Re: OT: Cellular telephone service

Keith Snape wrote:
> Oh - sorry - quick ammendment. I was looking at your total #'s there
> Scott, and assumed that was a monthly bill - not a 6 month total.

I'm going to suggest that if you're paying 600$ a month for a cell phone
plan, there's a better option:

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8202297251.html

I can see devices like this taking off in a few years (great, because
they're based on Linux and QT!). Why pay 600$ a month for a plan, when
you can spend 300$ on a handset, and then one of those 20$/month wifi
access point plans. Skypein/out minutes are very cheap, and they also
have very cheap voicemail available. Anywhere you have WiFi, you have
phone service (which, for my, is pretty much everywhere). You can even
keep your old cell phone around as a backup like Scott does with his
Sasktel phone (when he's outside of range of Rogers) via call forwarding.

Your old cell would drop to 30-40$, tops, with 20-40$ for 1 or 2 hotspot
plans plus 20-40$ Skype use. That's a lot lower than 600$, even
factoring in the handset cost :) This won't be feasible in a somewhat
backwards area like SK, but the last time I travelled, I ran into lots
of pay-for-play hotspots that didn't charge too much per month (I only
ran into one free WiFi hotspot at a Krispy Kreme, which was annoying --
I thought Starbucks was supposed to have them everywhere, and Tim
Horton's doesn't have any either!).

This device also does a lot more than just Skype:
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/wireless/sony-mylo-media-player-with-wifi-skype-browser-and-messaging-192676.php

This is where cell phones seem to want to go, but they're all fairly
proprietary (not that the *SONY* Mylo isn't, sheesh, but at least it's a
step in the HipTop without the GSM leesh direction). This one does
support WEP/WPA, but not PEAP/LEAP, so wouldn't be suitable for all
corporate networks. If you could get at the Linux internals, I'm sure
that could be fixed easily.
Received on Sat Sep 2 14:39:41 2006