Mobile Data Plan Comparisons
Levi at TwelveBlackCodeMonkeys has a very good overview of US mobile data plans in which he attempts to untangle the massive jumble of choices and multitude of acronyms that often make choosing the 'right' carrier, voice and data plan somewhat of a challenge.
I particularly liked how he explains the various data protocols available which comes in handy when confronted by the need to decide/decipher between GSM, CDMA, GPRS, 1xRTT, EDGE or EV-DO... He writes:
CDMA (Verizon, Sprint) currently uses a Data protocol called "1xRTT" which supposedly can clock around 144kbps, or about 2.5 times that of a dial-up connection. The next version of CDMA Data will use a protocol with the moniker "EV-DO" (currently only Verizon) which is capable of much faster average speeds of 300-500Kbps with bursts as high as 2.4Mbps.
GSM (T-Mobile, Cingular, AT&T) uses a protocol called GPRS, which is generally a lot slower at only 30-70Kbps, or approximately dial-up speeds. It's follow-up technology is called "EDGE" (currently only Cingular) and is 2-4 times faster than its predecessor at 100-200 Kbps, but still not nearly as fast as EV-DO.
At the same time, I was extremely amused to read Harry McCracken's (Editor in Chief at PC World) somewhat unpleasant experience buying a Treo 650 from Cingular and sorting out his choices of voice and data plans as well as how to get his rebate. He concludes that:
The bottom line seems to be this: Wireless providers make the process of figuring out how much you're actually going to pay for a phone and service so incredibly complicated that even their own employees are confused. And if the companies themselves can't make sense of it all, there's virtually no chance that their customers will be able to.
I am sure that nearly every Treonaut will (unfortunately) find something to relate to in both of these posts but then again these stories are quite normal in an industry that suffers some of the highest churn rates in the world - as many as 50% of users switch carriers on a yearly basis and carriers still wonder why...
Mobile Data Plan Comparisons for Smartphones [TwelveBlackCodeMonkeys]
The Bizarre and Unpleasant World of Cell Phone Services [PC World's Techlog]
More Cell-Phone Service Bizarreness [PC World's Techlog]
Treonauts would like carriers to stop the farce... 
Comments
Can anyone make offer advice with regard to Cingular's data plan's. I've been doing much research and still am baffled (I know I'm in good company)
Is there a plan for less than $19.99/month ?
Does 500KB provide for a decent amount of e-mail and browsing or is 3MB the minimum required (is this even enough?)
I expect to be an occasional (1x /day) for quick email checks, responding and minimal web browsing.
Many thanks.
Peter
Peter - I personally believe that $19.99 for an unlimited data plan will be money well spent with your data enabled Treo 650. You will quickly find that there are literally hundreds of things that you can do with it. If you really want to limit this then in my opinion 3MB would be a strict minimum.
Cheers, A.
If someone can point me to the <$19.95 plan from Cingular for the T650, I'll take it. When I talked to them they said that the ONLY option was the $39.99 PDAConnect plan. After much hasseling...they said there was a $29.95 5mb plan for the t650. I asked about the MEdiaNET 9/14/19 options and they said that they "Did not work" with the T650 as the billing system would double charge you... I guess that's how they get back to the $40 ;-)
Has anyone successfully acquired a sub $40 plan for their t650 fromm Cingular (without having to renew your contract?) ???
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