So you’ve got a wireless Internet-enabled phone and a laptop computer. Phone lines connect computers to the Internet, right? So you should be able to use the phone to get your computer onto the Internet, right?
Well, sort of. Some wireless users have found ways to do so, often transforming their phones into modems-following murky and complicated directions posted in Internet forums, downloading drivers and fumbling through endless directions, which most users would never bother with even if it could eventually be done.
“You definitely have to be a tech-savvy user in order to get it work,” said Brad Akyuz, senior analyst for Current Analysis.
Network speeds tended to be slow, and some of the fiddling smacked of the illicit, with users talking about flying under carriers’ radars by keeping their usage low, discussing whether they violated terms of service agreements with carriers such as Verizon Wireless, and with some users reporting they had been charged for data usage while others apparently did not.
Now, Verizon Wireless is touting the ability of four of its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO handsets to double as modems-the V and the VX8100 from LG Electronics Co. Ltd., the Razr V3c and E815 from Motorola Inc.-as well as the Research In Motion Ltd. Blackberry 7130e. The modem capability requires a USB cable to connect the phone to a laptop; the carrier recommends the use of its $40 Mobile Office connection kit, which also includes software that is supposed to make the set-up process easier. A BroadbandAccess plan of $60 per month is required.
“This is for the person who probably uses their phone more for voice then for data, but they have a need to download to a PC,” said Brenda Raney, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless. “This means they don’t have to buy a PC card.”
Or, for that matter, a second BroadbandAccess account, which was one flaw in the prior arrangement. If customers wanted both their phones and PCs to have Internet access, they were looking at a PC card for up to $180, an unlimited BroadbandAccess plan for the card, plus another $60 unlimited plan for the phone. Now, the customer only has to pay for a $40 connection kit and the phone plan.
In comparison, Sprint Nextel Corp. asks that its users have a phone-as-modem plan costing $40 a month for 40 megabytes of data transmission or unlimited service for $50 per month; the carrier is currently running a promotion for $40 a month for unlimited service with a new two-year service agreement. Sprint Nextel also has several phones which, in addition to cable connections, can get a PC on its EV-DO network using a Bluetooth connection.
In general, Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Amy Schiska said that if users can get their phones to work as modems, “We allow it, so long as customers have a phone-as-modem plan.”
“If you always have your cell phone with you, you might as well be able to take advantage of its capabilities,” said Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Jackie Bostick.
Verizon Wireless’ Bluetooth phones still cannot be used as modems for accessing its EV-DO network, Raney said. The carrier ran into legal trouble with Bluetooth when it disabled file-sharing capabilities of its Motorola V710 so as not to violate agreements related to its Get It Now content; according to Bluetooth profiles on Verizon Wireless’ Web site, the V710 can be used as a modem to access the carrier’s slower speed 1x network.
While some restrictions on file-sharing have been loosened with the introduction of Vcast music, Raney noted, Bluetooth can’t be used as a wireless EV-DO connection “due to the limitations of the technology in supporting the speeds and throughput of BroadbandAccess,” Raney said, a problem apparently not impacting Sprint Nextel’s EV-DO network.
Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group, said that when he travels, he typically sees people using PC cards instead of a phone-as-modem set up, because of the complexity of linking the laptop and the phone. He said the ideal situation would be to have two devices that are already preconfigured to work together and could be sold together-or that carriers could provide a set-up service.
“It would behoove the carriers to have a service to do the handshake between the two devices there in the store, so when you walk out, everything just works,” Enderle said.
