$10/GB would be cheap! That's $20 at CC.
That's $10/GB on top of a roughly $25 base price for phone and SMS service. Nobody sells PAYG data access at that rate except RedPocket, and only with T-Mobile coverage... but that's data
only, no phone service can be added onto that. You want that rate, you're going to need a dual-SIM handset.
It's not the coverage - it's the technology. I prefer GSM networks because:
1) I have a GSM phone (takes a SIM)
2) I can use it abroad (by buying local SIM cards)
I use ATT rather than T-Mobile because T-Mobile uses odd frequencies that aren't found abroad. AT&T is more portable.
AT&T and T-Mobile both work on 850/1900 bands, which are pretty much US/Canada GSM bands. T-Mobile also uses other bands (1700, 2100), but some of T-Mo's pentaband handsets have global 900/1800 GSM bands, and most global 850/900/1800/1900 handsets work just fine on T-Mobile US, with HSPA+ 1900 data access even being available in most metro areas on T-Mo's network.
Interestingly my phone claims I use a few hundred MB in a month while CC claims I'm using just over a GB. Not sure what to make of that.
CC's legal boilerplate (section 1.5) claims they calculate data transport by the kilobyte (rounding up), but they also mention the possibility of calculating by the megabyte (rounding up) as well. Call and ask about this. The discrepancy could be accounted for if they're rounding data sessions by the MB (instead of the KB) and you're constantly disconnecting, but that shouldn't happen as best I can tell by the standards of their own terms. Also ask if it's possible that you're getting billed for WiFi data usage. I know there's a documented issue with Airvoice and iOS7 handsets where if you don't turn off 3G data in the background while connected to WiFi, somehow the data usage count gets increased on Airvoice's end as well. I've not personally heard of this problem outside of Airvoice, but it might be a rare issue on the AT&T MVNO end. Never hurts to
ask.
Still, it would be nice if I could get free incoming calls.
The only per minute plans I know of with free incoming calls are either VoIP backboned or
Truphone's PAYG service. Truphone does both AT&T and T-Mobile coverage (as well as seven other countries at the same rates), and though calls and texts incoming are free, it's 9¢/minute/text/MB out.