I am online from their service now. It's a whole lot of awesome.
It's on the spendy side though. I am paying about 120 US per month for all my services and options which includes unlimited data and the $15 per month charge for the right to "tether" your PC to your phone and get it online.
Anyway:
http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/2006/...scores_12.html

p.s.
There's a registry hack you must do to enable bluetooth DUN but after that it works fine on the Motorola Q. Also you must have the "tether" option on your plan even if you use Bluetooth.

Thanks for this post! I'm looking at other services (with Cingular now) and it's good to know VZ is worth considering.

If you're adventurous, you can pick up a LG Chocolate or Motorola RAZR e815 or v3c (not v3m unless you're willing to disable the v3m's memory slot) and modify it so that EV-DO tethering works. You will need the VCAST addon, which costs $15/month.

I've been tethering with VZ for ages. I would not recommend it, however, as it requires a willingness to modify your firmware, risk your warranty, and in general be a bit of a hacker. Bear in mind VZ does not support J2ME applications, and some VERY NICE apps (such as the various Google clients) won't run.

If I didn't have VZW, I probably wouldn't need my 770 =/

Actually, several devices support tethering, and there's a $15/mo charge for "unlimited" tethering. (like your "unlimited" data)

The plan is called BroadbandAccess Connect, and costs $60/month, which I'm guessing is a $15 premium over what you're paying for unlimited data access ($45/month last I checked.)

Bluetooth tethering for EV-DO is explicitly disabled on every Bluetooth non-smartphone Verizon sells, at least, not without BroadbandAccess or firmware modification. Most phone firmware does not differentiate between mobile originated data and tether originated data, but Verizon's does.

When I say tethering, I'm referring to doing what Cingular (well, kind of) and T-Mobile support already --- using your phone's data plan through your 770, and saving $45/month.

I heard from undisclosed sources that Bluetooth DUN is disabled for two reasons:
-Ease of stealing bandwidth via Bluesnarfing
-Bluetooth DUN is actually slower than the data EV-DO can provide

I can't verify that, but it makes sense to me.

I believe Verizon disables DUN because they don't want folks to be able to use multiple clients through one access point paying for service for one device.

I signed up with Sprint EVDO service with a Samsung 920 because Sprint does support Bluetooth pairing and DUN, for 39.99 for unlimited.

The only downside is the service will disconnect after a couple minutes if there's no activity. I've had to learn to launch some low bandwidth streaming to prevent disconnections.

I use the service with my 770 and for my MacBook.

When I was on the train from Eugene, OR to Portland a couple weeks ago, there was a guy behind me who was struggling to find WiFi hotspots as we were rolling. He was rambing on his phone about it. I got up, gave him my account name, P/W and phone number. He added that to a Bluetooth profile and connected through my phone. He had internet all the way to Portland.

scr
Vancouver, WA

One thing that makes Verizon's EVDO service better is that they don't compress images like Sprint does. There's a keystroke combo you can do to refresh the page in a way that doesn't compress using sprint, but you have to do that each time.

The security concerns are basically BS, as it's not the -profile- that's disabled, it's the access. This also applies to using a data cable.

EV-DO claims speeds up to 3mbit or so, Bluetooth supports speeds up to about 1.1mbit. That much is true.

Verizon has a separate, nontransparent proxy service they use called Venturi. I actually enjoy using it --- it makes things noticeably faster on image-heavy pages, and I'm usually crunched for time when I'm on EVDO.

Verizon's service goes into 'DORMANT' mode after a minute or so, at least on all the Motorola phones I've used. It seems to save battery life more than anything else, although there is a lag in re-establishing connection.

How do I find out instructions to this registry hack so I can enable bluetooth DUN on mine?

Thanks!