Any consenses on the least costly IT-compatible phone/plan?

I was thinking of breaking down and eventually getting another cell phone. But I just don't want to use it too often, (more for my N800) or get locked into some lengthy contract$.

Recommend any cheap, reliable, pay-as-you-go Blutetooth phones w/ reasonable data rates (would Voip be redundant)?

I'm very happy with my HTC Mogul and Sprint SERO.. $30 a month for unlimited data and 500 minutes, thats perfect for me

In this case, a search will be very worth your while. This topic has been hashed and rehashed to death and there are a lot of awesome threads on the subject (thoughtfix's poll is probably the most recent and up-to-date).

I read thru the poll, and people had different reasons for their choices, or no reasons at all.

I guess I just wanted to cut thru here to the most basic phone/plan w/ the most reasonable cost. ("charge per kilobyte" scares me!")

This is an incredibly complicated issue that doesn't have a short answer. There isn't a short answer to the above question because there are so many variable involved (what may work wonderfully for me with one carrier, one phone, and one location may work terribly for your in your location of the same carrier and the same phone).

Personally, I like AT&T and I like my Samsung, but they may or may not work for you. This thread is just going to end up like all the others with no real answer and a lot of highly divergent opinions.

Yep - that's what I was afraid of. I took to computers right away early on, but was probably the last person I know to use a FAX. I also shied away from "practical" items like cell phones over all the hidden costs and options surrounding them.

It seems like someone would come out with some really different hardware and plans tailored to niche phone users, but probably not. - except I think Google will help shake up things a little.

I'm in the same situation and decided to go for Nokia 6210 classic and a data plan limited to 384 kb/s from Saunalahti at about 10 euros per month. If you're just searching for a cheap 3g phone, you could look at LG KU250.

i wish there was some sort of North America plan out there....I'm Canadian, but travel between the US and Canada a lot...so i currently have 2 different phones/plans....wish i could have 1 plan with 1 company which has an unlimited data component...anyone know of anything like that??


Thanx!