Hello, I have two children. I need to activate a blackberry phone on my second line on family plan, and Verizon is requiring me to put a data plan on this phone. (I would like email available but no internet, so that there's no access to pornography on the device).
I have searched on google and verizon, and have not found any apps (i.e. K9 bluecoat, or anything similar) for a blackberry.
If anyone has seen such an app or an option, i'd greatly appreciate knowing.
Not sure why Verizon is making it mandatory to have a data plan on a smartphone, but i am looking for a solution!
Thanks
joyntmn wrote:Hello, I have two children. I need to activate a blackberry phone on my second line on family plan, and Verizon is requiring me to put a data plan on this phone. (I would like email available but no internet, so that there's no access to pornography on the device).
I have searched on google and verizon, and have not found any apps (i.e. K9 bluecoat, or anything similar) for a blackberry.
If anyone has seen such an app or an option, i'd greatly appreciate knowing.
Not sure why Verizon is making it mandatory to have a data plan on a smartphone, but i am looking for a solution!
Thanks
If you are concerned about internet access I would recommend NOT providing a Blackberry to your children. Frankly, a Blackberry is a smartphone for a responsible adult that can make their own choices as to what options, apps, etc. are setup on the smartphone. There are no "Child Protection" apps available for Blackberry (AFAIK), there is no market for them.
As far as the data requirement goes, since you indicated that you want email what is the problem? EMAIL IS DATA, so if you want email, you need data.
Thanks for your reply.
I am looking for a qwerty keyboard for text messaging.
re: email, it would be nice but not neccessary.
The main issue is that we already own the blackberry, and would like to be able to use it without having to purchase a new phone.
I guess the main question is, why is verizon REQUIRING a data plan with any smartphone vs. the pay as you go plans of old?
thx
BlackBerrys have required data plans for quite some time. However, Verizon now offers the $15/150MB option.
I found this thread about blocking the Internet browser, which means you may still be able to have email pushed to the BB. Granted, the thread was started long ago, but I see posters are resurrecting it every year, ha. Anyway, on page 2 there are posts from this month, and the last one might be a solution.
http://forums.crackberry.com/f61/disable-internet-browser-7570/
Good luck!
The family account manager can go to My Verizon and block just about anything on a phone number that is under their plan. There is an option for blocking web access, but I have never personally tried it on a BB but it works on my kid's phone. As far as the data plan goes; VZW policy is that if you have a Smartphone, you have to have a data plan.
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