<p>Does anyone have the current $9.99 dataplan? What are you able to do with it? In the daze of talking with the sales guy I seem to remember he said something about checking email, and something about limited access to certain (?) webpages??? He said something about “850 websites/pages” - so, they picked the the 850 most visited webpages to give us access to or what???</p>
<p>I’m sure there are limits at $9.99 - but does that mean I can check Facebook once a day and that’s it or how extensive?</p>
<p>abasket- we were in the same situation as you about the upgrade all our phones and D2 wanted the env3 and we didn’t want to pay the data plan. She would have paid it herself out of her allowance but we kept telling her it was a bad decision and we were waffling over letting her do this or not. She had looked at the samsung intensity and lg cosmos? and she had valid reasons whey she preferred the usability on the env3. A qwerty keyboard was a requirement for all. D1 decided she liked the intensity so no conflict there.</p>
<p>By the time we were ready to actually place the order, the intensity was gone and the intensity II was out. That phone was acceptable for D2 so YAY crisis averted! But yeah IIRC the only qwerty choices w/o the data plan are the intensity II and the lg cosmos. Really rotten deal. Anyway, we just got 3 of the intensity phones, they are currently BOGO free at verizon’s website but were free in best buy. </p>
<p>Good luck, and I am another one in your ranting camp. However we are staying with verizon for the superior coverage over the other networks in our area.</p>
<p>Here’s what I found out about the data plan. It is 25 meg but the people in the stores can’t tell you how munch actual web usage that is. When they do, they are telling you static pages not stuff with lots of ads like facebook. Since all the phones in the stores are on unlimited data programs, you can’t check the counter, do some surfing, and then check the counter again to see how much you used. And you can only check the counter from the web, there is no text to send like for other services to see your usage. Although an email app is “included” actual email usage is not included and would be part of the 25 meg. In conclusion, it sounded like a very bad deal to me and I am glad we didn’t have to do it.</p>
<p>I do not know if this will help anyone but it is genral guide to data usage. It is not 100% accurate but it does at least give you an idea. Dont forget that 1 Megbit is equal
to 1024 KB. that means as an example you could surf about 250 web pages per month or 12 Youtube videos. Please do not take this as all factual numbers they are for estimates only.</p>
<p>Type Data Example
Email 4 KB Text only, no attachments
Email with small attachment 40 KB Smaller Word® documents,
Email with graphic attachment 1 MB Average quality picture
Web pages (average) 100 KB Facebook™, eBay™
MP3 download 4 MB 3 minute song
Online gaming 270 KB/min Flash Internet games
Digital photos 1 MB Average quality photo
Streaming audio 1 MB/min Internet radio
Streaming video 2 MB/min YouTube™</p>
<p>So then, I’m guessing, the point of the $9.99 plan is that you won’t be able to actually do much so you’ll have to upgrade to the $29.99 plan…good one Verizon, good one. (angry face)</p>
<p>When my D got her EnV, it didn’t require a data plan. Now I see from the Verizon website that it does. Does having VZ Nav take care of the requirement for the data plan?</p>
<p>abasket-- the scary part if were in your shoes is if you are on a post paid monthly plan with no way to shut down the data is that when you run out of the 25meg the costs are phenominal. I have heard horror stories of people getting a bill for $800 in data fees over the normal 25 on their phone. That is one reason I put my D on a prepaid, not that I dont trust her but some phones (smartphone) are continuously searching the web and trying to update your email unless you know how to shut it down. On the preapid system she has unlimited national talk and text with 20 meg for $44.95/month (she also has wifi on her phone which saves data) and I leave virually nothing in the prepaid bank so if she would go over the 20meg her data would just stop since they cannot bill me. This has never happened but I talk to people that it has happened to, I think that is a great feature because there are no surprises at the end of the month. I am from Canada but my D goes to college in the States so I had to find the best solution.</p>
<p>You can block data downloads on Verizon–even with the plan. My youngest son is paying 9.99/month (from his summer earnings) for a data plan he can’t even use–we don’t want to take a chance on overage charges. And that’s with an enV touch he also bought with his own money on ebay, since we didn’t want to extend our Verizon contract…</p>
<p>^^^ Don’t you feel that’s such a rip-off?! I don’t blame you for blocking cause you are right, it will probably be easy to rack up additional charges.</p>
<p>We are paying $150 per month for a family of 4 on Verizon with one 9.99 text plan which goes unused because any realistic useage bumps you over the 999 per month. We have not got unlimited texting, but have 500 or so for two and pay as you go for the other two. This price seems extremely high to me, and we will not pay more. 30 bucks a month to get internet on your freaking phone? Only if you need it for work and can deduct it as an expense or get work to pay for it, IMHO. We also pay another 150 a month for landline, TV and internet. Where does the money go? To Verizon. Over 3k per year. That is a large chunk of change. Have any of you tried Vonage or similar?</p>
<p>swimcatsmom: on your advice, S2 ended up at BestBuy yesterday and got exactly the upgraded phone he wanted for only $50. The staff easily added it to our AT&T account, transferred all of S2’s stuff to the new phone and gave him a short tutorial. It was much much better than trying to navigate the web site and then waiting for the phone to arrive (not that it would have arrived before he leaves in 4 days). I don’t remember what phone it is, but saw that it had the qwerty keyboard and all the bells and whistles; no data plan required.</p>
