New to smart phones and Im lost

[bustapr]

Hi, I just read the recent news of Tmobile releasing a cheap froyo phone, so I decided to jump on the touchscreen bandwagon. Since Ive been living under a rock for the last 2 years, Ill have to ask, whats a data plan. This phone comes with a 220mb data plan and I think is $15 a month. I dont get any of this, my mom used to pay my normal phone bill and I never made much calls, so I dont know much about cellphone plans. Can someone explain what exactly is this plan and how many minutes there are in the plan. Will froyo use up data, with its mandatory gmail thing. I really dont have any reason to use internet on a phone. I just want to make calls and texts, is 220mb enough.

Sorry if this isnt the right section, I didnt know what section to post this in because I noticed that Toms still has Cingular as a network provider and no Tmobile...

 

[buwish]

Making calls and texting have nothing to do with the data plan, as they are on their own plans, so no worries there. 220mb can be a lot depending on how much you surf the web or e-mail. If you don't do it too often, I wouldn't worry about going over. But if you find yourself surfing and downloading apps more and more, I'd move up to a bigger plan.

 

[jaguarskx]

Typical phone charges are divided into different categories which sums up to your total month bill. Note different carriers will have different price plans.

Voice Plan - This the standard charge for your phone and determine how many minutes you can use before paying hefty surcharges. The more minutes you want the higher the price. I chose Verizon's 450 minute plan which costs $40.

Text Plan - This plan is useful if you send and receive a lot of text. Probably starts at $5 for 250 monthly texts. Otherwise you may pay as much as $0.20 for each text message you send and receive. I do not believe you can block incoming messages.

Data Plan - Basically this is a standard charge for all smart phones. I guess it ranges from $15 to $30 per month. The highest price plan generally means unlimited data. Some carriers my require you to get the most expensive data plan. Example, I decided I wanted a Motorola Droid smart phone. I have no choice in the data plan, I must select Verizon's $30 unlimited plan. The data plan allows you to surf the net and check e-mails. I think I maxed out at around 2.2GB of data in one month under very heavy usage.

Taxes - Yep. The government wants their cut of your money. This includes 911 surcharges to maintain the emergency system...

 

[bustapr]

Best answer selected by bustapr.