EDGE Service from Cingular

[yanathin]

I'm going to have an EDGE-enabled phone from Cingular in a few days. If I use the EDGE phone as a modem with my PPC, will I be using the faster internet or will it still go at dial-up speeds? If it's still slow, what would I have to do to make it use EDGE? Are there any special settings at all?

[GSmith]

No special settings that I'm aware of.

APN=wap.cingular
[email protected]
Password=CINGULAR1

For heavy use, make sure you get the $40 per month unlimited internet package and make sure they remove the "PPU" option (Pay Per Use).

I'm not real sure of the interaction between the phone settings and Windows Mobile settings (I use a Pocket PC bluetooth -> phone -> cingular network). I put all of these settings in my phone (an old Ericsson T39m). The phone assigns a CID and I use the CID in the dial string
*99***CID# for instance with CID=4 the phone number is: *99***4#

I also put the Username and password in the dialog boxes within the PPC Connection setup.

It seems like putting the Username and Password in two places is redundant, but I haven't tried all combinations, and GPRS works for me now.

[yanathin]

I'm using the $19.99 MEdiaWorks package.. Would I not be able to use EDGE on that one? What's the $40 one for?

[GSmith]

The $40 plan is for unlimited internet. I believe the current breakdown for Cingular is $10 for 3mb, $20 for 8mb, and $40 for unlimited. But you may want to call customer service to verify this.

With "limited" plans, there is a charge per kb after the plan usage is used.

[tut00]

The $40 plan is for unlimited internet. I believe the current breakdown for Cingular is $10 for 3mb, $20 for 8mb, and $40 for unlimited. But you may want to call customer service to verify this.

With "limited" plans, there is a charge per kb after the plan usage is used.

The unlimited one is the 19.95. That is what I have been using since october.

[GSmith]

I think their plans are a little confusing. Cingular used to have (and may still have) different plans for "unlimited tethered" and "unlimited non-tethered". Non-tethered means "phone only" and tethered means "PDA or laptop". I'm not sure if they still define a difference.

You may want to contact customer support for the current details, although they generally don't really know that much about data plans and have difficulty answering questions like "If I want to do X, then what plan do I need?" They have had different prices recently on "PDA" plans (like with a Smartphone or Pocket PC Phone Edition), and I'm not sure if they count that as tethered or not.

Just prior to me signing up, they had "unlimited tethered" for $80 per month. And by the time I signed up, this same plan was $40 per month.

It's not clear to me exactly how they know if you are tethered or not, but I download over 20Megabytes - 60Megabytes per day over T-Mobile and Cingular (I MUST listen to podcasts and watch videocasts!) and both service providers work similarly, although I don't have an Edge phone right now.

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - The Pocket PC RSS, podcatcher, videocatcher
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[tut00]

When you look at the media works package 19.95, it does say not for pda or laptop use...

However, I have been usinging it, and have not been charged. In looking at the usage logs on the phone, it looks like WAP access, as if the phone was using their pocket internet.

[GSmith]

There have been discussions about how they would even know whether you were using a pda or laptop versus just the phone itself. I don't think those discussions ever came to a conclusion other than "they can't know". There may be something about GPRS that gives them the information about a connected device, I just don't know.

There also has been speculation that the amount of data you transfer over GPRS might flag your account. I'm not sure about that. Overall, I think it is just speculation, and your experience is certainly worth much more than any speculation.

I have confirmed that Cingular does not currently make a distinction between WAP and "Internet" access (some web sites describe APN=WAP@... and some APN=ISP@...). While T-Mobile does (did?) make a distinction between WAP-only and "Internet". I know that T-Mobile has one APN for WAP, and two different APNs for "Internet" use: internet2 and internet3, but I never got a clear technically-correct-sounding answer from them about what the actual difference between the two Internet APNs was ("VPN", but something about their description of the service did not match with my understanding of how VPN works).

This is probably WAY more information than you wanted, though.

[tut00]

Its funny you mention the vpn.... This is my experience off a Palm T5.

When I had to set up a connection using gprs for a client, but set up by me with configurations i found on the web, i was never able to get a vpn connection to work. however if I let my Palms Phone Manager, do the connection, it did work. Don't know if the settings were any different or not.

The client that I set it up for still uses the connection (set up by the palm itself) and he has not incurred any addtional charges, asside from the 19.95 for the media works package.

He syncs his contact, calander and checks his email pretty regularly.

-John

[sylvangale]

Looking at Cingular's website today it looks like the MediaWorks $19.95 package is no longer unlimited anymore, but there is a medianet $24.99 package that is unlimited.

I've been on $19.99 unlimited mediaworks since last year and recently got an edge Motorola v550 to replace my non-edge ericcson and there is certainly a huge speed increase in the LA area. HOWEVER... GPRS on the v550 alone does not seem fast at all, it's only when you pair a PDA or a PC with you phone will you notice a speed increase... at least with a v550.

[jpf]

About a year ago the mediaworks $20 package was unlimited. There was an $80 package available at the time too which I was told would make no difference to my usage through an SE610.
In general I think that you get (and continue to get) whatever limitations are in effect at the time you sign up for the package. So if it was unlimited data at the time, that's the way it stays.

[sylvangale]

Yep. I'm on the Cingular $20 Mediaworks package (old plan) and I used 45MB this month with no extra charges. :mrgreen: