My wife and I recently decided it was time to upgrade cell phones. Previously we were each an added line on our parents cell plans. After some deliberation, we decided it would be best if we cut the cord (pun intended, sorry) and started a new plan on our own. We ended up with new phones and a text/picture messaging plan, but no data plan. I like the concept of having internet on my phone (almost) anywhere I go, but I am not ready to pay the extra premium every month. Unfortunately, basically every new phone is made so that you can have easy access to the internet, even if you don't subscribe to a data plan. This often means an accidental button press, extra curiosity, or multitudes of preloaded data using apps can lead to connecting to the data network, resulting in unwanted charges. If you are a newer subscriber to AT&T, data usage without having a data plan will cost $2/MB. Since they always round up even one accidental visit to the mobile web will cost you $2 even if you only transfer 100kb of data.
So, if you are in this position what are your options? The first option would be to call your carrier's customer service and ask them to block all data to your phone. This will prevent any data transfer to/from your phone. This may be a very good option for some people. However, many texting plans now include text, picture and even video messages. For AT&T (I would imagine other carriers are similar) picture messages are actually sent through the phone's internet connection, but you are only charged 1 message, not kb of data. Therefore, if you block all data you are blocking a feature you are paying extra for.
I wasn't ready to give up picture messages, especially since I was wanting to experiment with posting pictures to facebook via my new cell phone. I started looking into other options and I came across a way to eliminate most of the accidental data charges and keep all of my phone features available to me. The solution is to create "dummy" internet profiles on your phone. I'll walk you through what this looks like on my LG Xenon. The process should be similar for other phones/carriers, but I can't guarantee your results.
First, look for through the settings menu of your phone for different "connection settings." Your user manual should help you find these settings.
On the Xenon go to Settings --> More --> Connection --> Access Points --> create a new profile
Here you can create a "dummy" access point with bogus information that will not be able to connect to the network, thereby avoiding data charges.
Next create a new Internet Profile by going to Settings --> More --> Connection --> Internet profile --> new profile. In your new profile make sure to use your newly created dummy access point in this set of settings.
Finally change the built in browser connection settings Settings --> More --> Applications --> Browser --> Accounts From here create a new account making sure to use your dummy Internet profile.
Notes:
If possible, do not delete the default settings, create a new entry instead. If something goes wrong you can always go back to the defaults.
There may be more places to change settings depending on your phone/carrier.
I have only used this on my phone and have not tested this extensively.
This may not eliminate all paths to data usage, but should significantly cut down on accidental charges.
I recommend doing some searching on google to try and find people who have attempted something similar with the same model phone that you have.
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