Supposedly starting on September 28th Verizon will offer Smartphones a $30 a month unlimited data prepaid plan. This seems great to me. What I was wondering is if one could purchase the Droid X unsubsidized, hook it up with the $30 a month unlimited data, and than somehow make all their calls via VOIP using data and not get taken for the ride of $.25 per min and $.20 per text message.

How exactly would one setup this? Would this be legal? Would you get free outgoing and incoming calls over 3G? Thanks.

you can't do VOIP calls.

Well, I'm not 100% sure if you can or can't... However there is an App called Truphone and while it DOES charge money... it maybe cheaper than verizon... I have only tested this app on Wifi and am not sure if it plays well on 3g.

I was glad to see that Verizon is still only charging the standard data plan fee, I would've thought it would be like $59 or something crazy without a contract. But I guess if your going to pay almost 6 bills for the phone, why nickel and dime you on the net.

If you find something on the VoIP let us know tho. Good Luck

There is much info out there about doing true VOIP. It basically comes down to this...

1) get a google voice account (google.com/voice)
2) get a SIP account (sipgate.com is good)
3) forward your SIP account to your home phone to activate it on google voice, and then setup google voice to forward to your SIP number.
4) unless there is another app along the lines of sipsourcery (havent found one yet) you place your call using the google voice website and have it ring your sip account (using something like sipdroid) to make outgoing calls, and have people call your google voice number to get incoming.

sipsourcery would let you place the call without going to the google voice website, but they ran into too much demand for their hardware so they closed down new accounts. Gizmo5 is also another way to go, but google is not taking new accounts for that either.

It is not clean or pretty, but you can do VOIP when you have a good enough connection for it. There are also apps like ooma, vonage, and skype you can look into, but they may have charges or limitations. Though at $0.01 to $0.03 per minute (not sure of exact rates) they are a better way to go than your plan rate and they typically have international calling as well.

Uh... what? Verizon already has a $30/month unlimited data package... they require it for all 3G smartphones... I'm confused. I've been on a $30/month unlimited data package for years

Now you can get it prepaid. You don't have to be on contract to do it.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

doh! that didn't even register with me.

/stupid

Basically I am thinking about getting the Droid X off contract (I only use about 100 mins a month). As it stands today I would activate it on Page Plus and turn off Data and use it only on wifi (which isn't bad as I'm near wifi 75% of the time). BUT when I read about prepaid data on Verizon I figured, well you can make VOIP calls from your computer to any landline/mobile/orwhathaveyou phone, why couldn't you do this on your cell phone over 3g?

I am still very much confused especially on the ability to keep your phone number. From what I have figured out I you would have 1 regular number from Verizon which would cost $.25 a min (I need to keep this number as I have had it for 7 years now), and than one VOIP number. Even if the VOIP cost $.10 a min that would be better than $.25 from Verizon.

As it stands I know it is possible but not very easy to do. Any further explanation would be helpful.

Maybe you folks misunderstood this whole thing. Prepaid means no contract but the actual plans are still the same cost as if you were under contract. For instance:

450 Minutes + Unlimited Text is $64.99
Unlimited Data is $30

$94.99/mo

The $30 is MANDATORY for pre-paid smartphones. You still need the basic 450 min plan w/ text. Without texting and just 450 minutes the monthly hit is $74.99 which is the same as on contract. Yippie?

Verizon prepaid Android, BlackBerry, webOS confirmed in leak | Electronista

All in all it's big steaming pile of poop.

now that I have had a moment to play with my new DX I have true VOIP working. You do end up with 2 numbers, your verizon number, and your google voice number. My plan is to just create a phonebook entry that sets my phone to forward to my GV number when I know I am in a 3g area (should be 99% of the time) and one that removes the forwarding. This way anyone who uses my VZ number can still reach me and I get to use the VOIP. Though moving foward all my caller id info will show my GV number and that is the only one that will be handed out.