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Best Cell Phone Service for GPRS?
hojo asks: "I have a Palm Tungsten T and I'd like to start using it for (limited) wireless web browsing. It has Bluetooth support and will work with GPRS cell service. Alltel, my current cell provider, doesn't support GPRS so I want to switch to another plan. What cell phone service plans are there that you have used or know about that will work to allow me to use my Palm and preferably a Bluetooth phone for some on-the-road lookup? My only other issue is I'm trying to keep the cost less than $100/month."
The Sony Ericsson T616...fabulous phone - available on on ATTWS and Cingular
The whole point of GPRS is that you pay for the traffic you use (rather than connect time), so if you want to keep costs down, you simply have to keep traffic down. As for the best service, it will depend on what performs well in your area. Here in Western Australia, Vodafone is pretty good, but it your mileage may (will) vary. It shouldn't make any difference what hardware you use: that's just a matter of preference.
In the U.S., your options are T-Mobile and AT&T. T-Mobile is the only U.S. provider that has a nationwide GSM/GPRS network, so they're the best bet for coverage. They're the best bet for price, too. Recently. they changed all their GPRS plans to unlimited usage. with at least a $29 voice plan, you get unlimited GPRS for $19/month. By itself, it's $29/month. I had a Sidekick/Hiptop device for several months, and recently traded for a Pocket PC Phone Edition. I average about 20-30 Kbps download, with occasional peaks around 50 Kbps. I love that tbe connection is "always-on", too. In fact. I read this article. and posted this reply on my Pocket PC phone Edition. :-)
I love being a gadget geek!
W?BIC!
When can I get a GSM phone that'll work over here? I'm sick of paying for the devleopment of a new, proprietary, single-carrier network each year. Time to join the 20th century and go GSM.
Wait, I don't even use a cell phone. My time is too valuable to me.
Most any European operator will provide you with reasonable GPRS plan.
Oh wait, you're not in Europe but in Singapore? Or Angola? Well, then bad luck, I have no idea, you should have stated _where_ you were.
Administrators, could we just skip this kind of submissions that somehow forget that there's world behind borders on poster's Iowa house?
That is expensive. Well, I was under the impression that cell phone rates were cheap in the US. I remember watching ads for "4000 minutes for 40 USD". Rates in Mexico are just crazy. You get 75 minutes for around 35 USD with no SMS. You need to pay 8 dollars more for that, plus 10 USD for 1MB of GPRS.
There is an old discussion about gprs rates in esato
Here's a little background for people in GSM-only land. Outside the U.S. In the U.S., providers refused to standardize their technology, claiming that GSM wasted too much bandwidth. If I remember correctly, CDMA is the leading technology, with TDMA second, and various forms of GSM (not all of them compatibile with international GSM systems) a distant third.
It may not be terribly obvious, but Slashdot is definitely a U.S.-centric site. There's an implicit assumption that the default location for Slashdot stories in the U.S. I don't think that's anything to apologize for, though it could be more clearly stated.
In the US AT&T Wireless services and T-Mobile both have GPRS services. I have a GPRS PC card and it's pretty cool how it works even though it's slow.
I've heard some rumblings of a flat-rate service for *puts pinky to corner of mouth* FIFTY dollars a month!
Don't have GRPS, but instead have 1xRTT, a service much faster and reliable than GRPS. It runs on top of CDMA.
GRPS is dependant on GSM.
But, with T-Mobile you can get unlimited T-Zones (WAP access over GRPS) for $10/mo + voice plan, and with a little luck configure this on a laptop/other device. Or, you can pay $20/mo for unlimited T-Mobile Internet, get faster speeds, and get official tech support.
1xRTT is a better serice than GRPS, though. If you're getting a phone only for data, I'd go for a 1xRTT service.
The AT&T service is fine - though not all the transmitters here have GPRS. AT&T let me keep my non-GPRS cell phone as well (you have to maintain a voice plan along with the data plan). The nice thing is... I've now got 2 cell numbers (one for the non-gprs phone and one for the tunsten w). The non-gprs phone works pretty much everywhere on the island (except places where all cell service is blacked out due to mountains) and the tunsten works many, but not all places (e.g., it doesn't work up on the active volcano - whereas my cell phone has excellant reception there).
AT&T plans start around $20 and go up to around $79 or so... at the $70ish range they do offer an unlimited bandwidth plan.
<offtopic>
Even if slashdot may be US centric as another posting pointed out, there is still no other population in the world who are as unaware of the rest of the world as US citizens are (when looked upon as a group of course, there are exceptions).
