OT - Wireless phone providers - WAS: [Cialug]ssh for cell phones

[Brandon Griffis]

I'm currently with AT&T and can't wait for my contract to expire (roughly
another year).  Coverage is decent and all, but I'm on a "2.5"G device (treo
680) and edge is a joke.  Esp when AT&T charges me nearly 2x as much for
data service because it's a "PDA" and not a "smartphone" (even though it's
getting really hard to tell the difference in some cases).

The idea of GSM is great, but with most cell providers on CDMA it's not
worth the cost.  Sprint will give me roughly the same 3G speed on their data
network as AT&T will.  But they'll do it for less than half of what AT&T
wants ($15 vs $40).  Even on a 3G device I'm not about to pay the same price
for data service for my phone as I pay for my home Internet connection.
That's just ridiculous.

-B

On Nov 15, 2007 7:32 PM, Dan Hockey <icepuck2k at mchsi.com> wrote:

> I have a v3xx which is 3g and it's a lot faster than my old v3 which was
> gsm. ATT/Cingular is a lot better than it used to be. GSM used to be a
> dialup simulator when came to trying to read my email and web surfing was
> painfully slow.
> -dh
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On
> Behalf
> Of jrnosee at gmail.com
> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 10:41 AM
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
> Subject: Re: OT - Wireless phone providers - WAS: [Cialug]ssh for cell
> phones
>
> Personally, I don't have Verizon.  My wife still does, but I despise
> them and their shady business practices.  However, some time ago I did
> have a PDA phone from them.  I could access most internet functions on
> it.  A current co-worker of mine has a smartphone from Verizon and
> it's nearly as blocked as their regular phones.  Sprint has decent
> options as well, but are about the same as Verizon (although my
> friend's sprint pda phone has been limited slightly as well).  The sad
> part is they are the only two CDMA providers in the area (that I'm
> aware of) that have hi-speed EVDO networks.  GSM, when I have used it
> is GREAT..except it's coverage here in the US is horrible and I often
> had poor coverage inside of buildings.  If you're not looking for
> speed US Cellular has been pretty good to me.  They don't block
> functions from the phones and if you're willing to "bend" your terms
> of service, can be used with a bluetooth PDA or computer to connect to
> the internet.  Granted they are only Rx1TT and pretty slow for data,
> their data plan on a regular phone is only $10/mo for unlimited use.
>
> All-in-all it's nice to have for occasional usage, but if you're
> really looking for a phone/data package I'd check Verizon or Sprint as
> I think they both have phone-as-modem plans.  Just don't expect to be
> able to do everything with a normal phone that you think you should.
> If you want an open-access phone, wait for google's phone(?) or check
> and see if the RAZR 2's an option.  I haven't looked into it much yet
> (because it's selling for more than some PDA phones), but I believe it
> was supposed to be based off of linux.  HowardForum may have more info
> on this.
>
> On Nov 15, 2007 9:37 AM, Nathan Stien <nathanism at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Nov 15, 2007 9:20 AM, Dave J. Hala Jr. <dave at 58ghz.net> wrote:
> > > If you could ssh into your phone, you could turn it into a covert spy
> > > cam.  It would be almost as good as being invisible...
> >
> > And you could do a lot of other things besides.  scp files in/out,
> > sync contacts, etc.  Possibly find the phone if it gets stolen.  And
> > don't forget apt-get dist-upgrade.
> >
> > It would also be nice to have little gui apps running on the phone
> > that run ssh underneath to contact my machines out in the world to
> > manipulate things.  Set up a mythtv recording, monitor machine status,
> > etc.
> >
> >
> > - Nathan
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Cialug at cialug.org
> > http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
> >
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