# Cell phone data plans - does it matter which phone you have?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-data-plans-does-it-matter-which-phone-you-have/544822>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 28, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-data-plans-does-it-matter-which-phone-you-have/544822 "2010-06-28T18:53:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-data-plans-does-it-matter-which-phone-you-have/544822/1 "2010-06-28T18:53:53Z")

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My SO wrecked his last phone (Samsung Highlight) in the water. He had just signed on for a free trial of a $10/month data plan through T-Mobile. That phone doesn’t require a data plan, and he wanted to test it out to determine how much he’d even use a data plan. He ruined that phone’s screen (won’t come on, although the phone seems to work fine otherwise) so he bought another phone - a HTC HD2 - off Craiglist. He stuck his sim card in, and away he went, but…

The data doesn’t work anymore. It says his plan doesn’t support his device. It isn’t like T-mobile is subsidizing this phone, so why do they insist he get the $30/mo plan? Why doesn’t the $10 data plan work? How can the data be different for a different phone? It works fine when I stick my sim card (with an Android data plan) in.