* Wolfgang S. Rupprecht <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [070228 00:06]: > > "Dean Collins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Yep saw that in Slashdot, bit of confusion are they cracking down on > > existing data levels for cheaper data offerings (something called TZones > > or similar) or if totally banning. > > > > Point is, vote with your feet and go to cingular or someone else. > > I tried my best to understand the 8+ different Cingular data offerings > and it seems at first glance that each of them either requires using a > device bought from Cingular or approved by name (eg. the various > "Blackberry" planes) > > > http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/data-cell-phone-plans.jsp?_requestid=82997
Well, the Smartphone, Data and Laptop plans should work. OTOH, it's basic stupidity, because they seem to sell the same product "unlimited" internet access with different prices depending upon which device you insert your SIM card into. So IANAL, but I guess you should be ok to use the Smartphone plan, as the Neo is a smartphone ;) The problem, why this is stupid, is the fact that many smartphones allow sharing the internet access to a laptop via Bluetooth. They can disable this on their own "enhanced" brand phones, but buying the same phone from the manufacturer will include this subversive features. (btw, that makes sometimes sense, because my phone has better reception than my UMTS data card.) GPRS/UMTS offers basically one way to differate data offerings, by offering different APNs (access point names). E.g. my phone offers basically three APNs (Blackberry, T-Mobile MMS, Internet). Blackberry will probably connect you to a special network garden, that allows for pushing email. MMS allows sending/receiving MMS. And internet is basically a NAT-ed internet access. Now offering the same network destination (Internet) with different prices attached depending upon the device used is a creative way for the legal department, but it's hard to implement network-wise. The only thing would be that Cingular only allows connecting via pre-authenticated EMEI-identified phones. Haven't heard yet that they do this to their customers. The alternate way would be to log the EMEI, decode (if that's at all possible) what device it is, and later sue your customer. (If that's their strategy, I guess that they had help from some SCO managers on the dole ;) ) Andreas _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
