Re: [PLUG] Through cell phone to Internet - perpetual mobile contract

[Kevin Brosius <kbrosius@kns.com>]

Jason wrote:
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> On Sunday 30 June 2002 22H:42, kaze wrote:
> > Watch out, I have Cingular, and whenever you change or tweak your plan they
> > restart the one year contract. I actually read the whole contract when I
> > got it, but this was one of those additions they made later and sent with
> > some junk mail. When I said I never agreed to renewing the contract they
> > said that under PA law they could use my verbal agreement to the plan
> > changes over the phone as contractually obligating. Also I believe for me
> > to get out of it I have to notify them in writing just before the one year
> > anniversary, then stop using the phone - otherwise it automatically renews
> > for another year. Another frustrating thing is that not only can't you move
> > numbers between networks, you can't always move perfectly good phones
> > either.
> >
> 
> I used to have Bell Atlantic Mobile / Verizon Wireless ANALOG service. I was
> with them for probably about 5-6 years. I had switched to a lower rate plan
> for the first time about 7 months prior to switching to another provider,
> with no indication of an early termination fee. They tried to nail me with a
> $175 cancellation fee. They even sent a collection agency, despite a
> manager's assurance that I was correct, and should not have been charged an
> early termination fee (whose name I had even written down :). It took about
> 12 phone calls over 4 months to clear that all up. Can't say I'd ever use
> Verizon again in my lifetime. And, it was definitely NOT worth the hastle,
> but $175 seemed like a lot before the saga started.
> 
> I now use Voicestream (was Omnipoint - liked it much better then, maybe paid a
> dollar or two more a month, but got much better service). Have an Ericsson
> GSM World Phone with an IRDA connector. It's basically a 9600 bps data
> connection. Haven't been able to get coverage for the "World Phone" on
> several trips, including a Carribean Cruise (not a big deal, avoided some
> work-related activity) and Cincinatti, Ohio (more of a problem, my brother
> lives there), but it does work in Fulton (and St. Louis), Missouri as well as
> Chicago, IL (plus where I've been in FL, CA, NY, PA, DE, MD, NJ, etc.). I
> have to check the coverage when we're in Great Britain later this year, but
> if it doesn't work, I won't be terribly upset. Basically, a local GSM
> provider is not always available in a number of U.S. locations as well as
> U.S. territories and a few other parts of the world. At least my battery
> lasts longer...
> 
> Oh, and my Ericsson plays OK with most IRDA implementations (Win98, WinCE,
> Linux, etc.), but not Windows 2000. Ericsson released a firmware "upgrade" to
> make the phone work better with Win 2K (because M$ wouldn't fix their
> problem), but it is only allowed to be done by the service provider. But, the
> service provider does not have the the right Windows OS installed (the
> software only runs under Win 98/ME or Win 2K/ME, I forget which, but they
> only have the other one). And, good luck trying to discuss this with any of
> the "service" (no, they are "sales") people who work in the stores or answer
> the phone. I spent months trying to get that working (that was probably about
> 1.5 years ago now). One more reason to use Free / Open Source Operating
> Systems...
> 


Would you mind giving a summary of what's required to get this working
on Voicestream?  I've been using Omnipoint/Voicestream myself for quiet
a while, but was under the impression that you needed to subscribe to
one of their data services to use the modem side of the phone.  I notice
that my account record shows 'data' but all the info on the web site
seems unrelated to web/data dial out use.

I rented one of the Ericson world phones once.  That's a nice phone. 
Used it in Australia for business.  At the time, Omnipoint international
roaming rates tended to be cheaper than US phone card and hotel calls.

-- 
Kevin Brosius

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