Advice on using Bluetooth enabled phone with PPC.

[Wallet Boy]

Good morning,

I recently purchased a T68i phone with the intentions of using it with my Toshiba e335 sometime in the future. I have some inquiries that I had not been able to find answers to elsewhere.

My service provider is T-Mobile and I was interested in using the high-speed GRPS service but was kind of put off by the price structure of the service. It is possible to sign up with a dial up provider like Earthlink and use the phone as a modem and use voice minutes for the calls? Any disadvantages to using this?

If I do decide to sign up for the GRPS services how much bandwidth should I sign up for? I expect only to use it for email services and possibly instant messaging, with limited web browsing.

I must apologize if these questions have been asked before, I did use the search feature but did not find anything exactly nailing down what I needed.

[Janak Parekh]

My service provider is T-Mobile and I was interested in using the high-speed GRPS service but was kind of put off by the price structure of the service. It is possible to sign up with a dial up provider like Earthlink and use the phone as a modem and use voice minutes for the calls? Any disadvantages to using this?
Yes, you can. You won't get the high-speed, though; as opposed to 56Kb modem-like speeds with GPRS, you'll get 9.6Kb speeds, and it will use minutes from your plan.

If I do decide to sign up for the GRPS services how much bandwidth should I sign up for? I expect only to use it for email services and possibly instant messaging, with limited web browsing.
I have the 10MB/19.95 plan, which I find to be a good balance. I use around 2MB per month or so right now myself, which involves maybe 5-15 minutes of websurfing a few days a week. I would use it more but I'm often near broadband as it is. :)

I must apologize if these questions have been asked before, I did use the search feature but did not find anything exactly nailing down what I needed.
No problem. Hope this helps, feel free to ask more questions.

--janak

[ryanmjones]

Janak,

What phone and PPC do you have? And how did you set it up to use T-Mobile GPRS. I mentioned GPRS with their tech (un)support and they thought I was some sort of wierdo.

Thanks

[daS]

I concure with Janak.

According to spb's GPRS monitor software (and my own estimates) I use about 2-3MB per month with little web surfing and mostly checking email headers and writing a few messages. Like Janak, I usually find a faster connection - including T-Mobile's Wi-Fi hotspots.

But Cingular seems to have a problem keeping track of GPRS usage, since my bill normally shows about 10-20% of my actual data usage. In any case I stay under my contracted limit, so I wouldn't be charged more anyway. Still it's strange. Perhaps they are billing bytes as bits? 8O

In any case, I would suggest going with T-Mobile's lowest GPRS plan and use the GPRS Monitor software to see how much data you actually use. If it looks like you need more, T-Mobile should be happy to increase your bill to the next higher plan.

[Wallet Boy]

Update!

Okay, I've got the BT/SD card, I got the phone, and I have T-Mobile T-Zones Pro (which I may have made a mistake on after reading a few posts in may search). How (if I can with T Zones Pro) set up my PPC to access the internet via BT? I tried a few of the setups I found in a search of the wireless forum, but none worked for me. Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong? Other then maybe buying the wrong plan! :oops:

[daS]

Okay, I've got the BT/SD card, I got the phone, and I have T-Mobile T-Zones Pro (which I may have made a mistake on after reading a few posts in may search). How (if I can with T Zones Pro) set up my PPC to access the internet via BT? I tried a few of the setups I found in a search of the wireless forum, but none worked for me. Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong? Other then maybe buying the wrong plan! :oops:
I think you might be right about having the wrong plan. I do know that T-Zones is not the right plan, but I don't know what T-Zones Pro means.

I have a friend at T-Mobile, so I'll ask her. In the meantime, you might want to ask over on the www.Bluetoothnews.com forums as well. Perhaps one of our members has the answer.

[Janak Parekh]

I think you might be right about having the wrong plan. I do know that T-Zones is not the right plan, but I don't know what T-Zones Pro means.
T-Zones Pro is the same thing as T-Zones, but more megabytes (i.e., a 10MB phone-only plan). And yes, Wallet Boy, this won't work -- you need a T-Mobile Internet plan, which costs a bit more ($19.99 for 10MB). That is, if you want GPRS. If all you want to do is dial-up, this might work -- you can try programming your Pocket PC to set up the T68 as a COM port (via the BT manager program) and to dial through it. It will be very slow, though, if it does. (And you're not getting the benefit of the T-Zones Pro, in any case.)

What phone and PPC do you have? And how did you set it up to use T-Mobile GPRS. I mentioned GPRS with their tech (un)support and they thought I was some sort of wierdo.
I'm currently using a Pocket PC Phone myself, but I used to use a T68+3870. The process is slightly different for each phone. Oh, and T-Mobile's support is hit-and-miss; I've talked to some very clueful reps as well.

--janak

[Wallet Boy]

T-Zones Pro is the same thing as T-Zones, but more megabytes (i.e., a 10MB phone-only plan). And yes, Wallet Boy, this won't work -- you need a T-Mobile Internet plan, which costs a bit more ($19.99 for 10MB). That is, if you want GPRS. If all you want to do is dial-up, this might work -- you can try programming your Pocket PC to set up the T68 as a COM port (via the BT manager program) and to dial through it. It will be very slow, though, if it does. (And you're not getting the benefit of the T-Zones Pro, in any case.)

Yeah, I decided to put up the funds for GPRS but I picked the wrong plan. When I read the 10MB of the Pro on T Mobile's customer service pages I thought it was the right plan! Oh well, guess I'll T Mobile and see if they will switch plans. If not, I'll be signing up for the internet plan as well. :cry:

[Wallet Boy]

New troubles. I am stumped once again. I signed up for the correct plan, set up my connection to use *99# as the calling number. I can connect, but when I try to open a web page in PIE it comes up with "Page cannot be found". This is using the BT drivers that came with my card, version 1.0.

