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Internet Access via Cell Phone HOWTO
Nate Carlson writes "I've been searching for a decently fast, inexpensive wireless 'net access solution. It's finally here! Sprint recently cut their PCS Vision pricing so that US$40/mo gets you unlimited data and 300 voice minutes to boot. I've written up a document on how to get this working with Linux - it works great, and averages 7-12kbytes/sec download speed. All I can say is, wow!"
This is pretty cool, really 'News for Nerds'. Too bad it's Sprint though, most of the people I know that have had wireless through them have been pretty unhappy with it. Get it set up and enjoy it while it lasts, I can't see it lasting too long.
For those on the road though this would really make sense. For those areas that actually get good Sprint connectivity. I'd love to test this out on a train and see if it'll hold up to handoffs along the way travelling the Amtrak NE corridor (Washington-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York-Boston).
It sounds like a good solution to some problems I've been having, rather conflicts between wanting to stay connected and wanting to hang out with the kids at the in-laws... But I can't help but wonder how long the service will be "unlimited data" before they start charging by the byte or minute once we're hooked on it.
Who is going to run a server on 7k/sec? He is probably asking because he is planning on doing somehting I wanted to do... take a big road trip, and bring the old laptop and digicam. The ability to quickly upload pics to your home from anywhere, combined with some short postings, makes for a nice "live" view of your trip from a website you can give your friends the URL to.
Another possible application is security... you could have your car auto-upload its position (gathered via a cheap GPS unit) along with a snapshot of the driver (via a hidden X10 camera) to a website every half hour or something, from a hidden cheap P133 in the trunk. This would be invaluble if your car ever got stolen.
After the "anytime minutes" quote, the "unlimited evenings and weekends" quote, the "$99.99 (after a $50 instant rebate)" and the "if you'd like to try that cable, go to" line, I was getting no less suspicious about the real costs than someone shopping for a car. But I wasn't shopping for anything.
Is the "unlimited data" the same as "unlimited vision"? Is "unlimited vision" unlimited in the sense that it's unlimited if you use it on weekends only? Technically everything is unlimited if you only use 300 weekday minutes. Already got screwed by Excite@Home/AT&T broadband/Bin Laden's whore.
At the least, the $150 phone, or rather, the "$99.90 (after $50 instant rebate)" phone is $150 more than my last phone cost. And the $528 yearly cost including tax or rather the "$40/mo" fee is $72 more per year than my last plan.