When I went to school in the late 80s, there were research published that showed that 10% of the US students could not find USA on a world map. Among these 10% many of them pointed to the Soviet Union (which existed at that time). When asked to explain why they thought that the country they pointed out was the USA - they said "it is the largest country on the map". I wonder if there has been great improvments in the last 1.5 decades?
But to be fair, other large "western" countries have similar "defects", although not as severe. When Readers Digest asked the question "Which EU coutry have the largest population" to citizens of all EU contries, including those that will soon enter the EU, the answers from the citizens in some of the biggest countries spoke for themselves:
In UK, most people answered UK.
In Germany, most people answered Germany.
In France, most people answered France.
And, no, not all of them were right.
</offtopic>
Sincere regards from a smaller EU country! :-)
The $75.55 I paid AT&T last month covered more minutes than I used (56) and more data than I used (7.4 MB). I surf the web recklessly, but I haven't used more than 2MB in any one day yet. The T68i in New York City is somewhat cruddy as a phone (the signal strength is weak), but works okay as a GPRS modem with the Tungsten since I can stick it on the window sill. The T68i battery life is very good.
Off grid, off the coast of Maine on an island with an external directional antenna plugged into one end of my Nokia 6310i and a solar panel plugged into the other end, I enjoyed uninterrupted data service via AT&Ts GPRS service.
I used the infrared port on the phone to link to my laptop. Didn't want to spend the $$$ for a Bluetooth adapter.
Caveat 1 - No unlimited data service plan yet.
Caveat 2 - You get a NAT address 10.x.x.x rather than a routable IP address - so have that VPN ready on your cable modem.
Caveat 3 - Windows based AT&T software that filters ads, compresses graphics and manages dialup. You don't absolutely need it, but it is a big help.
Caveat 4 - Pro-rating of the monthly service charge also pro-rated my data allotment. I went over and was charged much extra $$$.
All that being said, It worked quite well.
-j
I picked up an ATT plan and a Siemens S56 for the sole purpose of using Bluetooth to get on the internet and read slashdot.... And I have to say I was utterly depressed by the speed of the service. The actual transfer of data wasn't horrible, around 33.6K average experience (though it seemed to peak higher at times) - it took a good 10 seconds to resolve DNS and start the data flowing, or whatever the heck ATT was doing. I have heard TMobile / Verizon have pretty decent data plans (unlimted for $20 / month). If you are serious about this whole thing that would be a top choice.
Sony Ericsson phones have lot's of flash, but phones they suck. The display is pretty and eye-candy like screen savers and games are cool. And, it has great connectivity (IRDA and Bluetooth). But, as a telecommunication device they just stink.
All the flash comes at a price, because the phone frequently crashes. I have three different failure modes.
Invalid Mobile The phone dies silently and the banner line reads invalid mobile. This happens approximately once a week. Cycling power and re-entering the PIN corrects the problem.
No Signal The phone has zero signal strenght even in areas with known good signal. This happens twice a week. Cycling power fixes
Self Power Off Sitting on a table (normally on my bedside table when I've relied on it as an alarm clock) it will power itself off. This happens only occasionally. You have to remove the battery to get it to work again. Also, as a telephone call placing instrument, I find that it has numerous usability problems.
No notification for failed calls
When originating calls it says connecting, then goes back to the main screen with no user notification whatever. Which means you cannot dial, then hold the phone to your ear to wait to connect. You have to watch the screen until it connects.
You cannot edit a keyed number
You have to attempt the call, then on redial you can edit your keyed number.
The phonebook is incredibly slow
I have hundreds of contacts, and scrolling the list takes seconds to refresh. It is painful looking for a name.
Keypresses are queued (sometimes)
Remembering that the user interface is very slow, the phone queues keypresses. This could be good. But, when answering a call (for instance), your press the yes/off-hook key you get no response from the UI, so you press it again. Well about 3 out of 5 calls get answered and put immediately on hold by my impatient thumb.
The joystick is fragile
If you carry the phone in a pocket, you can easily jam the joystick either into the select position or a direction. This makes the UI behave even stranger. Or, while scrolling down the list, it will get stuck and overshoot what you were looking for.
I have found that these results are consistent among the various T series phones. I have a new T68i (two months old). My brother has the T300. And, friends with various other generations.
My next phone will be a Nokia. My Nokia 8890 was the best phone I've ever owned. I'm looking at a 6610 as the replacement for my T68i.
