yeop, cingular just blows. and get this, i got a tmoble datacard a sony GC89 with a data plan. they say 400kbs.. WRONG! im better off on dialup. it took 2 days just for me to even get connected to the tmobile network, i sat on hold pratically all weekend with tech support. finally got connected after going to a tmobile store and putting the sim card in a phone, TWICE! with good signal, speed blows

*rr0123*, it feels like 300-400 kbps, ie. it's marginally slower than using a WiFi connection, but totally useable (I often stream 128 kbps Internet radio with my EVDO via Bluetooth connection as well).

FYI, you have to enable DUN on the Motorola E815 (by quickly typing ##DIALUP once only - see http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=674803) for it to work, and you have to add the $15 V-cast plan to your voice plan for unlimited EVDO (although that's against the rules), or the $59 Broadband Access plan to your voice plan.

The original Motorola RAZR (V3 - a GSM phone, ie. Cingular or T-Mobile) features GPRS for data witch is limited to about 56 kbps, so that's why it's slow. My primary phone is a Sony Ericsson W800i (GSM with T-Mobile) and I only use it with my Nokia 770 as a backup because it only features GPRS, so it's also slow.

GSM phones with EDGE (Cingular & T-Mobile) are faster, but CDMA phones with EVDO (Sprint & Verizon Wireless) are currently fastest. GSM phones with UMTS and/or HSDPA are on the horizon (Cingular) that should match or exceed the performance of EVDO . That's what I'm waiting for so I can revert to using a single phone again.

Thanks for the info tnkgrl. I am conflicted on this. I had initially decided to try sprint, just for the variety. But then I decided on Cingular, to try the more widely available edge. But then I decided I needed to get some "real life" comments on speed, so I made this post, and no one's said anything about EDGE yet.

Are we /sure/ about this?

And - even if it's true - does anyone have a forward-looking view on how quickly this will become /not/ true?

I did a bit of looking around a while ago for 3G/GPRS/etc data rates, but didn't find anything conclusive. Any pointers, anyone?

[UK users only: how the hell can I get a decent data plan on 3G? NO-ONE wants to give me one without claiming *far* too much of my paypacket each month!]

Any other comments anyone? I have reviewed the threads here and at handtops.com, and while there are a lot of posts regarding phones that work, very few of them provide information on the real-life feel and responsiveness of the speed.