There seems to be a whole lot of confusion out there about the various rates for data communications for cell phones. I know I've been confused whenever I've tried to tackle the issue of which providers offer what kinds of services for how much. They just don't make it very easy to get a quick idea of what they offer. Part of the problem is that carriers actually separate data in different ways for different niche markets. You have one type of data that is geared towards their premier youth market that conentrates on text or multimedia messages, browsing WAP sites, and downloading ringtones. Then there is the corporate market that concerns itself primarily with email. Finally, there's the market for the general internet geek power user where the data is about whatever the phone will let you do, be that instant message, browse the web, check email, stream audio or video, telnet into a shell account, whatever. This last market is the one I'm in and the one that I'll gear this article towards. Of course I'm not as silly as the marketers are that believe that any of these market segments are at all concrete. There are people who aren't necessarily "power users" but just want to be able to be "online" all the time to check email and instant message and browse the web. They aren't necessarily geeks, and they could very well even be some of the youngest customers out there.

Personally, since I bought a T-Mobile Sidekick back in 2002, I have left the older more specifically mobile-phone related data service of ringtones and WAP behind. Viewing WAP sites or email on a 3-line display without images was just painful! Maybe back in 1983 it would have been nice great, but not in this century! Now, smartphones like the Sidekick, the Treo, and PocketPC phones make it possible to have a much more computer-like experience, albeit on a much smaller screen.

I myself am a T-Mobile customer, and have been for several years, but, while I think T-Mobile has some good deals in terms of rates, I always want to be knowledgeable about what the other carriers out there have to offer. I thought I'd make a real concerted effort at actually figuring out what the various U.S. carriers offer at least in terms of a full data service. It wasn't easy! I don't know if most of the carriers feel like their audience won't understand anything technical so they don't really share specifics about their data plans, or if they are incapable of describing the offerings in plain English instead of marketing-speak which requires clarification, or what. But I had to spend most of my day searching for the real information on various message boards about mobile phones and technology, and even then there seems to be a fair amount of confusion about what the real deal is.

So, anyway, here is an attempt to summarize the data plans for various carriers here in the U.S. A couple of quick notes first:

• I did not look at Nextel for a few reasons. One is that they will be merging with Sprint. Secondly, the only real data-oriented phone they carry is the Blackberry (no Treos, no PocketPC). Third, they are somewhat of a minor player compared to the other big carriers.
• I'm also not going to cover the menagerie of different data services that are not just plain old Internet connectivity (i.e. corporate email packages, video messaging, etc.).
• Finally, all of the prices I list are in addition to any voice plan. In a few instances one can just by the data service and then regular phone calls are charged on a per-minute basis, but most of the plans require you to buy a voice plan for $20 or more, which includes at least some free minutes.

