Database Develop

Data Plan questions...

So, AT&T kills you on a monthly data plan, unlimited for $40 a month are there any alternatives for getting a monthly data plan or do I specifically need to go through AT$T for that service?
Also, I use the "No Data" feature which is awesome by the way to essentially turn off the data to and from my phone, I use WIFI. Someone sent me a text message the other day that I did not receive I assume because I have the data turned off on my phone, as planned.
Is there a way to get around this, t receive messages when connected via WIFI or is that specific to the data plan associated with AT$T?
TW,

u do not need to turn off your connection when using wifi. when you have wifi turned on and properly connected, all data usage will be through wifi so no charges. your phone calls and txt will still come through normally. you can call/email att to confirm, i did. plus you can also check your usage online and it will show no charges for anytime you are using the internet through wifi.

all data usage will be through wifi so no charges
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I can get sms through my web connection? I thought SMS came directly from my provider?
Is there a way to use another provider for data service?
TW,

I use Unlimited MediaNet for only $19.95.
That would be the best choice if you want to have data wherever you go for less then the DataConnect plan.
Well if you're without an access point that is.
I've been using it for a while now, and I use quite a bit of bandwidth a month, (IMplus / Tethering pretty much all the time) and it works great.

Slayer6234 said:
I use Unlimited MediaNet for only $19.95.
That would be the best choice if you want to have data wherever you go for less then the DataConnect plan.
Well if you're without an access point that is.
I've been using it for a while now, and I use quite a bit of bandwidth a month, (IMplus / Tethering pretty much all the time) and it works great.
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I've heard this before, I pay $39.99 for MediaNet unlimilted...so how do you get it so cheaply? The tethering can be done with ease but getting caught could encurr the wrath of ATT $$$$$ !

I'm sorry about that.
I'm using MediaMax unlimited.
Its unlimited Data /w only 200 texts a month.
I shoulda mentioned that. =/

Slayer6234,
I know I have the option of downgrading to MediaMax Unlimited online (account access) but I've contacted AT&T and they told me this is not supported so I'm a little leary to change it and have it cost me in the end. How long have you been using this? If it works fine I'll just downgrade and see what happens.
Thanks.

I've been using it for about 2 years now since I got a flip phone with a browser.
I've talked to AT&T about it and they do "frown" upon not using a dataconnect plan with a PDA but I've been using it with the HTC for 3 months and nothing has happened, plus I would just say that I have a flip phone that I can only use medianet on, and that I switch my sim to that from time to time.

The tilt will automatically connect/work with MediaNet.
The PDAconnect / Dataconnect plans will still get you on edge/3g, its just a fancy, more costly way of getting you there.
MediaNet will do the same... and you dont need a tethering plan with the tilt because, well, you have a tilt.

Slayer6234,
Thanks for the info. I'll give it a whirl.

I think I might no longer be confused ... MediaMax is still a service offered through AT&T (https://www.wireless.att.com/media/cingular_video_purchase) at a reduced rate...
So, you can't get an external data plan from another vendor for your phone although @ $20 bones I think that falls in line with everyone else's plans.
TW,

For thos in Canada using a Kaiser on Rogers...

What type of plan do you have? And which options do I look for in order to maximize the capabilities of the Kaiser on Rogers' network?

I have the 3 yr vid calling plan (free for 3 years on contract) not sure if they have that now. Its weird to be saying this but overall, u should check out the rogers section at howardforums. Aside from that I am using a basic data plan that still works (10 megs for $5) but it can be tricky to get, especially now that rogers has Windows mobile data plans.
Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. A couple more questions. What is the difference between a data plan and the Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing Plan for $7 that is offered? This is my first time owning a phone that will be able to access the internet so I'm not sure what I need.
This is basically what I want to use in addition to the plan I have now (which is 250 anytime minutes, and the $11 Communicate value pack). I want to be able to use the GPS, 3G network, be able to read and send emails, browse the internet occasionally (youtube, etc.) and use Windows Live Messenger.

