To Mike and all Verizon employee's in this thread...
After repeated chats with CSR over several months, I was finally given the option of only a DATA BLOCK, no option of using pay as u go.
I was frustrated to the point of almost leaving Verizon because of the run around and confusion regarding the "required data plan" on the my Rogue and my daughters Env Touch. She is 17 and does use her Data plan for facebook and the occasional google search, I have no use for it.
The "extra features" the sales people are always talking about, don't amount to anything really useful for me and obviously a lot of other people too. I talk on the phone and text with my wife and daughter... thats it. I had been using a Samsung Glyde without a Data plan for over 2 years when it broke, Asurion had NO comparable replacement phones. My old Glyde had touch screen, full qwerty keyboard and camera with a flash and doesn't require data plan. Asurion said the Env touch, LG Chocolate and the Rogue are comparable and shouldn't require a Data Plan. So I settled on the Rogue.
VZ Navigator was nice, but it cost $9.99 to download and $9.99 per month to use ( I know this because this is what happened to me), despite getting repeated Verizon text sent to my phone and the CSR telling me it was part of my Data package and subscription free... (it isn't). I have no use for Mobile email and Mobile web on a tiny screen is painful to use for any real serious web usage.
Tethering to my netbook or laptop to use a full featured browser (non-mobile format) would have been nice but the cost of $10.00 data plan plus having to get a tether plan between $20.00 to $50.00 extra on top of that, was a big turn off. Also every CSR I talk to at store and on phone told me Rogues can't be tethered, although this is incorrect. Rogues can tether.
Now I don't have a DATA PLAN, I get to keep my Rogue and I am fairly happy. On the other hand my daughter would like a new phone to replace her aging Env Touch, but Verizon really doesn't have anything to offer unless we go for a phone that requires a $30.00 Data Plan. Although she wants a "cool" phone, She says it isn't worth it.... Smart kid...
Now if someone would make a 7" - 10" or so tablet PC with a built in cell phone, I'd probally get it. I really don't care how big my phone is, I still have my old heavy bag phone from the 1980's hanging in my computer room.
Your daughter can still get the enV Touch(from Verizon) or have her take a look at the Samsung Reality(SCH-u370). The Reality you can get at Costco, walmart, Target or best Buy last I checked.
Got a brand new u370 sitting on my desk that I was going to swap too before I finally got my Data plan dropped on my Rogue. Daughter thought about using the u370, but she has bad luck with slider phones. She broke two Glydes in the passed in less then a year. She had a Dare before the Env Touch. She likes the Droid style phones and I'd get one for her if she'd let me because she is "daddy's little princess". But she refuses to let me pay a $30.00 Data Plan because she says it isn't worth it. She uses about 25-40mb of her 75mb data plan now.
The entire ordeal over data plan or no data plan isn't as much as about money as it is about choice, options and value. My wife and I make a good living, but why should anyone be forced to buy or use things that they don't really need or want just to have a quality working phone? It just isn't the American way of doing things.
Since there are no current updates on this, I thought I would add my experience. I did a lot of research and read over and over that this phone could be used as a basic phone and not add a data plan. However, after speaking on the phone and in person with Verizon Wireless CSR's, this is not the case. In reference to the comment above where "Infomanager article number 52248" was referenced, I tried this reference to an employee and was told this was not valid.
Buyer beware, this phone does need a data plan.
We have the Rogue and ours does not require a data plan. You need to have a plan added to activate it, and then turn around and have them remove the plan. The Rogue is not a smart phone and smart phones are the only phones that require a data plan to reamin on the line. I've done this with dozens of older "multimedia" phones.
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