Yet, I am still having difficulty with the Toshiba BT card. According to my other thread in the Toshiba forum I needed to install new drivers for the card. Problem is that the zip has three files in it without an installer. I tried to copy the files to the PPC Windows directory and run them from there without success. The other file has an installer, and I was able to install the version 3.0 software but when I try to connect to the phone it never establishes a connection. I can connect to my PC without a problem, in fact it will auto connect everytime I'm in range of the transmitter.

So on one side I can connect but not view any web pages and on the other I can connect to everything but the phone. This is maddening!

At this point I'm about to give up on the whole project.

[dumdum]

I know you want answers, but can i ask a questions since you have been though some of this.

Im going to get a PPC this year and i want wireless internet. I dont want the wifi since i dont go to starbucks or hotels. I want what you're going to get. The gprs thing. I was thinking about getting the card for the pcma** slot, but being around 300 dollars i decided not to. So what im planning to do is get a cell phone and connect it to my ppc and get the web like that. Can i do that?

Im want to get the 20 dollar voice plan wiht the 20 dollar 10 meg data plan. What did you have to get to get this plan and how much is the hardware going to be(ie. cables, BT), oh i dont want BT, im just gettting a regular CF adaptor. If you have for example MSN as your isp, does this provide service for your PPC or do you need to get a diffent more expensive isp for your ppc?

PS. When you logg on does it take up your voice minutes AND data or is just the data?

[jeffmd]

I actually am able to getonline with my ppc (axim) useing the Tzone only plan. I have the $9.99 10 meg plan and had no problem connecting to my phone(t68i), first via infrared, and now by bluetooth. I can access sites normaly but I actually use googles wml server because even with images off, raw html can eat up 10 megs pretty fast if you browse the big sites like cnn.com and such.

[daS]

I actually am able to getonline with my ppc (axim) useing the Tzone only plan.
Are you using a dial-up phone number or the GPRS "special" number (*99*#)?

If you are using a "real" phone number to get online, then you are actually using your voice minutes. If you are using GPRS then are you also able to get to your email? I believe that you can use the browser but you can't get past the "special" TZone proxy server without a full data account.

[jeffmd]

im using *99*#

I havnt tried email, I dont get any anyways. ;)

I do how ever use IRC chat on it (pocketchat). and im not going through any proxy servers.

[daS]

im using *99*#...

I do how ever use IRC chat on it (pocketchat). and im not going through any proxy servers.
Odd, I wonder if T-mobile simply has your account messed up (in your favor of course.) 8O

[jeffmd]

im wondering if maybe useing thier laptop/pc software you need to have the 19.99 plan, but if your directly conncting with your pda useing *99*#, then you dont?

[daS]

im wondering if maybe useing thier laptop/pc software you need to have the 19.99 plan, but if your directly conncting with your pda useing *99*#, then you dont?
That is not my understanding. Certainly the phone doesn't know if the connection is coming from a laptop or a Pocket PC. Plus I was specifically told that the T-Zones only allow connection to the T-Zone proxy. (A method that makes sense to me.)

I have a contact at T-Mobile who is great at getting all the details about various rate plans. However, she is not available for the next two weeks or so. If you remind me to check (no names of course :wink: ) I can see what the story is.

This would be a great topic for the www.BluetoothNews.com forums as well. I'm sure our members would be interested in knowing if there is a less expensive plan that will work for them.

[Scott R]

I was perusing the wireless phones available via CompUSA's online wireless link and saw mention of T-Zones being compatible with the PPC phone. So, I just went to the T-Mobile site and confirmed that it looks like they'll let you select the T-Zone options. For some reason, though, it looked like you couldn't select the FamilyTime plans.

Scott

[Janak Parekh]

I was perusing the wireless phones available via CompUSA's online wireless link and saw mention of T-Zones being compatible with the PPC phone. So, I just went to the T-Mobile site and confirmed that it looks like they'll let you select the T-Zone options. For some reason, though, it looked like you couldn't select the FamilyTime plans.
Yes, but it shouldn't work -- the T-Zone plan should only let you access the WAP APN, which won't let you do the general browsing the Pocket PC Phone lets you do.

--janak

[Scott R]

Yes, but it shouldn't work -- the T-Zone plan should only let you access the WAP APN, which won't let you do the general browsing the Pocket PC Phone lets you do.
I'm not so sure that this has been determined yet. After doing some searching on Howard Forums, I've seen people who are using the Nokia 3650 and Sony-Ericsson P800 with the T-Zones plan and 3rd party (e.g. - Opera) browsers. I've also seen someone who uses a T68i and T-Zones coupled with a Palm Tungsten T. And if I go to the T-Mobile site, it'll let me buy a Pocket PC Phone edition and add the T-Zones option. The T-Zones pricing isn't too awful, though it's still a far cry from the Sprint Vision unlimited data pricing that I currently have.

Scott

[daS]

Yes, but it shouldn't work -- the T-Zone plan should only let you access the WAP APN, which won't let you do the general browsing the Pocket PC Phone lets you do.
I'm not so sure that this has been determined yet.
It is my understanding that the T-Zones option is not limited to WAP but is limited to specific web sites via T-Mobile's proxy.

I have a friend at T-Mobile that digs deep into such things when necessary. I'll be seeing her this week so I'll try to get an "official" answer.