My 770 has really made me more interested than before in mobile data plans. I've been with Verizon for several years and daily use a Treo 650. Though I haven't been wowed by Verizon, the Treo did its job well enough that I haven't seriously looked. The 770 has changed that.

As soon as I got my 770 I tried to connect via my Verizon data plan. I've suuccessfully paired via Bluetooth with both a Treo 650 and a Motorola E815. Both phones required some minor software modifications to enable bluetooth DUN (google verizon bluetooth DUN <phone> to find files and instructions). The Treo 650 is NOT EVDO -- 1xRTT only. My throughput as measured at toast.net was 80 kb/s download and 50 kb/s up. The E815 is EVDO enabled and pulled down at about 250 kb/s (which I'm guessing shows the limit of BT, not EVDO). Sadly the upload speed over EVDO was about the same. I don't have the USB tether kit for the E815 so I don't know what to expect when the BT bottleneck is removed. I've heard others say somewhere in the range of 400 - 800 kb/s for download speed.

I've also paired the 770 to the Motorola V360 from T-Mobile. Toast.net showed the 770 at 100 - 120 kb/s download speeds and 50 - 80 kb/s upload. My subjective experience is that the T-Mobile EDGE network is more consistent compared to the 1xRTT at Verizon.

Some of you might find this a bit surprising but I'm cancelling my account with Verizon and switching to T-Mobile. I've been with Verizon for several years but find the T-Mobile plans more compelling. With Verizon I have to pay $60/month to have USB tethering (though I don't think they care or know if you manage to do it via bluetooth). T-Mobile charge $19.95/month for tethering or $29.95/month for tethering + all T-Mobile hotspots. In Houston there's no shortage of Starbucks, Border or FedEx Kinko stores I can stop in and connect up (most airports also but I use those rarely). I've used the 770 at Starbucks with no problems at all. For my purposes high-speed internet sites coupled with ISDN-speeds everywhere else at half the price (even the voice plan was less) are reasons enough.

I didn't decide to switch in a vacuum, though. I also looked into Cingular and Sprint plans. Cingular aren't competitive at all since their fastest data plan is EDGE like T-Mobile and doesn't include the hotspots. Sprint look good, especially with the A900 Blade but there's no compelling reason for me to drop Verizon for Sprint. The data plans are about the same price. The voice plans at Sprint are a bit cheaper but not enough to pull me over. So that really left me with Verizon vs. T-Mobile.

A significant strike against Verizon (and Sprint) is that they disable features in their phones that I want to use -- most importantly bluetooth DUN and obex. As noted above, I had to make modifications to both my Verizon phones to use bluetooth DUN. The only thing T-Mobile do to their phones is lock the phones from use in Europe. After you've been a customer for 90 days they'll give you an unlock code (sooner, I guess, if you're travelling).

Given the above experiences and reasons, T-Mobile and their $29.95 Total Internet plan emerge as the best choice for me. (Did I mention Katherine Zeta-Jones is their spokesperson? )

--Aaron

Updates: minor clarifications.