What phone do I want?

Factual Questions
1

I’m going to drop my phone and tag onto a family plan to save money. I want a good 8mp or better camera, occasional web surfing but not a full i-phone type phone.

Is it possible to buy a used app-capable phone and just use a cheap data plan or will I be forced to buy the more expensive plans?

If not app-capable what are my choices.

This will be a switch to ATT.

2

I was thinking of getting a smartphone like a Droid and using it with voice and text only on Verizon, and using WiFi for Internet. Of course that means I usually wouldn’t have data when I’m travelling around, but I am ok with that rather than pay for a smartphone plan. However multiple sources say Verizon won’t give you voice-and-text-only service on a smartphone. Bastards, what business is it of theirs what device I use and how I use it?

But apparently with AT&T they use SIM cards. You may be able to activate a cheap phone with AT&T, then put that SIM card into a smartphone. See this article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57555091-94/can-you-ditch-your-smartphone-data-plan-for-wi-fi/

So I believe you may be able to go to eBay and search for something like “gsm smartphone excellent” (GSM being the network AT&T works on and ‘excellent’ meaning excellent condition) and find used phones that will work with AT&T. Activate a cheap phone with AT&T, then move the SIM over to a smartphone. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong.

Other options are carriers like Boost, Straight Talk, and PagePlus. Boost is $50 or $55 a month unlimited voice and data, you generally need to buy their phones. Straight Talk is purchased through WalMart and is $45 a month unlimited voice and data. PagePlus lets you bring your own phone (mostly older 3g phones) and they have plans as cheap as $12 a month if you only want a couple hundred minutes of talk time and texts. I believe the Droid X2 and Droid Incredible 2 will work on PagePlus without modifications.

3

All of the carriers seem to have reduced the “cafeteria” choices and reduced things to a few plans with tiered service. Just a few months ago, Sprint offered lesser plans with tack-on services; now they only offer five plans and if you want data, you have to go with one of the top two plans even though (in my case) they are served with about 10x as many minutes as I use.