<p>Good news archiemom. I am glad he found what he wanted. I had no idea that different stores carried different phones to each other and to the carriers web site until my best friend came to visit last year and I was looking at her new phone she had got at walmart that I knew was not available on the carrier’s website (I had been looking for a flip phone for months and they are not the ‘in’ thing I guess - I don’t like the slide phones). I also found the whole process easier than my previous experiences </p>
<p>As for the data stuff - that same friend has a son who is developmentally delayed and has autism. He is fixated with the weather. The first month after she got him a cell phone her bill was sky high because of hundreds of dollars of data usage. She was really mad but thought it was her college age daughter until she called the phone company and they said someone had been constantly checking the weather channels. They did waive part of the charges but she blocked internet access after that. Does not take long to rack up those charges.</p>
<p>Hugcheck, I haven’t tried Vonage but simply got rid of our landline a few years ago since we all have cell phones and the only real reason to have it was to fax things for work (I just scan and email them now). I find it’s so much more peaceful in the house now!</p>
<p>I’ve been paying Verizon around $160/month for 3 phones (we have the higher Friends/Family thing with around 1400 min/month as we sometimes did get surprised with whopper bills on smaller plans). S goes through phones like mad and was just buying unlocked ones from friends. But even the previously activated ones now require a data plan. When he broke his phone yesterday I had him go buy a Straight Talk phone from Walmart - $39-99, and $45/month for unlimited talk/text/data (they also have a $30/month plan for 1000 min, 1000 text/pic, and 20 MB data which would be ample for me). They seem to have a great coverage area. When D’s VZ contract is up at the end of the month, we’ll probably just migrate to that type of no-contract and no activiation fee plan as well.</p>
<p>Data plans with limited data usage and crazy charges for overages are dangerous. I was planning on getting an iPad to work on the bus, but since ATT does not offer all-you-can-eat plans, I decided to monitor my data usage on my iPhone for a while to see if it is going to be feasible for me to have one of their existing plans. In about 1.5 months, my iPhone sent 260 MB and recieved 870 MB - I do not surf YouTube, stream movies or look at crazy sites. That’s a lot for just surfing Medline, patent databases, replying to my bosses’ e-mails (and peeking at Nordy’s sales and, of course, CC). I can see how a Youtube addict can easily rack up $1000 in data charges.</p>
<p>Plans and phones may change by area but buying online is almost always cheaper than in the stores. We are in upstate NY and have a family plan with 5 phones, 700 minutes, and unlimited texting to all providers. 2 phones (Env?) were purchased before the data plan requirement. We just got a COSMOS and Pantech Jest. The screen on the Pantech is great. The qwerty keyboard might look small (looks kind of like a blackberry layout) but I can easily text with 1 finger;haven’t really tried 2. The camera is very nice and the phone does look a bit more current. Neither the COSMOS or Pantech Jest require a data plan. We also blocked all data usage because at times someone would accidently connect and the charges kicked in. Go to the Verizon site and see what’s there.</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with the price of the phones in the store - we have credit and there are always several phones for reasonable prices or BOGO…it’s the stinkin monthly fees!!!</p>
<p>If the keyboard is small, I"m screwed - I’m not pulling out the reading glasses every time I need to text!</p>
<p>I got the intensity and my kids got the droid, with my discount i whittled it down to the same monthly bill. which i think is HIGH. I do love my phone, but get frequent You have an email, updates, I usually ignore it. I dont have or work for a business so its just my home stuff. I do like the touch screen, etc… and I can text pretty easILY.</p>
<p>Someone told me that she was able to turn around and cancel the $9.99/month required data plan on her mother’s cell phone right away. Not sure if that would work for everyone–the website certainly doesn’t make it sound that way–but it’s worth trying.</p>
<p>OTOH, my husband has the unlimited data plan on his Blackberry, and uses it for accessing websites like Facebook, checking email,etc., but not for streaming music and videos. He has almost never gone over 25 MB (I went back through months of statements and checked). If it were possible to get the $9.99 plan with a smartphone (it’s not), I’d get a Blackberry for myself with a $9.99 plan.</p>
<p>I have a plan from AT&T for free service for one year. You have to join this 700 minutes family plan with 5 phones and buy the phones on your own, any phones work with att. I did not want any of those data/text services, so I buy those gophones for about $8 +tax on the att gophone web site. You still pay about $100/month regular charges, but they have two major rebates(in 3 and 6 month after activation) and some minor rebates that adds up to 1200 a year, so there is no cost for the service. Any additions to the basic plan you have to pay, of course.</p>
<p>It turns out real well as my D has already lost two phones in the past 6 mo. Un fortunatly, the new sim card costs $25 ea.</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom-
We have a Verizon family plan, 4 in total on very old shared 500 minutes/month.
I pay for college son to have text; none of the rest of us text (I know, so out of touch).</p>
<p>Our DD has learning disabilities and decided to download MANY games on her phone with no realization of cost of such. I was able to get Verizon to cancel most of those charges and then I placed a BLOCK for free on her line.</p>