I got a Motorola E815
Update: Since writing this I’ve written a guide for using a Motorola E815 as a modem for Mac OS X
Today I finally moved up in the world of mobile phone technology by purchasing a Motorola E815. Verizon Wireless, whose service has been very reliable for me the past few years, doesn’t have a lot of great phones to choose from when compared to some of the other carriers. The E815 has tons of great features along with impressive call quality and battery life. Unfortunately, and this is so far my only complaint, the phone maybe one of the largest and heaviest I’ve owned. I don’t need for my phone to be attached to me at all times so this isn’t such a big deal.
Syncing up
Being a recent Mac convert, I was pleased to find that I can painlessly transfer all of my contacts from Address Book to the E815 using the newest version of iSync (2.1). This is really nice considering I don’t find it very entertaining to spend hours entering names and numbers I’ve already entered in another place. Apparently if you’re a Windows-only user you’re not so lucky. Verizon sells this as an accessory.
Dial-up networking: using the E815 as a modem
Perhaps one of the most useful Bluetooth features, the ability to use the E815 as modem for internet access, is not supported by Verizon. Fortunately, there’s plenty of resources available for making this work. I found that if you dialed ## DIALUP (that’s 342587) very quickly, dial-up networking will be enabled. Then I followed this tutorial, which was actually written for the Motorola V710 but still worked. The tutorial says to select Sprint PCS Vision as the modem script, but I found that the Verizon Support script works as well. I’m not sure if one is preferrable.
I’m able to connect at 230 kbps, and while there’s some latency it’s definitely very usable. I plan to use it only in the rare event that I need access and don’t have a better alternative such as WiFi. While researching this I found that many people have Verizon’s VCast service, which costs $15 per month. I do not have this service; I just have Mobile Web. I don’t know if having the VCast service would affect the speed, but I doubt it. I’ve also read that some people have had problems connecting when outside of their local calling area (on Verizon’s extended network). I’ll check this out for myself the next time I travel.