Orion Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Verizon Blesses Phone-As-Modem Plans Verizon Wireless has changed its policy and will now let subscribers use several popular phones as high-speed modems for their laptops, company representatives confirmed Thursday. The shift represents a major policy change for Verizon, which has traditionally restricted this type of usage in its terms of service agreement. The new plans are available starting today. A formal announcement will be released later today or tomorrow, company representatives said. Users of the LG VX9800, Motorola RAZR V3c, Motorola E815, and LG VX8100 phones are now able to connect their laptops to the Internet for $59.99 per month in addition to their voice plans, according to Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney. They join users of the Blackberry 7130e handheld, who have been able to use their PDA/phones as modems since the 7130e came out. Users of the new Palm Treo 700w and Verizon XV6700 handhelds are still out in the cold, according to Verizon's initial device list. All these devices will connect to Verizon's BroadbandAccess EV-DO network, which offers speeds averaging about 700 kbps/sec in most major metro areas of the US. The official announcement from Verizon mentions using a USB cable, not Bluetooth wireless technology, to connect your phone and PC. All the phones listed above can theoretically connect to PCs using Bluetooth, but Verizon disables that modem function. USB cables are available from various sources for $10-20; you can also use the cable that comes with the VX8100's V CAST Music kit. For a while now, Verizon subscribers have illicitly used their phones as modems; various Web sites have information on how to do so. But up until now, doing so has violated service contracts, leaving users open to Verizon cutting off their service or charging high per-kilobyte fees. The new policy fixes one of Verizon's major flaws in comparison to its rival Sprint, which offers phone-as-modem plans for all of its handsets. Sprint's plans start at $25/month for 40 MB of data, moving up to a $59.99/month unlimited data plan for users who also have voice plans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceGhost Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Nice, is this $59.99 charge on top of the vcast charge of $15? I guess you will not be on the EV-DO network unless you pay the $15 for vcast corect? I love my RAZR V3c btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1647545498 Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'm on sprint's service and I get vision with unlimited data for $15/month. That's unlimited high speed EV-DO network for $15/month for my phone and laptop. Woot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boost-n-Juice Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I never realized Verizon had a rule on modem use. hmmm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casper Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Uhm, its been this way for a while. At least that's what I was told about six months ago, by Verizon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boost-n-Juice Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I believe it, just didn't know about it. Other than phone book management, why would you buy a data kit? Was it something you could do but they didn't prefer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Jones Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I <3 Evdo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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