Cell phone data plans

Cell phone data plans are my pet peeve of this perios.

I'm a tech type guy. I worked in the semiconductor industry for almost 40 years. I'm retired and we have five computers in our house. I'm on the computer perhaps 12-14 hours per day. I have unlimited computer time and I'm not traveling so I have all the time internet I want. I just can't justify spending $30 more a month to have a Data Plan for my cell phone.

Oh it would be nice to have access to my email and the internet when I'm out and about. But frankly when I'm out I'm too busy with other things to be surfing the net. So for me I just can't see the value of spending $360 a year for a data plan. But I would love to have a Motorola Droid. It has all the features I'd want including a physical QWERTY keyboard. Occasionally I'm in a Starbucks or another location where there is WiFi and it would be nice to have internet access then using the Droid.

I currently have a PDA that I use every day to store account login IDs and passwords, playing games, an electronic bible, a dictionary, and I have my own EKG for my heart problems. The EKG hooks up to my Sony Clie NX80 PDA too. The PDA is now 7 years old and I'd like to consolidate my PDA functions into my cell phone so I don't have to have two units. That way I can have my cell phone in my pocket to add items to my to-do list, check my calendar, etc. But I don't want the darn data plan.

It turns out I can't have what I want. Even if I were to purchase a Droid out-of-pocket with no contract from any cell provider, then call them up to use that phone on their network (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon) they will force me to have a data plan. I think this is unfair. It is one of the few things for which I wish the government would step in and do something about. It's my phone darn it and I want to use the phone but not use the data services of the cell company but I can't.

I have researched on the internet and gone to a Verizon and AT&T store to see if I can find a decent phone with a bunch of features, including WiFi, that does not demand a data plan but they simply don't exist.

I think this sucks.