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Cingular Phone and MacBook...

J

jordonringel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 15, 2002
22
0
I am about to upgrade my cell phone from Cingular and I need some help. I went to Cingular today and told them I would like to use my "new" phone as a modem for my computer and they had no clue what I was talking about. They told me I would have to buy a PC card to do that (had no clue you could connect via Bluetooth with your Mac and phone)... I am leaning towards the RAZR just because I do not want to fork out $300 for an EDGE phone. So, I have some questions that some of you might be able to answer.

How big is the internet speed difference between an EDGE (Blackberry) capable phone and a non-EDGE phone (RAZR)?

For the people who use a RAZR or similar phone with their Mac, how is the speed? Is it faster than dial-up? I will be using this for email on the road...

What does your plan consist of? For example, did you buy the $19.99 a month unlimited data access?

And finally, if you could do it over would you have changed anything? Type of phone, service, etc...

Any help from people who have done this and use this would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jordon

EDIT: I looked on Apple's web page under supported phones and did not find Samsung or Blackberry's as supported phones... Do these manufacturers work with OSX? I found a cheap Samsung EDGE phone but don't know if it's compatible with OSX... Samsung SGH-d407
 
There are many other EDGE capable phones that are not the blackberry...

I've never done this with a cingular phone, but be warned- bluetooth features in carrier-subsidized cell phones are often crippled to prevent connection to a computer over bluetooth, and most will only connect to a bluetooth headset or car handsfree system. I don't know that cingular does this for a fact, but many of the other carriers do.

You'll almost certainly need the unlimited data plan if you plan to use this as a modem and do any kind of data transfer over the internet. Otherwise, the limits are far too restrictive and the overages are huge.
 
I've never used Edge, but the speed is pretty slow. A little faster than dial up, but not by much.

I have a cheap 450 anytime minutes 5000 nights and weekend minutes plan w/ the 19.99 unlimited Media net.

Cingular service, Motorola MPx220 cell, 512Mb SD memory.

I love the phone and I love the service. I just wish they had a way to upgrade to a newer phone more ofter. I want a 8125 Sooooooooo bad. But don't have another 300 to plop down on a new celly.

jordonringel said:
I am about to upgrade my cell phone from Cingular and I need some help. I went to Cingular today and told them I would like to use my "new" phone as a modem for my computer and they had no clue what I was talking about. They told me I would have to buy a PC card to do that (had no clue you could connect via Bluetooth with your Mac and phone)... I am leaning towards the RAZR just because I do not want to fork out $300 for an EDGE phone. So, I have some questions that some of you might be able to answer.

How big is the internet speed difference between an EDGE (Blackberry) capable phone and a non-EDGE phone (RAZR)?

For the people who use a RAZR or similar phone with their Mac, how is the speed? Is it faster than dial-up? I will be using this for email on the road...

What does your plan consist of? For example, did you buy the $19.99 a month unlimited data access?

And finally, if you could do it over would you have changed anything? Type of phone, service, etc...

Any help from people who have done this and use this would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jordon
Click to expand...
 
EDGE is considered 2.75G technology and is about 3 times faster (about 100 kbps typical) than 2G GPRS (30-40 kbps typical). Even better are UMTS (3G) at 200-300 kbps and HSDPA (3.5G) at around 1 mbps. Cingular charges the same rate for all 4 types of data access.

If you want UMTS/HSDPA, LG CU500 is your best bet. Not sure how well it works with Mac OS X though. And I think 3/3.5G are not very tethering friendly (i.e., Cingular will know whether you are using the phone with your computer and will charge you a hefty fee).

There are many decent EDGE phones, such as Sony Ericsson W600i (discontinued and to be replaced by W810i in few months, but still available in some stores) and Nokia 6102i (soon to be replaced by much more powerful 6126) and 6682.
 
