[ralphie]

I will be switching shortly my family plan from AT&T to T-Mobile and plan on keeping my curve 8310. I already have my phone unlocked but the question I have is what kind of plan will I need to get? Currently, I do not have the internet on my phone and really don't want to start paying $30 per month (maybe later but not for now). By buying a T-mobile phone and then switching the sim card into a blackberry, will I need a plan with the internet since it seems all blackberrys require it when you buy them from T-Mobile?

[Dubdub]

Before you make the switch, make sure that T-Mo provides the coverage you need when and where you need it - where you love, work, travel and play. Their network isn't as built out as the other 3 major providers and their prices are lower for that reason.

I do not think T-Mo requires a BB data plan, yet, as the others do. Might be wrong since I don't use them though.

[ralphie]

I know a few people in my area with T-Mobile and have asked them how service is. I'll be sticking around major cities for the most part and from what I can tell I should be okay. I figure use my blackberry and if I can just sign up for a no contract plan and if I don't like it then I'll just switch.

[ralphie]

Does anyone have any ideas? Will a standard plan with no internet work?

[NJBlackBerry]

Yes. You will have voice and SMS text only.

[ralphie]

Thanks a lot NJ thats what I needed.

[gfunkdave]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

Before you make the switch, make sure that T-Mo provides the coverage you need when and where you need it - where you love, work, travel and play. Their network isn't as built out as the other 3 major providers and their prices are lower for that reason.

This is a common misconception. It's how things were several years ago. T-mobile's native network is just fine, and they have extensive roaming agreements with regional providers and AT&T for other areas - just like AT&T and Verizon have extensive roaming agreements with regional carriers that make up large chunks of "their" networks.

T-mobile's prices are lower because their key market segment is price-conscious, young urbanites.

T-mobile's 3G network is definitely a work in progress still - until I got the 3G 9700 I never had problems with dropped calls or finicky data. On 3G these issues are not uncommon, sad to say. It's like my friends who have iPhones on AT&T.

I do not think T-Mo requires a BB data plan, yet, as the others do. Might be wrong since I don't use them though.

I think that if you BUY a new smartphone from T-mobile, they require you to get that phone's data plan. They have separate data plans for BB, Android, and other.

OP: T-mo has only two kinds of plans now: a two year contract one ("Even More") and a no contract plan ("Even More Plus"). So you should be able to get what you want. You can also always do prepaid, of course.

[Trimix]

Wirelessly posted (L'neuf trois)

That's correct. A data plan is required with a BlackBerry if you get the phone from Tmobile at a discounted price. In your case it sounds like you'll be just getting a regular cell phone and switching the sim card over to the 8310. That's fine, shouldn't have any problems. Aa of right now, tmobile is not scanning their networks and putting people on data plans like at&t.

[Wuzzer]

Originally Posted by gfunkdave

OP: T-mo has only two kinds of plans now: a two year contract one ("Even More") and a no contract plan ("Even More Plus"). So you should be able to get what you want. You can also always do prepaid, of course.

I would suggest going with the "Even More Plus" plan first to try it out as you already have your own equipment, and you save $10 per month on the voice plan as well as $5 on the BB data plan if you choose to get it in the future. They will only have to sell you a SIM which I believe is about $10-$20 which you can just pop in and go(if you want to get data, you'd have to configure the APN and figure out the service books....from my experience, t-mo blackberry support is very helpful with this).