3650->PowerBook->GPRS->unlimited wireless?

bradbowerbradbower
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Well, T-Mobile has unlimited GPRS internet for $19.99 when you have a voice plan through them, and they do, and I'm contemplating a Bluetooth smartphone like the 3650 or T610, just buying it unlocked from somewhere like gsmphonesource.com, and if I've got Bluetooth-compatible computers (i.e. PowerBook 12", or iMac with BT dongle), and there is support for using the phone's GPRS connection as your network, wouldn't that work and be like unlimited wireless internet anywhere that there is T-Mobile service? But I guess the hook is (a) coverage, though that still beats 250 ft WiFi networking, and (b) support for using the 3650 GPRS (not dialup) as a network connection in Mac OS X. Could it work? Has anyone tried this?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bradbower

    Well, T-Mobile has unlimited GPRS internet for $19.99 when you have a voice plan through them, and they do, and I'm contemplating a Bluetooth smartphone like the 3650 or T610, just buying it unlocked from somewhere like gsmphonesource.com, and if I've got Bluetooth-compatible computers (i.e. PowerBook 12", or iMac with BT dongle), and there is support for using the phone's GPRS connection as your network, wouldn't that work and be like unlimited wireless internet anywhere that there is T-Mobile service? But I guess the hook is (a) coverage, though that still beats 250 ft WiFi networking, and (b) support for using the 3650 GPRS (not dialup) as a network connection in Mac OS X. Could it work? Has anyone tried this?



    I haven't tried it, but I'm sure it would work. I hear that GPRS is about equivalent to a regular modem's speed, so it wouldn't be a good replacement for internet access. It would be a nice adjunct, though.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    Actually, some people have reported ISDN speeds on some cell phones when using them as a modem. I got around 96kbps when I hooked my phone up to my computer for fun.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    balibalibabalibaliba Posts: 17member
    Well.



    Using the mobile phone as a modem works just fine. While visiting New York and Boston last fall, I had my powerbook hooked to Nokia 6310i via bluetooth and used the mobile phone as a modem all the time. Of course when wifi was available, there is no sense using the slower GPRS connection. And GPRS tends to be expensive.



    Here in Europe (particularly Northern Europe) there really nowadays are fewer and fewer "regular" modems used, because people are giving up their regular telephone lines. The penetration percentage of the mobile phones for example in Finland is very high (82% percent of the entire population of Finland including the elderly and the infants have a mobile. Because of the good penetration and interoperable standard (GSM) the normal calls are relatively cheap (~0,1 $/min) and data calls have almost always a "fixed rate" meaning you have to pay just 15$/month for unlimited (or 100mb) GPRS access. And you don't have to pay when receiving calls (is it still so in the states?).



    The GPRS speed of a phone depends on the GPRS "time" slots supported by a phone. For example I think that all of the nokia phones (inclunding my previous Nokia 6310i) support 3+1 slots (3 meaning downloading slots and 1 meaning uploading) and SE (T610/P800) support 4+1 slots.



    One must not forget the importance of how the telecom companyies support the time slots in GPRS because one time slot can be supported from 9,05kbps (CS1) to 21,4 kbps (CS4). Most of the telecom companies support only CS1 and CS2 (13,4 kbps) so in the near future increased speed is inevitable and I am not now referring to EDGE or 3G (WCDMA).



    Sorry for the long post...
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