[Ti] Free nationwide wireless internet

[Steve Wozniak]

At 9:08 AM -0800 3/19/03, Sherman Gregory wrote:
>Did you actually see this work, or was someone just speculating that it would?  I would be surprised if it did.   It might work, but there are a couple of issues that I can foresee.

I talked to the guy who does this at a post-midnight post-speech dinner. He is a recent CMU graduate and was very familiar with many of the carrier issues we face with data connection. I will vouch for it working for 2 reasons. This person was too knowledgeable and on-target about various technology elements to be challenged on this one. Second, I asked detailed questions (he talked very fast at first) and it all became clear to me that it would certainly work.

>
>I don't know much about Cingular's GSM based system, but I do know a little about CDMA systems.  When a wireless phone acts as a modem in the circuit switched sense, it is not phone that is performing the modem function, but a modem in the fixed infrastructure side of the system.  So I wonder how the infrastructure on the terminating end of the call knows to be a modem?  It could be done, but I think that it would take extra work on the part of the system designers to support a function that they do not want people to use.

This person used T68i phones and T720 phones and T39 phones. He said that the phone behaves as a modem. One side acts as the dialing modem for your laptop and the other side acts as the answering modem, for any remote-access answering computer. This person probably used a PC here. Many of us did this with OS 9. I'm not sure how to do it with OS X yet, but I'll look into it when I get time.

>
>If this really works, I am interested in knowing details.
>
>I don't know what Cingular's family plan costs, but for $99/month from Sprint or Verizon I can get packet data service that will connect me to the Internet with download speeds of "up to" 144kb/s within their respective "nationwide" coverage areas.  Certainly a lot faster than the 9600.  I have used both of these myself.   I use the Sprint service with a Novatel Merlin C201 PCMCIA card and the Verizon service with a Motorola T720c phone and a USB cable.  Both of these work with my Ti running 10.2.4.

Cingular has various family plans. I had one for $200/month for 2500 minutes between the 4 phones. The person in Pittsburg had 800 minutes for $70,  I think. I'd have to look up the plans. But that's the cost for voice. Just get a plan for the voice minutes you need.
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Regards,

Steve  (is tv wake zone?)