I have a Blackberry 7250 from Verizon Wireless. I wanted to have a phone that had basic PDA features and this fit the bill. My issue is that when I called Verizon, they said even though I don't want to use the data plan, that the phone may automatically try to "pull" data and that I would get charged if I didn't have a data plan. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.

i know of people on verizon with blackberries that dont subscribe to data plans, and have never been charged....

Not sure about that since the BB is a "push" email. If you don't have anything set up in BIS, I don't know where it would try to pull from.

I know other carriers will activate the voice only portion.

Chalk it up to CSRs not having a clue. I doubt you'll ever be charged for data. Quite the contrary...even if you WANTED to use data functions, such as browsing the web, it wouldn't even allow it without a data plan.

Pizzle's right. Without a Blackberry data plan there's no way to even get data on a Blackberry. If there is, then Verizon needs to sort out issues on its network.

Thanks very much guys! I guess I will do #Data regularly to make sure there are no charges..

By the way.. my battery is terrible.. for some reason "charges fully" in 20 minutes and runs out within a few hours.. any chances it's the unit? or 90%+ chance it's the battery alone?

Thanks.

Also.. does anyone know how I would disable the internet browser or any data features on my 7250? Thanks again!

if you don't have a data plan, it shouldn't even let you use them so no need to disable them..

Well... in four days my phone has pulled data.. about 40 KB's. I believe that's only 60 cents, but still.

If anyone knows how I can turn this off, please let me know.

Do you know what it is pulling? Or is it text messages? Without a dataplan you should be able to connect to anything. But you can send text messages.

I have no idea...it's not text messages.. they are separate.

Think Verizon can tell me?

Just thought I'd let you guys know.. Verizon said I was required to get a data plan because they have a deal with RIM. They said they would suspend my phone account if I didn't sign up for the data plan. Unreal! So I switched back to my old phone and bought a Treo 650 (for which I won't need a data plan).

There is a lot of confusion regarding data plans and it often depends on who you talk to. I have done a lot of research on this and I know people that work for VZW so I have it on pretty good authority what the "truth" is about data plans.

1. Even if you don't buy a data plan you can use a BB or any other smartphone and connect to the web or get email. You pay be the KB for your data. The rate is about $.005/KB. There is also a data plan for $29.95 per month that gives you 10MB of data but uses your airtime while downloading data or doing email. The unlimited plan is $44.95 per month and does not use airtime. If you "bundle" the data plan you can save $5.00/month on the data plan ($40.00).

2. You are not forced to take the data plan but you will pay more for the BB without the data. You may save as much as $100.00 on the cost of the phone if you take the data plan when you buy the phone.

3. If you take the data plan and then decide to drop it after a month or two you can do that but you will need to resign your contract for another two year period from the day you drop the data plan.

4. If you absolutely do not want the data plan and don't want to do email (if so, why buy a BB?) then you can call technical support and ask them to deactivate your device from communicating with the data network. That is really the only way to be sure your phone does not connect to the data network. Otherwise, whenever you turn on your phone it will try to connect to the data network and probably has a few bytes of data going back and forth all the time.

The data plans are confusing and many of the sales staff do not know all of the information. In fairness to them, even the technical experts don't always know the "right" answers. For these types of issues you should speak to the tech support people on the phone.

I bought my 7130e from Verizon in October. I expected to try the data plan for a month or two because I thought I didn't really need it. Now that I have it I'm hooked. I save a couple of hours a day being able to deal with my personal email rather than coming home from work and sitting down at the computer to go through it all. I also have added Google Maps Mobile to my phone and having that on trips more than pays for the monthly unlimited data plan.

I have been a Verizon customer for years. I think they do have the best network and they have really improved the customer service over the past few years. The data plan is very reliable and works great. Hope this helps.

David

Yeah now if they can price competivly and stop relying on moterolas crappy phones to sell activations

Verizon said I needed a data plan no matter what.. I spoke to the CSR and her manager. After my contract is up, I will not go back, no matter how good the network.

I would go back to Verizon again. I have spoken to many CSRs who don't have correct information. You do not have to have a data plan.

i recently received a second hand 7130e and when i tryed to activate it i was told that i needed to purchase a data plan too. i went into a verizon store and spoke to two seperate CSRs and they told me the same thing. if there is a way to activate my phone without the data plan could you tell me how i would go about doing that? best regards

Welcome to the forums....

There is NO way to get data from your Blackberry without a data plan. You gotta pay if you wanna play!

I was hoping to just use the phone for calls. i got the blackberry because its easy to organize my schedule and projects. So if im not going to transfer anything but text messages could i get around the data plan? or is it still req'd? thanks again

Seems like an expensive phone if that's all you're gonna do with it but, no, you don't need a data plan for SMS.