I was hoping to give my old iPhone to my 8 year old to use to play games on when I upgraded my phone. I will have to buy a new sim card and get a data plan to if i want token him get on our wifi at home, correct?
Nope. It will be deactivated as a phone, but can use wifi in the house. So basically like an iPod. My friend did the same thing.
I was going to give my 12 yr old my old iPhone when I decide to upgrade. She has a pay as you go phone and average $20/mo on it. The iphone was basically going to be her ipod. My dh shared a family plan with me with a dumb phone. In the time since, his work gave him a blackberry and he stopped using his personal line over time.
Now after the iPhone 5 is out the iphone4 is free with 2 yr contract. I have ordered one for her and replaced dh's line with it. I'll keep mine until it dies or I choose to upgrade, and she gets a brand new machine for free.
In my world, giving her an iPhone for $20/mo data was a wash because we won't be using her pay as you go phone anymore. If it was her iPod + pay as you go it would have been the same $$$. YMMV of course.
I considered doing the pay as you go plans with old iPhones, but our AT&T bill is projected to be $100, and the
Walmart plan is $45/phone, for $90 total. For me and the way we use our phones a $10 sav wasn't worth the jump away from AT&T which has given us great coverage (esp in the rural areas our relatives live in)