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    On the gift phone, we called it in and had the account transferred over after about 2 weeks (like, after I gave it as the present). If I call in, they won't talk to me about the account, since I'm not on it. My only account with them was terminated about 3 years ago. It's some screwup between normal billing and collections. But, normal billing becomes collections after 48 hours of not paying. It already showed up on my credit report once, and I disputed it to get it off. I'm no longer the account holder. It hasn't shown back up yet.

And seriously with your 2 examples of "roaming charges" how old are these examples? I don't think any US carrier has had roaming charges other than international in the last 10 years!!

Sprint roaming information

Verizon roaming information

  Some of the providers have local or regional plans still at a discount rate. I'm better off with prepaid $60/mo unlimited on a Blackberry that I can tether with a decent throughput. I frequently run up 2000 to 3000 minutes a month, depending on what I'm doing. There's nothing like standing around in or around a datacenter listening to the provider saying "Hmm, it should work ... I don't know why it won't work ... Lets try this ...". I've burnt up 1000 minutes in 4 days doing that. Some of them prefer to keep me on the line, rather than just calling me when it's fixed.

Also in your 2nd example, moving to a new location that has no coverage is a reason to terminate your contract with no ETF with most carriers, why didnt you take advantage instead paying the bill for a phone you didn't even use?

    I had kept the phone service for when I was traveling. The normal cost was reasonable. I'd just need to charge up the phone the day before, and be on my way. It just happened that during that period I hadn't traveled at all (working from home and all), so since no one could call it, I figured it was silly to even charge it.

I was pretty excited when I saw this, but then with a little more digging it looks like if you're on Sprint, you'll get a minimum 20 cent charge per voicemail (20 cents per minute call forwarding). Some people are saying Sprint has or is about to do away with this fee, but I haven't seen anything definite.

If I'm mistaken PLEASE correct me (and supply a link showing that the fee isn't around anymore), but for now I guess I'll be passing on this :(

I was about to say that Sprint's coverage in Canada is terribly expensive... but:
http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/ueContent.jsp?scTopic=wirelessData

I stand pretty well corrected. I had a problem getting a voice plan from Sprint that covered Canada... They had a "service" where if I paid $5 a month, my calls into and from Canada would only cost 11 cents a minute instead of 40 cents... Which is why I had to switch to Verizon... If you're looking for pure data (which it sounds like you are) $100/month doesn't sound terrible if the coverage is good for you.

It's an issue of semantics.

No it isn't. It's a matter of self-entitlement (although saying so results in '-1 Troll').

The providers thought that they were offering unlimited data plans to use with the built in web browsing capabilities of the phone.

Actually, that's exactly what they (Sprint-Nextel in this case) offer. Look at the advertised features. Enter your ZIP Code here to look at the plans, and notice the ones which say Unlimited Data. Click for more information, and read the note about tethering.

Look at the Everything Data plan for example, which (naturally) includes Unlimited Data. Clearly stated, 'Phone as modem or tethering: not included.'

Not unlimited data plans for phones that are connected to computers and used like modems.

I agree completely with this sentence fragment. The providers *knew* (you used the word 'thought' which incorrectly implied that the providers' belief might not be true) that they weren't offering an unlimited data plan for phones that doesn't include tethering but also does include tethering. They knew this because simultaneously not doing it and doing it would break the time-space continuum, a move against which Sprint-Nextel's lawyers highly advised them.

Soon enough there will be enough of an uproar over the ambiguity and the lawyers will get together and come up with some new terms that more clearly define things in favor of the providers.

They already did ages ago in the original advertising and contracts, which suggests that they have read your post and used a time machine. There is currently *no* ambiguity if you read before clicking 'buy' or leaving for the Sprint store. There is *very little* ambiguity if you ask or click one link for 'More Information.' The terms are in favor of both the provider and the customer; Customers may purchase the Phone As Modem plan ($15 per month for a 5GB cap or possibly the Unlimited for $40 if it is still offered) to allow Tethering, a much more resource/bandwidth-intensive, optional feature for the provider to offer. Otherwise, it will cost '$0.03 per kilobyte' to use.

It's an issue of semantics.

