Drop data plan?

[dsword]

I searched this forum and did get an answer to my question, but they were kind of old answers and I thought I'd throw it out there again to see if anything has changed in the last year.

Here's the deal - Times are tough at my house and for a while, I'd like to change my plan from from a data plan to a regular plan until the funds start flowing again like normal from work.

Question - Will Alltel allow me to run my Curve on a non-data plan for a while until things ease up or am I locked in?

I'm not eligible to upgrade, or downgrade to a lesser phone until January at the earliest.

Thanks in advance for the answer!

[Motorcycle Mama]

Nope on several fronts.

1. Alltel unequivocally will not allow a BlackBerry device to be active on their system without a data plan.

2. If you purchased your device at a subsidized price, then you agreed to have a data plan for the entire length of that contract regardless of the device active on the line.

Sorry about your situation.

[dsword]

OK, thanks for the quick reply!

I guess I'll just have to buy less beer and start selling plasma then! Oh, the horrors...

I'll have to crunch some numbers and see if the early termination fee might be the cheaper way to go.

A local non-data plan would save me about 50 to 60 bucks a month from now til February 2010, the earliest I could switch phones (within 120 days of May). Doing some quick figuring in my head, it would be pretty much a wash. 200 bucks for the ETF, to save 250 to 300 bucks.

Thanks again!

[dsword]

Originally Posted by Motorcycle Mama

Nope on several fronts.

1. Alltel unequivocally will not allow a BlackBerry device to be active on their system without a data plan.

2. If you purchased your device at a subsidized price, then you agreed to have a data plan for the entire length of that contract regardless of the device active on the line.

Sorry about your situation.

Something else just occurred to me, coffee is kicking in...

When the 2 year BB Alltel contract expires, can you THEN run the BB on a non-data plan with Alltel?

[arhub]

Nope, neither Alltel or Verizon allow you to have a blackberry without a dataplan. When you contract expires you could transfer service to a dumbphone, but they won't let you use your blackberry with no dataplan.

[Motorcycle Mama]

Yeah, and even if you convinced a rep to delete the data plan, if the a BlackBerry device is active on the system, the nightly audits would automatically add it back on.

[tsguy52]

In VZW billing systems there is no way for us to remove a data plan on any phone unless it had been active prior to November 2008 (I think that's the only exception and that applies to VZW devices).

So still no way of removing it regardless.

[Dromel]

Hey u can get your BB on with Alltel with out the data plan and without a contract for more info reply back

[tsguy52]

Originally Posted by Dromel

Hey u can get your BB on with Alltel with out the data plan and without a contract for more info reply back

HEY! No, you can't.

Well.. technically a rep can, but it will correct itself when it audits. Especially if VZW is going to get the account on the 17th of this month. But regardless it will happen sooner or later - the feature code will be added or the ESN 0'd out.

[leskchan]

There are two other options.

1. You can call Alltel again and explain your hardship. They might be able to cut you a 20% discount off your current monthly bill. Try to be nice.
2. Go to eBay and buy a cheap used $20 Alltel non-data cell phone. With a non-data cell phone, then you can switch out of the BB and downgrade your data plan. If this works for you, then you can sell your BB on eBay. A no contract used BB Curve (in good working conditions) on eBay goes for upward $75.

Here is a sample one

ALLTEL v265 Motorola Cell Phone cdma camera flip - eBay (item 350260653417 end time Oct-08-09 13:07:59 PDT)

[kch50428]

Originally Posted by dsword

Question - Will Alltel allow me to run my Curve on a non-data plan for a while until things ease up or am I locked in?

If you got the Curve at the 2-year contract price, that contract included an agreement to maintain a Smart-Choice plan for the duration of the contract.

And what others have said is the case - Blackberrys are required to have data plans.

About all you can do is drop back to the lowest Alltel BB plan before conversion weekend to lock that in.

[leskchan]

I would call to question that first. The contract is for the base voice plan. Add-ons, like SMS, BB, insurace, etc are not on contract. With a BB phone yes you will have to have data. If you switch to non BB phone, then you can drop data.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Dromel]

here how you get on your BB on alltel without the a data plan and contract.
go to alltel.com and create u an prepaid account this will allow you to activate your blackberry online then follow these listed steps.

1. Enter the NAM programming menu by typing ##000000 SEND from the phone screen.
* Mobile Directory Number (MDN) should be your 10-digit number
* Home SID (check your current Alltel phone programming menu for this number)
* BlackBerry Registration Id should be 144 for Alltel. To change this setting, press the BlackBerry menu button and choose “Edit BB Reg Id”
* SIP User ID should be <your mobile number>@bb.alltel.net
* SIP Password should be “alltel”
* MIP User ID should be <your mobile number>@bb.alltel.net
* Push the BlackBerry menu button and choose “Save”
2. Now that your phone is programmed, you need to have the MEID hex added to Alltel’s system.
3. Dial *22801 to enter the Alltel OTA programming system and choose the option to activate your phone.
4. After the phone is activated, dial *22801 again and choose the option to update your phone’s roaming service. This will update the PRL on the phone to Alltel’s latest version, overwriting the Verizon PRL.
5. To provision the data services on the phone, go to options…advanced options…host routing table, press the BlackBerry menu key, and choose “Register Now”. This should replace your Verizon HRT entries with Alltel entries and you will receive a message from BlackBerry stating that the handheld has been registered with the wireless network.

[Crankey03]

The best way out of this would to be activate an old alltel phone that you may have at home or buy a non data phone. Take it to the store and have them activate the phone on your plan and drop the blackberry data plan off.

[lynnejenni]

I had the same issue and they told me that the phones will only work on a data plan because they are set up that way. I went on ebay and bought a cheap phone and put it on a regular plan. I'm back to my blackberry now but you can find pretty cheap ones out there if you look.
Good luck!