HTC Touch on a prepaid pay as you go plan

[braxton]

Hi everyone. I'm a newb who just recently purchased my first smartphone, a Telus Touch Vogue. As a bit of background, my original pay and talk phone (a motorola flip model) has been flaking out lately, causing dropped calls and missed calls in digital mode. I can set the phone to "analog only" through the network settings and then it works fine, but the battery drains rather quickly and I lose the ability to use my mp3s as ringtones. Therefore, I began a search for a replacement phone and found a Touch in the local paper. A bit of research indicated it was a cool phone, so I called up Telus and confirmed that the Touch could be activated on a pay and talk plan. I purchased the phone from a fellow who recently cancelled his Telus plan and assured me it was clear for activation. Excited, I got home and tried to activate it to replace my ailing flip phone. The Telus rep confirmed the previous owner that I bought the phone from cancelled his account, but they still needed his permission to release the phone's ESN. So I contact the guy, he emails me a few days later and says he called Telus and everything has been straightened out. However, Telus still will not activate it, the latest rep claiming now that I can't activate a smartphone on pay and talk. Arggh!

Extremely frustrated, I then stumbled on this forum, and a bit of reading revealed I could ditch my old flip, and just copy the info from it to the Touch.
So late last night I tried it and it worked- Touch now is activated and works for voice and texting. Yeah! Data does not work, but my guess is this is because Pay and Talk is not set up for data??? However, I used to be able to take photos with my old flip phone and email them through my Pay and Talk account, but now I can't because the phone asks for a username and pw- and fails when it dials out on #777.
Oh well, being able to use occasional data (and paying for it, of course) would have been nice, but it's appears that email and surfing is not possible with a smartphone on a prepaid pay and talk plan. Searching to verify this has not revealed anything definitive so far. I could call Telus and ask, but I wouldn't trust what they tell me anyways. This forum seems to be packed with very knowledgeable people, so I thought I'd solicit some opinions..

Therefore, if anyone has any information, I would be very interested in hearing if data can be activated on a "pay as you go" Telus plan.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long, rambling post...
Cheers!
B.

[rainfreak]

My best recommendation would be for you to contact Telus and ask the customer service rep if it can be done and how much.

[syanni85]

yeah, i'd call em up and see how much for unlimited data for a month on prepay.

my gf has prepay on tmobile and they have unlimited data for it.

[braxton]

Yes, I guess I can call and inquire about it- "hypothetically" of course .

I was hoping that someone in the forum would have some experience with data and pre-paid plans with the Touch, or even non-smartphone plans and the Touch. For example, I get the impression that data usage is available on many of these plans, and is cheaper too compared to smatphone data charges. I just don't know how to get data working with my provider using pay and talk.
Maybe it's simple a call to Telus- maybe it's just a setting I need to do in the phone......

[buddhatikkigod]

You could.... hookup a standard cheapie phone on their plan for next to nothing then just copy the ESN from cheapie phone onto your touch and use it.

[braxton]

Originally Posted by buddhatikkigod

You could.... hookup a standard cheapie phone on their plan for next to nothing then just copy the ESN from cheapie phone onto your touch and use it.

That's exactly what I had to do in the first place. My motorola pay and talk phone wasn't working properly, so I ported its esn to the touch, along with MDN and MSID.
The old motorola phone was a 1XCDMA digital phone, and I was able to do basic email with picture attachments and web browse on it, so I know data usage is possible.
However, the Touch, when dialing #777 just errors out or gives a "incorrect username/password " message, so I cannot connect to the data network. I suspect it is possible to get it working, I just need to find the correct settings to change. I have contacted tech support and am awaiting a reply.

[mfpreach]

Originally Posted by braxton

Hi everyone. I'm a newb who just recently purchased my first smartphone, a Telus Touch Vogue. As a bit of background, my original pay and talk phone (a motorola flip model) has been flaking out lately, causing dropped calls and missed calls in digital mode. I can set the phone to "analog only" through the network settings and then it works fine, but the battery drains rather quickly and I lose the ability to use my mp3s as ringtones. Therefore, I began a search for a replacement phone and found a Touch in the local paper. A bit of research indicated it was a cool phone, so I called up Telus and confirmed that the Touch could be activated on a pay and talk plan. I purchased the phone from a fellow who recently cancelled his Telus plan and assured me it was clear for activation. Excited, I got home and tried to activate it to replace my ailing flip phone. The Telus rep confirmed the previous owner that I bought the phone from cancelled his account, but they still needed his permission to release the phone's ESN. So I contact the guy, he emails me a few days later and says he called Telus and everything has been straightened out. However, Telus still will not activate it, the latest rep claiming now that I can't activate a smartphone on pay and talk. Arggh!

Extremely frustrated, I then stumbled on this forum, and a bit of reading revealed I could ditch my old flip, and just copy the info from it to the Touch.
So late last night I tried it and it worked- Touch now is activated and works for voice and texting. Yeah! Data does not work, but my guess is this is because Pay and Talk is not set up for data??? However, I used to be able to take photos with my old flip phone and email them through my Pay and Talk account, but now I can't because the phone asks for a username and pw- and fails when it dials out on #777.
Oh well, being able to use occasional data (and paying for it, of course) would have been nice, but it's appears that email and surfing is not possible with a smartphone on a prepaid pay and talk plan. Searching to verify this has not revealed anything definitive so far. I could call Telus and ask, but I wouldn't trust what they tell me anyways. This forum seems to be packed with very knowledgeable people, so I thought I'd solicit some opinions..

Therefore, if anyone has any information, I would be very interested in hearing if data can be activated on a "pay as you go" Telus plan.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long, rambling post...
Cheers!
B.

Data on pdas can't be put on telus pay and talk PERIOD. You received incorrect information. I was a salesman for a few years and went though this situation many times.

They just DO NOT allow for it. Lastly, CDMA data devices do not allow for sending picture messages, i don't know if this matters to you or not, just letting you know.

[shaqulle23]

how do u put the esn on from an other phone to a htc touch?

[brownhornet]

Dont know about Telus but I know alltel wont do smartphones/pdas on the pay as you go plan. I tried it before I got a contract with them.