Data and Droid PLAN

[HaunteD CoucH]

Hey, on average with your Motorola Droid, how much data do you use? I am getting a plan with a Droid for 45/month for unlimited voice,text and 20mb of data. Should i go with it? my other option is buying a Milestone outright and using AT&T. Service is the same in my area.

I see the cost breaking down like this using the phone for 7 months

Motorola Droid- 670 total with cost of plan and phone for 7 months No ETF.

Motorola Milestone- 820 total with plan cost and phone for 7 months using prepaid on AT&T. NO ETF

Honestly due to the unrootable Telus Milestone I am thinking about the Droid right now, but then again, I really don't know if 20mb of data would be enough. What do you think.

 

[shadowdude777]

20MB of data is not nearly enough. Most of the people in this forum have at LEAST a few hundred MBs of data usage every month. I usually clock in around 1.5GB and some of us manage to hit 10GB!

EDIT: You seem to be a thrifty person. No offense, of course, I am as well! Have you considered dropping the texting plan and getting a Google Voice number? Google Voice provides you with unlimited text messages. You just need to get a free number from them and send all of your calls through that.

 

[obutto]

20mb of data will definitely not be enough...

I hit 200 mb by doing barely anything on my droid.

 

[HaunteD CoucH]

yea, now that I put it into perspective, 20mb of data doesn't seem like much.

 

[HaunteD CoucH]

20MB of data is not nearly enough. Most of the people in this forum have at LEAST a few hundred MBs of data usage every month. I usually clock in around 1.5GB and some of us manage to hit 10GB!

EDIT: You seem to be a thrifty person. No offense, of course, I am as well! Have you considered dropping the texting plan and getting a Google Voice number? Google Voice provides you with unlimited text messages. You just need to get a free number from them and send all of your calls through that.

So it won't be like the other texting services that use email or a different number everytime? But will it run off data correct?

 

[shadowdude777]

Are you planning on buying the Droid and using it on a different service provider or something? Verizon definitely doesn't offer 20MB data plans on their smartphones.

With these devices, the only feasible way of going is with the unlimited data plan. If I couldn't get data with my phone, I wouldn't see any reason to go with anything better than a crappy free flip phone.

 

[HaunteD CoucH]

Are you planning on buying the Droid and using it on a different service provider or something? Verizon definitely doesn't offer 20MB data plans on their smartphones.

With these devices, the only feasible way of going is with the unlimited data plan. If I couldn't get data with my phone, I wouldn't see any reason to go with anything better than a crappy free flip phone.

Well its a division that runs of verizon's network and works out in Spokane,WA which I live under 2 hours from/

 

[shadowdude777]

So it won't be like the other texting services that use email or a different number everytime? But will it run off data correct?

The number remains the same all the time. To the people you send it to, it looks like you got a different cell phone number and are texting from that number. Google Voice is also a call forwarding service, so if you give people that number and then tie the GV number to your number from your cell provider, they can call the GV number and it'll ring your cell phone. There's an app in the Android market for GV and it's totally seamless. The only real issue with it right now is that you can only get text refreshes every 5 minutes. Not a bad tradeoff for free unlimited texting, in my opinion.

And yes, it runs off data. And texts are so infinitesimally small that I wouldn't worry about the data it racks up. I might even go as far as to say that if you use your 20MB of data for just texting through Google Voice and nothing else, you won't even come close to hitting the limit. Again, though, I don't recommend an Android phone, or any smartphone, without a good data plan. It severely limits what you can do with it. Take it from someone that used to have a WinMo phone with no data plan and not even any WiFi! It's not worth it.

 

[HaunteD CoucH]

The number remains the same all the time. To the people you send it to, it looks like you got a different cell phone number and are texting from that number. Google Voice is also a call forwarding service, so if you give people that number and then tie the GV number to your number from your cell provider, they can call the GV number and it'll ring your cell phone. There's an app in the Android market for GV and it's totally seamless. The only real issue with it right now is that you can only get text refreshes every 5 minutes. Not a bad tradeoff for free unlimited texting, in my opinion.

