Nicer basic phones??

[ddcfamily]

wow.   Someone asks a legitimate question, you get all over them for being a bad parent.  When your bullying is confronted, then you manage to work in some non sequitur about my post.

Having raised four children, my I suggest you keep your ignorance to yourself?  Please.

[baubillious]

Yeah but the point is you still get the smartphone which has WiFi. Maybe they could implement something that stops you from using data on that plan, past your limit? I don't know just throwing out some ideas, ha.

[Tidbits]

Honestly if you are going to be on wifi that much...  Might as well get a tablet...  It's almost a null point to get a smartphone if you are going to be on wifi majority of the time.  Get a mifi + tablet and it does the same as a smartphone.

[Heretic1989]

Hi milomlo. All vzw phones can access the internet. Their basic phones provide what i call basic access to the internet. Their smartphones provide what i call advanced access to the internet. When i used the moto w385 (basic phone), i had access blocked. So all i could do with the w385 was talk and send the occasional text. Which was fine with me. Right now i have the env touch since june '10. If you're willing to do the research, you can check the ratings of vzw basic phones at Cnet, or phonearena, or phonescoop. Good luck.

[rcschnoor]

Thanks for your kind response. Looks like I was spot on!!!

[jollygreengiant]

This is the same thing I dealt with recently when I wanted to replace my old one, was looking for an Android or something like that without the REQUIRED data package which adds minimum $30 per month. Unfortunately that is not possible to have a smart phone active on a cell service without paying loads for it. You can buy a used smart phone and not activate it (aka do not use the "phone"), just use wifi, but that defeats having a phone you can travel with, or being forced to carry 2 "phones".

In the end I had no choice, so I went with the LG Extravert which has touch screen, can be used with prepaid or normal monthly service, still has web access for those emergencies like on the road and need to see the radar soon... but that is as close as we can get without being forced into an expensive data fee and contract.

[SuzyQ]

milomlo wrote:

Can Verizon PLEASE think about kids wanting cool phones, and the fact that parents don't' want to pay for data.

How old are the "kids"?  My kids got what WE, as parents, allowed them to have, what we, as parents, were willing to pay for.  It happened, at the time, to be the basic, texting Env3 phones.  When they got older, got jobs, and could pay for what they "wanted",  then they either split off onto their own plan or paid for the data to have the iPhone they wanted on our family plan.  My 23 yr old son is still using his ENv3; 20 yr old has the iPhone but she pays the data....

[agrooms]

To Jayare - you nailed it.

I have a 4 line family plan.  A decent non-smart phone would be nice for my wife and I as well as my kids.  As my kids have gotten older (15 and 17 year old boys), they have transitioned from talking to texting.  They started out with the Samsung Juke's.  At 10 and 12 years old a "switchblade" phones with music was pretty "cool".  Christmas of 2009 (I think) I upgraded them to the Samsung Alias 2, an awesome phone for them.  A dual mode flip phone with E-ink that could be used as a phone or as a QWERTY.  At that time = NO DATA PLAN.  The next Christmas (2010 I think) I went to upgrade my wife and I to the same phone - SORRY exact same phone requires a data plan NOW, so I said screw it and canceled the upgrade.  Tired the Intensity II but the voice quality was TERRIBLE canceled and went back to older VX8350's.  Waited another year (Christmas 2011).  Now, no data plan again, but only on NEW basic phones, couldn't jsut add an after market Alias 2.  Finally broke down and upgraded to the Extraverts.  Seems ok so far, but had hoped for more.  Verizon (and ALL of the carriers) seem content to abandon the BASIC phone customers in exchange for the $100 a month smartphone/data plan market.  A family plan/share plan with data would be an AWESOME idea.  I believe that you are seeing people minutes are going down but the text and data are going up.  I saw a recent commercial for Virgin Communications, with limited minutes, but unlimited data/text.  They are catching on and seeing the shift.

I went online and added a data block and a "get it now" block to all of my lines years ago after on eof my kids got a $5 charge for just "browsing" available ring tones.  I accepted responsibility for the charge.  I didn't complain, cry or whine.  I paid my bill and added the blocks.  I have had it that way for YEARS.  There are tech savvy parents out there who do teach personal responsibility.

With today's technology. there is NO REASON at all not to integrate Wifi into basic phones, other that it is a data plan KILLER.  Verizon saw this when they got the KIN phones on clearance after Microsoft abandoned them.  Built in Wifi with a way to bypass the utilizing the 3G side.  If they weren't such a crappy phone, they would have been a better seller.  The technology is out there but it would cut into the mandated data plan $$$.  In the famous words of Jerry McGuire - Show me the MONEY.

Allen

[Tidbits]

With the way most basic phones are...  It's pointless to have wifi on them.  Most of them have screens smaller than 3 inches, and are cumbersome to even to type out an address out.

[julz66]

I as an adult had been looking for a basic smart phone too. Data is not something i need or want i dont feel the need to be plugged in 24/7 to live my life and dont want my daughter to think that way either. I bought the Samsung Brightside, verizons newest edition of basic smartphones and i luv it!!!