I have talked to phone reps many a time. If you want to use the phone, you need an internet plan. There's no way around it.
I wanted a G1 (rewind 2 years) on T-Mobile without the internet plan. They told me the phone wouldn't work at all without it and that if I didn't buy the plan, they couldn't sell me the phone. Kind of weird, hm?
Most phones require data plans. If you don't get the data plan, then you really can't use it.
You could buy it off contract, but for a blackberry it'll be over $400 for just the phone......
Not worth it either way.