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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 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!
The GSM used in the US is compatible with Europe. There are 3 bands commonly used by GSM. Only 2 of these are used in the US, since the third is in the unlicensed 900MHz spectrum (a licensed spectrum in most of the world).
Dual-band GSM phones work fine in the US, but may be more succeptible to bandwidth crowding. But international GSM phones work fine in the US, and US GSM phones work fine outside the US (just about every country outside the US uses GSM).
--Be human.
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.
Just a minor comment:
The TDMA you refer to is officially called D-AMPS I believe. It uses TDMA as its modulation scheme - But so does GSM.
Most CDMA providers (Basically all for now, this will change with UMTS) use cdmaOne or CDMA2000. CDMA2000 is a seamless upgrade from cdmaOne. (cdmaOne phones work on CDMA2000 networks and vice versa, unlike UMTS and GSM, which are completely incompatible with each other.) UMTS (3G GSM) also uses CDMA for modulation.
Of the providers in the U.S.
Verizon - cdmaOne, rolling out CDMA2000 gradually
Sprint PCS - Small CDMA2000 network. They rolled out CDMA2000 to all their towers at once.
AT&T - Formerly D-AMPS. Their D-AMPS network was #1 in coverage, even better than VZW. AT&T shot themselves in the foot by upgrading to GSM. Not only did they negate their coverage advantage, but they rolled out a dead-end technology with no upgrade path. (UMTS requires new base stations, new phones, and new RF heads network-wide. A partial UMTS rollout is not possible.)
Cingular - Another D-AMPS gone GSM provider.
VoiceStream (now T-Mobile) - Has been GSM since Day 1. Worst coverage and service of any provider in the nation. GSM can't seem handle multiple providers gracefully, so many T-Mobile customers started getting "Service Unavailable" the day that AT&T or Cingular put a GSM tower on-air in their area. (See an above comment about AT&T's "No Service Weekends" plans.)
Nextel - Uses Motorola's iDEN system. Completely proprietary, but is firmly entrenched in the construction/contractor business due to their direct-connect functionality.
There are also a few smaller CDMA providers, such as Alltel. Note that Verizon seems to have roaming agreements with all of the other CDMA providers, very often "one-way" ones. (Verizon customers can use Sprint towers as part of their plan, but Sprint customers can't use VZW towers. Of course, VZW customers are paying more per minute for that privilege. As a VZW customer - It's worth it. I hear people with other providers complain about their cell service routinely - My service is great.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
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.
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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.