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Thanks for this... I've been meaning to do the research on this exact topic for an upcoming stint out in the country with no decent internet options. $19.95 is a decent price, just about right, but what kind of speed are you getting? anything better than a typical dial-up connection?

It's slower than molasses. I estimate it's around 30-40 kbps in St. Paul. I have no idea if it's an EDGE city, but 30-40 kbps is around right for GPRS. If you are in a city with the EDGE service, then it's around 60-80 kbps. Still excruciatingly slow, but fine for e-mail pickup which is mostly what I need.

If you want fast, go with Verizon but be prepared to spend at least $80 a month on internet service alone....

alright... thanks. that's what i was afriad of, but at least it's good to know i can post a blog entry from the road if need be.

Your work is excellent, by the way. I'm slowing learning to combine my degrees in photo and anthro into a cohesive body of work... you're images are inspiring, keep it up.

My thoughts after two weeks of using it:

1. Nothing beats being able to access the internet from the passenger seat of an automobile going 65 on the freeway. The connection is stable at high vehicular speeds and works great. We used it to find hotels to stay at using Hotels.com/Expedia/Travelocity (hint: many hotels will give the same rate as Hotels/Expedia/Travelocity if you call them directly; you'll save the $10 handling fee charged by those agents).
2. You can usually get a GPRS connection wherever you can get a digital 3G voice connection -- which is most parts of the major interstate system. But go off the interstate or go to some rural parts of Ohio, etc., and you lose your GPRS data capabilities when the phone starts roaming on other networks.
3. The speed is faster than an analog modem, but just barely. I'm estimating that the T-mobile figures of 30-80kbps are accurate. I think New Haven has EDGE since it seems zippier than St. Paul.
4. The best feature by far has been the ability to access my IMAP mailboxes using my Motorola v330 itself. That means I can check into my mailbox time to time during the day and either read/reply using the v330 or if it's a big piece of mail, download it to my laptop and use that. Who needs a full-blown Treo 650 if you can get e-mail/datebook/addresses fully synced with the v330?

One thing I should mention is that the bluetooth module in the v330 does seem to crash from to time. It's good while you're connected (and I've been connected for 4 hours plus on batteries!) -- but it occasionally gets confused if you're using the GPRS modem and bluetooth headset, etc. So once in a while, you're fail to bluetooth pair.

In that case, you have to turn off the bluetooth module and power it back on; or in a worst case scenario, turn the mobile phone off and on. Not the end of the world.

My bluetooth range with my PowerBook G4 12" aluminum is about 15 feet, this is the same as the bluetooth headset (motorola hs820).

Shew!

Although this wasn't as light on the wallet as I had hoped, I am now fully mobile after reading and taking your advice.

I spent over 9 hours failing to get my iPaq 6315 GPRS connection to work with my new 12" Powerbook (bought just last night). The iPaq's bluetooth and GPRS issues are just too much to overcome at present for most people (Googling gives you all the ammo you need for this argument).

I took your advice and this afternoon ran down to a local T-Mobile store and picked up the v330. Swapped SIM cards, paired the device and using the simple GPRS modem script by Ross I was mobile in 2 minutes.

Thanks again for this valuable post, I picked up the 12" Powerbook to be mobile with GPRS and was very frustrated with it not working as planned. When I read that you had a working GPRS solution with the v330 I wasn't too sure about dumping the $600 iPaq 6315 for a new and additional $300 phone.

It all worked out for the best, and it's nothing a little eBay can't fix. ;-)

** Do you have any recommendations on which script to be using? I am using the Motorola GPRS CID1 (first script in the list) and internet3.voicestream.com as the dial number. If you are having any better speed with something else do tell.

One thing that should also be mentioned is that the v330's bluetooth module can't do two things at once. So if you're paired with the PowerBook as a GPRS modem, you can't sync the address and datebooks on top of that. Or you can't use the GPRS modem and a bluetooth modem at the same time --- although you can continue to make voice calls on the v330 while using the GPRS modem.

MoMojo -

Thanks for your post. I'm using the Motorola GPRS script as well, seems to be working fine. The speed really isn't anything to write home about. I wish there was some way of telling what the connection speed is -- there must be a Java script somewhere on the web that can do this.

Your phone cost $300? Phew.... Mine was $150 with contract and I saw them at Walmart yesterday for $80 with contract. Seems like you might've been able to find it for slightly cheaper.

