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!"

Comments

Symetric?

[skrowl]

Is it 7-12K upload speed as well

Re:Symetric?

[Necroman]

Unlimited PCS Vision. Sprint may deny or terminate service without notice where use is in connection with server devices or host computer applications, other systems that drive continuous heavy traffic or data sessions, or as substitutes for private lines or frame relay connections. Unlimited PCS Vision offer for PCS Free & Clear Plans with Vision is: (a) only available with a Vision capable PCS Phone or PCS smart phone device; and (b) not available with Connection Cards, Aircards, or any other device used in connection with a computer or PDA - including phones, smart phones or other devices used with connection kits or similar phone-to-computer/PDA accessories. Sprint reserves the right to deny or to terminate service without notice for misuse.

They will just cut you off if you are running a server or some other mode that continuously uses up their bandwidth.

Great..except it violates the new TOS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Connection to the Vision network via anything other than a Vision enabled phone is a violation of the new TOS. In fact, SPCS has gone so far as to remove the PC connection kits from stores and the online shop.

Check out alt.cellular.sprintpcs for details.

Re:Great..except it violates the new TOS.

[swordboy]

Connection to the Vision network via anything other than a Vision enabled phone is a violation of the new TOS.

No it doesn't.

Re:Great..except it violates the new TOS.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it does. Here is the TOS for the Sprint Vision service plan copy'n'pasted (bold is my emphasis):

Service Plan: Offer ends 12/31/02 and requires a one-year PCS Advantage Agreement. Night & Weekend hours are Mon-Thu 9pm-7am & Fri 9pm-Mon 7am. $150 early termination and non-refundable $34.99 phone activation fee applies to each phone activated on the account. Service plans not available in certain markets. Subject to credit. Depending on credit: (a) select Affiliate markets may require an initial prepayment for services; and (b) a $125 or $250 deposit may apply. Voice usage rounded to the next whole minute. Prices do not include taxes. Included minutes are not good for calls made while roaming off our network, whether local or long distance. Roaming calls are charged $0.50 per minute with an additional $0.25 per minute for long distance. Restrictions apply. PCS Vision (Data) Services: Unlimited PCS Vision offer limited to PCS Phones and is not available with any device used as a modem. Requires a Sprint Vision-enabled PCS Phone. Services are not available everywhere. Access to and downloading of premium content is not included. You will incur separate, additional charges for premium content.

how long will it last?

[fifedrum]

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.

Get 1XRTT service from Verizion, 144Kpbs

[malakai]

You can get unlimited data access from them for 90 bucks a month.

60 bucks for the USB cable. Phone appears as a USB modem to the OS.

-Malakai

My experience

[prisoner]

I bought one of these, along with the pc connection kit. The speed is ok but it still "seems" slow. I had great signal but it takes forever to actually contact the site. Once it starts rolling it isn't too bad but the time it takes (4-5 seconds) to get the transfer rolling sucks. Bottom line is that it's not bad for ocassional use - checking email and whatnot when you're going from place to place but I wouldn't want it as my primary net connection.

Nextel's Offering

[Atryn]

FYI - Nextel offers PacketStream Gold $ 54.99 / month (currently 1st month free) which you can get on a phone (tether to a laptop or PDA) or on an iM1100 modem card (PCMCIA). For this price you get unlimited access to the largest packet-data network in the United States.

Speeds on Nextel are "up to 56k" according to the PR, but reliably I have gotten 20-40 kbps in Knoxville, San Diego, Atlanta, Roanoke, and Maui, Hawaii. I've even used it driving 200+ miles at a time (well *I* wasn't driving) without dropping connection or speed at all along the way.

Unlimited PCS Vision minutes not for use with PC?

[raygundan]

I can't seem to find it now, but Sprint had a disclaimer on their page about using the "unlimited" PCS Vision minutes with a PC. The original wording said that you could only use the unlimited time with the phone itself, not as a data connection for your laptop or whatever. Can anybody confirm if they have changed this?

For $40 Bucks...

[telstar]

For $40 bucks I want Sprint to stop screwing around with their service and stop making changes that complicate things for their users. In the past 4-5 months these changes have taken effect:

• Sprint relocated the due-date on Sprint bills making is more difficult to find the "pay by" date
• Sprint voice-mail no longer states the name of the caller. Instead you get to listen to a verbose reading of their phone number ... adding about 10 seconds to every call
• The voice-mail indicator requires that you stay on the call an additional 2-3 seconds longer than you used to, when picking up voice mail, in order for the indicator icon to disappear on your phone. If you hang up too soon, you'll have to call back to listen to "No new messages" before it disappears.

This is just a sampling of the changes Sprint has made over the past few months. I can't see how any of them were implemented for any other reason than to increase their profits. Additionally, ALL mobile phone companies are guilty of delaying phone-number portability, because they know that once people can leave their network and take their phone number with them it will open up a completely new area for competition.

Re:Perhaps this is a dumb question...

[grahamsz]

Ummmm my 3 yr old cellphone connects quite happily with IR to my laptop.

Most new phones have bluetooth which should have some support in linux and means you can leave your phone in your pocket.

The downside is that downloading will zap your phone batteries...

His website hosted on the phone- (here is mirror)

[Anonymous Coward]

As his phone feels the /. effect that only few can survive, and yes west exodus is barely holding on!

Hrmm...wonder if you can play counter-strike on this bad boy. Would be cool to get a demo unit and see how well this bad boy frags!

