Use Phone as Modem for PC

I just got a new Samsung SYNC and an AT&T plan with unlimited Internet
usage for another $20/month. I had hoped to be able to use the phone
to access my webmail but have determined that this is really not
practical. I'm now thinking about buying a Bluetooth USB dongle for
my notebook and using the phone as a wireless modem in areas where I
can't find open WiFi service.

A salesperson at the phone store recommeded that I get a Sierra
Wireless AirCard and it's $60/month plan for my computer instead. She
said that if I use my phone as I am considering, AT&T would somehow
know and they would cut me off because this use is contrary to the
terms of my plan.

How could AT&T know if I use my phone as a network access device for
my notebook? Even if they could tell, why would they care? Or is
this merely a poorly-disguised attempt to get me to buy another (more
expensive) plan?

---

› See More: Use Phone as Modem for PC

Bob Simon wrote:

> A salesperson at the phone store recommeded that I get a Sierra
> Wireless AirCard and it's $60/month plan for my computer instead. She
> said that if I use my phone as I am considering, AT&T would somehow
> know and they would cut me off because this use is contrary to the
> terms of my plan.
>
> How could AT&T know if I use my phone as a network access device for
> my notebook? Even if they could tell, why would they care?

They care because they want you to sign up for the $60/month plan!

Many people use the lower cost plans, and tether either wirelessly or
with a cable, and don't get in trouble. But it does violate the terms of
service.

> Or is
> this merely a poorly-disguised attempt to get me to buy another (more
> expensive) plan?

It's not poorly disguised, but it is an attempt to get you to sign up
for the more expensive plan.


[Copied to alt.cellular.attws. Please post all alt.cellular.cingular
non-spam posts to alt.cellular.attws as well. The Cingular name is going
away, and alt.cellular.attws is the proper venue for posts regarding
AT&T's Wireless Service.]

They can tell by the signal that goes back and forth.
I did this a few times on Verizon and it showed up on my bill as data.

There just looking to take you for a ride. (A high price ride)

The connation will be painful. Cell phone modems are at best 14,400 more
like 9600 and that's on a good day.

"Bob Simon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
>I just got a new Samsung SYNC and an AT&T plan with unlimited Internet
> usage for another $20/month. I had hoped to be able to use the phone
> to access my webmail but have determined that this is really not
> practical. I'm now thinking about buying a Bluetooth USB dongle for
> my notebook and using the phone as a wireless modem in areas where I
> can't find open WiFi service.
>
> A salesperson at the phone store recommeded that I get a Sierra
> Wireless AirCard and it's $60/month plan for my computer instead. She
> said that if I use my phone as I am considering, AT&T would somehow
> know and they would cut me off because this use is contrary to the
> terms of my plan.
>
> How could AT&T know if I use my phone as a network access device for
> my notebook? Even if they could tell, why would they care? Or is
> this merely a poorly-disguised attempt to get me to buy another (more
> expensive) plan?

Kevin,
My use of the word modem was confusing. Sorry. I meant to make an
analogy to an external communications device which passes data to a
terminal device, not as a dial-up protocol. I would use my phone's
UMTS/HSDPA connection to the Internet and pass the acquired data to my
laptop via Bluetooth. Since HSDPA is fast, Bluetooth would be the
limiting factor in this connection. I read that Bluetooth yields
around 50kbps throughput. Even though this is much better than 9600
bps, I agree with you that it's slow. If this becomes a burden, I
could always use a cable to connect the two devices instead of
wireless - it's just not as convenient.

