on the usage pattern.

One objection against the iPod Touch + MiFi solution is that these are two devices instead of one. This is true, but considering that the combined size and weight of these two devices is almost identical to one regular iPhone, this is not a big deal. Furthermore, when you are in your own home and don't need to carry around the MiFi device, you benefit from the fact that the iPod Touch is thinner and lighter than the iPhone.