Android Useable w/o Data Plan?

T

tdzmgtzfxm

New member
Hi Forum.

I've got some symbian cellphone right now, and was planning in getting a android.

Now point is I don't have a data plan. That would at least cost me ?8,50 a month, and up to now I only pay like ~?5 per month on my cell phone (I use it rarely).

When at home or at work, I'd use internet over WLAN.

so my questions are:

* Is it possible to disable internet most of the time and only enable it when I _REALLY_ need it ? (with my current tariff, internet will be charged time-based).

I'm also planning to have skype or similar stuff running on the phone, and it should only work when there is WLAN.

* Is WPA Enterprise supported ?

* Is there navigation SW that does NOT need to transfer data over the web ? (I understand that G00gle Maps tranfers that stuff over the web).

And finally (I don't really expect that to be answered

* does anyone know if I can sync the phone off-line (i.e. w/o giving my contacts and appointments to google) w/ linux (evolution) ?

The Phone I'd get would be a Samsung S5800, but I'm open to buy another one given it's below ?250. (Yes I know I'm cheap)

Thank you all for your help.

-Tom
 
You can disable mobile data with an app called APNDroid. It renames all of the APN (they're like mobile data access points) so that they no longer work. This means that your phone will not be able to access ANY mobile data from the mobile network. You can then use the same app to turn mobile data back on if you need it. With mobile data off you would only be able to use WiFi for data.

Check if Skype is actually available and would work on the phone you plan on buying. At present there are lots of restrictions on that, and I don't personally know where it works and what phones it's available for.

WPA enterprise? To the best of my knowledge it's not unless you have rooted your phone (hacked it to get super-user access). Once there you can use WPA enterprise. There are some apps to set it up

Can someone confirm this is still true on Android 2.1 and 2.2? They may have added WPA Enterprise support...

Google Navigation just stops working without data. So it's pretty useless if you don't have a data plan. Yes, there are a whole host of paid and some not so good free apps that provide mapping and navigation. I don't know if any of them are any good, but there are lots of reviews out there on the internet. Google is your friend here.

You can turn syncing off in the settings for Background Data (not entirely sure what that is), Contacts, Calendar, etc. So yes, you don't have to use Google's cloud. If you want to back up your contacts onto your PC then you can use the app My Backup Pro - it will save all your stuff to a zip file on your SD card. You can then just connect your phone to your PC via USB, mount the SD card, and copy the backup files off.

Are you sure the Samsung S5800 is an Android phone? I thought it was a Bada OS phone? If it's not an Android phone then everything I've said above probably isn't true.
 
Yes I'm an idiot, the S8500 is indeed Bada. don't know what I was thinking.

I indeed thought about the i7500 OR the i5700, as both are also 100? cheaper than the S8500.

Thx a lot for your answer, I will check out these Apps. (APNDroid, My Backup Pr, and some navigator. There is andnav but I fear this also requires a data connection)
 
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