No it isn't. It's a matter of self-entitlement (although saying so results in '-1 Troll').

The providers thought that they were offering unlimited data plans to use with the built in web browsing capabilities of the phone.

Actually, that's exactly what they (Sprint-Nextel in this case) offer. Look at the advertised features. Enter your ZIP Code here to look at the plans, and notice the ones which say Unlimited Data. Click for more information, and read the note about tethering.

Look at the Everything Data plan for example, which (naturally) includes Unlimited Data. Clearly stated, 'Phone as modem or tethering: not included.'

Not unlimited data plans for phones that are connected to computers and used like modems.

I agree completely with this sentence fragment. The providers *knew* (you used the word 'thought' which incorrectly implied that the providers' belief might not be true) that they weren't offering an unlimited data plan for phones that doesn't include tethering but also does include tethering. They knew this because simultaneously not doing it and doing it would break the time-space continuum, a move against which Sprint-Nextel's lawyers highly advised them.

Soon enough there will be enough of an uproar over the ambiguity and the lawyers will get together and come up with some new terms that more clearly define things in favor of the providers.

They already did ages ago in the original advertising and contracts, which suggests that they have read your post and used a time machine. There is currently *no* ambiguity if you read before clicking 'buy' or leaving for the Sprint store. There is *very little* ambiguity if you ask or click one link for 'More Information.' The terms are in favor of both the provider and the customer; Customers may purchase the Phone As Modem plan ($15 per month for a 5GB cap or possibly the Unlimited for $40 if it is still offered) to allow Tethering, a much more resource/bandwidth-intensive, optional feature for the provider to offer. Otherwise, it will cost '$0.03 per kilobyte' to use.

Fair and Easy eh?
How about this: http://www.sprintpcs.com/common/popups/pop-fairFlexible.html

Pay for which plan you need. (But I think it's a bit more expensive)

Just did a search and some of them seem to be returning errors now - nothing like getting your problems published on slashdot to motivate people to fix them!

Not only some of them - in sprint's case it now appears to be all of them: From Sprint:

The site is temporarily unavailable due to routine maintenance and enhancements. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please come back soon!

Looks like the voyeur in all of us (come on, admit it) will have to search for other freely available, published invasions of privacy.

Only good picture I found so far is this: http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share.do?invite=6EIrJi8K8kUo55l7aUrx&shareName=MMS&messageState=RETRIEVED

The lack of robots.txt is an oversight, though.

I wouldn't say lack:
http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/robots.txt

As you said yourself, the low number of hits suggests that these pages are not being indexed in the normal fashion. The fact that there are only 108 hits from a network with over 50 million subscribers is a pretty good hint that the robots.txt is functional.

Its just that it doesn't guarantee 100% that your stuff will stay hidden.

Fortunately, you're also able to reply straight from the Sprint web interface. Let the customers know that Sprint is leaking pictures this way.
Let it get media attention!

You can even get the full resolution pictures by editing the URL for the photos: http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/mmps/IDENTIFIER_GOES_HERE/2.jpg?partExt=.jpg&&&outquality=100&ext=.jpg&&limitsize=8000,8000&squareoutput=255,255,255
If the original is smaller than 8000x8000, you'll get the picture in the original resolution, otherwise it'll downscale it.

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/guest/message/reply/compose.do?messageId=001_2359418f2c1d5b75_1&invite=qEArJQ7X55kZn5vz8U50&COMPOSER_OPTION=REPLY

look at this.

Apparently you can reply as someone else.

But look! A kitten!

One of the features of my new phone is "Voice SMS."

Think about that for a moment. It's like a text message, but it's voice. On a phone.

According to Sprint, the reason this is better than a normal voice mail message is that you're guaranteed to leave a message and not actually reach the person you're calling (which comes up how often?) and that the text message UI is easier to deal with than the voice mail system. (Then why not offer a voice mail UI?)

And, of course, it wastes both a text message and data transfer. So instead of leaving a voice mail message, which uses normal minutes and during off-peak hours is free, you get to pay extra for this feature. (Oh, I get it, improving the voice mail experience would be too hard to monetize, so it's just not worth it. The iPhone must be an illusion.)

