What moblie service to get, part 2

[Mike]

Jonathon Suggs wrote:
> Mike wrote:
>> mathew davis wrote:
>>
>>>   you also don't _need_ to sign up for a data plan, but I would bet 
>>> if your getting this for the neo1973 you will have more features like 
>>> google maps, internet browsing, and many other features that would 
>>> require a data plan.  
>>
>> Thanks by why don't I need to sign up for a data plan? Can I get on 
>> the web/internet without a data plan? Can I "dial" up like I asked in 
>> my last email?
>>
>> And if I can, then couldn't I just get google maps by opening up a web 
>> browser on my neo and going to maps.google.com, what's the advantage 
>> of a data plan?
>>
>>> What services are you looking for?  You should check the wiki I think it 
>>
>> As in what cell phone service plans- tmobile, cingular, contracts, sim 
>> cards, data plans, prepaid. what plans will it work with.  This seems 
>> like an obvious set of common questions.  The only thing I found on 
>> the wiki was "A: Wikipedia has a list of providers and technologies 
>> here. A brief look gives the impression that T-Mobile and Cingular 
>> (which is renaming itself AT&T) seem to be the only major ones."  
>> That's not enough.
>>
>> thanks
>> m
> You can "dial" up, it will be really slow and probably unreliable.  I 
> think 9.6k is as fast as you can go.  Not to mention that when you 
> "dialing in" you will be using your cell phone minutes.  A data plan 
> allows you to use GPRS, which is a newer (still pretty old though) and 
> faster connection up to 56k.  The down side is that you will probably 
> have to sign a contract.  You will then either get an unlimited plan 
> (~$20-40/month) or a pay as you go plan (~.15/kb).
> 
> Let me know if you want more details.  And anyone else feel free to 
> correct any mis-information.


Do you think this would work?

http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/pyg-cell-phone-plans.jsp

I get confused about what counts as a "data plan".  It looks like 
they're putting text messaging under the term "data plan".  But it 
sounds like what you're saying is I'd need to do one of their "Data 
Connect" thing, right?  damn...

http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/services/services-list.jsp?catId=cat1510007&catName=Data+Add-Ons

Can I do "SmartPhone Connect (5MB)" instead of "Data Connect"? It's 
cheaper...

See what I mean about this information needing to be somewhere on the 
openmoko site.  The phone is great but we can't develop for it if we 
don't know what service plan to get for it.

The sad thing is years ago I used to write WML apps. now I'm clueless. 
thanks,

m