[jadesse]

I recently switched jobs & my new company uses Verizon Wireless as their provider. Coming from AT&T where I also have two personal lines for the wife & kid I was surprised at the racket Verizon has going on. I do have an AT&T tilt now without service that I am using as my GPS & organizer.

I was hoping to purchase a Touch Pro form Verizon & have it ported onto my companies plan. I want the Touch Pro because I only want to carry one device instead of 2 or 3. I started doing a little bit of research & found that Verizon lock their GPS. This so that you are stuck with paying $10 for their VZ Navigator. There is a fix to supposedly unlock the GPS on the Verizon Touch Pro over at ppcgeeks.com.

Verizon locking the GPS is one thing but requiring a data plan on the Touch Pro is another whole ball of wax. I didn't find this out until I swiped my credit card for the purchase of the Touch Pro at full price ($559 +Tax). I explained to them that I wanted to buy the phone out right & just have the month to month contract. Then cancel the service once the phone is ported over to corporate plan. The woman checked the account under my corporate number & nothing could be added without prior company approval. The mandatory data plan should have been explained to me from the start. Needless to say once the phone arrives I will be dropping it off & the Verizon store.

Is there any way to get around this? I fail to understand why I can't use the phone without the data plan. Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated. I will probably just be stuck using my Tilt & the company phone.

I thought about switch my two personal lines over to Verizon but that is going to happen. I would rather my wife have to pay to call me then give Verizon one single dime.