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darwen

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2005
668
13
California, US
I cannot switch to cingular, I dont pay for my phone service and therefore have no say in who my carrier is. I would like the internet services and the ipod services the device offers though. So I was looking at the plans for a way to make that happen...

Cingular offers data plans, plans without any sort of voice service. You pay to use the internet on something like a PDA or a smart phone... just without the phone part. I called Cingular and while the repesentative was hesitant he said you could probably do that with the iPhone, you can do it with other phones like the treo.

So for all of us who dont want to switch to Cingular, this may be an option. You would need to pay a rather expensive data contract rate ($20-$40 a month) on top of your current phone's cost, of course. This may be pricy for some but I think ulimited internet usage ANYWHERE (and on the iPhone of all devices) is worth $40 a month.

My plans could be hurt by one possible problem. There is word that Cingular (which may be back to AT&T by June) will be offering special contracts for the iPhone. They are apparently going to subsidise the cost of data so it is not expensive for iPhone users. If these contracts are the only ones the iPhone can be put on then I doubt any of them are going to be data only as this is clearly a phone device.
 

Grimace

macrumors 68040
Feb 17, 2003
3,568
226
with Hamburglar.
I cannot switch to cingular, I dont pay for my phone service and therefore have no say in who my carrier is. I would like the internet services and the ipod services the device offers though. So I was looking at the plans for a way to make that happen...

Cingular offers data plans, plans without any sort of voice service. You pay to use the internet on something like a PDA or a smart phone... just without the phone part. I called Cingular and while the repesentative was hesitant he said you could probably do that with the iPhone, you can do it with other phones like the treo.

So for all of us who dont want to switch to Cingular, this may be an option. You would need to pay a rather expensive data contract rate ($20-$40 a month) on top of your current phone's cost, of course. This may be pricy for some but I think ulimited internet usage ANYWHERE (and on the iPhone of all devices) is worth $40 a month.

My plans could be hurt by one possible problem. There is word that Cingular (which may be back to AT&T by June) will be offering special contracts for the iPhone. They are apparently going to subsidise the cost of data so it is not expensive for iPhone users. If these contracts are the only ones the iPhone can be put on then I doubt any of them are going to be data only as this is clearly a phone device.

My understanding is that you have to sign up for a phone plan, not just a data plan. I just tried to sign up for a Treo with only data - it does let you do it, but the iPhone is a whole new banana.

Of interest, the Smartphone unlimited data plan is $19.99 but the PDA unlimited data plan is $44.99. Hmm...
 
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