Let me clarify this once again.
No iPhone data plan= No Visual Voicemail= No Voicemail notification
The Visual Voicemail is the iPhone's notification method. There is no way around this. You will have to manually check for voicemail by pressing and holding down "1" on the number pad. ATT provisions your SIM card to initiate the iPhone's voicemail system and there is no other icon alerting you that you have new voicemail. If you have media max, it's a guess game whether you have a new voicemail or not. When I did the switch, I actually lost my voicemail all together and had to call ATT/cingular CS to have my mailbox setup again.
I'm cheap and I can live with this. If Voicemail notfication (either visual voicemail or just an icon alerting you) is so important to you, than maybe you should just suck it up and pay the full bill without the discount.
At least I'm still one of the few lucky individuals where my voicemail minutes still are considered "Cingular/ATT to Cingular/ATT " minutes so checking my voicemail is free to me.
I post a lot of messages over on Howard Forums so I'm not really a newbie, just a newbie to this forum. I've been with ATT/Cingular for quite a while so I know how they work.