Cell phones forum: SmartPhones- Can they connect my Laptop to the Internet?

I'm in the same boat as you: looking for cellular internet access for my laptop on the road.

Here's what I've put together. A Smartphone that has Dial Up Networking (DUN) capability can connect your computer to the cellular network (tethering).

I've been looking at Verizon's specifics for this, it is probably different for other carriers. Verizon has a page discussing high-speed internet access over Bluetooth, http://support.vzw.com/how_to_use/bt_dial_up.html. There are two PDF files linked there that show which handsets support DUN profiles. I presume that most phones will support via USB data cable as well as Bluetooth.

It looks like non-Smartphones will support DUN as well, but I think you have to purchase a dedicated data package to get high-speed access. It will look a little fishy streaming video over a RAZR. Apparently, you can connect at 14.4k to your own ISP for the cost of your plan minutes, though.

Hope this helps. Anyone who knows more, feel free to correct me.

K

Thank-you, yes that does help.

The answer of "some can" is pretty accurate. Cingular allows tethering on the most of their smart phones but they require a data plan. The big secret is whether you can tether over BlueTooth. We are switching the Cingular 8525 in June which has BlueTooth 2.0 and if you have a laptop with BlueTooth 2.0 then you could use the phone "cable free" to surf the web on your laptop. Pretty appealing!! Otherwise you would have to connect it physically. The Cingular data plan is confusing though because you can get unlimited data for $40/month but they say you can't do unlimited tethering.... for that you need the $60 plan but I really can't figure out how they could ever tell. Unless you were downloading so much that the transfer quota caused a red flag or some kind. I've asked the Cingular sales folks and they really don't know the answer either.

Just for comparison though I've been reading that the Sprint data streams are REALLY fast right now. 1.0 Mbps to 1.5 Mbps!!!! Very nice!!!