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Smart phone - no data

R

rbk123

Senior member
Is there a provider that allows a smartphone, but no data plan? i.e. you use the smart phone only for making calls, but then can use wifi for all of the other functionality?
I don't want to pay for a data plan that I really will rarely use.
 
rbk123 said:
Is there a provider that allows a smartphone, but no data plan? i.e. you use the smart phone only for making calls, but then can use wifi for all of the other functionality?
I don't want to pay for a data plan that I really will rarely use.
Click to expand...

Any prepaid provider.
If you want the AT&T network I with straight talk or red pocket mobile.
If you want tmobile use their prepaid service.
If you want Verizon get page plus.
 
ImDonly1 said:
Any prepaid provider.
If you want the AT&T network I with straight talk or red pocket mobile.
If you want tmobile use their prepaid service.
If you want Verizon get page plus.
Click to expand...

Yup this

I think the only post-paid provider left that is fine with that is T-Mobile. AT&T even though is GSM scans its network to see what phone you have which sucks and Verizon and Sprint are CDMA so you're stuck getting a phone through them.
 
I just went thru this. Only thing I can say is that if you're single, I think it's worth it to go prepaid. If you're like me and need a family plan, then the demonic, born of hell, schooled in brimstone, lake of fire swimming, sonsa b!tch!n, POS, cork soakin, mother lovin, ever suckin, whore mongering cell phone co's have you by the testicular orbs!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention I hate them?

Anywhoo.........if it matters at all........I did get my daughter a Blackberry Curve with a "limited-use" (facebook, AIM, Twitter, etc. etc.) data plan for $10/mo. which worked for testing the waters as my daughter's a facebook nut. But it also has WiFi which is where she'll use it mostly.

I don't know if other thief-co's (i.e. cell co's) have similar discounted data options but it's an alternative if it helps.

Good luck. (And by good luck, I mean, I hope you don't get raped by the pure evil that is cellular)
 
MetroPCS and Cricket both have smartphones, where you can get Unlimited calls and texts, plus 1x data, for like $45/month.

Alternatively, Virgin and Straight Talk offer $45/mo plans for 1000 minutes and 2 GB data at 3G. So it depends, do you want unlimited minutes, or is 1000 enough?
 
Less minutes the better - I currently am on a 550min family share plan and use nowhere near that amount.

So I called T-Mobile and they offer a minimalist data plan for $10/mo per line. This is reasonable and should allow me to get any of their smart phones. With that said, which of their phones would you recommend, preferably the free ones (with contract)? What I want is android and reliable. If there are some that have a cost, but you think they're worth it compared to the free phones, go ahead and recommend that as well. (I know little about smartphone differences). Thanks.

Here are my options as far as I can tell:
Free:
T-Mobile Prism
Samsung Gravity® Smart - Berry Red
Samsung Exhibit? II 4G
LG DoublePlay
T-Mobile myTouch
Nokia Lumia 710

Not Free:
$50 Samsung Galaxy S® Blaze
$50 HTC Radar
$50 T-Mobile myTouch slide
$129 Samsung Galaxy SII
$149 HTC One
 
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You can do those with pretty much any GSM carrier as long as you are not using a phone that's not sold by the carrier so they can't detect the device. For example, unlocked T-mobile smart phone can be used in AT&T network and vice versa.
 
Out of the phones you listed, I would get the One S I think.
If you don't need minutes, you could possibly go prepaid for $30/mo and get 100 minutes, unlimited text, and 5gb of data. You could use the smartphone as much as you want.

Price out the different for family plan vs prepaid + phone cost over 2 years.
 
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kyrax12 said:
How does the AT&T GSM scanner work?

Can't you root/jail break your phone to bypass it?
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Every phone has a unique IMEI number. When you put in the sim card to the phone, it will send this number to the carrier. For example, AT&T will have all the IMEI in database for all the phones they are selling, if you are AT&T customer and using AT&T sold phone without data, the carrier will eventually detect and send you reminders or force a data plan to you bill.

If you are using a unlocked T-mobile phone then AT&T can't detect it and will just treat it as a non-smart phone.
 
silvscorp said:
Every phone has a unique IMEI number. When you put in the sim card to the phone, it will send this number to the carrier. For example, AT&T will have all the IMEI in database for all the phones they are selling, if you are AT&T customer and using AT&T sold phone without data, the carrier will eventually detect and send you reminders or force a data plan to you bill.

If you are using a unlocked T-mobile phone then AT&T can't detect it and will just treat it as a non-smart phone.
Click to expand...

This also applies to unlocked international phones. And I think you can also get the cheaper $15 non-smartphone data plan if you do this as well, so you still do get mobile data but it's not so expensive.
 
