If you want to be connected with the N8xx while walking down the street you'll have to use a BT-phone connection, preferably to a phone with some above-GPRS connection. In my experience though the EDGE/3G connectivity is in a sorry state of affairs, nothing wrong with the N8xx, the problem is in the low quality of these services. I can't even interact with gmail through the web browser over 3G, due to too many packet losses (as I can see clearly when I use the same service on a desktop computer with proper networking analysis tools). Well, it does work fine one day out of 40.. or so.

Fortunately, in my town there are lots of free wi-fi hotspots, so while in town my N800 excels. At least while sitting down with a coffee!