I still wonder if AT&T can actually tell if I'm using my cellphone to
display a web site on it's own tiny screen, or if I'm passing the data
to my laptop running Firefox. After all, isn't it just HTML in either
case?
Bob


On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:41:01 GMT, "Kevin Weaver"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>They can tell by the signal that goes back and forth.
>I did this a few times on Verizon and it showed up on my bill as data.
>
>There just looking to take you for a ride. (A high price ride)
>
>The connation will be painful. Cell phone modems are at best 14,400 more
>like 9600 and that's on a good day.
>
>"Bob Simon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news[email protected]...
>>I just got a new Samsung SYNC and an AT&T plan with unlimited Internet
>> usage for another $20/month. I had hoped to be able to use the phone
>> to access my webmail but have determined that this is really not
>> practical. I'm now thinking about buying a Bluetooth USB dongle for
>> my notebook and using the phone as a wireless modem in areas where I
>> can't find open WiFi service.
>>
>> A salesperson at the phone store recommeded that I get a Sierra
>> Wireless AirCard and it's $60/month plan for my computer instead. She
>> said that if I use my phone as I am considering, AT&T would somehow
> know and they would cut me off because this use is contrary to the
>> terms of my plan.
>>
>> How could AT&T know if I use my phone as a network access device for
>> my notebook? Even if they could tell, why would they care? Or is
>> this merely a poorly-disguised attempt to get me to buy another (more
>> expensive) plan?

I'm doing it with my 'Sync' via a BT 2.0 link to a USB 1.1 port /
dongle and get 385 kbps up and down speeds (3G icon showing). Just
don't use the connection for multi-megabyte file D/Ls and AT&T won't
bother you. BTW, it's still a 'dial-up' connection (*99***1#).

SoCalCommie

"I'm tired off those comparisons between Hitler and George W. Bush!
Hitler was a highly decorated combat veteran who won office by
majority vote!" - Jon Stewart

"Bob Simon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:1s4t6357uun0ibs5ugnoa6***[email protected]...
> Kevin,
> My use of the word modem was confusing. Sorry. I meant to make an
> analogy to an external communications device which passes data to a
> terminal device, not as a dial-up protocol. I would use my phone's
> UMTS/HSDPA connection to the Internet and pass the acquired data to
my
> laptop via Bluetooth. Since HSDPA is fast, Bluetooth would be the
> limiting factor in this connection. I read that Bluetooth yields
> around 50kbps throughput. Even though this is much better than 9600
> bps, I agree with you that it's slow. If this becomes a burden, I
> could always use a cable to connect the two devices instead of
> wireless - it's just not as convenient.
>
> I still wonder if AT&T can actually tell if I'm using my cellphone
to
> display a web site on it's own tiny screen, or if I'm passing the
data
> to my laptop running Firefox. After all, isn't it just HTML in
either
> case?
> Bob
>
>
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:41:01 GMT, "Kevin Weaver"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >They can tell by the signal that goes back and forth.
> >I did this a few times on Verizon and it showed up on my bill as
data.
> >
> >There just looking to take you for a ride. (A high price ride)
> >
> >The connation will be painful. Cell phone modems are at best 14,400
more
> >like 9600 and that's on a good day.
> >
> >"Bob Simon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >news[email protected]...
> >>I just got a new Samsung SYNC and an AT&T plan with unlimited
Internet
> >> usage for another $20/month. I had hoped to be able to use the
phone
> >> to access my webmail but have determined that this is really not
> >> practical. I'm now thinking about buying a Bluetooth USB dongle
for
> >> my notebook and using the phone as a wireless modem in areas
where I
> >> can't find open WiFi service.
> >>
> >> A salesperson at the phone store recommeded that I get a Sierra
> >> Wireless AirCard and it's $60/month plan for my computer instead.
She
> >> said that if I use my phone as I am considering, AT&T would
somehow
> > know and they would cut me off because this use is contrary to the
> >> terms of my plan.
> >>
> >> How could AT&T know if I use my phone as a network access device
for
> >> my notebook? Even if they could tell, why would they care? Or
is
> >> this merely a poorly-disguised attempt to get me to buy another
(more
> >> expensive) plan?
>

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:05:08 -0500, Bob Simon <[email protected]> wrote
in <1s4t6357uun0ibs5ugnoa6***[email protected]>:

