vB Easy Archive - Best Phone for Tethering + Battery Life

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Best Phone for Tethering + Battery Life
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Posted by: zjennings

My parents want to get off the land-line/dial-up. I realize that there can be extra charges levied for tethering to a computer. They are paying $60/mo. right now for land-line + dial-up. So around that or less for the data plan will be fine.

Any help / experience would be greatly appreciated. I know I could do it with and 8525 or the Blackjack, but I am worried about those phones being too complicated for my parents plus they have a short battery life.

Thanks a bunch,
Zach

Posted by: kevink1

I believe the appropriate plan for tethering like this is $60/month. Are you in a 3G area, if not, it won't be THAT much better than dialup, and latencies will be higher.

$60/month is awfully high for phone and dialup, unless you are having to have a long distance plan to pay for long distance to a number.

I would suggest checking if DSL is available. If you can drop all features on the phone, you may be able to get phone/DSL for under $60/month.

For instance, I pay $20/month for the voice portion of my home phone, $35 for 6mb/sec DSL. I could save $20/month for the slowest DSL ATT offers, and still have generally better speed at home than using a cell phone.

Posted by: suthurnlatino

Out of all the 3G phones, the best one for tethering was the Blackjack. The V3xx is supposedly 3.6 Mbps but I've had trouble reaching beyond 500 kilobits/sec on the device.

Posted by: zjennings

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevink1

I believe the appropriate plan for tethering like this is $60/month. Are you in a 3G area, if not, it won't be THAT much better than dialup, and latencies will be higher.

$60/month is awfully high for phone and dialup, unless you are having to have a long distance plan to pay for long distance to a number.

I would suggest checking if DSL is available. If you can drop all features on the phone, you may be able to get phone/DSL for under $60/month.

For instance, I pay $20/month for the voice portion of my home phone, $35 for 6mb/sec DSL. I could save $20/month for the slowest DSL ATT offers, and still have generally better speed at home than using a cell phone.

I think they may have 3G available. But they are too far away from town to get DSL, and they refuse to get a cable modem.

Zach

Posted by: RyanM

If your paying $60/mo for dialup with a landline I cant picture you being in a 3G area, so I would say any edge phone would be a good bet, such as a SE phone. W600i?

Posted by: zjennings

Quote:

Originally Posted by RyanM

If your paying $60/mo for dialup with a landline I cant picture you being in a 3G area, so I would say any edge phone would be a good bet, such as a SE phone. W600i?

Hmm, it looks like you may be correct. But they are not that far from Boston. I would not be surprised if they had 3G coverage right now or very soon.

Wouldn't you want to plan for the near future, and get a phone that would be able to take advantage of those new speeds in the near future rather than being stuck with an outdated EDGE phone for two years? (can you say iPhone?)

I love SE because they just work right and the battery life kicks ***. But unfortunately, all the phones that Cingular will carry for them are old and outdated technology. Is Cingular going to stop carrying SE?

z

Posted by: bikemanj7

I love tethering with my V3xx...

Posted by: troyboy30

battery life is not an issue when tethered with a cable!

speeds with v3xx

Posted by: bikemanj7

Quote:

Originally Posted by troyboy30

battery life is not an issue when tethered with a cable!

speeds with v3xx

Is that tethered through a cable or through bluetooth?

Posted by: troyboy30

cable..............