<div dir="ltr">JD,<div><br></div><div style>Wait, you have a cell plan that costs $2.50 per MONTH?????? Or was that a typo?</div><div style><br></div><div style>I switched from Verizon to T Mobile a little over a year ago because of their required $30/month" data plan, but I'm paying WAY more than that on my G S2 phone.</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>If the question was regarding running up high costs with a data plan, I would suggest Straight Talk (aka Track Phone via Walmart). They used to have "unlimited" plans for like $45/month and you can bring your own phone, provided it is a TMobile, at least. If your concern was more on the order of keeping them off the web for other reasons, I'm no help there. </div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Also, if you have an old Verizon phone, you can go with PagePlus with Verizon coverage and various sized buckets of features from like $20-$40/month. I have 2 kids doing that now and very happy with them, other than the "customer no service" as Clark Howard likes to call it.</div>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 2:36 PM, JD <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jdp@algoloma.com" target="_blank">jdp@algoloma.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">On 04/22/2013 11:01 AM, Neal Rhodes wrote:<br>
> Sorry if this is turning into<br>
> alt.gripe.about.phones.just.because.android.resembles.linux, but...<br>
><br>
> Does anyone know of a carrier that will sell an android smartphone WITHOUT a<br>
> data plan?<br>
><br>
> Meaning, it works like a phone to call and text, and when in WIFI coverage, it<br>
> will do the groovy smartphone things.<br>
><br>
> I've got three people here that are customers.<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>Don't buy a carrier phone. Buy an unlocked phone to start, then buy the plan you<br>
want from the carrier YOU want. I've been on the same t-mobile plan<br>
(pay-as-i-go) for 6+ yrs. Bought a new microSIM ($1), migrated the old plan to<br>
the microSIM for free, and haven't looked back.<br>
<br>
I saw a slickdeal yesterday for a Galaxy III for $240-ish - unlocked.<br>
<br>
The key is to be on a world-standard phone - that means GSM. In the USA, that<br>
means either AT&T or T-mobile or someone that resells from those 2 major<br>
providers. Since you (and I) don't care about data, we don't care if LTE2 or 4G<br>
is available on the data plan. It doesn't matter.<br>
<br>
My cell phone plan costs under $2.50/month, so I figure if I use $100 in a<br>
month, I've still come out 2000x cheaper than monthly plans. Actually, I've<br>
added $10 to the plan every year for the last 5 yrs to keep it alive. The first<br>
year had lots of up-front costs, but those have clearly been recouped.<br>
<br>
Like I've previously stated, I have a Nexus 4 (16G model ~ about $360) - comes<br>
unlocked directly from Google. I miss<br>
* swapping batteries<br>
* microSD slot<br>
but besides those items, love the quad-core phone, fast GPS locks, and many apps<br>
that work disconnected just fine.<br>
<br>
Also, disabling a cellular data connection is trivial in Android. Once it is<br>
disabled, it stays disabled regardless of "airplane mode" use or not. When I<br>
leave the country, I do pull the SIM to prevent any accidental voice roaming<br>
charges, but that's just a good idea for anyone with any phone. GPS works fine<br>
without a SIM, BTW. At least it does on Android. I've been in remote places<br>
where people with iPhones discover that GPS doesn't seem to work. It has been a<br>
few yrs, so perhaps Apple has fixed that major flaw, but I dunno.<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
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