Here's some insight... and even more questions...

While standing in line at Panera, I decided to check the local movie times using the local mall wifi... While navigating to the site, I realized I was using BBA and not wifi. I felt that Verizon had outsmarted me, since wifi was available, but my i760 chose BBA instead. So, I deleted the #777 BBA account on the phone, and thought I was smarter than Verizon. Later that day, I tried to send a pix message, and it failed. I couldn't send or receive MMS until I did a hard reset and got the #777 account back. Victory: Verizon.

If I change the connections to WORK, will I still have access to MMS, since it technically uses the data plan, but doesn't get billed as such? I know from experience that straight up deleting the #777 data account is not the solution for me, since I use MMS.

How do I limit my phone to only using the data network for MMS (which is free & unlimited for me)? I upgraded to unlimited txt/pix/flix when I had my Palm treo. The CSR told me about the data block, but eventually told me that I needed to keep the data for MMS messaging. The treo didn't have wifi, though, so I wasn't at risk of using a lot of data and not realizing it. Not the case any more...

This is a relatively big problem for me. My friend is a manager at a local verizon store... and he can take the charges off for me, but I don't want to strain our friendship. He counts on ME to be the techno-savvy one... I have to figure out how to outsmart VZW and conserve my cash!

I pretty much answered your question here:

http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/samsu...k-working.html

It's all about being sure you were disconnected and not in dormant mode on broadband access before you turn on wifi. If you do that then turn on wifi youll only communicate via that radio and will not be billed.

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Thanks
- Andrew - PDAPhoneHome.com

There were only two posts on the thread that you linked, and neither one really addressed my question. You just explained how to turn off EVDO once it's on and connected. That's too late for me.

Thanks for your input, though.

I want to know about how heavily MMS relies on the data network, and if turning all the connections to WORK makes the MMS unable to connect to data. I've already concluded that completely deleting the #777 BBA account will put a halt to all data communications, including MMS.

Here is another wrinkle to the story. I just spent quite some time on with VZW CS to try to figure out why I could receive emails while on a Wifi connection but not send emails.

Background to this is that I do not have a data plan on the phone and in fact have a block on data to prevent unpleasant surprises on my bill. I will be spending an extended length of time out of the country and don't need a data plan while I am here since if I need to check email, I have found it very easy in this interim before leaving the country, to get access to local wifi spots.

The problem is that while I can receive emails while connected to wifi, I have been unable to send emails. I have registered for Verizon's outgoing SMTP option and the password has been registered (as verified on the call to VZW)so that isn't the probem.

The VZW CS person told me that the reason I can't send emails while on wifi is that the device can only send emails when connected to the VZW network data plan. This seems illogical since I can receive emails. After quite some time and her agreeing that it didn't seem logical, she put me through to Samsung 2nd line support. Their answer was - you guessed it - DO A HARD RESET. Since the Samsung technician didn't seem to know why this problem was ocurring and in fact said they didn't support this stuff, I politely declined to do a hard reset.

My questions then are:

1. Is it true that I can only send email if I have a data plan despite being able to receive them while on wifi

2. Since I also cannot send or receive Picture text messages with the block on my data plan, what is the best and most error proof way of making sure that if i remove the data block, my device never accesses VZW data plan

First off all VZW employees including technical (cough, cough) are worthless!

OK Yes you can send and receive e-mail using wifi. It is no different then if you are using EVDO.

Have you tested you e-mail setup (configuration) using EVDO? If it works then if you are connected via wifi it should work.

Mark

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VZW, It's 2009! Time to embrace technology, not suppress it. - oops too late I've moved on over to the iPhone w/ AT$T!

Another update:

As suggested earlier, I changed both of the network connections to "WORK" and this, indeed, cuts off MMS access. I needed to send a picture message on friday, and the message would immediately fail after being generated. After changing the connection back to Internet, it sent on the first try.

Despite the obvious implications with MMS, I think that changing the networks to WORK is a good option to prevent the phone from accessing the EVDO (BroadbandAccess) network and charging up the bill.

I try to change the networks to WORK before using my phone in a wifi hotspot to ensure I'm using wifi only... but I can't keep it this way all the time, since I never know when I'm going to receive an MMS message.

I'm waiting for some sort of magical app that can discriminate between MMS (free) and EVDO/BBA (paid) access, and allow the connection accordingly. It doesn't seem that difficult to program... but I know I couldn't do it. Any takers?

As referenced in my last post, if you go into the CONNECTIONS area, and change both networks to "WORK" and not "INTERNET," you will only use locally-available networks, as opposed to the nationally-available Verizon EVDO/BBA network.

Also as referenced above, this is a double-edged sword, because as long as you have both of these networks set to "WORK," you cannot send/receive MMS messages. This is perfectly find if you don't plan on sending/receiving MMS messages.

Also, a more permanent solution that I have employed in the past is deleting the #777 BroadbandAccess account by click-and-hold'ing it and removing it. A hard reset or manual reentry of the account information will be the only options to get on the EVDO/BBA network again.

