PhoneTalk

Verizon and T-Mobile recently introduced new data plans so people can pick a plan that best meets their usage needs. Although, those two companies have revised pricing plans all the carriers offer them. If you’re using a smartphone (Android, BlackBerry, Palm, and soon Windows Phone 7) you will definitely need a data plan, even many feature-rich cell phones are beginning to require data plans, such as the Pantech Crux. Data plans are what you need to really take advantage of many of the phone’s services and apps such as streaming music, watching videos from YouTube or other services, uploading photos to sites like Facebook and Picassa, surfing the web, and of course let’s not forget sending and receiving e-mail. Sure, many cell phones today also feature WiFi and you can connect easily to a nearby WiFi network to do many of those activities, but WiFi isn’t available everywhere and you’ll still need a data plan.

So, how do you decide which data plan is right for you? It’s not easy when you only see things like 200MB or 2GB data plans. You need to think about how you use your cell phone. The services that use a lot of data are things like watching a lot of YouTube videos or streaming video and TV shows offered by carriers, streaming music from sites like Pandora, and uploading a ton of photos to different sites. If you do those things a lot during a month, consider a 2GB plan. On the other hand, if you primarily use the cell phone to send/receive e-mails (typically without attachments, since those tend to require more data), surf the web (note: if you play a video on a website you visit that counts as streaming video), and catch up on social networking sites such as Twitter and FourSquare the 200MB plans are likely a better fit. Here’s a chart that can help you figure out what type of plan you need (the calculations are based on monthly usage and have been compiled based on various data determination tools):

Once you figure out how much data you’ll likely use in a month, next you’ll want to pick a plan. Before you do that think about how often you use your phone with a WiFi connection, if it’s a lot for doing things like streaming music and video, you may be fine with a 200MB plan. That said, if you also do those activities using the cell phone’s data connection go with a higher data plan such as 2GB. What if you go over your allotted data? Will you be hit with a huge bill at the end of the month? Depends on how much you go over, some plans will charge an additional fee for more data (see chart below). Additionally, changing a data plan doesn’t change the length of a contract. If you find you use more or less data after a month or so, simply change the plan to meet your needs. Here’s a quick overview of the data plans offered by the carriers:

- *1GB Verizon Data Plan only available for iPad + MiFi Bundle

- **Available for Sprint 3G/4G Broadband Cards Only (Unlimited 4G & up to 5GB of 3G)

If you have more questions about picking a data plan, let us know we’re happy to help. You can ask us a question on Facebook or by clicking this link.

Topics: Observed Verizon Wireless AT&T Wireless Sprint Cell phone plans Smart phones Business Use WiFi T-Mobile