I want a BLUETOOTH phone that works with Sprint!

[MultiMatt]

A short while ago, I upgraded from an iPAQ 3850 to a 3970. I was so excited about having a Bluetooth model, and could not wait to get a BT-enabled phone to use with it (my current setup is with a Motorola StarTac and one of those $60 cables, which works, but is very inconvenient..).

But, it would appear that Sprint does not have one single phone that is BT-enabled!!!! I have searched and searched, to no avail...

Does anyone know of a phone that I might be missing, that could work on Sprint?

My company uses Sprint, and the only other option they will let me consider is Verizon. From what I know, Verizon only has the Motorola Timeport 270c, which requires an additional $100 BT battery... ugh!!!

Figures - I'd love to use one of those Ericsson T68's, but neither of these carriers uses it... :cry:

Any ideas? Suggestions?!!!

Thanks,
Matt

[Underwater Mike]

But, it would appear that Sprint does not have one single phone that is BT-enabled!!!! I have searched and searched, to no avail...

Sorry, you're out of luck -- Sprint doesn't even offer any regular phones (i.e., non-integrated devices) with infrared ports! I'd switch carriers to use a BT phone, except (1) I still have 9 mos on my contract; and (2) more importantly, I've had the same number for 5 years and don't want to lose it.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why Sprint's so backward...

[disconnected]

I'm in somewhat the same boat...upgraded to the 3970, and anxiously awaited the new high-speed Sprint network. I cannot believe they could not release a single bluetooth phone. I read a quote from a Sprint executive saying that their customers had no interest in bluetooth! I don't know who these mythical customers are.

I have Sprint service now and am also using a motorola phone and Supplynet cable (I also have a Sierra aircard 510, but never use it because it is so much slower than the phone/cable connection for some reason).

I've been considering getting the Yiso CF card when it comes out at the end of this month, but, given my experience with the 510 card, I'm a little apprehensive about it -- one would think, since it's a CF card, and therefore specifically targeted to PDAs rather than laptops, that the appropriate drivers and compression software for Pocket PC would be available, but I really don't trust Sprint (when the aircard 510 came out, it was many, many months before Pocket PC software became available).
It would also require me to keep the Silver Slider on the iPAQ all the time, and I've gotten used to not having to carry it all the time. I'd also need to find another case, which I'm not anxious to do; I'm very happy with my current Inooch case.

A Verizon rep told me that there would be bluetooth phones before too long, but had no evidence to back up this prediction; I also don't know how widespread their high-speed service is.

I'm seriously considering TMobile, but I'm not sure about the coverage.
A Voicestream rep told me that high-speed service was available on their whole network, but other people have told me that's not true. I guess I need to do more research. Does anyone have any information about this?

I REALLY want to lose the cable. :!:

[Thinkingman]

You will have GPRS available if youdo T-Mobile. so that is the good news. Like anything else, it does have high speed but it varies on what that high speed is. Reps do always talk it up to sell it, but the best thing to do is to ask as many unbiased people as possible who use their GPRS service. I have seen it used on an Ipaq and it seemed ok to me, but I havent seen it used on a consistant basis.

[MultiMatt]

Disconnected,
I know that at this point, Verizon has the Motorola Timeport 270c, which is bluetooth (with a special battery) but the technology on that phone is 2 years old (ancient in technology terms). They are allegedly getting the LG VX-9000, which is due out in October (delayed from July, then August).
No one at Verizon will confirm or deny this phone being available soon - they are so slick! But, I have read about it on numerous Mobile Phone websites.
It sounds like a nice phone, and if I could be confident that it was going to be available in a month (and i can't), I would hold out and switch to Verizon from Sprint.
I can't stand Sprint anyway.... I've had numerous phones and they all drop calls. I travel a lot, and just can't deal with the instability.

Matt

[Janak Parekh]

I know that at this point, Verizon has the Motorola Timeport 270c, which is bluetooth (with a special battery) but the technology on that phone is 2 years old (ancient in technology terms). They are allegedly getting the LG VX-9000, which is due out in October (delayed from July, then August).
By the way, Verizon discontinued the 270c. It's only 14.4kbps CDMA anyway.

This is a most frustrating tendency -- CDMA manufacturers, for some reason, don't see fit to include Bluetooth. I switched to Voicestream, bad coverage and all, so that I could use the T68, and the bluetooth functionality is great. I could see why cheap phones wouldn't have it initially, but the new Sprint phones are color, support high-speed, etc. etc.

Well, I have 6+ months left on my VS contract... hopefully one of the CDMA manufacturers will get it by then. The VX-9000 is indeed the one of the few (the Ericsson T60c being the other) with both Bluetooth and 1xRTT, but I've heard rumors encompassing delayed to cancelled entirely (the T60c, for one, appears to have dropped off the face of the earth :(). Besides, I'd like a T68 CDMA equivalent, with color, etc... (I can dream, can't I? ;))

It's almost as if the phone manufacturers/carriers are holding up Bluetooth adoption by themselves. Bluetooth chips are so cheap, every phone should have them before long IMHO. *sigh*

Is there some influential corporate type that could slap Verizon and Sprint over the head on these forums? :)

--bdj

[njb42]

I had the Timeport 270c for a week before returning it to Verizon. The Bluetooth barely worked and, as BigDaddyJ pointed out, it was only 14.4Kbps CDMA anyway.

I now use the T68m with VoiceStream and I'm loving it, for the most part. I occasionally have problems with my Bluetooth headset (a SonyEricsson HBH-30), but GPRS connections seem pretty reliable to my iPAQ 3835.

As for Sprint, they have nothing on the horizon at all. I'm now a member of the Sprint PCS Small Business Dealer Network, and I just went to sales training last week in Philadelphia. They are barely aware of Bluetooth technology.

AFAIK there are no phones currently available that combine CDMA2000 1xRTT and Bluetooth anyway. The Audiovox CDM9155 could have had Bluetooth (its Qualcomm MSM chipset supports it) but Audiovox chose not to include it. D'OH!