Mobile Phone Broadband Internet

[UK-RV]

Hi Guys

You may have seen the news headlines about X-Series, the new broadband internet service for your mobile phone.

Details here http://xseries.three.com/

It is released in the UK on December 1st and the rest of the World in 2007.

Unfortunately, even though the launch is only 2 weeks away, there are no prices as yet - but they claim unlimited access when launched, plus a number of other handy utlilities packaged in.

I'm not sure whether this can be hooked-up to the laptop or whether you have to use the tiny phone screens.

Anyway, it sounds like a positive step in the right direction for mobile internet access.

What do you think ?

Paul

EDIT :  OOPS, according to their website, I dont think they hold a licence for the USA. Which probably means they will sell it to a another provider who will offer it to you at half what they are charging us.

 

[Ned]

It appears to be another scheme to let you watch movies on your phone, access selected web sites, and make VOIP calls via Skype, all on a 1" screen.  Nothing really new here, you can do all of these things on phones here in the US right now.

As for unlimited access, that sounds good, but bandwidth is finite and there is no such thing as "unlimited".  That's marketing speak.

 

[UK-RV]

LOL Ned

I dont think the screens are quite as small as 1" - perhaps 3"x5" - but still small (similar to a PDA screen, so not impossible to use - but will damage your eyes after the first 10hrs staring at the thing  ;D).

The "unlimited" access usually comes with the "according to our fair usage policy" hidden in the small print.

If it can be linked to the laptop, it will certainly be a HUGE thing in the UK - remember, we pay around $150 per month for satellite internet on the move.

Using GPRS costs even more if you want to do any amount of web surfing.

Paul

 

[Ned]

I didn't see anything that indicated you could tether the devices (only 2 at this time) to a PC for internet access.  Everything is done on the phones and small screen.  As I said, this is nothing new here in the US.  For computer access via the cell phone system, we have Air Cards that are "unlimited" and we can use a 17" screen

 

[Tom]

I have to agree with Ned; I don't see a way of connecting one of the devices to a PC. Web surfing via cell phone has been around for a number of years.

 

[obiwan]

I don't know about the phones the OP is refering to but, you can turn your cell phone into a modem for your laptop using a utility called PDANet which either uses a USB cable or in the case of my MacBook Pro, via bluetooth to get an internet connection any place you have cell phone coverage.

No need to strain your eyes on that "1 inch" screen  ;D

 

[Jeff]

I don't know about the phones the OP is referring to but, you can turn your cell phone into a modem for your laptop using a utility called PDANet which either uses a USB cable or in the case of my MacBook Pro, via bluetooth to get an internet connection any place you have cell phone coverage.

No need to strain your eyes on that "1 inch" screen  ;D

While hanging around a Verizon (Corporate) booth this week at a local mall that Sue was checking out I got into a discussion with one of the young guys there who seemed to be a techie (Knew about PDANet) about back door tethering. He has had two customers come in really upset about receiving multi-hundred dollar bills for data service in the past thirty days. They got them removed with a signed agreement that any further usage will be billable. I guess Verizon is planning on shutting down our freebie in the near future.

I have a Treo 650 that I dropped the data plan on last year because Verizon's data plan for PDA's is flat fee or .0075 per kilobyte which would run up the national debt in a hurry. I started using Sue's GIN enabled phone that is minutes based at the moment for data. What the guy could not tell me was if the PDANet tethering of a PDA on an unlimited data plan will be allowed. (It is 45/mo instead of the 60/mo a Verizon Aircard costs.)

 

[obiwan]

While hanging around a Verizon (Corporate) booth this week at a local mall that Sue was checking out I got into a discussion with one of the young guys there who seemed to be a techie (Knew about PDANet) about back door tethering. He has had two customers come in really upset about receiving multi-hundred dollar bills for data service in the past thirty days. They got them removed with a signed agreement that any further usage will be billable. I guess Verizon is planning on shutting down our freebie in the near future.

I have a Treo 650 that I dropped the data plan on last year because Verizon's data plan for PDA's is flat fee or .0075 per kilobyte which would run up the national debt in a hurry. I started using Sue's GIN enabled phone that is minutes based at the moment for data. What the guy could not tell me was if the PDANet tethering of a PDA on an unlimited data plan will be allowed. (It is 45/mo instead of the 60/mo a Verizon Aircard costs.)

Agreed Verizon is pretty strict on the data plans, I have Sprint PCS $20 a month data plan which allows unlimited data transfer.