We get a ton of search engine inquiries every day.  Many of them are the same, but a few are not common.

This is our Grab Bag, Part One.  Or in other words, a little bit of everything.  And it’s all from YOU, our readers and visitors.

People often come to our site looking for ways to get out of their contracts without fees, get an upgrade early, or remove a required data plan. It’s become very common as of late, we’re sure in part because of the economy. Still, there are always people out there trying to find a way around the rules, justified or not. Let us address these, shall we?

From the person who just checks their email to the other who streams Pandora eight hours a day, we all have need of our data plans. �Data plans give us access to a world of information on our phones or tablets. �But just what is a byte, and why should we care? �And what’s the deal with tiered data plans?

We explore the data plan as it is today, look at what’s changed in the last couple years, and where the future may or may not end up.

Darkagesmom asks:

We have no data plan our our current Verizon family plan. I cannot upgrade my phone till next year. My father has a Verizon Palm phone he no longer uses, and has offered it to me so I can text my preteen easier (my phone does not have a querty keyboard and makes texting her hard for me). Can I add his phone to my plan without adding data? I know a new phone like it would have to add data, but that is not an option for me right now. Thanks for answering a stupid question from a mom stuck in the dark ages with her current phone.

Your question is a valid one.  As time passes and new people work for Verizon Wireless, the wisdom of those who worked for the company before 2007 becomes ancient history with each new year.  However, your question is easy to answer while hard to explain.  So I will do just that.

If you haven’t been around the Internet phone sites in a little while, you might have missed a few articles about Verizon Wireless testing a promotional plan with select customers (as in, select markets) called Talk and Text Plus.  In a nutshell, the plan reduces the monthly price plan of someone using a single or primary line with unlimited text AND a smartphone with unlimited data.  This reduction is done with a special price plan that credits such a user $20 a month, effectively making their unlimited smartphone data plan $10 each month, and creating a pricing structure similar to Sprint’s all-inclusive data plans.

This promotional program has caused a bit of a stir in some online forums, due to the fact that not every representative in Verizon knows about it, not every representative even has access to it, and only specific markets were targeted.  So, while thousands of people are discovering the discount through online sources, not everyone is eligible to receive the discounted plan.

We haven’t seen an official press release on it yet, but it appears that some of the rumor around the wireless news world will be coming true.

Starting October 28, Verizon Wireless will be changing it’s “3G Data Plans.”

As we reported, Verizon President, COO, and overall head honcho, Lowell McAdam, announced yesterday the eminent launch of Verizon Wireless’ LTE (4G) network.  The carrier expects to have their 4G network launched and covering a slew of cities and airports by the end of 2010.

McAdam and Chief Technical Officer, Tony Melone, had a lot to say about the capabilities and attributes of LTE, but didn’t have much else to give us.  Still unknown are the actual launch dates.  Even less known are the devices themselves.  What we do know about, aside from technical specifications, are the launch sites and some tempting bits of information.

As we just announced, Verizon Wireless has decided to refund 15 million customers money they were charged, in error, for data transfer fees.

There are few things which upset me, not just as someone who works in the wireless industry, but  as a consumer.  Possibly the biggest frustration I’ve had in a decade concerns carriers switching from per-minute data transfer charges to per-megabyte data transfer fees.