3G on Cingular CU500

I have recently purchased a LG CU500 on Cingular, which is '3G+' (HDPSA) and with regards to MacOSX as a modem over bluetooth, IT WORKS. All I can say is wow... my bandwidth test showed 400+ kb/s, and the best part is that Cingular is offering unlimited data as part of its 'mediamax' plan starting at 19.99/month (they want you to watch video on the phone). -- The phone gracefully downgrades to EDGE or GPRS depending on your location. I am in Houston which is a 3G city. Get this phone at the heavily subsidized price while you can.

To get the phone working, I did a few simple things - having done GPRS on my SonyEricson T610 for years, I religously checked Ross Barkman's GPRS guide. http://www.taniwha.org.uk/

There you will find '3G Generic' modem scripts, which are nescessary on your Mac to get it working. Other than that it is the usual process, as listed on his site, but on the phone under 'Settings:Connection:Dial Up Networking:' you must select 'Bluetooth' ... the default is USB (probally works too with data cable, but haven't tried it)

-DEK
 
I work for Cingular Wireless as a sales rep. I am in atlanta which is a 3g city. However, with the LG CU500, we have been getting compalints that the transition from 3G to edge isnt as graceful as it should be...resulting in dropped calls. Still, despite LG's horrid battery life...if you want to tether your phone to your laptop the cu500 is going to be your best choice.

We are releasing a lot af different 3g phones in the next few months, i would wait for them. LG isnt my favorite phone manufacturer
 
jaxstate said:
I've never used Edge, but the speed is pretty slow. A little faster than dial up, but not by much.

I have a cheap 450 anytime minutes 5000 nights and weekend minutes plan w/ the 19.99 unlimited Media net.

Cingular service, Motorola MPx220 cell, 512Mb SD memory.

I love the phone and I love the service. I just wish they had a way to upgrade to a newer phone more ofter. I want a 8125 Sooooooooo bad. But don't have another 300 to plop down on a new celly.
Click to expand...

The 8125 blows in my opinion, I am a blackberry guy.
 
I just picked up the LG CU500 after owning a RAZR for the last year. I used to use the RAZR through my computer and the speed was painfully slow. Now with my CU500 I can get EDGE and 3G (I live in DC). EDGE feels quicker than whatever my RAZR was using, but it is still pokey. Using 3G however, I was able to watch a video on Youtube. I have the unlimited data thing for $20 a month. I used this link to hook up to my Macbook:

http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/964849-1.html

The only thing I changed was the Phone Number to:*99#
 
please don't get a razr

OK definetly get an EDGE phone. There are only a few reasons EDGE would be slow:

Not a class 10-12 EDGE phone.
You don't have full signal bars where you're using it.
Network is extremely congested
Your Mac TCP/IP settings are wrong by default

But usually EDGE is around 235kbps.. DSL Lite speed. It's fast enough to completely load a page like you're used to on high speed and online gaming is great on it. Even downloading files that are several megs isn't a big deal. Get it.
 
Nevermind. I found the info.
I just need to work at getting it connected now.

I love that other smart people know this kind of stuff.
I'm bad at languages for computers. I can read but not
write. Wait, that doesn't just go for computers...
 
I just got a BlackJack, which is HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS capable, with the $20 a month unlimited data plan. (Review), but apparently it costs on the data plan to use it as a modem. If you are going to get a data device, you should get 3g. Cingular's 3G devces are: CU500 (high-end consumer clamshell), BlackJack (blackberry-style smartphone), or 8525 (beastly smartphone of doomly-awesome-ness). Good luck!
 
Can anyone offer any help? I am at the point where it is trying to connect with my phone but I keep getting the error:
The modem has unexpectedly hungup. Please verify your settings and try again.

I've tried different scripts and to no avail.
I am using the number *99# and have the rest
of my settings the way I should.

Any ideas?
 
I am not sure on your phone, but on the BlackJack (that I am about to return POS) you need to use ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM as username, and isp.cingular as the phone number. Most of the instructions use *99# but that did not work on the BlackJack.
 
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