I'm glad I didn't buy a smartphone PDA. PalmOne just announced they are ending development for non-Linux PDAs such as the Treo650. The iPAQ is safer since Microsoft seems to have unending amounts of money to pore into mobile windows, but the advent of web-savvy webphones like the v330 is killing the PDA market.

Karen

p.s. Don't forget to sync your addressbook and datebook with your v330. Once you do that, you'll never use the PDA again, I swear! I have a Palm m505 that is gathering dust sadly on my desk.

The iPaq and the 17" HP notebook are going on eBay tomorrow - No need for either. ;-)

$279 was the price for th v330 without a contract, because I already had the iPaq contract with T-Mobile. So I was essentially just buying the phone outright.

I am impressed with this little 12" Powerbook though, it is definitely the way to go for complete mobility. For performance I run a dual G5 in the home/office and use the .Mac iSync feature to keep them both in perfect harmony. Very cool how all of my IMAP email addresses, address book, calendar and a few directories are all sync'd 100% and I never have to worry about this again.

* I am looking into some of the modem AT commands to see if I can boost performance out of the GPRS feature. I used to be a big BBS guy back in the early modem (300 baud) days and think something extra can be squeezed from it.

Ok. I have a Windows XP OS, and Im trying to connect to the internet via bluetooth service on my phone. My Computer connects to the phone, however I am not able to navigate the internet. Ive tried pinging multiple addresses and get no where. Can anyone help me out?

Dave - I'm entirely unable to help with Windows XP since I'm allergic to them. What do you mean by your "computer connects to the phone"? Do you mean that you have a GPRS script that is dialing the phone correctly? Does the phone say on its main display "GPRS ACTIVE"? The main issue seems to be getting a good PPP/GPRS dialer connection over bluetooth, but beyond that I'm no help.

This blog entry on Treo Today tells about how to sync your Treo 650 with your PowerBook

THANX! for all the effort - works like a charm (Tiger 10.4.2).

Couple suggestions: you don't need to modify iSync anymore as OS 10.4.2 updated iSync to include the v330 (among others).

To the Windows XP user, its complicated - more so than the mac - however, all u have to do is call 611 on the phone and say "Internet Access" and the tech support will walk u thru the steps neccessary to get it working on the PC (I went thru that 2 weeks ago)...

nasukaren- Thanks for the post. My problem lies after Windows connects using DUN. I see GPRS go active on the phone, but Im stuck after that. I see my computer (Windows XP Pro) make the link and Show that it connected to the 'Dialed' number, but as far as seeing anything on the net, im at a stand still. Ibe yet to find a solution, but if I find one, I'll go ahead and post it here. I too, hate windows XP, but Im presently teaching myself Linux. Its a long hard process, but once I got it, Im sure I'll learn to hate anthing Microshaft as much as the rest of the OpenSource world (not that I don't hate Bill already).

Dave -

Have you tried calling 611 on your phone for technical support? Also, a T-mobile store might be able to help you. I think T-mobile has one of the best customer support teams in the business right now.

two questions, actually:
1) now that we've established that the v330 will perform beautifully as a bt modem for another device, anyone know of a bt phone that is sprintpcs compatible?

2) if not, and i decide to shaft sprint and go with tmobile down the road (i still have 10mos left on the contract), has anyone been able to use the v330 as a bt modem for the newer palm tungsten bt-enabled devices?

I have followed your directions to the letter and CANNOT get the connection to work. What is up? I just bought an iBook with Tiger 10.4.2. I can pair the phone with the computer as well as browse my device (v330)using the bluetooth option. I have downloaded the modem scripts as well. I even downloaded the isync scripts(you crossed this out) after several failed attempts. Eek! What am I doing wrong! And, by the way, thanks for telling everyone how to do this! It's so nice of you!

Megan -

1. It does take T-Mobile about 24-48 hours to turn on internet service after you subscribe
2. Does T-zones work on the handheld? That's a good sign of whether you're properly subscribed.
3. I find the v330 "crashes" its bluetooth module all the time. When all fails, I reset the 330 by turning it off and on.

Give some more ideas about where it's failing (maybe post the Log that you can get in the Modem panel).

Here is what the log says over and over...

Wed Aug 10 22:38:02 2005 : Failed to open /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem: Resource busy

I know that the service is working because I use the phone as a modem for my Tungsten E2.
Maybe I haven't typed in the correct info into the Network Settings?

