X
Tech

Is Sprint's CDMA-Bluetooth phone the right connection?

After catching a demo of the hefty Hitachi G1000, David Berlind started to wonder:Is any  converged PDA/phone worth lugging around? So, instead, he's planning to use a Bluetooth phone as a router for his PDA and laptop. But which phone? Whic
Written by David Berlind, Inactive

Is any converged PDA/phone worth lugging around?

That's what I started to wonder after getting a demonstration of the PocketPC Phone Edition-based Hitachi G1000 from SprintPCS officials at CeBiT America this week. The demo made clear the sort of size needed to get everything I'm looking for out of a converged device. (Hint: It's big.) If I shelled out $650 for it, I'd probably want to keep it with me everywhere I go . On the other hand, there certainly would be situations where I'd wish that my cell phone was just a bit smaller. So, until someone comes up with the earth-moving marriage of hardware and software that we've all been waiting for (and that fits more comfortably on your waist or in your pocket), maybe deconstruction is the way to go.

When Bluetooth (best known for its prowess as a wireless cable replacement technology) works, it is the preferred method of giving digital devices such as notebooks and PDAs access to the phone's network for data connectivity. In this capacity, a Bluetooth phone is basically a router. Although many still use wires to connect their devices to one another, there's a certain Feng Shui-esque quality to using Bluetooth.

Unfortunately, those considering the Bluetooth route to give their digital devices access to a 2.5G wireless wide area network (WWAN) don't have many options when it comes to their choice of networks. The only Bluetooth-enabled phones that have been available until now are ones like Sony Ericsson's T68i that connect to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)-based networks run by carriers such as T-Mobile, Cingular, and AT&T Wireless. So far, GPRS networks have proven to be about half as fast as their CDMA-1xRTT-based 2.5G competitors from carriers such as SprintPCS and Verizon.

Starting this July, however, SprintPCS will begin reselling a Bluetooth-enabled CDMA-based sister to Sony Ericsson's T68i called the T608i. Even though road warriors will be most interested in the data convergence possibilities created by a Bluetooth-CDMA package like the $200 T608i, SprintPCS officials see wireless, hands-free headsets as the first and most prevalent application. But they acknowledge the existence of a market segment that will go straight for the 2.5G radio-sharing option that Bluetooth affords to a data-capable phone.

Yet I wonder: Will the phone's introduction necessitate a restructuring of the company's voice-data plans? Today, virtually all SprintPCS voice plans come packaged with an all-you-can-eat data plan. These plans are designed to encourage the sales of data-capable phones such as the $99 Sanyo 8100 camera phone, which makes it easy to take low resolution pictures and transmit them to friends and family. But the reason SprintPCS can offer these all-you-can-eat data plans to business users and consumers alike without overwhelming its 2.5G network is that the company never envisioned any of the wireless devices in its lineup as loquacious generators of data. When used as intended, even the most sophisticated of the PDA/phones that SprintPCS resells (such as the Treo 300 can only generate modest amounts of data.

I told SprintPCS spokesperson Suzanne Lammers that I was pumping 20 megabytes of data per hour across the company's network by using June Fabrics PDANet software, which turns a Treo300 into a CDMA-modem for a laptop. Using the phone in that manner, Lammers told me, is a violation of SprintPCS' terms of use. "We're hearing of more people who are doing that," Lammers said. "It's easy for us to tell who's abusing the network in that way by the amount of data they're passing across the network over a given period of time, and we will eventually clamp down on that."

Although PDANet offers a way to surreptitiously "steal" bandwidth from SprintPCS (that's not endorsed by the company), I pointed out to Lammers that offering a Bluetooth-enabled phone will also promote heavier data usage of its network. That's because the Bluetooth radio in the phones will make it easy for road warriors to connect their Bluetooth-enabled laptops to the CDMA network the same way PDANet allowed me to use the Treo. Lammers responded: "We're aware of that, so we're coming up with a line of voice-data plans to accommodate heavier data usage." However, Lammers was unable to provide any details on what such a voice plus all-you-can eat data plan might cost.

Today, SprintPCS has an all-you-can-eat data plan for laptops that uses a dedicated PC Card-based CDMA 1xRTT radio for $80 per month. SprintPCS' chief CDMA-1xRTT rival Verizon already allows for its phones to be used in the same unlimited way for $80 per month through a plan called Mobile Office Kit for Express Network (1XRTT).

While the news is promising, I wonder whether early adopters might run into a few hitches, especially if technical support is required. The last time ] I tried a Bluetooth-phone connection, it was with a Sony Ericsson T68i using T-Mobile's GPRS service. T-Mobile's technical support was ill-equipped to get me up and running. I never achieved a connection. Although I hear that the company's technical support has improved a bit, it probably took a while for T-Mobile to build a knowledge base for all the third-party Bluetooth-based devices (different computers, PDAs, etc.) that people might be trying to use with the phone.

I'm always in search of wireless nirvana Do you have a successful configuration that you want to share? Or do you have a wireless nightmare? Use TalkBack below or write to me at david.berlind@cnet.com. If you're looking for my commentaries on other IT topics, check the archives.

Editorial standards