What moblie service to get, part 2

[Derek Pressnall]

Just to add a clairification to t-mobils data plans (the ones
available with contract)
The "free" data plan is the walled-garden plan, called t-zones.  It is
included with any of the basic contracts.  It can access only t-mobile
approved sites.

Next step up, is "t-mobileweb", for 5.99 additional a month.  It can
access any host on the internet, but only specific tcp ports.  Web
access has to go through port 8080, therefore requires use of a proxy
(t-mobile provides a proxy for web access).  Also, some other ports
are available, such as for pop email, etc.  But, if you have a home
broadband connection you should be able to set up a vpn tunnel via one
of the open ports, and then use that to get anywhere.  I do that
currently with my motorola a780 (using ssh and port forwarding, but
vpn's should also work).  All open ports are tcp only, however (udp
doesn't appear to work).

Next is "t-mobile total internet" for 29.95.   This plan can use
almost any port, tcp and udp, to any site.  It is the one normally
used with smartphones.  Also includes access to t-mobile hotspots.
They used to have the total internet plan for 19.95 without hotspots,
but recently combined both plans (they must not have been selling that
many hotspot plans).

If you don't want the hotspots but internet only, you can subscribe to
the blackberry connect plan which appears to be the same as the old
intenet-only plan.  To do this, go to my.t-mobile.com, change your
phone model to a blackberry, then you will have an option to select
this plan.  Cost is $19.95.

Note that t-mobile has no by-the-kbyte plans.  Therefore, you will
never be suppriesed by a $500 phone bill for excess data.  Cingular,
however, does have a cap of $99.99 per month on their data plans (last
time I looked into it).  So you can get buy with one of their cheaper
plans (instead of getting the $79.99 unlimited plan) if you mostly
won't use that much data.  Hopefully this hasn't changed since I
looked into it.

Another good place to look for information is on howardforums.com,
they have carrier specific message boards that usually have carrier
employees hanging out on them, and they have a fairly accurate wiki
with details on the plans.

Hope this helps...