The true cost of "always-on" GPRS with VoiceStream
(column from geek.com , 2/26/2002, v4 #4)
0) INTRODUCTION & RAMBLINGS
The true cost of "always-on" GPRS with Voicestream
Nokia sent me the new Nokia 8390 to play with the other day.
Initially, the company didn't have any spare SIMs, so the rep sent it to me without a SIM. I immediately inserted my own GSM SIM card for the Voicestream network and was up and running. Unfortunately, I don't subscribe to Voicestream's GPRS network--iStream is the actual name for it--so I was only able to use it as a regular phone ... the horror! Thankfully, a SIM card that was ready to go on the iStream network arrived today.
For those of you not familiar with GPRS, it actually stands for General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and is a 2.5G technology that allows short bursts of data between a mobile phone and a network, such as the Internet. The short transmissions allow for less costly connectivity than a constant connection. GPRS also promises data rates from 56 up to 114 Kbps, so you can see why many people are dying to try it out.
In this case, it works on the Voicestream network and lets your phone stay constantly connected, while only charging you by the megabyte. Of course, first you have to purchase a regular voice plan and then an additional plan for the iStream service ... not to mention that you also have to plunk down some $$ for a phone that will let you enjoy the new iStream "always-on" service.
As an exercise, let's see how much it would cost the average person to get up and running on the new iStream network. For starters, you have to buy a phone capable of handling GPRS. According to Voicestream, my area of Rhode Island currently has three phones that I can choose from, ranging in price from US$49.99 (free after rebate if you order online), $179 (or $50 less with rebate), or $199 (or $50 less with rebate). Once you purchase the phone, you then have to choose which iStream plan makes the most sense. Again, three choices: Smartphone for $2.99 per month (1 MB), PDA (Windows CE) for $19.99 per month (5 MB), or Laptop for $39.99 per month (10 MB). If you read the fine print, both the PDA and laptop options currently only work with the Motorola P280, since that's the only phone that Voicestream currently offers a cable for to connect your PDA and mobile phone together. The cable sells for $69.40 and only works with the iPAQ currently. On the Laptop plan, it seems that the P280 is once again the only phone that will work.
Remember, you also need to choose a voice plan in order to finish up the package. The most basic plan is $19.99, so we'll choose that for now.
Let's say that we want to connect our PDA to the iStream network. First off, we can only connect the iPAQ out of the box, since that's the only cable currently supported. We'll assume that we already own the iPAQ. Based on that, the costs below illustrate the cash outlay to get our iPAQ up and running on the iStream network:
$129.99 - Motorola P280
69.40 - cable to connect iPAQ to mobile phone
19.99 - per month, PDA plan
19.99 - per month, voice plan
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$239.37
This amount is assuming that we don't go over our data transfer limits, too. Of course, we're buying this plan so that we can use our iPAQ on the 'Net anywhere we want, so it's pretty likely we'll be going over. The cost of going over? $5 per additional MB. To be fair, the initial plan does translate to about 90 Web pages or 850 e-mails, and includes 300 "Ping Pong" two-way text messages.
Now the question, of course, is whether or not it makes sense to invest this kind of money for "always on" connectivity via a mobile phone. I'll leave that up to you to decide. Personally, with the initial investment costs, I'd have to start looking at alternatives to Voicestream. While it may be one of the first to get GPRS up and running, the cost and limited PDA options are certainly not making it a "no brainer" initial investment.
Get more details at Voicestream:
voicestream.com
One more thing: Samsung just sent me the SPH-I300 to play with. It's a Palm OS-based color phone that I'll be doing a mini-review of in the next newsletter.
Send comments about this intro to Joel@Geek.com.
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/Rose/ |