I came across this awhile back and it works great for my i760

MoDaCo NoData

It will allow you to toggle the broadband access with just a couple taps. While broaband is disabled it still allows MMS, TXT & Phone Calls. It also will stilla llow access through WiFi. I use it and I love it.


Nuc.

Sounds perfect... I'll try it when I get a chance and confirm its perfection.

Thanks, Nuc! Nice first-post! Most people ask a question the first time they post something... and that question has typically been answered elsewhere already. haha

I installed it, disabled the only connection option (broadbandaccess), and tried to send a picture message...

I could not send it.

I enabled broadbandaccess, and it sent just fine.

MoDaCo NoData... NoWork

Nuc,

Are you sure that you have tried this on a Verizon SCH-i760 phone, and have successfully sent MMS messages?

Bump? Am I a slave to Verizon's broadband network?

I've recently noticed that my i760 will tell me it's been connected to the BroadBandAccess network for 15+ hrs... it doesn't "hang up" after sending an MMS message. I pray to God that my bill doesn't come back looking more like Verizon's yearly profit than a typical bill. I need to find a way to only let MMS in/out, and make sure that I'm not using an pay-per-kb usage.

Any help out there?

I have seen this answer in another thread. The connection time reported is not the time connected for data transfer. As soon as the data is sent /received it goes into a dormant standby mode for EVDO. So it does actually hang up but just goes dormant. The reported time includes both the data transfer plus the dormant period time. You should not be charged for the dormant time since nothing is being transferred.

Just so everyone knows, I set both my "Network Connections" to "My Work Place" and I can send texts just fine.
I'm on the unlimited text family plan.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this response Mark but I have been out of the country. Am I right in my understanding of your reply that I need to enable the data plan first to see if I can send the email via EVDO? sorry for the confusion, but I've lost the plot a bit while out of the country and not even using my phone.

Thanks again for the help - this is really quite annoying. That and the fact that I now want to be able to send and recieve photo text but still not have a data plan nor incur data usage other than the charge for the photo tex.

Yeah but you only have regular texts which use the SMS system (I believe.)

The problem here is picture and video messages uses the MMS system which needs to connect to the internet service to work..

This really is such a F'd up system, all I want to do is have just a voice and unlimited messaging plan for regular, picture, and video texts. But because it's a dam pda/smart phone that can use data we're being forced to make a decision to either use the data or not be able to send picture and video texts. I really think this is absurd and should be changed, it looks like I won't be purchasing the i760 and will have to go with a cheaper phone that doesn't have this problem since it won't be a pda/smartphone

Good job Verizon you could have made a bit more money there but noo you gotta be a pain in the ass to everyone. They're lucky my g/f has Verizon and most people I know do so the IN calling and unlimited messaging is enough to make me switch to them from Sprint (because right now it's coming out to too much money for both me and my g/f).

DrPhantum or others,

What have you been doing about the MMS problem? I am thinking about upgrading to this phone and don't want the data plan but do a lot of MMS currently. Also, isn't there a way to see what you are connecting to on the phone before you open the internet explorer or try and send/receive your email?

If you just make sure you are aware of what connection is being used wouldn't that solve the problem.

Sorry about the newbie questions, but I have been searching everywhere for a good answer. This would be my first entry into the smartphone world.

Thanks.

I've only played with mine a "little" bit and racked up 7367kb....$110, if I didn't have the unlimited plan.

I'm still struggling with getting wifi to work right and sending emails.

If you go into connections and just turn off the phone (like airplane mode) and then turn on the wifi, would this block the data? It would be kinda annoying that you wouldn't be able to receive calls, but would this be another way to ensure that you wouldn't be charged?

Thanks.

Just got my i760 yesterday and this is also a concern of mine. I do pic/vid messaging and noticed that when you receive an mms message it would stay connected/dormant. This connection stays connected for 24 hours before it is dropped. I know that no data is sent back and forth while dormant unless I open a browser and start surfing or whatever. My problem was if I had gotten an mms message I would be connected to bba and not realized it and then opened a browser, it would default to the dormant bba connection instead of wifi even if wifi was connected. So I called tech support and got a tech that knew exactly what I was talking about. He changed the 24 hour timeout to drop the bba connection to 5 minutes which is the lowest it can be set. I tested by sending myself an mms and waited. I tapped the connection in the top bar where it tells you how long you have been connected and waited for the disconnect. It dropped itself at about 6 minutes. This is better than nothing and accidentally using the bba when I wanted to use wifi. Another new thing I didn't notice until after he made this network change is when I tap the connection in the top bar, I now have a disconnect option along with hide which I am 99% positive wasn't there before. Someone correct me if I am wrong there though. I had been going in to the wireless manager and turning the phone radio off and back on to disconnect the bba.

I recently took off the data block just because I wanted to receive and send MMS, but I would love to find a program like this as well, I would love to be able to still receieve MMS without ever worrying about BBA connecting.....Even if the program just asked Would you like to connect to BBA? Would be great, so I dunno....still looking around.