Can I avoid paying for the data plan and just pay for unlimited talk and text? How much would the monthly payment be for unlimited talk and text?

I faces this issue several years ago when I upgraded my son's phone to a 'smart' phone. At the time I only had a flip phone that allowed only talking--no browsing, etc. However, ATT still offered the unlimited lifetime data plan which I purchased for my tech-savy son.. Knowing that I would eventually upgrade to a smart phone capable of web browsing I wanted to add the unlimited data plan to my "dumb" phone in order to have it when my hardware supported it. At that time (Aug, 2008 I think) ATT would NOT allow you to purchase data plans unless you had a data capable phone. Based upon a recent upgrade of phones that occurred in Nov, 2013 I believe that you are forced to purchase a minimal plan with data if you buy virtually any smart phone. I doubt that they even sell a phone now that doesn't have data capability. A quick call to an ATT store can surely resolve this matter with you.