HTC 5800 / Fusion / S720

When I worked AZ. DPS and the City Fire Dept., I know exactly what your talking about. I had both the LG 8100 and the XV6700 at the time with the same issues you've mention. Then ironically that's when the Moto. Q came out which was the perfect answer to my "Deli ma" at the time. But w/ any smart phone / PDA you do need some sort of a Data plan to cover the OS, which is much different then your typical cell phone sporting a Brew / WAP network. VZW does have a number of Data plans, varying in MB a month type of packages, with the Unlimited Data plan obviously being the largest, Most practical and safest in my opinion, Because it can get Very expensive if you were to go over your limited MB in a month, kinda like going over your minutes, but more painful.
It's like when you use VZ Navigator on cell phones uses Data use AND minutes, unless you have the VCAST package which as I'm sure you know with the package, all your GIN apps. and Mobile Web is air time free. So I would suggest going with the unlimited Data plan, which I believe is around $45.00 a month WITH a Voice plan. that way you can surf the web, down load stuff, check your e-mail all day and night long without worrying about exceeding your limit. Good lick !