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To: Bux who wrote (3852)12/1/1999 8:33:00 PM
From: engineer  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13582
 
Bus,

There is no software that allows one to browse the internet on teh screen other than the Phone.com stuff which ony allows you the stuff that the carrier wrote for you to see. the driver just sets up the communications from the IP system (internet) to your computer. It will only act as a modem if you have the cable and use the driver.

BTW- the modem is a complex thing and not centrally located really anywhere. In the old analog days you had this complex coding engine called a Modulator/Demodulator (MODEM) which took digital bits and converted them to analog waveforms which could go over the analog lines. Since the system you are using is digtial the coorelation to the old Modem is alot more hard to understand. the beauty of the CDMa system is that is does not have to go to analog at any point (other than the raw CDMA signal over teh air) to get to your IP connection.

the CDMA phone itself was ALWAYS a MODEM, it just had this custom voice thing on it which took a great digital modem and made it a phone. Now your are just bypasing the vocoder and using the digital modem directly. At the basestation, it just uses the digital bits directly into an IP router and sends this to the internet via IP packets. IF however you wanted to access one of the old dial up modems which actually wanted those old analog tones to work (your buddies 56k PC modem), then the basestation has a bank of those old style modems which it then filters the data back through to use these on a standard wireline connection. This part, not alot of carriers are implementing because most people these days want access via the IP network anyway. 99.9% of all dialup modems today are used to acces a digital network of IP packets.

Hope this helps.



To: Bux who wrote (3852)12/1/1999 11:45:00 PM
From: quidditch  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 13582
 
Does the Sprint web service allow you to browse the Internet on the phone screen? If so, this is different from the Airtouch Wireless Web which only allows your phone to act like a modem for another device (laptop, desktop or a Palm Pilot).

My understanding of the Wireless Web Service offered by Sprint PCS is yes, through the Phone.com browser. The Sprint data service is structured as either i) a monthly plan of xxx minutes of combined voice and data usage plus a fixed number of "updates" provided by your data home page--by default, Yahoo or ii) a data plan add-on giving you xx minutes of data plus xx updates, added to your normal monthly service plan, but of course, you can use your "voice minutes" interchangeably with data. Although I won't get to use the wireless web for another 36 hours or so, supposedly you can browse on the phone LCD in the limited data services options that Sprint has set up with Yahoo, a map provider, weather etc. Of course the limitations on types of service offerings and the inherent limitations of the handset's LCD, combined with the sharply curtailed web formats, will dampen the experience, until service providers and handset data display, such as color (which DoCoMo announced today) and speed, catch up.

I wish the thread could compile a selection of engineer's, Clark's, Walt's and Bux's posts--it would be a dynamite guide to and abbreviated history of wireless--a real treat. Thanks to all.

Steve