Cell Phones and data plans question

[Tuna]

A co-worker is looking into a new cell phone, probably an HTC touch or or the 4000 or 6800 something like that and I had a question. All 3 companies (Rogers, Telus, Bell) offer a Fun bundle of some type which claims it's free for email and "mobile browsing", now does anyone know how that works? I mean, we were playing with one in the store and went all over the net with no issues, but they claim it's only good for ~100 sites and that if we for example wanted to download an word document from a work server that we'd be charged??! How are they (or we) supposed to know what will and won't get charged?

There was further confusion when we looked into the 6800 because you had to get a data plan rather than the fun bundle (Bell terms) because it does browsing "different"

We didn't look at Rogers too much mainly due to coverage. Just wondering if anyone with experience can comment on what can be done with just a "fun bundle"

[Kor]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

IMO best data plans are with Rogers right now, $5 for 5mb $10 for 10mb, that says it all, just pay that and you're good?

[People's Car]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

Not sure about Rogers or Telus, but I can tell you bell's side.

The HTC touch is a phone that can you use full internet (like a computer) for $7 dollars a month (unlimited internet). That means you can surf, download, whatever you like and not be worried about extra charges. Those Fun bundles are just bundles that include (voicemail, caller id, texting and internet). You don't need that, just simple need the $7 dollar a month unlimited internet add-on for the Touch.

But for any other phone, such as a blackberry, htc 6800, 5800, or any other 'device' it works differently. You cannot get the $7 dollar a month package for internet, you need something more expensive. You need a data package. For Bell this costs $25 a month - for 4 MB of data use in a month, and it you can get more (8mb - 45 dollars). So on these devices you don't have unlimited internet, instead you pay for as much as you'll use. Thus if you surf a lot, or wanna download files, you're gonna pay for it.

Pretty much means, if you want full internet and don't wanna pay a lot for it...get the Touch. If you want something different, you're gonna pay a lot for internet use on those devices.

Hope this helps.

[Aleks]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

Be careful!! I have a Data plan on my HTC6800 and they're only 4mb of transfer/month....that is very very little for browsing anything but WAP enabled sites.....The Mobile browsing works well on WAP sites, but how many of the sites you frequent are WAP enabled?? Not many for me....

My HTC6800 will work in "hybrid" mode between 1x and EVDO, but it burns up the 4MB fast as its just as quick as Highspeed internet....

The reason I decided on the 6800 was because it was the only of the current HTC lineup (5800, Touch) that would do WiFi, which of course is free of charge when hotspotting....This is also convenient if you have a laptop without a wireless feature, because you can Tether it and use WiFi

[nordex]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

IMO best data plans are with Rogers right now, $5 for 5mb $10 for 10mb, that says it all, just pay that and you're good?

Where do you see that?

http://your.rogers.com/business/wire...ta&cat=2&typ=2

[nordex]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

On a side note-data is such BS considering they now offer wireless internet modems with unlimited data for the price of regular high speed.

[Tuna]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

Thanks Matt, I did some digging and that's what I found, and that's why I didn't want the data plan. I really like the 6800 for the qwerty keyboard but you can ONLY get a data plan, no option for the mobile browser plan.

Honestly, we played around with a touch in the store and went to a bunch of different sites. They say you can only go to certain sites with the mobile browser but that's not true.

One option with the 6800 I like is the Wifi which Alex mentioned but it will be too costly with the data plan. Telus has an HTC phone which looks like a blackberry but has wifi and a qwerty keyboard, just doesn't have a touch screen. I guess we'll see.

Thanks for all the input.

[Aleks]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

you don't "have" to get the data plan...it just takes $200 off the initial cost of the phone.....I can pay the $200 back and save myself ~$900 in overall cost during the contract....

[Kor]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wi...navigate#start


Mobile Internet Plans
Monthly Fee Data Included* Additional Data Usage
$5 5 MB

* Browse approx. 1,200** web pages per month and/or
* Send/receive approx. 1,200** email messages per month

3¢/KB
$10 10 MB

* Browse approx. 2,500** web pages per month and/or
* Send/receive approx. 2,500** email messages per month

3¢/KB

[nordex]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

Can you ket that on a blackberry Kris? or is that for cellphones only?

[Tuna]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

you don't "have" to get the data plan...it just takes $200 off the initial cost of the phone.....I can pay the $200 back and save myself ~$900 in overall cost during the contract....

Sorry Alex, what I meant was, if you get the 6800 and want to surf you need the data plan, the touch for example you can surf with the "mobile browser" which is $7 per month and is totally unlimited. The Data plan you have a limit as to how much you can download.

[Kor]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

Can you ket that on a blackberry Kris? or is that for cellphones only?

Phones only. But you can just get a phone that isn't a Blackberry but still has Qwerty, email, browser, etc.

[nordex]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

Phones only. But you can just get a phone that isn't a Blackberry but still has Qwerty, email, browser, etc.

You could but its just not the same.

[R-Audi]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wi...navigate#start


Mobile Internet Plans
Monthly Fee Data Included* Additional Data Usage
$5 5 MB

* Browse approx. 1,200** web pages per month and/or
* Send/receive approx. 1,200** email messages per month

3¢/KB
$10 10 MB

* Browse approx. 2,500** web pages per month and/or
* Send/receive approx. 2,500** email messages per month

3¢/KB

When I called Rogers about this plan they said it was geared towards "Their" internet.. as in ring tones etc.. and if I was going to use things like Hotmail it would be under a seperate category.. and therefore be an additional charge.

[Aleks]

Re: Cell Phones and data plans question

/\/\ Exactly....Mobile web browsing, aka WAP browsing is totally different than just surfing the net, which is what most people do....Hence there is no way around the whole charge...