everything will basically need data except what u use for gps will determine if you need data or not

mikeveli20 said:
Thanks for the reply. A couple more questions. What is the difference between a data plan and the Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing Plan for $7 that is offered? This is my first time owning a phone that will be able to access the internet so I'm not sure what I need.
This is basically what I want to use in addition to the plan I have now (which is 250 anytime minutes, and the $11 Communicate value pack). I want to be able to use the GPS, 3G network, be able to read and send emails, browse the internet occasionally (youtube, etc.) and use Windows Live Messenger.
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Don't go with the unlimited mobile browsing plan as it's not applicable with non rogers devices =/ (the csr's might not tell you that either) you'll still incur data charges. (check howard forums to confirm)
Your best bet is to wait for the tiered data plan that's coming out in a few weeks.

meeek said:
Don't go with the unlimited mobile browsing plan as it's not applicable with non rogers devices =/ (the csr's might not tell you that either) you'll still incur data charges. (check howard forums to confirm)
Your best bet is to wait for the tiered data plan that's coming out in a few weeks.
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I'll be carefull with that as well. I have the same plan but on Fido and for the past 2 months, i havent been charged any extra (although i accumulated about 32 mb avg for both months).
Im still watching my data consumption... so hopefully nothing will change in the future.

AT&T Data Plan Differences

I just bought a Tilt and am upgrading from a Nokia 6555. My current plan with AT&T does not include data. Obviously, to use the Tilt I will need to add data to my account. My question is this: What is the difference between the $30 "Messaging & Data Unlimited" plan and the $15 "Data Unlimited" plan? On the AT&T website, it says the $15 plan does not work with PDAs/Smartphones. If I throw the sim card into my Tilt from my Nokia phone will the $15 plan work? Is AT&T sent any information about what phone is accessing their network?
Thanks in advance.
cmus

I guarantee that someone is going to tell you to please use the search function. There have been countless threads on this topic.

cmus said:
I just bought a Tilt and am upgrading from a Nokia 6555. My current plan with AT&T does not include data. Obviously, to use the Tilt I will need to add data to my account. My question is this: What is the difference between the $30 "Messaging & Data Unlimited" plan and the $15 "Data Unlimited" plan? On the AT&T website, it says the $15 plan does not work with PDAs/Smartphones. If I throw the sim card into my Tilt from my Nokia phone will the $15 plan work? Is AT&T sent any information about what phone is accessing their network?
Thanks in advance.
cmus
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One plan gives you unlimited data and I believe a restricted amount of Texts ( 200? ). And the other plan is just data and no texts included. AT$T cannot tell which phone the sim is used in , but they do keep track of data usage, and if they suspect that you are using a pda, due to more than normal data usage,they will consider that a violation of your usage agreement and can cancel your account and charge you the full price of the TilT ( $400 )

denco7 said:
One plan gives you unlimited data and I believe a restricted amount of Texts ( 200? ). And the other plan is just data and no texts included. AT$T cannot tell which phone the sim is used in , but they do keep track of data usage, and if they suspect that you are using a pda, due to more than normal data usage,they will consider that a violation of your usage agreement and can cancel your account and charge you the full price of the TilT ( $400 )
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Denco, actually you are partly mistaken.
ATT Can tell what phone you are using by its IMEI. When you add the data plan to the device, toss the sim card into your older nokia so it registers as a nokia on their network. ATT Will hassle you to put on a PDA plan and wont allow you to add a medianet package.
ALSO.......
The PDA plans allow a connection to a different APN ( ISP.CINGULAR vs WAP.CINGULAR) which means less traffic and less bottleneck from other mobile users ( Iphones and the likes ). Now i cant prove with 100% certainty that ISP.CINGULAR is always faster, but I can tell you that I DO notice a difference in latency times and tend to always have a decent connection rate.
This might also vary though by your location.
One more thing. This topic has been discussed to death. Use the Search button

True,but AT$T doesn't keep a database of imei's. They have the ability to check, but unless the imei is added to a stolen phone database, they don't check every imei as it connects to the network. They do however check the imsi , to make sure you are a subscrber to the network and that is stored on the sim card.

denco7 said:
True,but AT$T doesn't keep a database of imei's. They have the ability to check, but unless the imei is added to a stolen phone database, they don't check every imei as it connects to the network. They do however check the imsi , to make sure you are a subscrber to the network and that is stored on the sim card.
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They will check it when he goes to add the plan . . .

