How-to: att data plan avoidance

Since this phone was offered by AT&T Mobility, it will be recognized immediately. A smartphone data plan will be added. Unlocking makes no difference. It would have accepted an AT&T SIM card anyway.

thanks for your reply. does that mean that i need to look for a cell phone that has not been offered by at&t mobility to avoid the detection that will prompt the need for an at&t data plan. and why did at&t not force me into a data plan with my samsung blackjack 2 which is a smartphone offered by at&t mobility? Was that due to the fact that it was an older model?

---------- Post added at 05:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:08 AM ----------

and i had a seller on ebay reply to my inquiry in this fashion:

Yes you can, the phone is unlocked ready to be used with any service provider as soon as you introduce the Sim Card. The only functions that would not work are internet and receiving emails. However you can always use the wifi capability when you get to an area with wireless connection and you will be able to navigate the web.

what's correct? I don't want to incur the cost of a data plan with at&t, but I want to buy a smartphone such as a samsung jack, unlocked. will placing my current at&t sim card in a new samsung jack result in at&t billing me for a data plan because of detecting the phone as a smartphone? just to be clear, i have unlimited texting with no data plan now and I do not want constant internet availability or emails, just texting and wi-fi capability.

sorry about being repetitious, but I have received two different answers thus far and I just want to be clear in my inquiry and clear in my understanding.
Thanks!

If the phone is not one that AT&T offers, there is a "possibility" they will not recognize it as a smartphone and add the data plan, but that is not a guarantee. If for any reason AT&T determines that your phone is a smartphone, unlocked or not, they have the right, according to your terms of service, to add the smartphone data package without notifying you.
there is a good chance that by using an unlocked phone, (one that AT&T does not offer), that it will not be recognized as a smartphone and you will be able to use it without having the data plan added.

I dont know about that, I had a Black Berry 9000 Bold unlocked that I bought off of ebay , and proceded to use it ,I even entered it in my account on att website, they never charged me a data plan , I didnt want one either because wifi worked great on the 9000 , ATT did offer the 9000 as well , so Im not so sure you will be added . Although , what you say may be true if it is under att mobility , there are several att sides , when they buy another company (havent been absorbed yet) maybe thats how it works I dont know, but I had my 9000 for more than a year and never got charged for a data plan!

If it were an AT&T model, it would not have had to be unlocked. Unbranded versions were sold by Amazon and other online retailers.