Has anyone had problems with the V330 connecting via GPRS? I just upgraded from a Nokia 6010, where T-Zones worked fine. On the V330, I get 'Network Not Available' every time. If I switch the SIM to the old phone, it works fine. Any ideas?

Have you called T-Mobile customer service? They may need to register the particular mobile phone ESN with the network before it goes online.

Here's information on how to do GPRS with a Linux based computer:

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/08/25/188224

Hey! It works!

Okay... I followed the instructions above and I'm happily surfing the web. Someone posted something above about using internet3.voicestream.com as their number to be dialed, but this didn't work for me. Fortunately internet2.voicestream.com did. Perhaps it's something related to where you are physically?

In terms of speed... I seem to be getting acceptable numbers when I test with The DSL Reports Speed Tests. I'm getting 42k down and 29k up. It's not the blazing speed of EVDO, but as a previous poster noted, it's acceptable for checking one's email.

When using the "Motorola GPRS CID1 +CGQREQ" script, I get 49kbps down and 29kbps up.The "Motorola GPRS CID1 57k" yields speeds of 44kbps down and 24kbps up. The "Motorola GPRS CID1 57k +CGQREQ" scripts give me 46kbps down and 29kbps down.

Now that I know my GPRS connection works, I downloaded the Motorola G3 scripts from Ross Barkman's page (scroll down or search for the text ""Scripts for Motorola 3G phones (17kB)". Install these scripts in the same way you did with the GPRS scripts. (i.e. - drag the scripts in to the /Library/Modem Scripts directory) Restart the Preferences application, go back into the network prefs, select your mobile config, Click on the "bluetooth modem" tab, select "Motorola 3G CID1" from the list of Modems, click "apply now." Restart the Internet Connect application, edit the configuration for your V330, select the "Motorola 3G CID1". Voila! You're connected via 3G (assuming you're in an EDGE service area. Also, I should probably re-iterate that I'm using t-mobile as a carrier. I don't know if any of this would work with Cingular.)

I'm getting 115kbps down and 32kbps up. I was hoping to be able to do skype over bluetooth over EDGE, but that's probably a pipe dream.

I'm using 10.4.2 on a 14" G4 iBook. Good luck!

I expanded on my instructions for getting 3G to work with a V330 and put it on my blog at: http://mhamrick.blogspot.com/2005/09/macos-x-104-motorola-v330-t-mobile.html. Would love to hear if these instructions are usable by others...

Thanks Matt. I'm sure people will find it useful.

p.s. Boy, Blogspot's servers are SLOOOOOOOWWWW.... It reminds me why I moved to my own blog server (www.pair.com)

Hey guys I work for a corp. store of T-mobile and just wanted to give you guys the heads up on the speed.My store actually has the techs you build and maintain towers and service in it. from what was explained to me by them is edge launched this month which you all know but its not running at full speed yet.it will over the next couple months go up to a dedicated 256k down 99k upload speed i know the upload speed is a funny number but they capped it out at that from what i was told.and thats 256 everytime you log in doesnt matter if there is alot of phone traffic.same as verizons evdo network but will end up faster. so dont fret guys the speed is comin and as a T-mobile employee thank you for the wonderfull coments written in this blog as well as the mac help.you made me shine to a customer thank you again

Wow... 256k down, that's fantastic. During the summer, I was commuting to NYC on MetroNorth in order to go to the United Nations. Having internet connectivity was a life-saver on the 1.5 hour ride. There is *one* seat on each coach in MetroNorth with a 120 VAC outlet, fortunately New Haven is the first stop so I could usually grab that seat.

But the 40-80kbps GPRS speed was just killing me. There was a fellow who had a Verizon connection and he was getting 200kbps down with EVDO, but it was more intermittent than my GPRS hookup, which was bomb-proof until you entered the tunnel systems under New York city.

So if I can get 256kbps down with EDGE, there's no reason for me to ever think about switching -- unless T-Mobile shoots itself in the foot and raises its price.

I could use a little help on setting up my E2 to work with my V330. Anybody got any suggestions

I didn't read every single comment, so maybe this is redundant. You need to use the MOT 3G script (same download site) to get full EDGE speed. EDGE is now everywhere on tmobile's network (as of Nov 1 2005).

Anyone know if you have to have data plan for this to work? I do not have any data plan, just phone service.
I can access t-zones on my phone but when i try bluetooth connection on my mac it dissconnects just as the mac says "authenticating".
I used to have Cingular and a SE t616 and could connect through GSM and dial my ISP and just use up my plan minutes rather than be charged GPRS data access per minute. Does tmobile have a per use GPRS plan or the ability to connect to your own isp through GSM and Bluetooth?

