Thinking of cell phones, Tracfone has a plan, 1 year for $100. If the device was pretty light with data and minutes usage, then it should work fine.

Costs still add up, but it might not be bad for a "bait bike".

It would seem like one could make a deal with cell phone companies to run devices mostly on standby for even less, but it would take the company going to the organizations and really pushing competitive pricing.