Real minimum plan for Droid?

[khelek]

Hello alll,

As many of you are, I'm eagerly awaiting my pre-ordered Droid from Best Buy on Friday! However, I came to discover something that has me afraid.

I've had nothing but a voice plan for the past 12 years, paying ~$30/month. I have no issue at all with the $30 data plan required for the Droid, since that's what I really want. I was actually pleasantly surprised when the Best Buy sales associate told me the minimum plan would be $69.99/month, with the $30 for data and $39.99 for 450 voice min (which is all I need). This seems to line up with the minimum VZW "Connect" plan. All well and good so far.

However, in eagerly trying to find any news at all on the Droid, I stumble upon this article from PCWorld on the TCO of select smartphones: Droid vs. Pre vs. iPhone: A Cost of Ownership Reality Check - PC World

In the handy chart provided, they have $99/month listed for VZW for an individual unlimited data + 450 voice min plan. Wondering how they came to that number, I read the comments and someone posted

FYI, you can't use the Droid on the individual connect plan - $69.99/mo. You need to have a PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Email & Messaging plan which the cheapest is 450mins for $99.99/mo. with a 2 year total cost of 2,634.75.

Someone later in the comments mentioned the PDA/Smartphone pricing was to enable tethering.

Obviously the best way to figure it out is to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so I called a VZW sales rep tonight. They're response? "That hasn't been decided yet"

The first post in the "Data plan required" thread in the general discussions seems to indicate that you can, in fact, use the Droid with the $69.99 450 voice min Connect plan, which puts my mind at ease, but I was wondering if someone could shed some light on to the difference between the PDA/Smartphone pricing (which seems to be what the Droid would fit under) versus the Connect plan?

Thanks for your help!

Brian

[kaorte]

I have been wondering the same thing. Everything I have suggests that it will be $69.99, but verizons website seems to say $99.99.

[New2u]

The minimum plan required for the droid is a 39.99 plan (which does not include unlimited texting and so forth, and also does not include the 5 friends and family program either). After you add that you get to the features part of the plan, which is where you would add your 29.99 "email and web for smartphone". Which would bring your plan if you add nothing else to 69.99.

[khelek]

The minimum plan required for the droid is a 39.99 plan (which does not include unlimited texting and so forth, and also does not include the 5 friends and family program either). After you add that you get to the features part of the plan, which is where you would add your 29.99 "email and web for smartphone". Which would bring your plan if you add nothing else to 69.99.

Thank you both for the reply.

Kaorte, glad I'm not the only one who's finding this confusing :-/

New2U, the information you give seems to jive with what Best Buy told me and consistent with the "Nationwide Connect" plan which is 450 voice min and unlimited data. At VZW's website, though, it appears that is only applicable for non-PDA/Smartphone devices. They have separate pricing for PDA/Smartphones starting at $99.99/month, which is what has me worried.

[New2u]

The minimum plan required for the droid is a 39.99 plan (which does not include unlimited texting and so forth, and also does not include the 5 friends and family program either). After you add that you get to the features part of the plan, which is where you would add your 29.99 "email and web for smartphone". Which would bring your plan if you add nothing else to 69.99.

Thank you both for the reply.

Kaorte, glad I'm not the only one who's finding this confusing :-/

New2U, the information you give seems to jive with what Best Buy told me and consistent with the "Nationwide Connect" plan which is 450 voice min and unlimited data. At VZW's website, though, it appears that is only applicable for non-PDA/Smartphone devices. They have separate pricing for PDA/Smartphones starting at $99.99/month, which is what has me worried.

I got my price by adding a smart-phone to my cart and looking at the plans they offer. There are only two types of plans, basic which is just that.. everything but the unlimited text messaging. Then a select, which add unlimited text messaging / picture and instant messaging.

[Mike7380s]

I am a retail employee with Verizon. The droid (like any other smartphone w/ Verizon) can be put on any Basic or select price plan + $29.99 for the data. The connect plans w/ Verizon are not for smartphones, they are for feature phones only.

1. 450 basic plan + $29.99 data is $69.98. (No text plan,pay per use)

2. 450 select plan + $29.99 data is $89.98. (includes unlimited text)

If you are not a HUGE text/pix messeging user then you can go with basic plan and add smaller messaging plans:

250 messages = $5
500 messages + unl m2m messages = $10
1500 messages + unl m2m messages = $15

Just figure out your messaging usage to find the best plan for you.
Also Verizon does offer corporate and military discounts.... Ask the rep @ the Verizon store about it.

[khelek]

I got my price by adding a smart-phone to my cart and looking at the plans they offer. There are only two types of plans, basic which is just that.. everything but the unlimited text messaging. Then a select, which add unlimited text messaging / picture and instant messaging.

Ah-ha! That makes sense. Didn't think of going that way. Did it myself and sure enough, I came out with $69.99.

Thanks for the explanation, New2U!

[khelek]

I am a retail employee with Verizon. The droid (like any other smartphone w/ Verizon) can be put on any Basic or select price plan + $29.99 for the data. The connect plans w/ Verizon are not for smartphones, they are for feature phones only.

1. 450 basic plan + $29.99 data is $69.98. (No text plan,pay per use)

2. 450 select plan + $29.99 data is $89.98. (includes unlimited text)

If you are not a HUGE text/pix messeging user then you can go with basic plan and add smaller messaging plans:

250 messages = $5
500 messages + unl m2m messages = $10
1500 messages + unl m2m messages = $15

Just figure out your messaging usage to find the best plan for you.
Also Verizon does offer corporate and military discounts.... Ask the rep @ the Verizon store about it.

Perfect, thanks for the authoritative reply Mike7380s! That very much helps clear up my confusion. I appreciate your taking the time to answer.

Thank you all for your help!

Brian

[romeov]

Whew! I got scared for a moment. I'm on the 450 mins for 39.99 plan as well and I was only planning on another 29.00 for data. $99 would have been way above my price range. As far as texting, I'm dropping my messaging plan and switching over to 100% Google Voice for my new Droid (which is a leap of faith) which will offset the cost of the added data plan by another 10 bucks that I am already paying now for text messaging (which is free on Google Voice)

P.S. And to clear up what is sure to be a question. SMS is free on Google Voice, but not if you just forward them to your current Verizon cell number, as Verizon sees a text coming in, regardless of who forwarded it, and you get charged all the same. The trick is to log into your account, turn OFF SMS forwarding to your Droid, and then get and send your text exclusively through the Android Google Voice App, which uses only your 3G data connection you are already paying for anyways.

P.P.S. What's that you say? The Google Voice app currently is having major problems getting text messages in a timely manner? (Some 5 minutes late, some 2 days late) Well, I'm confident Google is working to repair this, and in the meantime, they have SMS to email forwarding at no charge. Which means Google will automatically convert my texts to e-mail and push it instantly to my phone using Gmail push. Thanks to the new unified inbox on Android 2.0, these will be just as easy to check and reply to as text messages and best of all when I reply to said email, Google instantly turns it back into an SMS and forwards it to the person I have been texting, so they have no idea anything is different. All behind the scenes! Hurrah!

I really need to stop reading hundreds of Droid/GV forums all night....

[lauriep]

I'm with you on that! Not to mention checking in via my Voyageur all day (so NOT fun)!