mobile phones

Use the phones as they usually have better reception than a USB modem.

However only Telstra is worthwhile away from main centres despite what some may try to tell you.

Would work even better if you can also plug in an external aerial.

I was nearly 50k out of Carnarvon the other day when my phone rang Nearly had a personal accident ( have to watch **** these days) LOL

took it out of the aerial cradle and it dropped out

Put it back and turned loudspeaker on and we yacked all the way to Carnarvon no trouble

Its a Nokia 6120. with a Force inductive cradle and an RFI multiband aerial.

$175 at a Telstra shop for the two bits.

Yes you can do it with your mobile 'phone but it is quite expensive

Here are the prices for Mobile as a Modem Data Packs from Telstra:

Mobile as Modem Browsing Packs

$59 Browsing Pack
Included MB per month: 1GB

$89 Browsing Pack
Included MB per month: 5GB

$119 Browsing Pack
Included MB per month: 9GB

We have a Telstra PrePaid USB stick and 2 Telstra Next G Phones. I have connected to the internet using both the phones and the USB stick. The phones (with an arial attached) give marginally better coverage than the stick alone. However, the improvement is not that great.

We have a datapack attached to the USB stick (the exact some ones are avialble as for the phones) and we do not actually use it prepaid.

I find the stick the best option as it is less fiddly than connecting up the phone. However I got my stick for free in a Telstra promotion - otherwsie I probably would have not bothered to pay the $150 it costs otherwsie.

To give some more detail, the easiest way to use your phone as a modem is to install the software that comes with most phones, on your laptop. I have a Sony Ericsson W705 and when I plug it in, the software recognises it and asks me what mode I want the phone to be in, modem, mass storage, media transfer etc. I choose modem, it connects and I'm good to go. My previous Motorola V6 had a similar process, and I believe the nokias are similar also. Just make sure you have the software installed and working before you go.

As others have said, an external aerial would give you better coverage, but there are few phones these days that actually have an external aerial port/plug. There are mixed reports on the induction type patch connectors that are commonly offered for Nokias etc. I would do some decent research on your phone model before shelling out too many $ on an aerial. Make sure it's going to be worth it first, or make sure you can return the aerial etc if it doesn't help much.

Hope that helps.

matt

I searched long and high for the most economic solution. Most mobiles can act as modems, the differential is the aerial. In traveling it is best to have a 'rural' capable phone, there are two prepaid choices under $200 currently with telstra.. I chose the samsung as it had the better aerial and 'nextG' capabilities, in the higher bracket there are more options. Telstra is the only way to go for remote areas.. tho dodo offers options for reasonable economic coverage in many areas and depending on your travel may well suit the coastal traveler. Dodo also offers a longer expiry period than telstra.

Phones, acting as a modem is more practical than a modem stick and more efficient... tho I use a modem stick at times for convenience but I have one of the older more powerful dongles and it has been unlocked to take a variety of telco carriers. Telstra's modem stick can only take telstra sms I have been told. I have a tendancy to shop around for the most economic data carrier available in any given area depending on my length of stay.

On a prepaid contract with telstra you can purchase data packs from your 'prepaid credit' For $20 you can get 150mg for a month, this on a scale of volume related to $ up to $100 for 6g... expiry is within the month tho. I usually just buy a data pack for the time I will be traveling, which can also be done over my mobile phone on the recharge credit remaining, converting phone call credit to data credit. I used to be able to get a $10 data pack for 75mg but it seem it isnt available anymore.

Install your phones drivers into your laptop.. with windows the process is simple and usually a self install, with linux you need a little more nouse but it can be done... I have successfully installed the modem dongle on my little Asus Eee PC (linux) and I use this for communications on the road but will soon attempt it with the phone as I will need telstra coverage with the baby Asus soon. While on my bigger laptop running XP, it all works a treat but I have found the dongle is more powerful than the phone in reception but this is an older dongle (stick) one of the white oval type, the newer ones arent as powerful unfortunately. I use the dongle for all links bar the telstra link that is the only one available in many tricky area's or places shadowed by mountains, escarpments etc. When I need to link to telstra which on the whole is more expensive, I use only the mobile and can arrange a data pack when needed via the mobile phone, which then give me computer access to the internet.

Variety is the spice...

We use a data pack on our phones and use these all the time when travelling - I even support and update software on ExplorOz via my mobile phone modem setup sitting on the beach at Ningaloo. All we have are the $10 for 150MB options on both mine and Michelle's phone - this is enough and we use it everyday as I have installed the Mail for Exchange software and read all email on my phone (Mokia 6120).

Also using this option we are about to launch a new ExplorOz tracking mobile application that works to support real time GPS tracking via your mobile phone and we calculate that with a 150MB per month allowance we can send more than 30 million position updates to the server - this equates to being able to live track you on your trip taking waypoints at less than 50 metre intervals and uploading them in real time to the server even it you travel at 100km/hr 24hrs a day for the whole month.

This setup if excellent and if you need more data for photos update or something then you can just buy a larger allowance for more bucks and then revert when you get home down to the $10. it is easy and can be done on the phone to Telstra or at the Shops.

DM

Hi All
Quick question - as well as getting charged via the data pack do you also get charged for the phone call to connect to the internet on the mobile and is it timed ie just as if you are making a normal phone call?
Thanks
Tara