Want to use HTC Surround w/o data

[rockyroad55]

I want to give my htc surround to my brother who will only text on it. He currently has a data block on his line, but has a dumbphone at the moment. Once he pops in his sim card, will this be possible?

Just texting with a data block on the line.

[Motorcycle Mama]

Nope. AT&T requires a smartphone data plan for all smartphones and BlackBerry devices activated on an account after September 2009. They will add it automatically once the SIM card is placed in the device.

[Mister Xiado]

Buy direct from the manufacturer, and you have no feature requirements whatsoever, and as a bonus, AT&T has no obligation to troubleshoot anything beyond provisioning issues.

[Motorcycle Mama]

Regardless of where the device is acquired, AT&T will require a smartphone data plan.

[Mister Xiado]

Pfft, no. If it's not branded AT&T, only maybe THREE other smartphones in the world are picked up by the system; one of which being the G1.

Phones from Bell Canada and Rogers, Orange, Vodaphone, and other carriers are used often with no requirements on AT&T. Not that they can't be recognized, but nobody cares. AT&T knows what color my T-Mobile-branded BlackBerry Pearl is.