Take a look at Sprint PCS coverage for Northern California. See those huge grey areas? That's "Analog Roam" territory. We're not talking about Nevada desert here, far from civilization. These are areas within fifteen miles of Silicon Valley.

"Unless of course calls are free and unlimited."

Agreed! Gotta love this quote from the article:
""The average adult who can afford a cell phone is not going to want to listen to ads. So this is mainly for teenagers, twenty-somethings, high schoolers or people who can't afford a phone," "

Well then just add me to the list. By the time they add taxes, the cheapest text messaging plan and insurance I'm paying nearly $100 a month for a regular, "cheap" cellphone plan. Add me to the list of people who "can't afford a phone" because it's killing me. I would love to listen to a 30 second ad before making a call.

There was a 1-800 service I used many years ago called phonehog that provided a calling card for use at payphones if you listened to ads. For every 30 second ad I listened to I think I got a 3 minute call. Worked very well and I loved the service, but when payphones started disappearing and cellphone plans got cheaper I stopped using the service.

Google's free phone will kill the prepaid market. Who would pay $50 for 400 minutes when they can get the calls for free? I think I would like an option though, maybe if I press # and the number then deduct the minutes from prepaid minutes but if not then I'll listen to ads.

What about incoming calls? Some companies, like Sprint and US Cellular offer free incoming already with select plans. I suppose Google would have to implement something similar, they can't delay an incoming call so you can listen to some ads.

For example, with my Treo I'm forced to purchade the $15/month unlimited data plan from Sprint. It's required for all their smartphones
No you are not forced. Stop lying. You can sign up for the $15/month unlimited data plan OR don't sign up and pay per KB downloaded.

http://www.sprintpcs.com/common/popups/popLegalTer msPrivacy.html
Vision/Power Vision: Services are not available with all Sprint PCS phones. Usage is calculated on a per kilobyte basis and is rounded up to the next whole kilobyte. Rounding occurs at the end of each session or each clock hour and, at which time we deduct accumulated usage from your plan, or assess overage or casual usage charges. You are responsible for all data activity from and to your phone, regardless of who initiates the activity. Estimates of data usage will vary from actual use. Your invoice will not separately identify the number of kilobytes attributable to your use of specific sites, sessions or services used. Premium content (games, ringers, etc.) priced separately. /i?

Interestingly, Sprint is going in the other direction. Some of their new phones do not have cameras, but meet MIL-STD 810F for ruggedization. Sprint used to offer ruggedized phones only on the Nextel network, but ruggedized phones are now appearing on the Sprint side too. Ruggedized models from both Motorola and Sanyo are now available.

This is the same thing with just about any data plan on any wireless company. Go take a look at any wireless usage TOS. Here's a few for you. Search for the word "unlimited".

http://www.cingular.com/learn/messaging-internet/m edia-legal-notices.jsp
http://www.sprintpcs.com/common/popups/popLegalTer msPrivacy.html

I'm sure it's the same with most other companies too. This is nothing new.

I've seen this and the MetroPCS service, and the one thing I've noticed about both is the limited coverage area. They only seem to have service in the big cities, and nothing even just outside. For example, here's MetroPCS' coverage for Detroit. Look in the northwest part of the coverage area and note that if you go out to Howell, you're covered, but not in Pinckney, which is just as populated as Howell. Now compare the coverage map for Sprint. Notice that just about the entire freakin' state of Michigan is covered. The MetroPCS map looks like Sprint's coverage map ca. 1992. Ditto for Cricket in its coverage areas.

Sprint's ET fee is $200 per phone currently, still not good, but it's no $400 per phone. Each phone on a family plan has its own contract (*agreement*, in warm fuzzy language). You can let one go and still keep the other, but it's $200 a whack unless you're out of contract.

http://www.sprintpcs.com/common/popups/popLegalTer msPrivacy.html


You may terminate any line of service before its Term ends by calling *2, however you will be responsible for an EARLY TERMINATION FEE of up to $200

Agreed. I just ported my number from Cingular to Vonage. You will need to get your Account Number from the carrier which is different from the phone number (you can call customer service for this).

For a free tool to check number portability, check out Sprint's Number Portability tool.

