My grandmother, current owner of an ancient flip phone, wants to upgrade to a smartphone because everyone else at her adult daycare center has one.
The issue here is that her current phone has a $10 per month plan. If I were to get her a smartphone, it would cost around $50 per month because you need to buy a data plan.
Hence, this thread, seeking advice on where I can find a smartphone with no data plan. Or something with a big touch screen that doesn’t let you access the internet?
The cheapest option I have found so far is Jitterbug, which lets you by a 40mb data plan for $2.50 per month. With monthly minutes and texts the phone will cost around $20 per month, but we have to worry about grandma accidentally going over her data usage.
It looks like that phone is Android based. If it is you should be able to restrict this. You can tell the phone to stop all mobile data at 40mb* (and still allow wifi data so when she’s connected to a hotspot it works).
*I have friends that do this, but often they’ll set it to well less than they’re plan limit (say, 1.5 gigs instead of 2) that way if they still need to use data for something they can override it and know they have some space left before getting charged. So, in your case, you might set it to 30mb.
Just use a smartphone with a sim card that doesn’t include a data plan. If you stick grannies sim in a smartphone it will only access the internet if there is a plan available. My ex wife uses my old smart phone in this way. She can’t get the data content even for SMS messages that include data but for everything else it’s fine. She uses it sometimes with wifi to access the net though.
Just make sure the Jitterbug does that, like, go into the store and check to see if the settings are there. Also, I’ve never used it (just looking, I see it’s actually turned on on my phone, but for something far higher than I’m going to hit it at), so I have no idea what happens when you bump into it. I don’t know if it’s just a matter of turning it off, hitting an ‘okay’ button, something else. My guess is that you have to go into the settings to the settings and turn it off, can/will grandma do that?
Also, if her adult day care has wifi and her home does (or you set it up), you could even consider just turning the data off altogether, but, in the case of an emergency, you’ll know it’s there and you can help her turn it back on (or just set up a really low limit, but even grandma will blow through 20 mb pretty quick).
AT&T and T-Mobile have non-data plans but they are more than $10.
You want to shop for prepaid or pay as you go plans.
Another idea.
Get her a small WiFi only tablet and port her phone number to googleVoice. Phone calls are now free (inside the US). The only drawback is that you can only make/answer calls when on WiFi.
On the plus side, it is larger and easier to see than a phone.
Or you could do the Consumer Cellular thing. It’s really cheap also. If she goes over the plan you select, there is no overage fee, they just bump the plan up to the next level. It should naturally settle on whatever she uses. I’m actually thinking about switching to this myself…it’s much cheaper than my current carrier, T-Mobile, but it uses the same T-Mobile network in my area.
I think you need to rethink your premise. She wants the phone to be LIKE her peers who are certainly using their data plans for facebook, texting and other social media etc to stay in touch with their buddies, relatives and kids. She will need a decent data plan to do this. Giving her the smartphone with no plan is IMO pointless.
I assume the home has a wifi. If so her cell data use should be moderate.
Since I found the new plans, I’m going with the BLU Advance. It’s android based, so it should have that function, right?
Why make that assumption? She has an iPad, but doesn’t use it for Facebook, just checking emails. I really think she just doesn’t want to be seen with a flip phone in public. If I’m wrong we can always upgrade the plan.
The major carriers will usually have lots of restrictions that may force you to get data with a smartphone even if you bring your own. Instead, look at many of the alternative MVNO providers. These companies sell service on the major carrier networks but with much more flexibility. You can get any combination of minutes/text/data you need at a variety of prices.
You can buy your own phone on craigslist or ebay or wherever and then use it with that service. When looking at thet MVNO, make sure your smartphone works with the underlying carrier. For example, if the MVNO uses AT&T, then make sure your smartphone is either unlocked or supports AT&T.
Whatever plan she’s on now, just keep using it. Buy a phone outright, pop the SIM out of her old phone and pop it into the new phone. Turn off cellular data on the new phone, just in case her old plan had an exorbitant pay as you go data rate. She’ll still be able to surf via wifi and the cell provider doesn’t know the difference between a flip phone and a smart phone that doesn’t use data.
I actually linked to one of these companies (H2O) in a previous post. I just bought the BLU Advance, so now I’m committed to the GSM network. It looks like the $10 pay as you go H2O plan (with data usage turned off on the phone) is the best option. I should note that several other carriers have a similar plan for the same price.
I use a Ting SIM with an unlocked phone. Because I don’t use the phone very much at all, most months, I’m at $15+tax. You can set it to cut you off when you’re about to go over the limit to keep your charges down.
It looks like they support GSM.
Many new phones use a micro SIM card, so her old card might need to be cut to size to fit in a new phone, especially if it came from an older flip phone. It might be simpler to buy a SIM card of the correct size to fit in the phone.
I was going to bring them up as my provider too. I’ll add some extra instead. Since it’s easy to turn mobile data off completely in android (unsure about iPhone) or set limits through ting it’s pretty easy to avoid that getting out of control.
Basic charges are $6 per month for the line plus whatever she actually uses in SMS or talk time. The charges by usage buckets are here. There’s no plan. It’s what you use every month plus the line charge. There’s no contract. She could cancel anytime. They even have a handy dandy calculator to estimate typical monthly bills based on what current usage is.
Disadvantages to Ting:
They don’t offer roaming data. The only data coverage is through Sprint’s network. A pretty minor issue in this case but if data for emergencies is desired check Sprint coverage.
You have to buy the phone outright. It’s not subsidized by the plan. An older, but still capable isn’t that expensive if you shop some of the sites that offer refurbished phones.
Wait, how does her iPad get data? (If it’s getting e-mail, it has to get data somehow). Does it have a data plan with a cell phone company, or just over wifi at either her house or the daycare?
If she’s getting data for her iPad over Wi-Fi, her phone should be able to connect to the wifi just as well.
Yes - in fact, I have one. Get an AT&T “Go Phone” with the $30/month plan (with unlimited talking and texting), which is actually $25/month if you enroll in automatic payment. I have a Samsung smart phone with a Marshmallow release of Android, but you can get an iPhone as well.