Going Verizon on a contract may make more sense then for you. I simply suggested it's worth looking into other options. Just keep in mind you will be paying ~$750 for that phone in either case, just one way splits that cost over a 24 month contract.

Going "pay as you go" is about the only way here in the US to do what is common in other countries, and that is paying only for the service you receive. Contract plans here with the carriers seem to never be discounted when the phone subsidy is paid off. Instead, they just pocket the extra profit. So if you do keep going the contract route, it makes sense from a value perspective to always upgrade as soon as you are eligible to do so. Beyond my own geek tendencies to want new stuff, it's the other reason I have for jumping into the new iPhones when they come out.

There are a number of pay as you go plans out there that run on Verizon's network. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators would be a good starting place for your own research into what might work out price wise.

Originally Posted By: Dignan
How do you do prepaid on a phone of your choosing?

Bitt answered the T-Mobile side, and the same is true of AT&T. You simply walk into a store, and ask for a SIM card. Amusingly, T-Mobile even has a Micro SIM available for iPhone/iPad users, and the one store I went into had a tool to cut a normal mini sim down to the micro size.

For Sprint and Verizon, and their associated MVNOs, it's a matter of calling or going into a store, and giving them some CDMA unique ID number for them to allow on their network. It's not as flexible as the SIM route, but usually still possible to bring your own device.

The 4S is still a weird one though with it's CDMA piece. I got mixed answers when I talked to various providers on the ability to provision it.

Originally Posted By: Dignan
Oh, and I can get LTE with their version of the GN, which is "more 4G" than the other guys' 4G.

4G at this point has lost all meaning with marketing abusing it. None of them are true 4G by ITU standards currently. What really matters is that practical speed and latency of the network. T-Mobile's (and to a lesser extent AT&T)'s HSPA+ network is in the same league as the Verizon LTE network. And both the LTE and HSPA+ networks usually have available bandwidth, unlike the heavily oversubscribed WiMax network Sprint and Clear operate as "4G".

Don't get me wrong, the Verizon LTE network is a good thing, and a proper move for them to make to remain viable into the future. The CDMA derived counterpart to LTE died, leaving them with little choice on how to move beyond their existing 3G CDMA network. (and showing this whole G confusion, Verizon and Sprint's 3G networks are somewhat similar to the pre 3G setups GSM providers use, hence the capped around 1-2 mbit speeds and lack of voice/data.)

My one word of caution would be that LTE chipsets are still noticeability more power hungry then the HSPA+ counterparts. Not sure what chipset the Galaxy Nexus will be using.