CrunchDude

Hey all,

I thought I'd share with you the real truth about tethering (i.e. using your cellphone as a modem) on Cingular:

I know this is getting a little semantic as far as the tethering issue. But one issue is Cingular's OWN language of the terms and conditions:

"FURTHERMORE, UNLIMITED PLANS (EXCEPT FOR DATACONNECT AND BLACKBERRY TETHERED) CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY APPLICATIONS THAT TETHER THE DEVICE (THROUGH USE OF, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, CONNECTION KITS, OTHER PHONE/PDA-TO-COMPUTER ACCESSORIES, BLUETOOTH® OR ANY OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY) TO LAPTOPS,PCS, OR OTHER EQUIPMENT FOR ANY PURPOSE."

Up until recently, PDA Connect was called "Data Connect". It is also listed under the family of "Data connect" plans. Laptop connet was also called data connect.

For example:

This clearly says "Data Connect Plans" and our choices are:
Data Connect (5MB) 19.99 5 MB 0.015/KB 0.0195/KB
Data Connect (10MB) 29.99 10 MB 0.015/KB 0.0195/KB
Data Connect (20MB) 39.99 20 MB 0.015/KB 0.0195/KB
PDA Connect (Unlimited)

There it is in black and white. If the T&C (Terms and Conditions) says you can tether on data connect, and PDA connect is listed as Data Connect, that's a strong argument that you can tether your little heart out with the PDAConnect plan and do NOT need the LaptopConnect plan.

So while you and I both know that Cingular doesn't want you to tether on PDAConnect, the legal language CLEARLY SAYS that you CAN tether.

From a technological standpoint, PDAConnect and DataConnect are actually IDENTICAL. Both give you the wap.cingular as well as the isp.cingular APN. You can pretty much tether all you want on PDAConnect and never have to worry about it! Take it from me. I've done it for a year so far, and I've tethered a LOT and never heard a peep out of them.

You can also tether on MediaNet (MediaMax plans), which I've done for 2 years before PDAConnect, but you have to be more careful, and you don't get the isp.cingular APN, which really doesn't matter as you don't need it. Other than that. MediaMax and PDAConnect are also identical, except the price, of course. The consensus is if you're going to tether a LOT, get PDAConnect (500+MB). If you do less, you can do it on MediaNet as well.

Happy tethering...;)