Originally Posted by
RockyBoy
Looked into that as well, and Verizon will not activate a "smartphone" unless you pay $30/mo for the unlimited data package. Some of the "less smartphones" are only $10/mo. I have a Palm phone now and have never had the data package and I just wanted another Palm phone but cannot get a new one now unless I do the data package with it. No way around it even if I pay full price for the phone.
I was just talking to my wife about this annoying rule the other day. I think in the long term, you're going to see these data packages part of your regular bill. Remember when texting came out and you had to pay per text? Now most plans just include texting in the cost of your service. I now have unlimited texting and I'm not paying anymore on my bill than I was a couple of years ago. I'm hoping this act of charging separately for data service will go away as more phones become "smart." I have a simple feature phone for now and will keep it until I see the cost of the data plans come down. It's stupid that you have to pay for this stuff even if you don't want it, but hopefully that will change soon.