$25/month data plan: AIM Incl.?

So I have the shiny new Palm Centro. To get the deal I had to
(temporarily, at least) add a $25/mo. data plan to my phone's
service.

Imagine my surprise when I found that $25/mo. did *not* incl.
texting!

Ok, fine. How about instant messaging? As in AOL's AIM? I have an
AIM account. Was told *that* was somehow extra, as well. Is that
true?

Thanks,
Jim
--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison

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› See More: $25/month data plan: AIM Incl.?

In article <[email protected]>,
Todd Allcock <[email protected]> writes:
> At 15 Aug 2008 14:11:34 -0500 Jim Seymour wrote:
[snip]
>> Ok, fine. How about instant messaging? As in AOL's AIM? I have an
>> AIM account. Was told *that* was somehow extra, as well. Is that
>> true?
>
>
> Depends- if the Centro's IM app uses texting to send/recieve messages
> (which it probably does), it counts as texting. If it sends them over the
> internet (which it should but probably doesn't!) it would be included data.
[snip]

Thanks for the follow-up.

The Sprint customer service rep. seemed to be indicating AIM and the
like did not use texting. She said there would be additional charges
from AOL to use AIM, which didn't sound right to me.

I searched the web on it, briefly. Couldn't find much. Did find one
hit that indicated one of the IM services via Sprint did use texting,
but it was not AIM.

If there *were* going to be additional charges incurred, would the
phone warn me before carrying-on?

Jim
--
Jim Seymour | "There is no expedient to which a man will not
[email protected] | go to avoid the labor of thinking."
http://jimsun.LinxNet.com | - Thomas A. Edison

At 15 Aug 2008 21:40:46 -0500 Jim Seymour wrote:

> The Sprint customer service rep. seemed to be indicating AIM and the
> like did not use texting. She said there would be additional charges
> from AOL to use AIM, which didn't sound right to me.


Yeah, when an obvious flub like that comes from a CSR, everything they tell
you is suspect! ;-)


> I searched the web on it, briefly. Couldn't find much. Did find one
> hit that indicated one of the IM services via Sprint did use texting,
> but it was not AIM.


It's up to the app, not the service- are there separate apps for the
various services? (My WinMo phone had a single IM app configurable for all
services that used texting for all messages sent or received. I'm not much
of an IM'er so it wasn't an issue for me.)

> If there *were* going to be additional charges incurred, would the
> phone warn me before carrying-on?


Being pessimistic, I'd say no. Why not fire off a couple of IM messages
then log off and check your online call history (or call cust. service) and
see if any texts show up on the account?