After fiddling with networkmanager and modemmanager on my system, bluetooth tethering with my N900 works like a charm. The only problem is the battery drainage. Usually, I get 3 or 4 bars and 3G where I am. Dialing via bluetooth gets me 5 bars and 3.5G. While this is very good in terms of connection speed, it only lasts for 4 hours or so before my battery is dead and the phone shuts down. Is there some way to influence the power put to the antenna to stay instead of going for the very best? I noticed that when dialing the regular 3G connection on my N900 (i.e. not tethering via BT), the reception does not get better and I don't have 3.5G over 3G.