Hi,
I am planning on purchasing an N800 (yey price drops!).
I would like to tether it with a new cell phone/plan as a mobile IM machine (for skype IM), google doc reader, and web surfing device.
I currently have an older Motorola v710 phone and Verizon. I have like a $6/mo plan to surf the web on my phone (it is pretty lame).
I want to upgrade my phone (a simple one with bluetooth) and data plan that works with tethering. I am open to switching carriers since I am out of contract. What company should I go to? Which has the best price for an authorized tether, and which hack is the best otherwise? Will Verizon work well with my current v710 with bluetooth?
Thanks so much, and I can't wait to join the ranks of the tablet users here!

Its doubtful that Verizon would ever be cheapest.

First of all, it depends on the speed you want. Verizon and Sprint are fastest with EVDO, ATT has EDGE which is the next fastest, and then there's T-mobile which is the slowest (also EDGE, but I heard its slower than ATT's.)

Sprint has much cheaper prices for data than Verizon. Technically, you need a specific tethering plan for Sprint to use the phone as a modem, but with certain phones there are ways around it. I'd say sign up for a Sprint Employee referral plan (there are email addresses for it all over the internet, just search), get a Centro for $99, apply the tethering hack, or if you can't get that to work, try PDAnet. (See the Treocentral forums for these.) The SERO plan gives you 500 anytime minutes, nights and weekends at 7pm, and unlimited data and texting, all for just $30 a month.

This is a slightly gray area, but as long as you're not doing Bittorrent downloads or downloading gigabytes a month, then you should be fine.

I have verizon in NY, and their ulimited data cost me 45 a month on top of a 45 plan. ThIs does not include authorized tethering, this officially costs 60 a month I think. Those numbers are 2 years old however. Few Verizon phones officialy support tethering, fewer still unoficially. I have discounts on both my phone and data or I would't touch it. You can't beat evdo speed and coverage in ny though.

Dear Jhoff,
Thanks for you detailed response, including the Sprint hack!
The $30/month for 500min + data is an amazing deal, but I need about 1400 on a 2 person family plan. Hmm, should I carry 3 devices (sprint phone/modem + verizon phone + n800)?
Can I use any bluetooth phone for this plan? Will a simple LX160 do (it has bluetooth and web/e-mail-- Palm looks cool, but I want my phone as simple as possible). Some of the phones have GPS-- could they talk to the 800 and provide maps?!
Hmm, maybe I should buy an I-phone instead-- it has such an amazing data package: $20/unlimited.
Nokia-- GET WITH THE PROGRAM. you have a great device, but you should make a deal so that people can tether it to a phone/company for $20/month (I-pod competition).
Any other ideas? Or will it cost like $600/year to tether this without the hack?!
Thanks everyone.

Dear Travelfeet,
Thanks for the information on the data quality in NYC.
How can you get a discount? I only want a basic phone that I can tether the n800 with.

technically speaking, you can tether with your V710. It would be slow though. The V710 uses 1xRTT, which is about the same speed as the iPhone running on AT&Ts EDGE network (though i give a slight edge to EDGE). I wouldn't bother with it though. not worth the effort.

Sprint really is the cheapest with their SERO plan. $30 for 500 min, $50 for 1250 min and $100 for 2500 minutes. Unlimited data on all. But their voice service is widely regarded as weaker than Verizon's. As for phones... Palm Centro is cheapest @ $99 and the hack to tether for free is available, should you choose that route. I would suggest the Mogul though. More expensive @ $299 but it has Bluetooth 2.0 which helps tethering speeds and the device will be upgradeable to EvDO Rev. A in early 2008 if not sooner.

If you don't use a hack, everyone will charge $60 to tether. It's not cheap.

I wrote the second comment here... http://voipguides.blogspot.com/2007/...l-succeed.html
Didn't know the price and service-like(not wimax yet) was already available.
Where can I find the hack for the palm centro? How many hours would the battery run with connection to the internet...the same as talking time? (just wondering cause there's a service http://www.mobivoip.net/ where you can use sip straight from your phone).... What about if I run it with my n800?(less time because of bluetooth?) and my nokia??

Thanks...

Armando

WOohoo 35 dollars for unlimited calls through sprint, killer

Can I buy the cell separated from the plan(at ebay let say???

I've got a Treo 755p with Sprint EVDO... First of all, MobiVOIP is a crappy program. The best Palm VOIP client is Articulation. Secondly, once you try VOIP over the Palm, you'll probably want to stick to Wifi for it, even with the speeds of EVDO, it still doesn't sound that great. You'll most likely get around 200-500kbps downstream, and if you're lucky 100kbps or so upstream, so not that good really. If you want faster speeds (especially upstream) you'll want something that supports EVDO Rev. A instead. The battery for the Centro is smaller than the 755p, but I get 8 hours worth out of the 755p battery, while having the data connection constantly on for push email. I've never had a Bluetooth connection active for long enough at the same time to know how long it'll last.

The hack for tethering is here: http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...d.php?t=115986

I'm not entirely sure its been tested on the Centro though, since I don't have one. If you read the instructions there too, you'd have to copy the file to the card and then use a specific program (Resco explorer) to copy it to ram.

60 dollars fo tethtering plan? Should it be cheap ....


In finland the best way to get online is to get Nokia 6150 + simcard + 3g connection. 2 year contracht the price would be:

4.9 euros for the simcard (no calls included)
5 euros / month for the phone
9.8 euros for the data connection.

That makes the grand total of 19.90 euros wich is 28 dollars. No locked phones, no tricks no hacks involved.

Also if you don't own a n800 yet. Go for the bosss packadge. Saunalahti offers n800 + Nokia 6120 + unlimited 2mb data access for 78 dollars. 2 Years payment. On tricks or locks Sweet.

p.s: Nothing to do with new york connection. Just wondering thas all.