Pocket PC Phone Advice PLEASE!

[EmporerEJ]

Before Pocket Pc phones, I had a Pocket PC, (Casio E-105, then an Axim X-5) and a separate Cell phone.
Wanting mobile Internet, and less pocket items, I went to T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone
I had a plan with them for years with 250 Minutes, $29.95/month, and added WAP for $20.
I've been a T-mobile customer, and had 2 different PocketPC phones with them. The old one, and the current one HP6315.
The Ipaq 6315 has just been a nightmare. Lousy phone, (Almost NEVER answers-always get "Unable to answer the call")
Add to that horrible speed performance on the Phone's Processor, and just REALLY bad internet speed, if at all.
I would NOT recommend it.
I'm at the point now where I want to move on. Verizon, for reasons of family and friend phone connections is a strong pull. But I'm not impressed with their prices.
After paying $50/month for Phone and internet, I'm loath to change, as I'm told I can never go back to the plan once I leave.

My requirements are:
Must have windows media player (For professional reasons)
I'd like reasonable net access, not limited Vcast/sidekick style access.
I want REAL internet access, not filtered/limited.

Phone "Features" can be limited. I'd like Blue tooth and Wi fi if possible.
It just sucks that basic phone & net from Verizon starts at $80/month.
(After being spoiled with a $50/month bill for years, for, admittedly, crappy service)

Should I (and how would I) get a small blue tooth phone, and a blue tooth card for My Axim, and do some kind of dial-up internet on the cell phone with web browsing from the axim? (Or other Pocket PC?)

Help or advice please!

[Brad Adrian]

That's exactly what you need: a Bluetooth phone plus a bluetooth card for your pocketpc. That way,you can set it to automatically dial out every hour to retreive your e-mail.

[EmporerEJ]

That's exactly what you need: a Bluetooth phone plus a bluetooth card for your PocketPC. That way,you can set it to automatically dial out every hour to retreive your e-mail.

Thank you for your input.
Let me ask you this though....
Is your opinion the same if email is not the primary concern?
I don't often use my mobile device for email because i receive an avalanche of it, and responding from the pocket device, any device, is not worth the typing trouble.

My primary needs are making reliable calls, playing video files on demand, and web access (For browsing) on demand.
I hate to go back to 2 devices, but I have yet to find one converged device that seems reliable.

To be honest, the one that seemed to work fairly well was a sidekick 2, as far as rock solid AOL IM connection (Not a priority for me) limited browsing, and reasonable telephone connection.

So far, my pocket PC phone experiences have been very unsatisfactory. The HP6315 has serious flaws trying to answer a call from "cold." (Powered off in the pocket) I RARELY am able to "answer" a call. Most often, I get the "Unable to answer the call" dialog box.

It is maddening, and I'm beginning to believe the technology just isn't there yet, or the designers seem to live in an "optimal bubble" where things always work perfectly.

Out here in Semi-rural America, these things don't seem to work.
I even have a T-mobile antenna less than 3 blocks from my location, so signal strength usually isn't the issue.

[EmporerEJ]

And one more question, which may be crazy....

Am I crazy to think I could get a bluetooth phone, use an inexpensive dial-up service like People PC ($9.95/month) and connect to the phone with an Axim 5 (Or other Pocket PC) via Bluetooth connection, and use the Internet dial-up connection on the pocket PC?

It sure would seem to be a way to get around the ridiculous $40-50 month for internet from the wireless carriers?

Possible?
Too noisy/unstable connection?

Surely I'm not the first to think of this?

[Mark Kenepp]

Am I crazy to think I could get a bluetooth phone, use an inexpensive dial-up service like People PC ($9.95/month) and connect to the phone with an Axim 5 (Or other Pocket PC) via Bluetooth connection, and use the Internet dial-up connection on the pocket PC?

You are not crazy to think that but one might consider you crazy to use that :wink:

Using a mobile phone as a modem to connect to an independent (independent of the mobile service provider) Internet Service Provider is something that I have been doing for as long as I can remember. It certainly is possible but, it might not be cheaper.

Depending on your Mobile Service, data calls can cost 10 cents or more a minute and with data transfer speeds that struggle to keep up with a lawn chair, it ends up being better to use the Mobile Providers data connection.

[EmporerEJ]

Depending on your Mobile Service, data calls can cost 10 cents or more a minute and with data transfer speeds that struggle to keep up with a lawn chair, it ends up being better to use the Mobile Providers data connection.

Yea, but what about when the the minutes are "Free?" Weekends, nights?
I've been getting less than lawn chair speed with my T-mobile connection.

[Mark Kenepp]

Yea, but what about when the the minutes are "Free?" Weekends, nights?
I've been getting less than lawn chair speed with my T-mobile connection.

You can't connect to a third party ISP through your T-Mobile connection. If you wanted to connect to a third party ISP, your speeds would be in the neighborhood of 9,600 bits/second. Also, T-Mobile may charge differently for data calls. T-Mobile may not even give you access to data calls through your phone unless you subscribe to one of their data services.

Digital mobile phones are not like your ordinary landline. There is a difference between a voice connection and a data connection. You can not just use your phone to call into an ISP's modem and make a data connection. First, your phone itself must support the ability to make a call over a data connection and then, the service you have must also support it. I think that with some of the older analog phones it was possible to dial into a modem but that was at least ten years ago.

[EmporerEJ]

Yea, but what about when the the minutes are "Free?" Weekends, nights?
I've been getting less than lawn chair speed with my T-mobile connection.

You can't connect to a third party ISP through your T-Mobile connection. If you wanted to connect to a third party ISP, your speeds would be in the neighborhood of 9,600 bits/second. Also, T-Mobile may charge differently for data calls. T-Mobile may not even give you access to data calls through your phone unless you subscribe to one of their data services.

Digital mobile phones are not like your ordinary landline. There is a difference between a voice connection and a data connection. You can not just use your phone to call into an ISP's modem and make a data connection. First, your phone itself must support the ability to make a call over a data connection and then, the service you have must also support it. I think that with some of the older analog phones it was possible to dial into a modem but that was at least ten years ago.

Yea, a couple things here....
I wasn't planning to use T-mobile for this, I was thinking going Verizon way.
And I gotta wonder something here, if we are talking modems.....
Understandably, you would lose an awful lot in an analog modem, connecting through a digital phone line, converting back into an analog signal back at the ISP, then to digital, racing around the net, coming back and reversing the whole thing. But I speak in Analog, So I'm not clear on why it wouldn't theoretically work.
But it's certainly possible it won't.

But here's the thing.....
How "advanced" have we really gotten, if I could get better speeds from a 10 year old analog phone than I can today? (Just postulating here...)
I mean, we pay $40/month now for internet on a cell phone for goodness sake!
Then they want to nick you for everything else? messages, video, email.
All for the "convenience" of it being portable.
Which, in reality, is actually cheaper than operating the landlines.
Just amazing.