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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!
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?
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.
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.
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.