And yes, it runs off data. And texts are so infinitesimally small that I wouldn't worry about the data it racks up. I might even go as far as to say that if you use your 20MB of data for just texting through Google Voice and nothing else, you won't even come close to hitting the limit. Again, though, I don't recommend an Android phone, or any smartphone, without a good data plan. It severely limits what you can do with it. Take it from someone that used to have a WinMo phone with no data plan and not even any WiFi! It's not worth it.

lol, i use a HTC FUZE without data, it blows hard! I think I might go with Google voice and unlimited data, it sounds good, thanks for the input, but one question

with google voice do you recieve texts normally, and respond normally or have to go into your email to respond?

 

[EMSguy]

I can easily blow through 20mb of data in an hour lol

 

[brettlewis]

don't you have to get the unlimited data plan with the droid? I thought that was a requirement...

 

[meekrab]

don't you have to get the unlimited data plan with the droid? I thought that was a requirement...

I was under the same impression

 

[shadowdude777]

lol, i use a HTC FUZE without data, it blows hard! I think I might go with Google voice and unlimited data, it sounds good, thanks for the input, but one question

with google voice do you recieve texts normally, and respond normally or have to go into your email to respond?

Nope, there is a Google Voice app in the market that you can download. It lets you get the texts and respond to them directly within the program, just as if it was an actual texting plan. The only difference is that you have to wait 5 minutes for texts to be refreshed. There's an option to get texts forwarded to your e-mail and sometimes that works quicker than the 5 minutes, but if you ask me, it's not worth it. Also, you can't send texts of more than 160 characters because Google won't split them... but I don't know if Verizon even does that for you. But anyway, Google Voice works very well and everyone I talk to thinks I'm using Verizon's texting plan.

In addition to the pretty seamless texting abilities, Google Voice has a few other goodies you can take advantage of, like forwarding calls made to your GV number to any other numbers based on factors like the caller, the time of day, etc. Not all carriers give you free call forwarding. Verizon does, so this subdivision should too, but you should check. You can also set up your Verizon number to use Google Voice for voicemail which lets you listen to voicemails in Google Voice. It's quicker than going into voicemail by calling *86, and you get decent speech-to-text transcriptions to read.

Not many people will recommend using GV as your main texting service, but I say if you can deal with that 5 minute refresh interval, go for it!

 

[shadowdude777]

don't you have to get the unlimited data plan with the droid? I thought that was a requirement...

Well like he said, this isn't Verizon directly, its a subdivision, so maybe they have different plans. But yes, through Verizon directly, they say all smartphones must have an unlimited data plan, and yet for some reason, I was able to order two WinMo phones before (SCH i-730 and XV6900) without a data plan. Their system isn't perfect, I guess.

 

[exjimenez]

I was under the same impression

i had to when i grabbed my droid. but then again i was going to get the unlimited anyway, the freedom is totally worth it

 

[brettlewis]

I thinks its required to help subsidize the phone to. At least for me, I only pay $9 a month for my phone without data because Im a family plan extension. and if that was the only payment I had made, then I would have only paid 416 for my phone AND unlimited calls and text for two years. haha

two years of data plan is $720 for two years alone, so im sure that helps offset cost and covers the rest of my service.

 

[doomedromance]

Hey, on average with your Motorola Droid, how much data do you use? I am getting a plan with a Droid for 45/month for unlimited voice,text and 20mb of data .

Unless you don't use your phone at all, you'll blow through 20mb of data in one week.

I don't even think they'll let you. You need at least the $29.99 plan with all VZW smartphones. I don't think the computers will let you purchase it without adding on the plan.

I've been using 1-1.5 GB a month

I thinks its required to help subsidize the phone to. At least for me, I only pay $9 a month for my phone without data because Im a family plan extension. and if that was the only payment I had made, then I would have only paid 416 for my phone AND unlimited calls and text for two years. haha

two years of data plan is $720 for two years alone, so im sure that helps offset cost and covers the rest of my service.

Haha, I'm on a family plan too. Now that VZW phones don't all blow balls, just 95% of them, I'll be here till they or I die. (There's a good possibility I would die first, haha.) $45 a month sure beats paying $70-100 being on my own plan. I pay what I paid with T-Mobile 4 years ago and I didn't have data or text then.

