Blackberry Curve 8900 & wi-fi & data plan required?
If I want to buy a Curve 8900 is a data plan required to activate it, and do I have to keep the data plan on the account to use wi-fi?
I'm curious about this because AT&T says you have sign up for a data plan when you buy an iPhone and maintain it for the life of the contract.
I'm curious about this because AT&T says you have sign up for a data plan when you buy an iPhone and maintain it for the life of the contract.
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With t-mobile the only phone that actually requires a data plan is the G1. The blackberry is not required, but i personally don't see the point in getting a data phone with no data. Your just getting an obnoxiously big phone then.
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Thanks, good info. Many people seem to say that about smartphones - if you don't get a data plan then you can't take advantage of all the phones features. I'm simply looking for a smartphone that has the capability of accessing the internet (wi-fi), because I don't want/need to surf the web while I'm driving my car etc.
I'm basically looking for a PDA that can access the internet with a phone in the same device. While researching this "dream" device I've come to the conclusion that Verizon and AT&T both rip people off with their data plans -- Verizon doesn't even offer wi-fi in most of their phones so people are forced to subscribe to their data plans, and AT&T makes people buy the data plan with the iPhone and keep it on for the life ...
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I'm basically looking for a PDA that can access the internet with a phone in the same device. While researching this "dream" device I've come to the conclusion that Verizon and AT&T both rip people off with their data plans -- Verizon doesn't even offer wi-fi in most of their phones so people are forced to subscribe to their data plans, and AT&T makes people buy the data plan with the iPhone and keep it on for the life ...
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this is true, but the true value of a data phone is being able to access the internet wherever you are. Wifi is not the most available comodity, so being able to get your sports scores, movie times, emails, directions, etc whenever you want is a great advantage. and you do lose out on features when you don't have a data plan. for example, the blackberry's key feature is push email, which is basically made null when not on a data plan.
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I'd have to agree with the last post, the wifi is there just for convenience. The real power of the phone comes from the wireless data portion. Not to mention the countless times Ive seen overage charges from people that use pdas with no data. I work for at&t and the reason they have the data mandatory on iphone is becasue one, the discount on the phone is eventually made up over time with that data plan and the company has now refused to cover overages for data charges on pdas with out data packages on it. I had a customer come in with a 5000 dollar bill because he didn't see the value in the iphone data plan and removed it. Customer care wouldn't credit him because he was warned it might happen, so that 30 a month doesn't look so bad now h...
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There's no denying the convenience of wireless data. But the big picture is that all the carriers structure their data plans and force them on phones to maximize profits. People that just want the occasional capability to access the internet via wi-fi are screwed. I guess I'm kinda just stating the obvious.
That said, I'm caving in and getting a data plan even though I don't need it.
That said, I'm caving in and getting a data plan even though I don't need it.
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I agree with you about the profits, but unfortunately its the nature of the beast. I can tell you tho once you had the data plan and start to use the features, you'll wonder how you lived with out it. I have an iphone 3g and gave my fiance my sim to use until we fixed her phone account and only having the wifi to use after having the convenience of email, web and apps anywhere i went drove me nuts after only two days. Once you use it and get used to it you'll love it.
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You can actually use the G1 without the data plan, but you have to jailbreak it.
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I hate conjugating weird verbs. How does that work? The G1 has to be jailbroken? Jailbreaked? I don't know. In any case, the data plan isn't necessary to use the phone.
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I hate conjugating weird verbs. How does that work? The G1 has to be jailbroken? Jailbreaked? I don't know. In any case, the data plan isn't necessary to use the phone.
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To use the blackberry 8900 you do not have to have a data plan, but it is most helpful. If you don't have the money for a data plan I would not suggest shelling out $400 for it. Why for the "Blackberry" name, no. Similar to the At&t iPhone the G1 does require a data package though. Unlike what i understood from one of the answers though t mobile doesn't allow access to internet if you don't have the data package, (for either 24.99, which includes 400 sms or for 34.99 which includes unlimited sms) so you won't have to walk into a store with charge per Kilo bite bill of $5,000.00.
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