What do they do for internet ?
I know they advertise cell-plans with unlimited minutes.
Can you hook your PC to the cell phone
and maintain dial-up net service ?
<rj>
Yes, though it's not exactly dial-up. It's faster than that,
though not as fast as DSL. Digital cell phone networks have the
capability. I used it for about a year, but just went back
to DSL on a "dry line." The service I had cost an extra $20/month
for unlimited digital service, that's on top of the regular cell
phone service and the digital minutes don't count against cell
phone voice minutes. Your cell phone provider may have different
types of plans.
Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.
You can't use a modem through a cell phone. Basically, the sound quality
is not sufficient for it. So you can't do dial-up over a cell phone.
But yes, you can hook a PC up to a cell phone and access the Internet
through the cell service. In order to do this, you would need a cell
phone plan that includes an "data" service (usually called "unlimited
data"), i.e. the ability to not just place voice calls but send network
traffic out to the Internet. In practice, most of these plans are very
low speed (not much better than modem) and they're more expensive than
DSL or cable modem. So while it's possible, it's not economical. The
main value in a cell phone data plan is that it's portable. Also, you
can't send or receive calls, usually, when the phone is being used
for data transfer.
Also, in most places, you can get both cable modem and DSL without
landline phone service. In other words, canceling your home phone
service does not mean you can't get DSL. So that's usually a much
better option.
- Logan
> We're hearing about so many people
> who've given up their land-lines
> and gone completely to cell-phone.
>
> What do they do for internet ?
Verizon fios doesn't require the telephone service.
Cable internet doesn't use the phone line at all.
Borrowing your neighbor's wi-fi is free but unethical.
Some people will pool a broadband connection vie wi-fi.
> I know they advertise cell-plans with unlimited minutes.
> Can you hook your PC to the cell phone
> and maintain dial-up net service ?
It's not dial-up. It's more like DSL via you cell phone.
Although I'm not surew of the speed. Actulaay there are
several speeds depending on the equiptment at the cell tower.
Verizon is rather spendy on this.
AT&T and Sprint both have better all you can eat data plans.
Usually these plans are used to allow the smart phone to
access the internet. But when I plug my phone into the
computer, the computer detects the CDMA modem and asks
if it should create a network connection. I intend to check
out this feature.
>
>
> <rj>
Thats because they really do have a better network. It is pretty typical
to see 600kb up and 1.4Mb down on their data network.
Down with the telephone company.
Then add voip, and voila... spending less, getting more :))