When I go on-line to my acount summery. there is a picture of each phone next to the phone number. If I swap sims around the pictures change. I pretty sure AT&T does know.

This is a touchy subject as there are a several lawsuits in place for att
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=406588. There are several suits in play from Att forcing an upgrade charge when finding you're using a pda even though unlimited data usage worked just fine with non pda devices

G1 with Blackberry data plan? (currently working)

Hopefully someone may know the answer to my question. My wife has a POS Blackberry Flip 8220. It's on its last legs so I got her a G1 on eBay. Everything I read said I would have to switch to an Android data plan but when I put her SIM in the G1 everything was working with a 3G signal.
Is that something that will only work until they catch on? Or should it continue to work?

MrBigFeathers said:
Hopefully someone may know the answer to my question. My wife has a POS Blackberry Flip 8220. It's on its last legs so I got her a G1 on eBay. Everything I read said I would have to switch to an Android data plan but when I put her SIM in the G1 everything was working with a 3G signal.
Is that something that will only work until they catch on? Or should it continue to work?
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Do tell... WHAT is an "android" data plan?
Android phones do NOT require any special data provisions. ANY GENERIC DATA PLAN is fine.

Well T-Mobile used to have a Blackberry unlimited data plan. with unlimited messages for $34.99 and an Android unlimited data plan with unlimited messages for $34.99. Those have been replaced with the Even More plans. But my wife still has the grandfathered Blackberry plan. Everyone I've asked said the data wouldn't work because of the APNs and even if it did T-Mobile would be able to tell I was using a G1 on a Blackberry data plan and they would shut it down.
I was just wondering if anyone had used a blackberry data plan successfully in the past or are still using one. If I have to change anything the plan will go up $10 ($30 for data and $15 for unlimited text)

I took my wife from a BB to a Nexus One. No calls to T Mobile and our bill started showing two Android Data Plans. Same thing.... no need to call unless her data suddenly acts funky.

That's good news. Of course when she tries to upgrade to the mytouch slide soon then we may have to deal with that.
Thanks

MrBigFeathers said:
Well T-Mobile used to have a Blackberry unlimited data plan. with unlimited messages for $34.99 and an Android unlimited data plan with unlimited messages for $34.99. Those have been replaced with the Even More plans. But my wife still has the grandfathered Blackberry plan. Everyone I've asked said the data wouldn't work because of the APNs and even if it did T-Mobile would be able to tell I was using a G1 on a Blackberry data plan and they would shut it down.
I was just wondering if anyone had used a blackberry data plan successfully in the past or are still using one. If I have to change anything the plan will go up $10 ($30 for data and $15 for unlimited text)
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Three things to say about this;
1) RIM phones require *extra* provisions, but still require the STANDARD provisions, therefore a RIM-compatible data plan will work with any phone, but a regular data plan won't work with a RIM phone. This is a matter of RIM phones being horribly crippled and VERY VERY poorly designed.
2) Anything between you and YOUR CARRIER has nothing to do with this forum. I suggest you consult your carrier for instructions on this.
3) You never even mentioned what carrier you were using, therefore NOBODY could possibly make any reasonable guess about what their responses will be.

few things to note...
1, if your using Tmobile, i know enough to answer your questions,
- blackberries have their own server farms for data (email especially, but all data for a blackberry goes through a "blackberry" channel.
- androids, also have their own seperate channels or farms that handle all of their data,
however, if you have any data plan, and simply pop your sim into any smartphone, it should work for a while, until your connection gets a time failure, or gets red flagged for requesting (or getting) too much bandwidth.
this is known as blackballing, and you can even trick the system sometimes, by putting your sim back in your old phone, calling tmo, and telling them to open mtas, (or something like that) and addressing that connection (tier 3 can do it in about 5 minutes if they know wtf is up).
but for this channelized crap to work, they are separating the non-tmobile brand phones, into a more simplified system for them...
this way, i guess, when blackberries have a massive outage (like when the Storm was released, and every storm on the planet had to get updated, and that killed all the servers, all the blackberries had no-connection at all, for about 3 days...)
my point, is if one system fails, at least other clients (with other phones) are not effected.
sofar, my g1 has been very reliable and fast with out any data plan at all.
screw their overpriced data, and run wifi.
older, sneaky people were using tzones to get full data plan for 10bucks, and just calling in every 2 weeks to get their MTAS updated, or unlocked...
thats been resolved by now, but hopefully you get the picture. and i havent confused anyone,