Seconded!

If any of you actually took the time to go and see what Loopt is about or looked for more information, you would realize several things.

For starters, this is OPT-IN ONLY. You can't just see everyone's info, and you get to pick who you share your info with. You can choose who can and cannot see your info.

Second, the point of this is to see when you're in the same three blocks as your friends. You may not be in the same restaurant or same building as your friends, but you would be surprised at how often you are within a few blocks of them.

Third, this service updates your position about every 15 minutes. This is based on GPS, but phone GPS doesn't work like regular GPS. The location your phone gets probably isn't created from satellites, it probably comes from the cell tower. If you have enough signal to get/send a call/SMS, you have enough signal to locate your phone within a few hundred feet. This is the same thing that E911 uses to find you when you call for police/ambulance - it's by no means perfect, but it'll do.

Finally, this is no different than the Family Locator or similar services that the cell companies have available. Most people would probably love to know when their child (or at least their child's cellphone) goes outside of that same 1/4 mile of the schoolyard during the day, or deviates from the path between school and sitter/home. Yes, the data is a potential problem if it gets into the wrong hands, but there are safeguards in place, and in general this will help more than hurt.

Sprint offers a data plan for tethering or bluetoothing your phone as a modem; it's called the Sprint Phone as Modem Plan and it's an additional $40 on top of your usual fees.

Oh? I never use SMS, and one thing that really bothers me is when I get a spam SMS message and have to pay for it because someone sent it to me.

Show me a phone that a major carrier is selling that doesn't have SMS capabilities.

Here's sprint PCS's cheapest available phone (I'm not sure that link will work). It has SMS. That's my current carrier. I bought the cheapest phone available from them three years ago, and even it does text messaging. (No, color screens don't bother me. The stupid ring tones do though. Why can't phones have normal ringers anymore?)

Disclaimer: I develop enterprise applications -- both heavy-traffic web applications and middle tier business applications with web frontends -- so I know what I'm talking about.

oracle.com (J2EE):
Oracle's website runs on Oracle Portal on Oracle iAS, a J2EE server.

avaya.com (ASP.NET):
http://esearch.avaya.com/r/results.asp?SITE=com&qu erytext=blah
  1 HTTP/1.0 200 OK
  2 Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
  3 Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 07:24:24 GMT
  4 Content-Length: 45927
  5 Content-Type: text/html
  6 Set-Cookie: ASPSESSIONIDQCDDRQBQ=...

ibm.com (J2EE):
IBM's website runs on IBM Websphere Portal on IBM Websphere application server, a J2EE server.

sprint.com (J2EE):
http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/ExploreHome.jsp? refurl=uhp_personal_wireless
  1 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  2 Server: Netscape-Enterprise/4.1

disney.com (ASP):
Last but most, if you actually request a disney.com page, you'll hit an Apache server that redirects you to disney.go.com, an IIS server. Observe:
Resolving www.disney.com... 199.181.132.250
Connecting to www.disney.com[199.181.132.250]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
  1 HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
  2 Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 07:32:01 GMT
  3 Server: Apache/2.0.40 (Red Hat Linux)
  4 Location: http://disney.go.com/
  5 Content-Length: 229
  6 Connection: close
  7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Location: http://disney.go.com/ [following]
--00:32:07-- http://disney.go.com/
                      => `index.html.1'
Resolving disney.go.com... 198.187.190.83, 198.187.189.83
Connecting to disney.go.com[198.187.190.83]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
  1 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  2 Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
  3 P3P: CP="CAO DSP COR CURa ADMa DEVa TAIa PSAa PSDa IVAi IVDi CONi OUR SAMo OTRo BUS PHY ONL UNI PUR COM NAV INT DEM CNT STA PRE"
  4 Connection: keep-alive
  5 Set-Cookie: SWID=...
  6 Cache-Expires: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 07:36:36 GMT
  7 Cache-Control: max-age=300
  8 Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 07:32:07 GMT
  9 Content-Type: text/html
10 Accept-Ranges: bytes
11 Last-Modified: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 07:31:36 GMT
12 ETag: "92eec6e1a195c51:936"
13 Content-Length: 8896

You'd be amazed to know how stupid you are.

