Do I need a data plan for my iphone 3g with T-Mobile?

[mariotheotaku]

I wasn't sure where to post this but I was just wandering if I do need a data plan for it, i plan to use wifi around my house but when im on the road I would like to check my mail and the weather (maybe some web surfing). I have the fave 5 family plan. Also if I do need a plan which on would you recommend that gives me full access to everything (safari, youtube, weather, mail, etc)

Thank you

 

[ppc750fx]

Yes, you will need a data plan if you... uh... intend to use data. ;-)

Any T-Mobile data plan will give you "full access". (There's really nothing special about the iPhone's data capabilities. Any provider which supports mobile internet access should be fine.)

 

[dave006]

One special note: You will not be able to use your iPhone 3G Visual Voicemail. This feature is only available on an AT&T iPhone data plan and yes Visual Voicemail uses the data plan! It does not use SMS Txt and it does not work over WiFi.

Dave

 

[aneftp]

I wasn't sure where to post this but I was just wandering if I do need a data plan for it, i plan to use wifi around my house but when im on the road I would like to check my mail and the weather (maybe some web surfing). I have the fave 5 family plan. Also if I do need a plan which on would you recommend that gives me full access to everything (safari, youtube, weather, mail, etc)

Thank you

Do you mean Tmobile USA or Tmobile outside of USA?

If you want to use data while on the road, than you should get the data plan (however tmob just raised data prices (so if you do not have the grandfathered $5.99 tzone hack or 19.99 unlimited interenet) you will be stuck with the "web2go plans that only give you 50MB or 100MB of data for 9.99 or 19.99. Or pay 24.99 for unlimited.

Trust me, you will burn through 100MB of data of iphone fairly quickly even on EDGE with iphone 3g with tmobile. (because of the automatic downloads)

 

[mkrishnan]

I hadn't actually heard about the web2go plans... From what I can see, the prices are only a modest increase (exclusive of the people "cheating" and using WAP T-Zones plans to get high volume data). Right now, I pay $19.99 for unlimited data and $4.99 for 400 messages. From what I can see when I pull up the Google Android phone, now I would pay $24.99 for unlimited internet and 400 messages. So it did increase by $0.01, but that's it. Although of course, I had the option of having data with or without a messaging plan, and that is now gone. I think it's also a good deal considering that hotspot privileges come with the internet plans for T-Mo.

 

[aneftp]

I hadn't actually heard about the web2go plans... From what I can see, the prices are only a modest increase (exclusive of the people "cheating" and using WAP T-Zones plans to get high volume data). Right now, I pay $19.99 for unlimited data and $4.99 for 400 messages. From what I can see when I pull up the Google Android phone, now I would pay $24.99 for unlimited internet and 400 messages. So it did increase by $0.01, but that's it. Although of course, I had the option of having data with or without a messaging plan, and that is now gone. I think it's also a good deal considering that hotspot privileges come with the internet plans for T-Mo.

24.99 is still a pretty good deal (unlimited data plus 400 texts). But there are people with unlimited family text with tmob for $10 who are upset at tmob because they charge 24.99 for G1 unlimited web or 24.99 for G1 unlimited web and 400 sms. So in fact, you are actually getting hit with a $5 data increase if you already have family unlimited text.

 

[mkrishnan]

I guess... probably still the best pricing in the US market, though. I guess the problem is basically that one cannot pay less for voice services, even though we are, on average, using them less and less, to offset the increased cost of the data and SMS, which we are using more and more.

 

[dontwalkhand]

24.99 is still a pretty good deal (unlimited data plus 400 texts). But there are people with unlimited family text with tmob for $10 who are upset at tmob because they charge 24.99 for G1 unlimited web or 24.99 for G1 unlimited web and 400 sms. So in fact, you are actually getting hit with a $5 data increase if you already have family unlimited text.

With my iPhone, I have the $24.99 unlimited data plan, and then I also have the $10 unlimited text family plan. My total bill for 3 phones (with only one phone having unlimited data) is about $150, which is deal compared to what I would get with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc.