Sprint PCS and PDA?

[Sheynk]

Ok, I know that the sprint vision plans give web capability for the phones.
And that you can buy a gprs card to surf the internet @ $40 for 20MB (i think)

Anyway that is not the point. I am planning on getting a cell from Sprint PCS with Vision. If I get the link cable....will I be able to surf the web @56K (approx.) using the unlimited pcs vision of my phone?

Does anyone here use their phone as a modem?


Any help is appreciated

Thanks guys
Sheynk

[Newsboy]

I use my SprintPCS Motorola TimePort as a cell modem with my Audiovox Maestro using the link cable. You will not be able to do this with PCS vision service however. PCS Vision does not support the use of cellular phones as cellular modems, only older phones on the "free and clear" network support this option (which is why I haven't upgraded my service plan or phone!).

If you want PCS Vision and want to use a PDA on their network, you have to buy one of the PocketPC Phone Edition devices or one of the Palm/Treo devices they sell. Be forewarned that "3G" high speed access is not as fast as advertised. Tests have shown actual in use speeds of 20-30 kpbs. I get 19,200 using the last-generation Sprint PCS technology.

[disconnected]

Do a search on the Brighthand forums. There are some threads about this. As far as I know, the only Vision phone that can support a serial connection is the LG-5350. Both Supplynet and Gomadic make cables for this phone and iPAQs, but I don't know if either one of them makes a cable for the Maestro. In theory, you are not supposed to use a phone as a laptop or pda modem with the free unlimited Vision plan, but, in practice, people have said that it is possible, and that Sprint will only cut you off or charge you if you use it too much (whatever that is).

[Sheynk]

funny thing is that the sales person that it is possible...was he wrong?

see...that is why you can never trust sales people

Any second/third oppinions anybody?

[Sheynk]

hmm couldnt find that forum

keep em coming

[TheNewSteve]

Stay away from Sprint!

If you want to go wireless with your PDA for internet, I've heard good things about using a Ericsson t68i with bluetooth and a bluetooth CF card in the PDA over GPRS. My t68i should be here from Amazon.com (i got it for $250 minus a $250 rebate, free) next week. Will post about success or lack thereof.

GPRS is much faster than Vision is right now. I had a Vision phone and it sucks, the Java games take 1-3 minutes to load up and aren't really that good, certainly not worth waiting for when you just have a couple minutes and not things you'd spend time on sitting on your couch.

Vision has to reconnect/login to the network for every action you do... to send one line of SMS, you have to first select MSG, then shortmail, then wait as it logs in... then it will say the site is not secure, do you want to continue, then you have to wait as it logs in, then it loads your shortmail menu (which can take a while). then to hit compose, you wait... then to enter the name, you click the box, type it in... wait... type your message. to add an icon, you click the button, then you wait... while it loads the icon page... each page of icons takes several seconds to load, then if you choose one or not, it takes 5-10 seconds to go back to your SMS page, then to send (which it did about half the time and takes as long as 30 seconds or freezes up) click the button and... you guessed it, wait.

With my friend's t68i, you just click SMS, type the number, type the message, hit send and it's sent instantly because the phone is always connected to GPRS. no logging in, no waiting, no changing entire screens for each step. Messages also had a much higher success rate of going through, most showing up on my phone.

The internet on the Vision phones is useless... you have access to a CNN.com page which has a whopping 10 new stories a week it seems like, the weather (which is essential when you're out and about), no directions to things, no movie times... there is a google search page that will translate any page you find into text that is readable on your phone, but only about 2 or 3 phone screens worth (including text from ads and links), and takes a LONG time between screens, as you need to reconnect every time.

Also, Vision has NO aol im, T-Mobile does. T-mobile's AIM will let you deduct the IM messages from your SMS messages (500 for $2.99 or much less if you just have a data plan).

I'll pay $10 for 2MB a month or $20 for 10MB a month... according to a brochure, on a pocketPC, 1MB will get you 350 web pages or 350 emails. SMS messages are litterly just bytes. We'll see.... i don't plan on downloading files or anything from my phone use.

Also, sprint misbilled me several times and had to comp a couple different months and add about $109 of data for a month that was unlimited when they activated Vision but didn't put the plan promotion on my account... I will never go back. Plus the Sprint phones don't have IR or bluetooth.

Stay away!

-Steve

[disconnected]

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65458

[Sheynk]

TheNewSteve,

I am not planning on using Vision as on the phone, I am planning on using the phone as a modem for my PPC.

Is it really that bad with the loads?

The problem is that there are no "unlimited" GPRS plans that I know of. I am on a tight budget here (said a guy with a 3955) and dont want to pay per MB of data that I download. Plus the screens on PCS phones are great and they have good deals right now.

Please someone tell me that is all good!!!!

[Sheynk]

just read through that forum




WHOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111 :D