MrBigFeathers said:
Hopefully someone may know the answer to my question. My wife has a POS Blackberry Flip 8220. It's on its last legs so I got her a G1 on eBay. Everything I read said I would have to switch to an Android data plan but when I put her SIM in the G1 everything was working with a 3G signal.
Is that something that will only work until they catch on? Or should it continue to work?
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Click to collapse
it should fail at some point, and you don't want RIM or blackberry to handle android stuff anyways.
get the android plan, but before you do, go to www.google.com and search for " speedtest " and compare your actual speeds before and after the switch.
would be interesting if there was a huge diference.

[Q] MMS no data plan

I have a 7mo old nephew and every now and then his parents send pictures of funny/cute stuff he does but I'm unable to receive them.
I get a download button but on wifi I can't retrieve it. I have data disabled because I don't have the $15/mo for a data plan.
I'd be willing to pay the $0.30/mms to be able to see the occasional pic.
Is there anyway I could disable auto update and background data and be able to turn on data when I get a pic from them and be able to get it without getting slapped with a data plan? <(really stupid policy of AT&T's)
I know I could with my non-smart phone (samsung eternity) but I don't know how to do that with the Samsung Captivate (cyanogenmod). I was told at&t does a sweep for smartphones w/out data and auto add it and the only way to avoid it was to keep data off at all times.
Also what MMS settings do I need? I'll admit to being a complete n00b on all this. thanks.
Thanks for any help!

You could try following the instructions on this post, down toward the bottom, to alter your APN settings for MMS only: http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...y-s-gt-i9000-mms-internet-settings-t-apn.html
The problem is that MMS is sent over the data connection and not over WiFi, so you will have to turn your mobile data on make it work. The APN settings would appear to limit your traffic to MMS, but whether this would trigger AT&T's data plan policy, I have no clue. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.
As an alternative, they can send the MMS to your email address instead of your phone number and you could get it that way.

Is it possible to tell your family to send the pictures to your gmail account?
family
apbthe3 said:
You could try following the instructions on this post, down toward the bottom, to alter your APN settings for MMS only: http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...y-s-gt-i9000-mms-internet-settings-t-apn.html
The problem is that MMS is sent over the data connection and not over WiFi, so you will have to turn your mobile data on make it work. The APN settings would appear to limit your traffic to MMS, but whether this would trigger AT&T's data plan policy, I have no clue. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.
As an alternative, they can send the MMS to your email address instead of your phone number and you could get it that way.
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Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App

After going by AT&T I found some mixed news:
Good: Our family unlimited messaging plan includes MMS.
Bad: AT&T detected last month that I have a smartphone (with data off) and added generously the $25/mo data plan w/out so much a text message.
I got them to drop it to the $15 plan and have to call customer service monday to see about getting a partial refund since I didn't use it.
On a semi related note: Since it looks like I may be getting a non-smartphone, what is a good touchscreen phone that does NOT require a data plan?
Thanks for all the help everyone

Of course they did. This is the most unfair rule ever; it's like AT&T telling you how you should use your phone. That sucks
I don't know anything about current phones that are out. I would just go to an AT&T store and play with them to find one you like.

Agreed. I understand that in the long run less people probably complain about a data plan than the accidental/negligent data charges that would probably happen but it's still unfair to give NO other option.
I swapped to my backup phone, the samsung eternity. Descent phone but screen is inaccurate, calendar function is tiresome and no threaded texting (good music though). I will look at what phones they have (including GoPhones) and then get one online, who wants to waste an upgrade on a lesser phone?
On a similar note, will Straight Talk or any other prepay phones work with AT&T sim? I know GoPhone will.
I plan to get the data removed and try for at least a partial credit for the last month of data I didn't use.
I may ebay the Captivate since who knows how long it may be till I can afford a data plan.