Dan Cook
EF5
Caleb how did this work out?
Mike you can go with Alltell no contract on say the $39 plan and use it just for data. The data mins would come out of your 500 pool in the day time and be free at night and on the weekeneds. If you felt you were going to go over you could add unlimited phone as modem option for $24.99 and the best part is you can add this feature when needed and remove it from your online account. I have both Alltel and ATT and will try to help you with any questions that you may have
I did everything from their website (I chose "Pick Your Plan") and had the phone 2 days later. Don't know if you need to purchase a phone to get the sim but I didn't want to take any chances.
It would better to use a direct usb connection than bluetooth if you plan to stream and want faster speeds
Either plan sounds interesting...although I'm inclined to test AT&T first, though Alltel supposedly has better coverage.
For Alltel - do I need a dialup ISP to use the phone as a modem? When you say "Alltel no contract" does that mean I can cancel the phone at any time, or are you referring to the $25 unlimited phone-as-modem add-on? (I was under the impression from Alltel's site that canceling any voice plan incurred a penalty).
You do not need a dial up isp to use the phone as modem. No contract means buy a phone off ebay or Alltell prepaid then put that on a month to month plan. If you do that you will not have a contract and can cancel at anytime. The $24.99 phone as modem feature allows you to use the internet as much as you want and it doesn't come out of your plan minutes.
For AT&T, I'm still not sure how the process to start up works. Do I need to sign up and get a cheapo phone, with some prepaid balance, or can I purchase any GSM aircard I want and activate that with the plan? I'm going out to run errands this afternoon, so I'll print out the article from WAP Review and stop by an AT&T cellular place... but I get the feeling this is one of those not-heavily advertised things that is inherently difficult to get any info about from websites or pushy cell phone salesmen!
Buy a cheap prepaid phone on the ATT site and add the unlimited internet feature to it on the site or when you get the phone from the Fexex driver take the sim card out and put it in a datacard and you will have unlimited internet for $20.
Thanks for your help!
Which leads to a question I've been waiting to ask -will the phone charge while it's on a USB tether? One of the big reasons I use Bluetooth is so that I can keep the car charger plugged in while in use (on the LG they utilize the same connector).