[
Cingular and T-Mobile jointly operate their data networks in California but each have their own 10MHz, so call/data volume on one doesn't affect the other. T-Mobile provides Cingular's service in New York, as well. See this press release.
So if you live in one of those two areas, there would be no coverage difference between them and ATT Wireless is the only other option. GPRS roaming between T-Mobile and ATT Wireless does not work, even though they have a voice roaming agreement.
If you're in US, I strongly suggest you to go with T-Mobile with their unlimited GPRS plan. By subscribing to the unlimited GPRS plan, you're not only get internet connection to your phone, but also the ability to send/receive mms. Yes, you do not have to subscribe T-Zone if you're in the unlimited GPRS plan. Currently I'm using Sony Ericsson P800. With unlimited GPRS plan, I can connect my PocketPC, and laptop to internet using bluetooth. Or, use Opera browser for P800 to browse internet right from the phone itself. It's a great device.
Unlimited GPRS dataplan is only $20 if you're in their voice plan, otherwise you have to pay more.
So think of it as paying an additional dial-up service per month.
The GPRS connection itself is not bad at all. It is comparable to dial-up. I can do a 21k wma streaming audio from http://www.di.fm/ and still can chat online.
I used to go online using dial-up account with a cell phone. Trust me, you don't want to go this path. It is even slower than 9600 bps modem.
The best thing about GPRS is that you can receive call when you're online. When the phone rings, it will postpone the connection, and receive the voice call. Don't go with cheap CSD or HCSD, go with GPRS.
However, if you're online with a laptop, as soon as you pick-up that voice call, your dial-up connection will be dropped. You have to reconnect after you're done talking.
Bottom line, go with T-Mobile GPRS unlimited data plan. You won't regret it.
Why not just go for the $30 a month T-Mobile unlimited GPRS plan? That is one of the best deals I have ever heard of.
I live in the UK, and GPRS charges here are mad (and you have to have a voice plan as well) - we pay 15 a month (which is around $30) for only 7Mb!
I wish we had an unlimited GPRS plan that cheap in the UK. Take advantage of it - you're lucky.
"T-Mobile has better coverage than any other provide in Northern/Central New Jersey."
Look at T-Mobile's coverage map: http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/Default.asp
Then look at Verizon's coverage map.
Oh look, Verizon is STILL the only provider that can cover 100% of the landmass of the most densely populated state in the union.
And I *live* in Central Jersey (Bridgewater, I work in Warren) - My Verizon phone routinely works in places where T-Mobile phones don't work. I have yet to go anywhere that my Verizon phone does NOT work around here, with the exception of inside the office building I work in where no one's phones work. (The building was built with significant RF shielding due to the fact that we develop power amplifiers for cell towers - Between that and all the interference from amps being tested, no one's phones work reliably anywhere but the lunchroom.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
My experience with my T68i and AT&T service has been, for the most part, phenomenal. But maybe I'm just easy-to-please. I have just a few comments about thedave's points above:
I have three different failure modes.
I have never seen a phone failure. Sometimes I can't access my addressbook for a brief period of time after powering the phone on.
No notification for failed calls
Yes, I've noticed that calls that fail to connect do not result in a voice notification; I end up waiting for far too long until I realize that it just isn't going to connect.
You cannot edit a keyed number
I don't know what this means, which I guess means that I've never tried it.
The phonebook is incredibly slow
I've not experienced slowness, but rather not being able to use it at all for a brief time after powering the phone on.
The joystick is fragile
Never for me. And I always carry it in my pocket.
I switched from T-Mobile last winter and have had no problems at all. I'm near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for what it's worth. Just wanted to note my experiences perhaps as a contrast to thedave.
T-Mobile is great, if you can get a signal. Most times, I have to make calls from the sidewalk outside my house, because of the lack of a signal from even my porch. I called 'Customer Care,' and the reason for the piss-poor signal is that two of the four towers effecting my zipcode have been down for over a month. But for my troubles, they gave me a whopping credit of... five lousy bucks.
All I know that you need to get a tri-mode phone in the minimum. I have the PocketPC phone... love the phone Hate the service. At least with a tri-mode phone it could possibly hop over to CDMA if it needs to. (i think this can be done) My business partner and I dislike the service so much that we are dropping the service (T-Mobile has been nice enough to not bill us for the phones or the early termination fee) and probably switching over to Verizon or Nextel. Just need to find a decent PDA/Phone... Any suggestions? My phone will probably be going up on Ebay soon so be on the lookout.