I see for many of the T-mobile phones you can root them and/or unlock them yourself. If you rooted the phone, would that automatically unlock it as well?

Any reason why someone wouldn't just buy a regular phone and unlock it themselves, instead of buying an unlocked phone from eBay?
 
You can't sim-unlock a phone yourself. You have to contact the manufacturer or carrier or something and have them do it. All that does is allow you to use any sim card in it instead of only sim cards from the original carrier.

I've never done it but that's how I understand it works.
 
Rooting - or jailbreaking when it's an iPhone - gives you complete access to the entire filesystem of the phone. You can read or write any file you want - instead non-rooted phones where the OS limits access to key OS files or files the carriers don't want you to change.

Unlocking allows any SIM to be used in the phone. There's two ways to unlock a locked phone, you can do it the official way, or you can hack it. The official way usually involves getting a code from the carrier and then typing it in. The hacking method involves getting root access (nearly always this is a prerequisite) and then modifying the communications chip (called the "baseband CPU") code so that the chip thinks it's unlocked. The hacked versions can be flaky (I know this from personal experience) and so you can be using the phone and it will suddenly decide that it's not really unlocked. Or you'd go out of service range and when you come back into range, it won't pass the unlock check and you'll need to reboot the phone to unlock it again. And not every phone has a hacked unlock method available. Official unlocks don't have any of these problems - unlock once and you are done.

So it can be worth paying money for an unlocked phone if the carrier isn't willing to give you the unlock code for the phone, and in particular if you travel a lot and don't want to mess with hacks.
 
Rooting is phone depended, has nothing to do with carrier. If you are into the modifying scene, I advise you check xda-developers.com and find out which phone is suitable to you needs.

rbk123 said:
I see for many of the T-mobile phones you can root them and/or unlock them yourself. If you rooted the phone, would that automatically unlock it as well?

Any reason why someone wouldn't just buy a regular phone and unlock it themselves, instead of buying an unlocked phone from eBay?
Click to expand...
 
pm said:
So it can be worth paying money for an unlocked phone if the carrier isn't willing to give you the unlock code for the phone
Click to expand...

Is it common for the carrier to give you the unlock code? I would guess they would never do it but the way you mention it, it sounds like they aren't necessarily so draconian.
 
rbk123 said:
Is it common for the carrier to give you the unlock code? I would guess they would never do it but the way you mention it, it sounds like they aren't necessarily so draconian.
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I've always managed to get unlock codes for all of my phones... although getting my iPhone 4 unlocked was a bit of a trial involving four phone calls, and a whole lot of talking.

AT&T will unlock any phone for any customer as long as they've been customers more than 90 days, are paid-in-full on their account, and as long as they don't ask for too many unlocks (this last one is a guess on my part). Except the iPhones, in which case the iPhone needs to be out of contract. T-Mobile always seemed happy to do it and it was less work than AT&T sometimes is. I've unlocked something like a 8 phones over the years - 2 on T-Mobile and 6 or so on AT&T.

If you aren't a customer, find a friend to do it for you who is a customer. You don't need to prove ownership of the phone to get it unlocked.

Just tell them you are taking the phone out of the country for an extended period of time, and want to use a local SIM while you are there. For instance, I told them recently that I was headed to Costa Rica for an extended trip, wanted to use my phone as a GPS and wanted data for maps, and told them that AT&T's international data was too limited and too expensive. All of which was actually true. 🙂 They transferred me a few times, but eventually I got the unlock code. Or in the case of the iPhone 4, they ask you to redownload the firmware from Apple and somehow the code is magically in there.
 
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I suppose it depends on the provider but with mine if I already own a phone then I can get a voice only plan. But if I want a contract where they give me a free phone then I need to get data.

I wish data was not so expensive and that it was truly unlimited. I'm the type of person that if I have something then I'll probably use it, but if I'm limited in how much I can use it, then what's the point. I rather not have it at all. I'd like to replace my old blackberry with a phone that can do wifi some day but I'd have to get a data plan unless I buy a new phone. I've been tempted to buy used though, but something like a phone, who knows where it's been. Best to buy new.

The nice thing with my old phone is that it's CDMA though. So it works in more places. Then again I don't really travel much and we do have HSPA here now.
 
luv2liv said:
im in the same predicament as you are OP!
i think the only way we can get away with using a smartphone without data is by using those chinese fakes. heres a nice copy of Sony ArcL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1plSc6d70A anyone can vouch for quality/reliability of these fakes?
Click to expand...

I am not sure if you read all the above posts. You have tons of choice for smartphone even you don't want data. All depends on what carrier you are using. If you are using AT&T, then you can use any smart phone as long as not sold by AT&T and you will not be forced to buy data plan.
 
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