# Cell phone service with no data?



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I don't use a smart phone and have been struggling regarding 'data use' charges with Virgin Mobile

Samsung has designed this phone so that the Browser button is in the corner, can't be changed, and the button is inevitably hit occasionally launching the web browser. Every time this happens it's a mistake and I hit cancel repeatedly within 1 or 2 seconds.

What I'm finding is that minor data usage appears on my bills ... like under 100 KB a month. This instantly adds $5 to the bill as its "pay per use" data. I asked Virgin if it's possible to kill data from the plan and they said that will cost another $1 ... can you believe it actually COSTS money to turn off data service?

Wondering what else I can do. I don't want to pay $5 extra a month for a service I don't use (since I don't use any data other than a total accidental browser launch). I know this is a minor deal but I figure I must be missing something obvious here. Thoughts?


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Is it an android device? If so, you should be able to disable data.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Somewhere in the phone settings you should be able to turn off data - have you tried googling "phone model turn off data"?


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## Video_Frank (Aug 2, 2013)

I'm suprised Virgin wants $1.00 / month to disable data. I've done exactly that with my Virgin plan at no extra charge. My son and I both use LG androids with Virgin's $20 / month talk & unlimited text plan. We use wifi instead of using a data plan. Regardless, as noted above, you can disable data on the phone at no charge.


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## Dibs (May 26, 2011)

Buy another cell phone that doesn't have the browser button that can be hit accidentally. As long as it is under 60$ you'll save money by the first year. You can probably find a used non-smartphone that would fit the bill for under 60$.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

We are both on Koodo w/Samsung phones. When we signed up and bought them, the clerk showed us how to turn off data. 

We were so happy with Koodo service and pricing that when we moved we did not bother with hard wired phone service.

I think paying the vendor a monthly fee to block this is a bit of a rip off.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

It's not an Android phone... it's an old fashioned flip phone. Turning off data on the phone would be great, because I could also enable it in rare situations I want to send a photo to someone (photo sharing is free with my plan).

To disable data on the phone... I haven't been able to find it yet. I have the Samsung manual here, read the whole thing, no switch to turn off data. If it exists it must be undocumented. In forums I found that people talking about this model and how there is no setting for turning off data.

In the connectivity menu there are "Network profiles" for Bell using proxy.bell.ca which would be right for Virgin, I think. Could it work to kill these profiles?

Dibs: I like that solution of just buying another phone. You're right that it's going to save me money, net! This is actually one of the worst phones I've ever had. The Nokia ones before this were just excellent.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

i turn off data on my telus phone and they don't charge 
but a $1.00 isn't a lot why not just pay it and keep it in mind for next phone upgrade ?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

You're right $1 is a small price to pay.

Funny though I just called them up again today and when I started talking about turning off data, they said just tell us if accidental small charges appears like this and we'll definitely take them off your bill.

So maybe it's no problem as long as I keep a watchful eye on my bill


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I'm sure if you kicked up a fuss on the customer service line, they'd comp the fee. After all, telecom fees are almost completely arbitrary (no bearing on actual cost to serve).


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## Retired Peasant (Apr 22, 2013)

what is the model of the Samsung phone?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

It's Samsung SGH-C414, aka C414, aka Swift. By the way it's a terrible phone... it also crashes sometimes and reboots itself.

Any ideas if it's possible to turn off data for this thing or disable the web browser?

I just went on support chat with Samsung and they said only the carrier can disable data. I'm amazed that these things are built without an option to turn on/off data... as an engineer this boggles my mind.


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## Retired Peasant (Apr 22, 2013)

Or at least be able to reassign the button to do something else - can't do that?


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace 11x. The dealer turned it off for me so I do not have a clue how to do it. Did the same for my spouses unit.

Hard to believe that it cannot be turned off. Keep asking.

It really ticks me off when suppliers try to nickel and dime customers. It is shameful.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Retired Peasant said:


> Or at least be able to reassign the button to do something else - can't do that?


You'd think so, but no. Some of the buttons are reconfigurable but not the browser button. That button is designed to be accidentally hit, to rack up data charges. I'm considering prying it loose with a screw driver


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## plen (Nov 18, 2010)

james4beach said:


> You'd think so, but no. Some of the buttons are reconfigurable but not the browser button. That button is designed to be accidentally hit, to rack up data charges. I'm considering prying it loose with a screw driver


Is it possible to drop a couple drops of crazy glue on it and its edges to disable it being depressed?


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

You can modify your homepage according to the manual. So, enter about:blank in the url bar, and once you're there, set it as your homepage. Then when you accidentally launch the browser, it won't use any data.

To store a URL address:
1. From Idle mode, press and select Browser → Bookmarks.
2. Press Options and select Add bookmark.
3. Enter a name for the bookmark in the Title text box and press the down key.
4. Enter the address in the URL text box and press Save.
Highlight an item after saving a bookmark, then press the Options soft key to access the following:
Set as homepage: allows you to set the selected bookmark as a homepage.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Spudd, that sounds like a good idea but I couldn't get it to work since the browser doesn't honour about:blank. After I added new home page as about:blank and restarted the browser, I see packet activity and history shows it tried opening "http :// about" ... (without quotes or spaces) and it works away reading data for quite a while, so it didn't recognize the special about:blank URL. Data counter shows a few KB used, darn.

Next I tried "http :// 127.0.0.1/" (without quotes or spaces). Result of launching the browser now:

- I see the packet activity/GPRS icon flashing for 4 seconds
- Page details (for this error page) says 343 bytes... not good
- phone data counter shows that 1 KB was sent and 1 KB received... not good

What seems to be happening is that the 'about' special URL isn't recognized, and even for the loopback address this thing is making an external request using data packets (I guess all requests go through the proxy). It's minimal data, and I'm sure I can get them to reverse this one again, but it's still transmitting and receiving data.

Can you think of another special address besides 'about' that the browser may recognize as something local and not send out an http request to the proxy?


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I tried something new. Under Connectivity I added a new 'network profile' that's completely blank, no proxy server defined. Then I configured the browser settings to use this network profile. Now when I hit the browser button, the GPRS icon flashes for only 1 second and I see 'Connection unavailable'. There is no page detail available so I presume a page was never served up.

Better yet, when I go to Data counter, I see zero addition made to the KB counts. And I can still send a photo via text (I checked that it still works) so it doesn't seem to have killed that functionality.

Hooray! I've disabled my browser. That was really hard to do.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Hooray! The about:blank thing is pretty standard, but I guess your crappy mobile browser is set up not to accept it.


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## liquidfinance (Jan 28, 2011)

Not sure what Samsung you have but mine (Galaxy S4) has an option where you can simply turn off mobile data.


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