On Sprint's CDMA cellular network, one can reasonably reliably listen to 56kbps shoutcast streams with a smart phone such as the treo. Lower bitrates are even more reliable. Sprint's unlimited data plan is $15/mo on top of your regular phone charges.

This can't compete with XM on quality and obviously not on signal reception. But a treo with a wifi card would beat the device referenced in this article hands down, in my opinion.

Clearly, you don't travel much. Get more than 10 or 15 miles from an interstate highway and there is no GSM coverage. Kansas is bad, Nebraska is impossible. Try this map: http://www.rentcell.com/coverage-map-usa-gsm.htm Canadian GSM coverage is, of course, worse. http://www.canadagsm.com/english/html/coverage/fs_ cov_map.htm If you want digital CDMA coverage, it's not QUITE as bad, but it's not _good_ http://www.rentcell.com/coverage-map-cingular.htm http://www.rentcell.com/coverage-map-airtouch.htm Really, for those who need to travel outside the urban core it's an analog world still. A good yagi cut to the center of the analog cell-phone band, a bag or high power car mounted moble phone, and an account with a carrier with good analog rollover gets you the best coverage in the US, but I can't actually CONNECT at some of my customers sites without the yagi. Sprints analog roam map probebly gives the most accurate summary AMPS coverage available in the US. http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/coverage/Natwide Netwk.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1441749&CURRENT_US ER%3C%3EATR_SCID=ECOMM&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode =None&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_cartState=group&bmUID= 1114732276847 Notice all the white areas? No service. Not even analog. Zip. You don't get out much do you?

• One of them is http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/slider-phone/.
• Here's another one: http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/PhonesAccessorie s/PhoneDetails.jsp?navLocator=%7Cshop%7CphonesAcce ssories%7CallPhones%7C&selectSkuId=samsungvi660&FO LDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1476015&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_ SCID=ECOMM&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode=None&CURREN T_USER%3C%3EATR_cartState=group&bmUID=110564626533 9

I use SprintPCS, the Palmone treo600, and pssh. SprintPCS's network is CDMA so if you're not in the continental United States, and not in or near a metropolitian area, forget about it. For the rest of you I can tell you that it works splendidly, though latent. It'd be difficult to perform any complex task, though not impossible. On the treo the font-size will be tiny. One should consider the treo650 with it's high resolution screen as an alternative.

I should also mention PalmVNC. The bandwidth limitations of the sprintpcs network, and the resolution limitations of the treo600 render this application to little more than a novelty. Though again, in a pinch, it's a usefull app to keep around.

Perhaps you already have a phone that runs java midlets? If so you could try SSH & Telnet Floyd or MIDPSSH.

Sprint has already been offering something of the kind

From this page:
Sprint TV - This comprehensive basic service presents a variety of content from familiar brands. Think of it as "basic cable" for your phone.

Yeah, there are a LOT of situations around the country where one company is dominant in the non-metropolitan areas. In my area, (and well, many others) Alltel is the only provider that will cover you out in BFE. But if you look at the two coverage maps for Sprint and Nextel, you will see that they are already catering to all the metropolitan areas around the country. My point was that instead of buying a company that has basically already done exactly what they are doing with a completely non-compatible technology, they should invest that money in their own company, expand their network and give the people in the rural areas competition and choice.

Get their Vision plan, and you have unlimited data for $15/month. Just don't go crazy; there have been reports of people having their line disconnected because they were using data 24/7.

Of course, Sprint won't tell you about this; they want to sell you a connection card and the extra phone line.

As for reception it's simple: if you're near an interstate, it's great. If you're not, NO SOUP FOR YOU.

But you're fighting a losing battle; the US-unaware portion of the European contingent on /. has focused on the two weaknesses of the American mobile market - you have to pay for incomings, and the lack of standards severely limits phone choices - and totally ignored all the reasons that make our market great.

For those who wish to know - I pay $35.61 a month (after all taxes, fees, etc.) for 300 anytime minutes from anywhere on Sprint's network(sorry, the map sucks), which has coverage of all major cities and highways, though coverage is nonexistent in the boonies, to anywhere in the US. Free nights (9pm-7am) and weekends. My wife and I recently traveled about 1000 miles away for a wedding. Used the phone all weekend. It worked, and it didn't cost a cent more than doing it at home. Her parents could call us for free. Try doing that while vacationing from the UK to, say, Austria.

