Cell phones: Verizon wireless smartphones

Technically, no...

Technically, no...

You don't need to have a data plan in order to own and use a smartphone. A data plan is only be necessary when you use your phone to connect to the internet. However, if you were to use the internet, send/recieve emails and MMS messeging (not be confused with SMS text messeging) then you would be charged by the kilobyte, as opposed to being charged by text like SMS. Unless you take that option out completely, which in that case, you wont be able to connect to the internet.

However, having a data package certainly can not hurt at all. If you get the unlimited data plan, you can hook up your smartphone to a laptop (via USB cable) and use that to surf the internet without a hotspot location... provided that you are in a good cell coverage.

Hope that this helps and good luck.