Maximum PC

I am looking at buying my first smartphone, probably the Cingular 8525 and I have a few questions.

1) This phone has wifi, is it possible to access the internet using the wifi if you don't have a data plan without racking up additional charges?

2) If you don't have a data plan is it possible to prevent your smartphone from accidentally accessing the internet when not in a wifi hotspot and racking up additional charges (such as disable the 3g/other capabilities)?

Basically, I want a smartphone but would really like to keep my wireless bill in the $50/month range and I would be content with just using the internet capabilities in areas with wifi. I am primarily interested in using it for phone/text messaging/email/slingbox.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Absolutely. When you are using wifi, you are not using the phone network .. which means that they can't charge you. You aren't using their service.



That depends on the phone.



That shouldn't be a problem ...

Cingular 8525 (aka the HTC Hermes) does treat the Data plan and Wifi differently, so it is possible to prevent it from using the data plan.

That being said the only sure fire way to prevent the phone from connecting to the data plan is to delete the connection settings, this will mean you will have to re-enter them or hard reset the phone to get them back. These settings are littered all over the internet.

And officially the 8525 is a Pocket PC Phone, not Smart Phone. The difference is that a Smart Phone doesn't have a touch screen.

I know with Sprint you can have them make it where your phone will not be able to connect to the internet through their wireless network. I know this because my centro needed a few updates and I ended up with $70 in "internet" charges when there plans are only $15 a month, lol.

Hey, speaking on Smartphones....Check this link out. It's totally cool..I've used it. It's great... check it out and let me know what you think

http://digg.com/software/Giving_away_50 ... ng_service