TUNING OFF DATA ON IPHONE 5

rk911 wrote:

M GO BLUE wrote:
MIL has an Iphone 5 and she asked if thee was a way to tun off the data part of the phone but still give her the ability to make/receive calls and send/receive texts...is this possible an if so what does she need to do???

SETTINGS
CELLULAR
CELLULAR DATA

be sure the GREEN BUTTON is off for this setting. she will still be able to make/rvc calls and send/rcv texts but data usage will be restricted to wifi only.

I regularly do this, switch data on when I want to use it, switch if off when I don't want spurious traffic, particularly when roaming (although you can also turn off data roaming).

The trick part is text, at least with AT&T. When data is turned off, you have SMS text only. Characters, no pictures, nothing else included in messages. All that is MMS, and on the iPhone for GSM the MMS gets handled as digital data rather than as a distinct MMS service, which is how it might be handled for a "non-smart" phone.

I found the same for iPhone handling of messages to multiple addressees. The phone wants to handle it as data, at least part way, not as the phone repeating distinct SMS packages to each addressee.

So if you shut off data, what is left is voice and SMS, which might be more narrow than what you might have been thinking when you say voice and text.