What sucks ass is that we just signed 2 1-year contracts for our cellphone...crap! Oh well though I have been told before that Sprint customer service sucks realy bad and service is very crappy too!

Here is the info from his website.

This document describes how to connect a Linux box to Sprint's "Vision" (3G) network using a Sanyo SCP-4900 and the PCS Connection Kit USB cable.

Id: sanyo-4900 php v 1.2 2002/11/06 02:02:11 natecars Exp

Background:
In my ever-lasting search for high speed wireless internet access, I decided to try out Sprint PCS's new Vision service. They recently dropped their prices, so for $40/mo, I'm getting 300 anytime minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends, free long distance, and unlimited 'high speed' (56-144k) data. The best part is that it's simple to get working with Linux - all you need is the proper USB drivers, and the knowledge to set up a PPP connection. The phone cost me $99.99 (after a $50 instant rebate), and the USB cable cost me $69.99. Note that the USB cable looks like it's identical to the one that Sanyo sells directly for $29.99, if you'd like to try that cable, go to https://store.sanyousa.com/osb/showitem.cfm/Catego ry/24.

First Step: Make sure your kernel has the right options
To use the PCS phone, you'll need to have USB support for the USB card in your computer, and support for USB ACM devices (CONFIG_USB_ACM). The kernel included with recent versions of both Debian and RedHat includes everything you need. Also make sure you have hotplugging enabled, so that the modules will be loaded automatically.

Second Step: Plug in the phone, and watch the drivers load
All you need to do is plug in your phone, and all the drivers should be loaded automatically. Note that I have had a few cases where I needed to reset the phone to get the USB interface to show up. When I plug my phone in, I see the following:

Nov 5 19:35:29 knight kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:07.2-1, assigned address 2
Nov 5 19:35:29 knight kernel: usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x474/0x701) is not claimed by any active driver.
Nov 5 19:35:33 knight /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup acm for USB product 474/701/0
Nov 5 19:35:33 knight kernel: usb.c: registered new driver acm
Nov 5 19:35:33 knight kernel: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
Nov 5 19:35:33 knight kernel: acm.c: v0.21:USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters

Third Step: Create a dialup connection
Now that you've got an ACM device, you just need to create a dialup connection. The 'magic number' to dial to get a connection to the Vision network is '#777'. So, use whatever method you prefer to create a dialer that will dial #777. On my Debian box, I'm using the standard 'pon' scripts. Here are the config files I use:

/etc/ppp/peers/sprint:

# You usually need this if there is no PAP authentication
noauth
# The chat script (be sure to edit that file, too!)
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/sprint"
# Set up routing to go through this PPP link
defaultroute
# Use remote DNS
usepeerdns
# Default modem (you better replace this with /dev/ttySx!)
/dev/ttyACM0
# Connect at high speed
230400
local

/etc/chatscripts/sprint:

TIMEOUT 5
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' \rAT
TIMEOUT 12
OK ATD#777
TIMEOUT 22
CONNECT ""

So, I run the command 'pon sprint', wait a few seconds, and then start surfing. I generally get ping times of 300-500ms, and download speeds of 7-12kbytes/sec. Not bad at all, considering it's a connection I can take with me everywhere I go! Note that Sprint also gives you a public IP address, where the rest of the wireless phone connections I've tried have been NAT translated. Note that this service works beautifully with FreeS/WAN as a VPN Client. Well, hope this has been helpful.. good luck getting your connection up!

If you have any comments on this document, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at: natecars@natecarlson.com

That's probably not his goal

[brunes69]

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.

Yes it does.

[_xeno_]

And I quote from the Agreement for the very plan the story submitter is quoting (the plan I'm going to be switching to shortly for my phone):

Sprint may deny or terminate service without notice where use is in connection with server devices or host computer applications, other systems that drive continuous heavy traffic or data sessions, or as substitutes for private lines or frame relay connections. Unlimited PCS Vision offer for PCS Free & Clear Plans with Vision is: (a) only available with a Vision capable PCS Phone or PCS smart phone device; and (b) not available with Connection Cards, Aircards, or any other device used in connection with a computer or PDA - including phones, smart phones or other devices used with connection kits or similar phone-to-computer/PDA accessories. Sprint reserves the right to deny or to terminate service without notice for misuse.

The reality I got from that section is that basically if you try and use your phone as your primary Internet connection, they'll shut you down. But if you just use the phone occasionally as an alternate method of connecting to the Internet, then they'll probably leave you alone.

Basically, what this guy is doing does go against the agreement needed to receive the "Unlimited PCS Vision" option. But yes, you can get plans that are designed for use with laptops/PDAs, but at around $40/month for 20MB total and $100/month for unlimited access. And these plans do not come with voice calling, or any features related to it - they are purely for Internet access.

Almost got rid of that T3

[strictnein]

But then I read the TOS:

Sprint PCS Vision enabled devices can not be used as substitutes for private lines or frame relay connections.

Damn... better call the phone company and tell them not to turn off my T3.

Get files to your phone

[strictnein]

If you're interested into getting files to your new Vision phone (and not paying for the stupid downloads that Sprint has) check out their development pages

http://developer.sprintpcs.com/adp/welcome.do?re di rect=welcome

Not really the greatest resource, but it contains some decent info

Translating the salesman lingo

[heroine]

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.

loophole

[WhiteChocolate42]

Unlimited data but only 300 voice minutes? Easy:

1. VoIP
2. ???
3. Profit!!