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When am I charged for airtime with a Droid?

I'm thinking of upgrading my phone to a Droid. I understand that this phone requires a data plan ($30 per month). However, I was talking to a friend who just got a Droid and he says he is now seeing more airtime being charged against his voice plan minutes than before he got his Droid phone, and he's not making any more calls than before. So my question is this: What additional airtime charges should I expect if I switch to a Droid phone? When am I actually using airtime (browsing, using GPS navigation, sending / checking email, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Comments

jrdante

You are correct....when you get a "Smartphone" you have to pay an additional $29.99 for the data plan. Your voice minutes do not change. You are only charged minutes against your voice plan when you are actually talking on the phone.

Hope this info helps....

danig4

I don't think that's true. I checked my usage today, and on 11/6 (the day I got the Droid) it says I spent 97 minutes of airtime at 7pm, but I know I wasn't on the phone for 97 minutes straight that night (in fact, I wasn't on the phone at all), and there were other 30 minute intervals of usage that day as well. I'm guessing either the Droid marketplace or just browsing burned those minutes, but certainly it wasn't just using the actual phone. I was on the 3G network the whole time because my WiFi at home is spotty.

I'm also trying to find an answer to what exactly uses airtime on the Droid, as this is my first smartphone, but can't find much information.

fezzik

You can look up those minutes used on the my account screen. If you are using minutes using data then that ain't cool cause it isn't supposed to do that.

tlowery

Does anyont from Verizon monitor this forum? Perhaps we could get a definitive answer as to what should be happening. I'm hoping the answer doesn't turn out to be that you get charged for airtime while using data. Otherwise, this whole smart phone idea just got a whole lot less attractive.

jrdante

danig4 wrote:
I don't think that's true. I checked my usage today, and on 11/6 (the day I got the Droid) it says I spent 97 minutes of airtime at 7pm, but I know I wasn't on the phone for 97 minutes straight that night (in fact, I wasn't on the phone at all), and there were other 30 minute intervals of usage that day as well. I'm guessing either the Droid marketplace or just browsing burned those minutes, but certainly it wasn't just using the actual phone. I was on the 3G network the whole time because my WiFi at home is spotty.

I'm also trying to find an answer to what exactly uses airtime on the Droid, as this is my first smartphone, but can't find much information.

Did you start in the middle of a billing cycle? You may be seeing usage from your previous device.

redmane

Your data plan takes care of all the browsing and does not have any effect on your actual minutes, the Droid does not have a hard hang up button; it is possible to waste minutes by not hanging up. If you have detail billing you could see where the minutes went.

willanaya

when you download an app there are always warnings displayed before you actually start downloading. these warnings range from the app monitoring your location, excessive data usage, yada yada yada.

i wonder if a couple of the apps require voice minutes. these are my apps:

checkbook (basic)

Where

the weather channel

documents to go Full

air hockey

golf card

car locator

platinum sudoku

taskiller Full

spades for android

Gameboid (GBA Emulator)

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