No Data, No Problem

I stepped into the world of a smartphone with data about a year ago. At that time, smartphones were already on the rise and now, they're everywhere. It seems like you can't go anywhere these days without seeing someone on their phone. You get those people walking on the streets with their head down, looking at their phone and walking in a zig-zag formation, and then there's me who's trying to avoid them by doing my own zig-zag formation. And then during rush hour on the streetcars when everyone's already packed in like sardines, there are the people who still have to take up extra room and not paying attention by being on their phone, because they just have to get to that next level in their game or they urgently need to see what their friends are doing on facebook. Anyways, that's another topic.

My main post is about data on my phone. We were talking to a friend one day and she doesn't have data on her iPhone; she cancelled it after a month and was charged a minimal fee. I thought this was a good idea for me too. I had a 1GB data plan for $30/mth and on average, I used around 200MB.

So I rationalized -- I'm at work all day, which has wifi access and I'm in front of a computer anyways so I'll use that instead of my phone. On most days, I go straight home after work, which has wifi. So the only time I actually need data on my phone is during my ride to work and when I'm out. Most of the time I'm out with D anyways, who has data on her phone, or I'm with someone who has data as well.

I called in to Rogers to find out the process. The cancellation fee was $5/mth for the remainder of the contract, or a maximum of $100 (I have two years left on the contract, so it would be the $100 fee). At $30/mth + tax for the cost of data, the cancellation fee would be equivalent to three months. At first, I thought I'd have to cancel my phone wireless and data plan, and get a new wireless plan, but luckily I was able to just get rid of the data itself.

So, I've been data-less since the beginning of February, which now that I think about it, feels much longer than it is. I'll admit it kind of sucks not having data while I'm on the road because it gives me something to do, but I honestly don't need to pay $30 a month for it. What do I normally do? Check my non-urgent email -- nothing that can't wait until I get wifi access and if it's really that urgent, the person would call me...or I would see what's up on facebook -- no offence to anyone, but it's not that important to be paying $400 a year to do. The only time I'll miss it if I'm by myself and I'm lost, I could easily use the maps feature, but hopefully that doesn't happen.

I'll stop now, seems like a long post.