[geeks] Cellular data services

[N.Miller]

On Feb 10, 2004, at 5:30 AM, Dan Duncan wrote:
>
> My experiences with a workstation were in windoze XP using a
> SonyEricsson T610 and P800 over both bluetooth and USB on Tmobile.
> Tmobile doesn't have the best GPRS coverage, but they charge $20/month
> for unlimited GPRS data.  AT&T wants something like $80/month.

I guess an important question to ask is, what are you going
to be doing on this data connection?  If you are not going
to be doing anything fancy, then T-Mo will probably be OK.
I used SSH on the SK, which was GPRS, and it was pretty
slow, reminiscent of the old 9600/14.4 days (Theoretically,
it could be 19.2, if all the cells are supporting your
data connection but data is lower priority than voice.
Nextel guarantees 19.2 through a separate data band on
their cells).

ATT's Edge uses a different technology, and so speeds are
consistently better than 28.8--at times up to double, but
consistently in the 30-35 area according to my friend.  He
and his wife don't use the modems in their laptops anymore.
(They have tech info on their web site--looks like there
are some opportunities there for developers to get in on
the ground floor with them and develop a business
relationship.  Anyone have an idea for the "killer app"
for cell phones?)

So, I'd decide based on what factors are most important to
you: price, coverage, performance.  Sounds like the typical
sys admin equation--you can have two, but not three. ;-)

=Nadine=

(who is idling at home b/c her contracting agency was too
dumb to be proactive and figure out she maxed out her
contract ours last week :-( and now they are scrambling)