>My use of the word modem was confusing. Sorry. I meant to make an
>analogy to an external communications device which passes data to a
>terminal device, not as a dial-up protocol. I would use my phone's
>UMTS/HSDPA connection to the Internet and pass the acquired data to my
>laptop via Bluetooth. Since HSDPA is fast, Bluetooth would be the
>limiting factor in this connection. I read that Bluetooth yields
>around 50kbps throughput. Even though this is much better than 9600
>bps, I agree with you that it's slow. If this becomes a burden, I
>could always use a cable to connect the two devices instead of
>wireless - it's just not as convenient.

I get good performance with my Motorola RAZR V3xx tethered by Bluetooth
to the built-in Bluetooth in my ThinkPad T41 using AT&T/Cingular HSDPA.

Bluetooth itself isn't slow -- maximum raw speed:
* Bluetooth 1.2 and below: 723.1 kbit/s
* Bluetooth 2.0 and above: 2.1 Mbit/s

With a good implementation in ideal conditions (no interference), figure
throughput will be about half of the maximum raw speed, but even that is
sufficiently fast for good HSDPA performance.

When Bluetooth throughput is poor, the usual problems are:
* Radio interference
* Poor implementation -- some phones may not have sufficient processing
power to achieve full performance.

>I still wonder if AT&T can actually tell if I'm using my cellphone to
>display a web site on it's own tiny screen, or if I'm passing the data
>to my laptop running Firefox. After all, isn't it just HTML in either
>case?

There's no direct way for AT&T/Cingular to tell whether the transfers
are by phone apps like Opera Mini, or by tethered computer apps like
Opera, but it can infer such use by amount of data and by patterns of
data access.

>On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:41:01 GMT, "Kevin Weaver"
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>They can tell by the signal that goes back and forth.
>>I did this a few times on Verizon and it showed up on my bill as data.

Verizon CDMA is different from AT&T/Cingular UMTS.

>>There just looking to take you for a ride. (A high price ride)
>>
>>The connation will be painful. Cell phone modems are at best 14,400 more
>>like 9600 and that's on a good day.

In the case of UMTS, that would only apply to CSD, which isn't what the
OP is using. AT&T/Cingular HSDPA, like Verizon EV-DO, is far faster.

>>"Bob Simon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news[email protected]...
>>>I just got a new Samsung SYNC and an AT&T plan with unlimited Internet
>>> usage for another $20/month. I had hoped to be able to use the phone
>>> to access my webmail but have determined that this is really not
>>> practical. I'm now thinking about buying a Bluetooth USB dongle for
>>> my notebook and using the phone as a wireless modem in areas where I
>>> can't find open WiFi service.

For best results, be sure to get a Bluetooth 2.0 device.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:26:20 -0700, "SoCalCommie" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I'm doing it with my 'Sync' via a BT 2.0 link to a USB 1.1 port /
>dongle and get 385 kbps up and down speeds (3G icon showing). Just
>don't use the connection for multi-megabyte file D/Ls and AT&T won't
>bother you. BTW, it's still a 'dial-up' connection (*99***1#).
>

I'd be delighted to get 384k. That's 1/4 of a T1.

Please explain *99***1#

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:43:46 -0500, Bob Simon <[email protected]> wrote
in <[email protected]>:

>On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:26:20 -0700, "SoCalCommie" <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>
>>I'm doing it with my 'Sync' via a BT 2.0 link to a USB 1.1 port /
>>dongle and get 385 kbps up and down speeds (3G icon showing). Just
>>don't use the connection for multi-megabyte file D/Ls and AT&T won't
>>bother you. BTW, it's still a 'dial-up' connection (*99***1#).
>
>I'd be delighted to get 384k. That's 1/4 of a T1.
>
>Please explain *99***1#

That's the standard GSM dialing code for packet data (profile 1).
See the Cingular FAQ below for more info.
--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>