 

[doomedromance]

Are you planning on buying the Droid and using it on a different service provider or something? Verizon definitely doesn't offer 20MB data plans on their smartphones.

With these devices, the only feasible way of going is with the unlimited data plan. If I couldn't get data with my phone, I wouldn't see any reason to go with anything better than a crappy free flip phone.

I used my Moto Q9m for almost 3 years, because I got it before data was mandatory. I didn't want data but I needed the calandar syncing with my computer and outlook. VZW dumbphones are horrible, they all have verizons terrible OS on top of them. The feature phones wouldn't cut it either. If I didn't get the Droid I'd probably be using my Q till it broke, and then I'd have replaced it with a used Q.

Now that I made the jump to a new phone, with shitty outlook syncing, but it works. Just to google then to outlook, but I guess now I never have to plug my phone into the computer to sync. I just wish my contacts would sync with Outlook. Anyway... I use a bunch of data. Now my phones basically a part of my hand, when before I didn't even take it with me all the time.

And I can tether for free (shhh don't tell VZW) so it makes the $30 a month worth it IMO.

 

[brettlewis]

I used my Moto Q9m for almost 3 year....

wouldn't the data on a phone like that only be $10 though? On my lg dumb phone i had internet for two month, it was like 10 a month since it really didn't do many smart things.

 

[HaunteD CoucH]

Unless you don't use your phone at all, you'll blow through 20mb of data in one week.

I don't even think they'll let you. You need at least the $29.99 plan with all VZW smartphones. I don't think the computers will let you purchase it without adding on the plan.

I've been using 1-1.5 GB a month


Haha, I'm on a family plan too. Now that VZW phones don't all blow balls, just 95% of them, I'll be here till they or I die. (There's a good possibility I would die first, haha.) $45 a month sure beats paying $70-100 being on my own plan. I pay what I paid with T-Mobile 4 years ago and I didn't have data or text then.

I am going through a divison of Verizon, not actual big red, they just use the network and that's why the plans are different, due to that, and that you need to supply your own phone if you want a Droid. I think I might go with the unlimited data though, I noticed that 20mb is like a needle tip in the amount i use everyday!

 

[shadowdude777]

wouldn't the data on a phone like that only be $10 though? On my lg dumb phone i had internet for two month, it was like 10 a month since it really didn't do many smart things.

The Moto Q is a WinMo smartphone. My friend had one when I had the Samsung SCH-i730. It was pretty cool, but personally, I can never see myself being able to use a smarphone without a touch screen.

 

[doomedromance]

I am going through a divison of Verizon, not actual big red, they just use the network and that's why the plans are different, due to that, and that you need to supply your own phone if you want a Droid. I think I might go with the unlimited data though, I noticed that 20mb is like a needle tip in the amount i use everyday!

Yeah, I'm at 1.01GB with almost 2 weeks left on my billing cycle. I don't even watch youtube videos or stream pandora like most the other people.

The Moto Q is a WinMo smartphone. My friend had one when I had the Samsung SCH-i730. It was pretty cool, but personally, I can never see myself being able to use a smarphone without a touch screen. My sister has it now because she dropped her EnV2 in a puddle.

Yeah I liked it. It's browser was horrid. I had a Tour for a while and now having the Droid, yeah browsing the web without a touch screen sucks balls. I never used the phone more than call calendar and the occasional text message. I only had 500 text/month plan. When I hacked it to think it was a Q9c and installed 6.1 on it man it was nice. I wish I had done it a lot sooner haha.

 

[HaunteD CoucH]

Yeah, I'm at 1.01GB with almost 2 weeks left on my billing cycle. I don't even watch youtube videos or stream pandora like most the other people.

lol, I watch stuff on youtube more often than most and go online heck of a lot, so I definitely need the unlimited.

Thanks for everyones input!

 

[Jay3]

Unlimited data is necessary. You won't be happy with the 20 mb plan, no matter how you slice it.

 

[shadowdude777]

lol, I watch stuff on youtube more often than most and go online heck of a lot, so I definitely need the unlimited.

Thanks for everyones input!

So will you be getting the Milestone and going with AT&T? Or does that Verizon subdivision offer an unlimited data plan that's somewhat affordable?