This is exactly what I did. I switched from my verizon cheapo dumbphone ($20/month for unlimited texting & $0.25/minute) and ipod touch to an exhibit 2 on T-Mobile ($15/month for unlimited texting & $0.10/minute). It doesn't have any data though, the cheapest plan with that was $30/month. It's not so bad since I'm usually in range of wifi, but I really wish I could pay for data the same way I pay for minutes.
Note that T-Mobile has 2 different $30/mo no-contract plans.
- The one they offer in their stores is for 1,500 minutes or messages and the data starts throttling after 30MB.
- The one offered at Walmart is 100 minutes, unlimited SMS and the data starts throttling after 5GB.
So if you talk very little and want a lot of data, the $30/mo no-contract T-Mobile plan via Walmart is pretty nice.