U.S. Mobile Data Rates (c. May, 2005)
GSM Carriers
	Tmobile's data offerings are initially pretty understandable. You have basically 3 types of offerings: "Unlimited T-Zones" at $5/month "Unlimited T-Zones Pro" at $10/month "T-Mobile Internet" at either $20 or $30 depending on whether you also subscribe to a voice plan or do not, respectively. T-Mobile Internet is what I currently have with my Treo 600. It offers full Internet connectivity. T-Zones, on the other hand, is less clear. It's supposed to be T-Mobile's plan for mobile, text-based, websites that use WAP, and the PRO version adds WAP access to a corporate email account. The trick is that these services also have allowed some people to have the equivelent of the $20 plan. However, T-Mobile has started to crack down on this usage by closing the tcpip ports that enable the web browsing, emailing, instant messaging, etc. that are available on the $20 plan. In some areas you may still be able to take advantage of this oversite, but it seems these are becoming fewer and fewer.
	Before they recently merged with Cingular, AT&T was offering an unlimited data plan called "Ulimited Mmode" for $25/month. Currently, AT&T customers are not being forced into Cingular voice or data plans, but are able to keep their existing plans. New customers, though, or even AT&T customers who want to change their plans, only get to choose from Cingular plans.
	Cingular, the other main GSM carrier in the U.S., has an even more confusing data plan offering - at least via the information on their website. They break data into three parts, one for Blackberries, one for PC's and one for PDA's. Their Blackberry plans include a 4MB plan for $39.99 and unlimited plan for $49.99. Their PC plans (used with a card that fits in your laptop) consist of the following: $19.99 for 5MB $29.99 for 10MB $39.99 for 20MB $49.99 for 40MB $59.99 for 60MB $79.99 for unlimited data Finally, the PDA plans consist of the following: $19.99 for 5MB $29.99 for 10MB $39.99 for 20MB $44.99 for unlimited data So where do phones come in? Well, in the case of a "PDA-phone" like the Treo 600 or 650, or the Siemens SX66, you can opt from one of the PDA plans above. But there is yet another type of plan that is only shown if you buy a non-PDA phone online. This additional set of data options are called "Media Basic," "Media Works," and "Media Net." While these options are not shown online when buying a non-PDA phone (and perhaps not offered at Cingular stores as an option), they can be utilized whatever data-capable phone you get (with the possible exception of Blackberries since these have their own plans). Here's a breakdown of these plans: Media Basic: 500KB of data plus 200 SMS messages and 40 MMS messages for $9.99 Media Works: 3MB of data plus 1000 SMS messages and unlimited MMS for $19.99 MediaNet: $4.99 for 500KB $9.99 for 3MB $19.99 for 8MB $24.99 for unlimited data Confused yet? So can you get an identical unlimited data plan from Cingular under the psuedonym "MediaNet" simply by asking for it at $15 less per month than the price that Cingular would otherwise have you pay on their PDA plan (if you have a PDA-like phone)? Well, yes and no. Apparently there is a real difference in that you cannot do VPN connections (secured connections used primarily to access corporate email that's behind a company firewall) on the MediaNet plans, but you can do this with the PDA plans.
CDMA Carriers
	Verizon offers a $49/month data plan if you don't get a voiceplan with it (you can still pay per-minute charges for the phone), or $45/month for the same unlimted if you subscribe to one of their voiceplans that come with free minutes (the cheapest being $39.99/month). Also there is a $29.99/month data plan for 5MB per month plan.
	Sprint rounds out the four major players in the U.S. market. It is, like Verizon, a CDMA provider. It seems that Sprint offers an unlimited data plan for only $15/month called the Sprint Vision Premium Pack.

Who's the winner?

PRICE: in terms of price, T-Mobile wins for GSM (probably, now that Cingular's $20 plan looks expired), Sprint wins for CDMA, and is also the cheapest overall if you don't care what type of communications protocol the carrier uses.

OTHER: There are of course other factors that enter into the decision other than price. Coverage, quality of service, support, and speed are all factors that you should take into consideration. Support and Quality of service can be pretty subjective, though, based on individual experiences, individual stores or regions of the country that may have better support than others, etc. I can't imagine making a suggestion in that regard without some seriously large studies to back me up! But speed and coverage a lot easier to look at.

But first a quick aside to explain the current and future protocols being used to send all this data back and forth:

• CDMA currently uses a Data protocol called "1xRTT" which supposedly can clock around 144kbps, or about 2.5 times that of a dial-up connection. The next version of CDMA Data will use a protocol with the moniker "EV-DO" which is capable of much faster average speeds of 300-500Kbps with bursts as high as 2.4Mbps. GSM carriers have been using
• GSM uses a protocol called GPRS, which is generally a lot slower at only 30-70Kbps, or approximately dial-up speeds. It's follow-up technology is called "EDGE" and is 2-4 times faster than its predecessor at 100-200 Kbps, but still not nearly as fast as EV-DO.

Why even mention about these "next generation" protocols in a piece about the current state of things? Because some of these providers actually have next-generation networks at least partially in place and as well are starting to sell a few phones that can actually utilize these faster speeds (most importantly "PDA Phones" or "Smarphones" like the Treo 650). There are of course other protocols being developed and even implemented (UMTS and WCDMA) but these have yet to really be offered to customers in the U.S. although they have in other countries.