Of course, that's the long view. You could accurately point out that Europe had roughly the same service it has now about 10 years ago, which was definitely not the case in the US.

BTW, you can get long distance a lot cheaper than 5c/minute. I pay about 3.5c a minute after taxes, for service from Primus. And my dialup Net service is $9.95 a month, unlimited. Hard to beat that, really.

I've got wireless internet using Sprint, with a Treo 300.

I've found it to be rather useful, allowing me to work (and play games) at the airport, for example.

It would be nice to see other options available for Wireless, as the latency is horrible. (2.5sec ping, 120 KBps thouroughput).

How is this anything special?
Sprint has a variety of aircards operating on their 1xRTT network at up to 144Kbps. Verizon has an aircard for their 1xEVDO BroadbandAccess network with download speeds of up to 2MBps (also 1xRTT compatible) and another aircard for their 1xRTT NationalAccess network. AT&T Wireless also has an EDGE aircard at up to 384Kbps (they may have a WCDMA one too...not sure) and all of our GSM carriers have GPRS cards. Anyway any carrier with GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/1xRTT/EV-DO or any other wireless data network offers aircards (American or not) and you can pick up unlocked ones up on eBay at decent prices. So why is this front page news?

Sorry but that $15/mo for unlimited data is a LIE.

See Sprint PCS will refuse to sell a UNLIMITED data account for anyone wishing to use a Sprint PCS PCMCIA Connection card. Source: http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/servicePlansOpti onsV2/DataPlans.jsp

As you can see, Sprint's highest data service offering is $80/mo for 300MB of data transfer. Extra MB costs $0.002. Additionally your required to enter into a 1-Year Agreement with Sprint.

Now, the "$15 unlimited data" the poster is talking about is the Sprint PCS Vision Professional Pack. Source: http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/servicePlansOpti onsV2/FreeClearFairFlexiblePlans.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Ef older_id=1478057&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_SCID=ECOMM& CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode=None&CURRENT_USER%3C%3 EATR_cartState=group&bmUID=1094155658077

This $15/mo option is a data service intended for a Sprint PCS cellphone to use to browse the web, send emails, SMS, etc. It was never meant by Sprint PCS to be used as an unlimited data service for a laptop or PDA. In fact, the only way you can use this service for those devices is if you buy a data cable for your Sprint PCS phone that SPRINT WON'T SELL YOU! Sprint PCS *used* to sell data interface cables for their phones but they stoped when they realized the cat was out of the bag. Now you can go online and buy a 3rd party data cable and use the Vision service from your phone as a data service for you PDA/laptop.

HOWEVER, this is no way makes it an OFFICAL service plan or SUPPORTABLE. Hell, in fact Sprint PCS's billing system and customer service are so damn fucked up half the time when I hear of people using their PCS Vision phone for data service they have horror stories to tell about billing screwups. One particular story they got the data cable and told Sprint to enable the unlimited PCS Vision service for their phone and then the next month got a $1300 bill from Sprint!

People need to know that using the Sprint PCS Vision service in this way is a total workaround circumvention and unsupported! I don't know why SPrint PCS hasn't closed this loophole in their system, perhaps their billing system is incapable of dealing with that many data customers. Who knows!

In any case, of all the carriers out there in the US T-Mobile seems to have the most sensible plans. Unlimited data behind a NAT - $20/mo option
Unlimited data with a routeable IP - $20/mo option
Source: http://www.t-mobile.com/products/accessories/addon .asp?action=addDevice&device.id=191405&pc=2&lastSt ep=30

Sorry but that $15/mo for unlimited data is a LIE.

See Sprint PCS will refuse to sell a UNLIMITED data account for anyone wishing to use a Sprint PCS PCMCIA Connection card. Source: http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/servicePlansOpti onsV2/DataPlans.jsp

As you can see, Sprint's highest data service offering is $80/mo for 300MB of data transfer. Extra MB costs $0.002. Additionally your required to enter into a 1-Year Agreement with Sprint.

