Data plan for Droid?

[Gman]

So my gf is on Verizon and I want to get her a droid for x-mas. Trying to figure out how much a data plan is when factoring in the total costs. She's on a family plan through her mom's work so I'm wondering if she's subject to some kind of corporate rate. I've done some searching and just trying to get an idea of the consensus.

[DownhillRider]

Don`t know how well this will work for you since it`s a corporate plan, but will throw this here for anyone else looking to get a new cell. This works great in Canada, don`t know about in the states though:

Call in and ask to cancel your plan. This works as long as you`ve been with them for over a year or so, I think 6 months with rogers. If you`re with rogers you can get a RIDICULOUS plan, and if you`re with bell or telus you`ll get a much better plan than you would otherwise. Just threaten to cancel, say you`re taking over a friends contract who was X minutes X long distance X data, etc.

With bell for $45 a month I was able to get this with very little hassle:
200 daytime
200 long distance
caller id, voicemail
unlimited text
500mb data, $0.03/mb after
unlimited eve and weekends starting at 6

With rogers you should be able to get the above for 35 a month, with 4 gigs of data, and more daytime minutes...probably even more long distance minutes.

[Cruiser]

Unless something has changed since we got our Droids it should cost $30/month for data on top of her regular plan costs. She's only eligible for the corporate discount on her data if she's the primary account holder. In our case that amounts to ~20% off on my wife's data plan charges and no discount on mine. YMMV though.

[axebiker]

Go unlimited. The basic plan doesn't leave you much...

[Badger]

I can't vouch for the adequacy of this since I just signed up, but Verizon offers 150 MB/mo for $15. I got the wife and myself Droid 2's for 0.01 from Amazon with the family plan and the 150 mb/each for a total of $99.99/mo.

Don't know how it's going to work or if anything comparable is possible with an existing plan. It's $15 for each additional 150 MB, so if you go over regularly, the $30/mo unlimited would obviously be better. I would have gotten the Droid Pro for the GSM if it had been available, but it wasn't and too late now.

[RShea]

Go unlimited. The basic plan doesn't leave you much...

It really depends on how you plan on using the phone. Occasional data needs (no heavy email, downloads of movies or music, streaming, etc.) then you can try the cheaper plan for a period. Many have wifi that they can set up and connect to at home and many times at work too, so any data there can be off the cellular network over the wifi. If you are traveling and need data access regularly then yes go with the regular higher priced plan (not really unlimited though if you read the fine print)

You can switch data plans on Verizon - but they used to require all smart phones have their highest priced data plan. AT&T came out with a limited entry level plan at $15 and Verizon followed.

[huckbucket]

U.

Unless something has changed since we got our Droids it should cost $30/month for data on top of her regular plan costs. She's only eligible for the corporate discount on her data if she's the primary account holder. In our case that amounts to ~20% off on my wife's data plan charges and no discount on mine. YMMV though.

FWIW, I get a corporate Verizon discount and the 20% off only applies toward the voice portion of the plan. The data piece is full price. I think that's pretty standard.

[El Chupacabra]

I've had unlimited data plans on AT&T and Verizon; both were $30 per month.

If you go with the limited data plan, I would be very concerned about running past the small data limits and getting smacked with huge $-per-mb overages. I suppose it's possible to really watch your data usage, only access email via "pull" (not regular "push" of email from the server), but this strikes me as crippling the usefulness of a smart phone.

The big advantage of AT&T was the monthly minutes rollover. In all other regards, I like Verizon more (better coverage, better customer service).

To give you an idea of total costs, but without any corporate discount, we have 3 phones on Verizon: 1 smart phone w/ data plan, 2 standard phones; 2000 minutes peak per month shared amongst the 3 phones (Mrs. C. uses the phone for work; lots of minutes); unlimited texting. The family plan also comes with 10 numbers that you designate for unlimited calls (the "friends and family" frequently-called numbers -- pick non-Verizon numbers for these).

Plan also has the typical unlimited nights/weekends, free long distance, free roaming, unlimited airtime to/from other Verizon users -- all of these seem to be standard across all the carriers now. We pay $180 per month, and have no land line. Both Mrs. C. and I get some $ back from our employers, which brings the actual cost down to around $80 per month.

[RShea]

I've had unlimited data plans on AT&T and Verizon; both were $30 per month.

If you go with the limited data plan, I would be very concerned about running past the small data limits and getting smacked with huge $-per-mb overages. I suppose it's possible to really watch your data usage, only access email via "pull" (not regular "push" of email from the server), but this strikes me as crippling the usefulness of a smart phone.

The big advantage of AT&T was the monthly minutes rollover. In all other regards, I like Verizon more (better coverage, better customer service).

El Chup,

You discuss push vs pull for email. You actually have the data usage backwards for most email usage. Typically push email uses less data time with a small efficient heartbeat transmitted only when new mail is received, compared to the periodic pull of messages. It also is instantaneousness delivery real time without any delay of the messages and why heavy email users like and prefer it over the pulling of mail messages. The reason push is better it is more efficient with the message exchange, this is the only time you use the data is when the server knows there is a new heartbeat is received and the actual message is downloaded and you then disconnect or when you are sending a message. With pull you are using data every x minutes (or hours some use 15 minutes others some other increment) going out and asking if there are new messages waiting for you - many times 24 hours a day 7 days a week. While this polling exchange of "hello, do you have new messages for me" is not a large amount of data sent and received it still can happen around 2900 times (for receiving not even delivery of messages) a month if you have 15 minutes set for pulling new messages with possibly the majority of the time having no messages waiting. You can of course power off the phone and with pull it would reduce this or set it for a higher periodic setting, but the only way to make pull more efficient. Plus if you have a large number of users pulling messages to the same email server it can be very inefficient use of the mail server bandwidth due to time outs because so many people are asking if there are new messages for them and it can't be delivering messages to only those that have new messages.

It is like calling someone every 15 minutes and getting an voice mail because there is nobody available regularly- you still use voice minutes each time you make the call which can really reduce your talk time - it would be more efficient to just tell the person you are trying to reach to call you when they get to the phone to call you and have something to talk about.

If you're the type to check you mail a few times a day, use pull, if you check it multiple times per hour, use push if you can (imo). Also push has usually been proven better for phone battery life because the internet data is not turned on as often as with pull.

[El Chupacabra]

Thanks for the clarification. I guess I had my terminology confused.

[hafilax]

These aren't the Droid data plans you're looking for.

[gatorboy]

^^^^^^^^