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Date:	Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:02:24 PST8
From:	Steve Carter <scarter@vcnet.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Cell phone as modem

Content Type: text/plain

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I have Sprint and bought their cell-phone to DB9 serial cable along
with the windows driver disk for $40. For an additional $5/month
I can use my minutes to connect my laptop to my ISP via dial-up
over cell-phone at 14.4Kbs (bits, not bytes).

The "modem" is actually at SPRINT somewhere. The call type is
indicated as DATA on the cell phone. I occasionally use it,
but only on on my unlimited evenings and weekends. It's pretty
slow. There is no per-MB charge.

The new video phones hold promise for substantially higher
data rates but SPRINT said it wasn't ready for data yet,
last time I asked (months ago).

Caveat Emptor:
--------------
Sprint's billing folks don't talk with anyone there and I once had
to endure months of annoying "please make your account current"
"courtesy calls" while they got their act together correcting
a billing error. Cussing at them didn't seem to help. I'm not
sure it made me feel a lot better, either. Then, after they got
it fixed, I had to endure another round of "thank you for getting
your account current" "courtesy calls".

It's hard to recommend SPRINT under these conditions, but we're
still with them, probably because of inertia. Plus I've bought a
small pile of chargers, cases, spare batteries, antennas, etc. which
only work with our PCS phones. It's not just the cost of the phones!.

It seems to me that SPRINT's CDMA is a superior way of doing things,
but, then, what do I know? I still get dropped calls as often as the
next guy. And there was no SPRINT cell service in Santa Barbara (CA)
until fairly recently (I still remember borrowing a buddy's phone
to call home.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On 1/21/05, Ray Davison wrote, in part:
>In the near future I intend to connect a cell phone to a laptop as a
>modem. I actually did this at a Cingular store and was about to buy
>new phones and a new contract until they said it would cost a penny
>per Kbyte ($10/M), or no extra charge, or some other charge -- I did
>not properly record the third persons answer.
>
>Verizon and T-Mobile say no extra charge.
>
>Sprint said they would cancel the account of anyone who did it.
>
>Anyone have any experience with this? Note, this has nothing to do
>with a dedicated plugin modem and ISP service, this is a cell phone,
>connected by cable or IR to a PC, serving as a standard modem to do
>all the things a land line modem does. Modern phones have this
>capability. >Ray
>=====================================================

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