My requests are simple:

• I need a phone that can work when I travel for reasonable rates (ie not $4/min)
• I want a way to send/receive text messages from multiple devices, including the web, while still being able to search all messages in one place (search is very important to me)
• If possible, I'd like to avoid getting into a contract, even if that means paying the subsidized price for a phone.
• And finally, of course, I want an iPhone.

For the last several years I've been able to satisfy these requirements using a complex system of unlocked iPhones, Google Voice, Skype, and a vast array of apps, depending on which one sucks the least. You can see more details in my previous post, International Roaming with Skype & Google Voice, but essentially I used an unlocked iPhone with a local SIM card, and had Google Voice forward my calls to Skype, which then forwarded my calls to my iPhone wherever I was. This allowed me to manage my call forwarding, text messages, and phones through the web, and also made calls extremely cheap regardless of where I was.

As I mentioned in that post, the method works. I need to take an extra step when making calls, and sending a new contact a text message required a bit more time. But it worked.

Enter iMessage on iOS 5, a way to send messages for free to anyone with an iOS device.

Because my Google voice number is not my actual phone number, I'd have to register my iMessage with my email address. Everyone who knows me knows I'm an avid iPhone fan, so they'd expect to be able to send me free messages at my phone number, but this would cost them per-message rates. Furthermore, I'd have to remember whom to contact via iMessage, and whom to contact via Infinite SMS, my Google Voice SMS app of choice.

Well, this confuses things, but it would still work to use my email address and tell people to iMessage me through that. And for Google Voice, everything else remains status quo. Meh. What a drag.

But Sprint, I recently learned, is now fully integrated with Google Voice. This means that my Sprint phone number will be my Google Voice number. I can manage my messages online, and when I send messages through iMessage (or receive), it will be completely transparent. No more deciding which app to use. (Though my messages will be in two places, admittedly.) So this solves my Google Voice problem beautifully. I can integrate my Sprint account with Google Voice so I get the benefits without any of the headache.

And it gets better.

The Sprint iPhone 4Ss are GSM unlocked*. To be clear: the iPhones are still locked to Sprint, but when the Sprint network cannot be found, eg in China, I can use a local SIM card, thus avoiding the outrageous $4/min calls expensive text messages. And, because I can use Google Voice on the web, or iMessage through my iPhone, I can still use Google Voice to contact people back in the states without them even knowing the difference. Everyone wins!

So my wife and I switched to Sprint this morning, are saving a bundle of money, and can use Google Voice and iMessage for everything international, almost completely transparent. The only downside is that Sprint's 3G network is roughly a quarter of AT&T's on iPhone 4S (theoretical speed), but I'm on WiFi most of the time so that hardly matters.

*I had to contact Sprint three times to confirm this. All the articles I read about it referred only to Jason Snell at MacWorld, who provided no evidence. The Sprint customer service rep was very helpful and called Apple to confirm. My disclaimer: call Sprint yourself.