So, lets go over what the current state of things is regarding data speeds for the various carriers:

U.S. Mobile Data Speeds and Coverage (c. May, 2005)
GSM Carriers
	T-Mobile has said that they will be building out their EDGE network in 2005, starting to offer it in select metro areas. I have indeed tested my connection in the DC area and found that EDGE is available here, at least in some spots. I have also heard of reports that it is available in New York City and Atlanta. T-Mobile also has a new map that lets you get a graphical representation of their coverage down to the street level, although it says nothing about GPRS vs. EDGE.
	Cingular (this applies to AT&T customers as well) already has a national EDGE network built out with great coverage seen in this map.
CDMA Carriers
	Verizon has been working on building out it's EV-DO network for a year or two and apparently has around 20 metro areas supported so far: http://www.evdo-coverage.com/evdo-umts-hsdpa-coverage-map.html However, at the moment, there seems to be some confusion as to whether EV-DO will work with any handset that supports it. This PC Magazine Article seems to indicate that only laptop cards and a few Verizon, EV-DO is not available on any phone that is supposed to support EV-DO out of the box, but rather only via their laptop card and a few select Verizon handsets that are not PDA-like phones and so are locked down in terms of what they can connect to and how. So until there's some additional confirmation (say from folks who buy the Verizon version of the Treo 650 which is supposed to be out any day now), you might want to hold off if this speed issue is the main thing attracting you to Verizon.
	Sprint has announced they will be building out an EV-DO network in 2005, apparently starting with a number of unnamed metro areas. Sprint contends the roll-out will be fast due to working out an easy upgrade path from current equipment, although they only announced in December that a contract had been signed with equipment makers. Sprint's EV-DO page currently says that the roll-out will begin mid-2005. Sprint has an interactive map of where its cell towers are, but doesn't really distinguish between what kinds of service those towers provide. There is no word either whether Sprint's version of EV-DO will work with any old EV-DO-capable PDA/Smartphone, so again we will have to wait and see...

So, who's the winner now? Well, if speed is your main concern, than probably Verizon's EV-DO would win at this moment if you happen to live in one of those metro areas. Of course Verizon's unlimited data plan is the highest of all the carriers at $45 (or $50 without a voiceplan). If you are looking at only GSM carriers (and many users will only look at GSM phones due to their ability to work internationally and for the convenience of SIM cards), than it's a tough call. On the one hand Cingular beats T-Mobile hands down in terms of its very built-out EDGE network. But when it comes to price, it's a little less clear, due to Cingular's mixed up data policy. It may cost you the same, but it also may cost you double of what T-Mobile costs (and maybe more if you can take advantage of the $5-10 T-Zones plans, although that's become unlikely). However, Cingular's $39.99 gets you an extensive higher-speed EDGE network, so some for whom speed is key, will gladly pay the premium of an additional $20 per month for a doubling to quadrupling of data speeds. This difference, though, will continue to erode as Tmobile adds more coverage for EDGE (which is already available in some areas).

As I wrote, these things are not simple and they aren't cut and dry. As well they are a moving target. While T-Mobile may look like not the best bet right now, in six months who knows, maybe they'll surprise everyone and build out a lot of their network very quickly and give Cingular a real run for their money. Likewise, maybe they will close the loophole of their T-Zones and Cingular will cut back their data rates and make them more comprehensible (one basic all-you-can-eat plan) and will become much more competitive with T-Mobile. At least for February of 2005, this is the best snapshot of the various choices one has for mobile data connectivity. It will definitely be interesting to see how this changes over the coming months and years! I will try to keep these charts updated as new information becomes available on new plans, new coverage, etc. Of course if you find any inaccuracies in what I've written, feel free to enlighten us!

UPDATE (April 28, 2005): Recently I discoverd that low and behold I had EDGE via my Tmobile account! So I felt that an update to this entry was in order. I went ahead and updated the data speed table above to reflect this and some additional information about Sprint's EV-DO roll-out, and also provided links to a couple of new coverage maps. I've also reworked the last couple of paragraphs in the text to reflect some of this news as well.

UPDATE (May 3, 2005): There's been some talk over at Treocentral about data rates and using some of the information, I did some more digging and was able to update the tables above, specifically the section on Cingular data rates as well as Verizon's data speeds and coverage.

posted Friday, 4 February 2005

However, if you do not wish to create an account then that's ok; you can still leave a comment to this blog. If you fill in the email field, it will not be displayed with your comment. It allows the blog-owner to contact you should they wish.