Now, the "$15 unlimited data" the poster is talking about is the Sprint PCS Vision Professional Pack. Source: http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/servicePlansOpti onsV2/FreeClearFairFlexiblePlans.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Ef older_id=1478057&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_SCID=ECOMM& CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode=None&CURRENT_USER%3C%3 EATR_cartState=group&bmUID=1094155658077

This $15/mo option is a data service intended for a Sprint PCS cellphone to use to browse the web, send emails, SMS, etc. It was never meant by Sprint PCS to be used as an unlimited data service for a laptop or PDA. In fact, the only way you can use this service for those devices is if you buy a data cable for your Sprint PCS phone that SPRINT WON'T SELL YOU! Sprint PCS *used* to sell data interface cables for their phones but they stoped when they realized the cat was out of the bag. Now you can go online and buy a 3rd party data cable and use the Vision service from your phone as a data service for you PDA/laptop.

HOWEVER, this is no way makes it an OFFICAL service plan or SUPPORTABLE. Hell, in fact Sprint PCS's billing system and customer service are so damn fucked up half the time when I hear of people using their PCS Vision phone for data service they have horror stories to tell about billing screwups. One particular story they got the data cable and told Sprint to enable the unlimited PCS Vision service for their phone and then the next month got a $1300 bill from Sprint!

People need to know that using the Sprint PCS Vision service in this way is a total workaround circumvention and unsupported! I don't know why SPrint PCS hasn't closed this loophole in their system, perhaps their billing system is incapable of dealing with that many data customers. Who knows!

In any case, of all the carriers out there in the US T-Mobile seems to have the most sensible plans. Unlimited data behind a NAT - $20/mo option
Unlimited data with a routeable IP - $20/mo option
Source: http://www.t-mobile.com/products/accessories/addon .asp?action=addDevice&device.id=191405&pc=2&lastSt ep=30

Here's an 802.11 friendly phone.

It's free for the phone itself, and it can even be cheaper to get one of those over a "802.11 friendly" 2.4GHz cordless phone plus local+long distance phone service if you don't have dial-up, DSL, TiVo, or DirectTV. And, it's (IIRC) 1.9GHz, so you're safe there.

I had the exact same phone until I dropped it. What a shame, that phone had awesome battery life and great signal stregnth. My past 3 phones had been Sanyo candy-bar style phones and got great reception, but i missed the coolness factor of my old samsung flip-phone (not the reception tho). I decided to replace the broken 4900 with another sanyo, the SCP-8100. This phone is a color flip with camera and vision. The 4 factors for buying this phone were:

1. Vision
2. Use same date cable from 4900
3. Great sanyo reception
4. Flip (yay, I'm r33t now!)

What I didnt take into account was how much battery that thing would suck up. The camera was cool for like a week until I figured how lame the QVGA pics were, but I still post to my moblog just for the hell of it. Anyway, I have to charge this puppy every night and I only talk on it maybe an hour a day, do maybe 10 shortmails (fake SMS), and connect it to the laptop about once a week for email on the go.

What was this thread about again? Oh yeah, PDAs. Um, keeping on topic, if you have a phone and a data cable, you may want to check out bitpim. Its can access your phones calander, phone book, pictures, etc... worth checking out Jeff DeMaagd as its compatible with the 4900.

Now if only sprint would embrace the MS Smartphones, I would love to get a windows mobile phone that could sync with exchange and open word docs. Er, I mean, so I could put linux on it, sync with sendmail, and use vi. right ;)

Give me $600 for this phone.

Another satisfied Sprint customer, I see.

I've been with Sprint for about 3 years now. I had an older model phone prior to this past fall and the range did suck for the most part. I have a much better model phone now. It's quite rare that I fall into a Roam Zone and I have a pretty good signal most places I go. I do still notice a fair amount of network delay once the night hours start, but it'll still dial after a few seconds pause.

