Debating on getting a smartphone/data plan

[Red Squirrel]

I currently have an old Blackberry Pearl with a basic voice plan. It has no wifi, and I'd really like a phone with wifi and figured a nicer phone would be cool. Something like a Galaxy S3 or maybe even something lower end, have not researched it much. Cheapest way is to get one through my provider on a contract.

My only issue is the data caps. I've heard horror stories of people accidentally going over the caps and paying thousands, even hundreds of thousands. The cap is 100MB for the $45/mo package that I'd most likely go with.

Do most phones have a way to automatically turn data off when the cap is reached, or is there at least a way to know how much I've used? I'd also want to ensure that wifi is always the preferred transmission method and data is only used as the last resort. Being able to restrict it on a per app basis would be nice too. Are these common features or is there an app for that?

How do people normally ensure they're not running past their data caps?

 

[Lib3rty]

Go prepaid, get loads of data and no contracts: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1646755

 

[God Mode]

Android (Jelly Bean) has a data tab where you can set limits/disable or monitor data activity for each app.

100MB is very little. I would only use that for the occasional gps, email and web browsing without images enabled. The ad's and unneccesary fluff that most sites have will kill 100mb in a day if you simply browse for a few hours.

 

[ThermalShark]

Go prepaid, get loads of data and no contracts: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1646755

There's some great stuff in that thread, am putting "prepaid widget" on my Straight Talk SSG Note now...

 

[steddora]

You can get a sprint variant of the galaxy s2 and flash it to boost mobile. Boost mobile has unlimited everything and runs off of sprints network. One of the s2 can be had on craigslist for a hundred or two usually. Then a boost mobile phone and Android service I believe is $55 a month and reduces over time. Definitely worth looking in to.

 

[vi edit]

How can a country so advanced with cable connections be so far behind with smart phone plans? I just did some quick searching and even virgin mobile which has very competitive rates here has horrible plans up there...$35 a month for 250 megs?

Really? WTF Canada?

 

[ImDonly1]

How can a country so advanced with cable connections be so far behind with smart phone plans? I just did some quick searching and even virgin mobile which has very competitive rates here has horrible plans up there...$35 a month for 250 megs?

Really? WTF Canada?

VM in the US is owned by Sprint.
VM in Canada is owned by Bell (1 of the 2 largest providers in Canada).

They also have 3 year contracts in Canada.

Also, everyone replying keeps mentioning providers in the US. OP is in Canada.

 

[shortylickens]

Tmobile prepaid 30 dollar plan. Unlimited data.

 

[Dominato3r]

If you live in the GTA, go with Wind. Reliable network and extremely low monthly prices. Plus they've got the SGS3 and the Galaxy Nexus

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah the caps suck, but nothing I can do about it. I can get higher but it starts to get expensive fast. 1GB is like $70/mo then it jumps to 6GB for $150/mo. Not willing to pay that much. I do get a 35% discount since I work for the phone company, but even then it gets expensive. I want to keep my bill around the $30/mo mark.

Idealy what I'd like to do is disable data for most apps and only use wifi. I want to write my own app for my house hvac control as well as monitoring system and I'd enable data for those only. So if that's indeed possible on Android then think I'll go with that.

But yeah it sucks that this technology is available yet we can't even use it to the fullest extent. They have like 300mbps fiber to each cell site, there's no excuse to have such silly caps imo. At least the land line internet is not capped though.

 

[Accord99]

Red Squirrel, it's not very difficult for a long time client of one of the Big 3 to call the retentions department and get a offer with 5-6GB of data in the $50-$60 range. Seeing as how you're an employee at a phone company, it should be even easier.

If you want a $30 plan with unlimited data, then look at Wind.