att now requires that you have a data plan if you are just activating a smartphone. i had my smartphone before this new policy, but gave it to my wife, when we got a new phone, she relayed att message that if i switched chips to trade phones, i would now have to get their new plan, so we will just switch phones and chips (and numbers 0 if i want to use my old smart phone (i would have to use the phone with the existing chip and number if i did not want taxed more services by att)