Quote:
Originally Posted by Drew212
It's not the fact of affordability but principle. I'm not going to spend $30 every month just because I can, I'm not going to squander my money. Also, a software engineer furthering his education while raising children is a poor man.
What feature phone includes a full qwerty slide-out keyboard on par with the TP2, and also includes windows mobile, an gravity sensor/acceleromer and all the other various hardware bonuses? I have owned a touch for 3 years now, and have been on windows mobile operating system for over 5 years. It would be rather nice if I could keep all, or at least most of the applications I have coded for my mobile device that I still use frequently.
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I'm total with you on this Drew and believe you me I have had some pretty testy online arguments over this for quite some time now and trust me you are not alone in your feelings about this either and as far as I am concerned you are totally right.
First of all just to settle this, there is absolutely no “technical” need to have a data connection, all the data connection is, is a means to connect to the internet essentially and this can be done just the same with WiFi if you have it so to be forced to pay extra for this if that is not your choice with them saying you have to have it or the device is useless, is just ludicrous.
Yes, if you don’t have a WiFi connection you can’t connect so for those who need 24/7/365 access and have absolutely no way to get to any WiFi during the day I guess you can say it is needed if that is the access you need, but for anyone for whom any of that is not the case, you don’t.
What I really love the most too is how if you shop for the FIOS service how much they will tout that it includes WiFi access and even though they call it free we all know its not.
So what you’re telling me is you want me to be so happy I have this WiFi that is supposed to be a free extra if I get FIOS but then when I buy something from you that can actually use that, you tell me I have to pay $30.00 a month extra for a data connection???
Explain that one to me.
Also and you seem to already get this but don’t buy into the ones who say, without data connection a TP2 is useless and just a dumb phone anyway, so you really are not being forced to get it as if you want it this way you're just as better off as getting a dumb phone and it would be the same, so just get one of those and you don't have to pay for a data connection, as nothing could be further from the truth, but it sounds like you already know that, just as any intelligent person would.
Also don’t buy into the, its too hard to shut of the data connection as all it takes is one changing of two registry settings from 1 to 0 on a factory TP2 with 6.1 and your done, as well there is even a simple little program called “No Data” that will give you a simple user interface for the same thing if you don’t feel comfortable with Reg changes.
I will add that for the 6.5 WM upgrade whether from Verizon or any of the cookers here this does not stick as easily but I believe it can still be done.
The thing is, the shut off via the reg hack still works just the same but unfortunately in anything above 6.1 it resets to back to on (or 1) every time the phone is shut off an on so its not that is doesn’t work but its just that there is stuff in the update that resets a lot of reg changed settings on a restart so its really more that it just doesn't stick, but as I mentioned, I believe there are those that have figured out what does this an how shut it off but as I have stayed with 6.1 I can’t fully comment on that.
At any rate having said all this I really must tell you to look into the Page Plus company that was recommended earlier here as that is what I have done and I too thought it might be a bit hooky as it seemed to good to be true, but I have tested it on my TP2 and it works flawlessly.
As well you don’t even have to go with the $39.99 plan as they also have a $29.99 a month plan called Talk & Text 1200 that gives you 1200 min talk, 1200 min text and 50mb of data instead of 20.
So if that is enough for you I guaranty if you go with them, you will be happy.
As the previous poster said they “are” on the Verizon network so what ever coverage you get with Verizon now you will get with Page Plus.
Of course if you’ve never uses a pre-paid service before there are differences for any of them which basically just boil down to less bells & whistles (even Verizons pre-paid) so I certainly would recommend you check it out thoroughly to be sure that it will all work for you but for me when I did, I found that it more then satisfied all my needs and that virtually nothing of what I did loose was of any issue.
About the only thing I felt that was, was that once you switch over you basically loose the Verizon warranty service or ability to walk into any Verizon store and get service but you still have the warranty with HTC though so its not like your entirely out in the cold.
I guess I would have to say that it kinda sucks to loose the new every two year thing too but as I plan to keep this thing for a long time and basically mathed out that I would be saving over $750.00 over that two years with PP, I felt I was OK with that.
One last thing I might add is that as I never have even learned about texting I can’t comment on that fully but I believe it is just as functional. I can guaranty you though that the data connection works flawlessly and I didn't have to make a single change to the Verizon data settings on my TP2 either.
Basically what I have done is I leave my data connection off and I have found the hack that keeps the WiFi on 24/7 even in suspend (another painless one btw), so as I go about my day between the free WiFi I have found, and my own WiFi from my cable provider, the phone polls those and I get all I need. Then if I ever am in a place that I need to connect but I don't have WiFi, I simply use the NoData program and activate my data connection and get what I need, then switch it back off, and have found that the 50mb of data I have with PP is way more then enough to handle this.
An $29.99 per month is all I pay for this.
And btw that is it, there is no extra fees or taxes.
Also btw here is a link to the best Forum I have found for them:
http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=364 which I used to ask a lot of questions before I went with them and found everyone there to be very helpful.
So check it out as I think this maybe right up your ally and if there is anything else I can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask.
Hope that helps.