I'm currently shopping for a cell phone to use as my primary phone and email device, and it seems to be !#@$#@! complicated. Here are my thoughts and requirements:

1. I'm currently leaning toward AT&T Wireless since they have a plan that makes sense to me and I think they have good coverage where I need it. [Cingular has the same network, and Verizon also seems to have a good network, but I don't like ther plans as much] I *can* consider others if need be.

2. I'm looking for a plan that lets me connect my laptop to the phone and get email/web/etc. I plan to find wifi when I need real bandwidth, and do quick email checks during the day, but do some fairly heavy web browsing nights & weekends. (I'm counting on nights starting at 7pm from AT&T to make this cost effective)

3. All the dedicated "data" plans with a PCMCIA card I've seen appear to be overly expensive as far as I can tell.

Here are my big questions:

A. Is there some obvious flaw to my plan?

B. What phones would work for me? Would some phones give me far better data throughput with the laptop? (I've heard numbers like 9600baud, 16k, 32k, even faster...?)

C. I've seen some talk about 2G, 2.5G, 3G phones relating to this, but I'm not sure if it matters and I sure don't understand it.

D. Will this be against the rules according to AT&T (or would it with other providers?)

Any advise would be appreciated.

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