A lot of people complain about Sprint, but I've never had any major problems with them to make me want to switch.

i have been using it for months at home. works great on the home wireless network. well, up until i switched to using my 15" powerbook.

despite being quite excited about the possibilities, i'd never run this in a production environment. alot of people run down nfs for being insecure and sucky on any number of levels. i have to say, we had a very active messaging system behind a very high profile website use nfs for two years due to a combination of stupid developers and vendor going out of business. it NEVER broke. and we were churning 100's of thousands of files over nfs per day.

eventually i had to stop bringing it up in meetings cause it never broke. of course YMMV, mine sure did.

Every Sprint Store I've been to had working models. Not those little kiosks in the mall, but brick & mortar stores. A link to their store locator.

No..., no I'm not.

It can be done. I really like the size and feel of this Samsung i500 PalmOS phone.

Support is absolutely dismal. It's actually the same way for many of Sprint's phones. For about two years, developers on Sprint's Developer Forums have begged and begged for even a hint of the data sync protocols. The USB cables have a serial converter, and appear as another com port...but SyncML doesn't work, random AT codes don't work, nothing. Finally, FutureDial managed to get support, but all you can do is sync contacts. And these phones have nice calendars, alarms, countdown timers, SMS, notepads, ringers, wallpaper...none of which can be accessed. Sprint JUST came out with a contact syncing program, which is actually FutureDial's program. Other phones have had this for years and years, you can upload applications, ringers, etc. Nokia has been pretty decent about this, realizing that customers might actually want to use their phones now, instead of waiting two years for an basic contact sync application you still have to plunk cash down for.

I know a guy working through his MBA, sitting in class hooked up to the net wireless through through Verizon Wireless. He's getting a minumum of 144kbps both ways most of the time. Considering that most of the US and world is connected vi dial up, that a bit improvement. He says it works well in most areas, but it has trouble if you're moving, such as while on the train. He said he does get the burst speeds in many situations, but the average speed is quite acceptable (and he's used to a oc-3). Cingular has this too, as well as, Sprint and At&t wireless. The nextel specs cliam to be high, as the other web sites I cites also make their claims, and they all charge premium prices for this service. Given Nextel's pricing, this will also be at a premium rate.

I just don't understand how the last big name to get in the game is considered news. Was their hyped numbers are bigger than the other hyped numbers? Or was it just general ignorance about the market.

How about something like these?

If you're the type that doesn't care for speed, and only cares for such things as SSH, mail, etc. then you definately want to look into Sprint's older Wireless Web.

Its pretty slow, actually its pretty damn slow, its about 19.2kbps. BUT .... its also only 5 dollars a month. AND, you do not get charged for how much data you transfer. Your wireless internet time comes out of your normal cell phone plan. So you can use it during the night and weekend for free. (NOTE: you need a standard dialup company to dial into). Also Sprint has some phones that act as standard AT modems (a whole bunch actually), so linux users need to worry about such.

Verizon also has a great offer. They have Mobile Office which is pretty much the same as Sprint's service. However verizon provides you with a virtual ISP to dial up into. (*No extra* cost to anyone either)

For a little more info, take a gander at this tread

Sunny Dubey

MY Samsung I330 is a great PDA AND a great phone.
I'll give you one good reason for the combo: Integrated dialing from the same address book. Also, it has the ability to be held to your head, use a headset, or use the SPEAKERPHONE. Never mind the fact that carrying 2 devices is a royal PITA.
Lasts 2 days on the small battery, a week on the big one, and I use it contantly. With Sprint PCS Business Connection it even trumps Blackberry, giving me notifications wehn I get new mail, full access to the mail server, and the ability to view attachments and attach files from my PC to outgoing mails.

> three different types of cell networks out here (CDMA, TDMA, Sprint PCS, and now GSM).

Clearly, that is a list of four, not three, but SprintPCS* uses CDMA just like VZW.

Anyway, you were right with the number, but wrong about SprintPCS.

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*Not that you asked, but the difference, and it's a key difference, is that SprintPCS is one of those "Don't leave the huge metro areas, because we have no coverage there" networks*. In other words, it's useless if you ever leave the city (or God forbid, if you don't even live in the city). If you don't believe me, look at this map. Those light-green areas? The ones comprising about the whole continent? Yeah, that's roaming. The kind you have to pay n cents per minute for.

Contrast.