Question about data plan

I have an LG lx260 slider phone, and am sick and tired of it. I want to upgrade to either a Blackberry with wifi or an iphone. I do not want to pay the 25 bucks a month data service plan. What I am hoping to accomplish is have just the voice plan I already have, but have the wifi to connect for free to surf the internet. Can I buy any Unlocked Blackberry or Iphone on craigslist and reset it to work w/ USCC. I realize my phone has no sim card due to USCC being CDMA. Lets say this hypothetically=> I buy a USCC Blackberry w/ wifi for 50 bucks on craigslist. Can I configure it to work without using the data plan?

Thanks in advance!

Celltech posted this in another thread:

US Cellular does not track ESNs. While in store they will not activate a phone suspected of being from another carrier. However over the phone does work. You can activate nearly ANY CDMA phone through US Cell by "backdooring" it over the phone. Tell the rep you speak to you bought it off ebay, or craigslist or some such. If they ask if it is a US Cellular phone, say "yes". The hitches: If it is not a Samsung, LG, Motorola, or Keocera they will not activate it. Workaround? Tell them it's one of those makers, and have a model number ready that is one US Cellular supports. EasyEdge (US Cell's mini net app service) will not work on non-USCC phones because it is partially intergrated in the handset software. If you have a smartphone it MUST be either Blackberry or Windows Mobile. This is just a guess but I do not believe that any other sort of smartphone would work properly. Last couple of little hitches, you could not get it repaired. Bring a non-USCC phone to a technician and the first thing they would do is flash to more compatible software and assume you were tinkering in your phones software. If it is not a model supported by USCC then it would not be flashed and at best you would walk out with a broken phone. At worst they would file a remedy ticket with customer servive. Also, if you ever need to file an insurance claim your phone will be replaced with the model you told them, not with something comparible to the phone you actually have. As far as I know there is no REAL penalty for sneaking a phone onto your account that never came from USCC, just the risk of losing the repair service and small parts of the data not working properly. Hope this has been helpful.





SOOO...Can I do this with a Blackberry (Over the phone activation) and have just the voice plan and not the data plan?

Let me see if I can clear up a few things:
1. You cannot use the iPhone on US Cellular--period. US Cellular is a CDMA carrier and the iPhone is a GSM/HSDPA device. These technologies are not just different, but incompatible. Moreover, the iPhone uses SIM cards; US cellular does not.
2. You can use only CDMA phones on US Cellular and if I remember correctly there isn't currently a CDMA Blackberry that has Wi-Fi.
3. You can activate a Blackberry without a data plan, as long as never plan to use certain core Blackberry features, such as push mail or the Blackberry browser. If you just want to use it as a phone (no data features at all), then you have no need for a data plan.

Forget the iphone...theyre too trendy for me anyways...

How about the Motorola Q9c...can I call up USCC and tell them its a razr, get them to activate it, and have the voice features without the data plan? This would accomplish what I want because I wouldn't have to pay for the data plan, but could still have the wifi...

It supports Wi-Fi cards, but it doesn't come with integrated Wi-Fi. I have never used a Wi-Fi card and cannot speak to how well they work, but if you are familiar with them and know how to set them up, and assuming they work well, then yes, this will work. Otherwise, your choices are limited to nonexistent with US Cellular. I suppose that one disadvantage that comes with being with a smaller/regional carrier. They might give you excellent coverage locally and where you travel; they might even offer better/cheaper plans than the "big boys," but you are also limited by your choices in phones. It's like my mother once said, "Son, sometimes in life, you have to take the bitter with the sweet."

I just upgrade from the Moto Q 9C. Like the previous person said, it is not Wi-Fi capable. You must have a Wi-Fi card to insert in the memory slot to use this feature. Your plan sounds great, except for one thing. The Moto Q's only web browser is a USCC based browser. So you have to have their data plan for the browser to work. The only phone that USCC offers that does not use the USCC browser is the HTC Touch or the HTC Touch Pro. I just upgraded to the HTC Touch. It has Wi-Fi capabilities, and uses just the Mobile Internet Explorer browser. Good luck in trying to horn-swagger the man!