Brandon - No, you need the $19.99 internet plan. There's no a'la carte pricing or way to use your own ISP with T-Mobile. And you can't even hookup your analog modem (I tried).

But, you can cancel and add the internet plan using the T-mobile.com. So I cancel the service when I don't need it and add it back when I do. You need to give T-Mobile 2-3 days to turn on service, but turning off is instant.

I currently have my v330 connected to my laptop via-cable. When making a new internet connection it asks me for a number to dial, in which I typed up a local dial up number. It then finishes setting up but then after it connects it says invalid username or password. Any help, ideas, comments? thanks

Hmm.. I'm not sure if you can even use the 330/GPRS mode with a standard (i.e., non-T-mbile) internet service provider. You should call T-Mobile customer service and ask.... Please post a note to this blog with what they tell you since I think a LOT of people would be interested in this.

Megan, I get the same problem you do. I followed the instructions to the letter. Does anyone have a solution for the "Device busy" error? Thanks for these instructions!

Kimball: In my experience, "Device Busy" means:

1. The phone and the computer aren't bluetoothed paired properly. Can you sync the addressbook?
   
2. The phone's internal modem has crashed. Try turning it off and back on again.
   
3. The computer's bluetooth module has crashed. Try restarting the computer
   
4. The phone dialer is accidentally using another device than the bluetooth modem. Double-check to make sure it's using the right device.
   

I have the v330 on t-mobile and a Tungsten E2. I successfully bluetoothed my phone to the palm. Now I want to purchase the 19.99 plan on t-mobile.

Before I do that, though, do I still need the T-zones plan? I have the Unlimited t-zones for $4.99 plan.

Thanks.

Kristen - No, you can cancel T-zones since it's included in the $19.99 GPRS internet plan (it's not included in the $19.99 "hotzones" plan as far as I know, so be sure to ask for the right one -- you want the ability to access the internet through the GPRS feature on your phone, not through the WiFi feature on your laptop).

I have tried this modem scripts and i can get as far as authenticating user, then, it does this.....

The modem has unexpectedly hungup. Please verify your settings and try again. i am running 10.3.9. this still should not be a problem with the modem script, is there any other tweek that can be done?????

Ok, i went to ross barkmans homepage and found a modem script that actually worked, it was the CDMA script that worked, a bit slow. but i am also not on through t-mobles internet, this is through a different isp provider, for those whom want to connect through other sorces this will work.

Thanx,

David

On my 15" Al Powerbook and v330 I'm getting a "The modem has unexpectedly hungup" error immediately after authenticating with both the Motorola GPRS CID1 and Motorola 3G CID1 scripts. I can see the phone power up and I've tried internet2 and internet3 and I can get to tzones.

Here is the connection log:
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : Motorola GPRS CID1
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : CCLWrite : AT\13
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : CCLMatched : OK\13\10
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : CCLWrite : AT+CGMI\13
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : CCLMatched : Motorola
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : CCLWrite : AT&F0&D2&C1E0V1W1S95=47\13
Thu Aug 3 19:45:20 2006 : CCLMatched : OK\13\10
Thu Aug 3 19:45:22 2006 : CCLWrite : AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","guest"\13
Thu Aug 3 19:45:22 2006 : CCLMatched : OK\13\10
Thu Aug 3 19:45:23 2006 : Making GPRS connection
Thu Aug 3 19:45:23 2006 : CCLWrite : ATD*99***1#\13
Thu Aug 3 19:45:23 2006 : CCLMatched : CONNECT
Thu Aug 3 19:45:27 2006 : Serial connection established.
Thu Aug 3 19:45:27 2006 : using link 0
Thu Aug 3 19:45:27 2006 : Using interface ppp0
Thu Aug 3 19:45:27 2006 : Connect: ppp0 Thu Aug 3 19:45:28 2006 : sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:28 2006 : rcvd [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:28 2006 : rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:28 2006 : lcp_reqci: returning CONFACK.
Thu Aug 3 19:45:28 2006 : sent [LCP ConfAck id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : sent [PAP AuthReq id=0x1 user="internet2.voicestream.com" password=]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : rcvd [PAP AuthAck id=0x1]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : pap_rauthack: ignoring missing msg-length.
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : PAP authentication succeeded
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : sent [IPV6CP ConfReq id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : rcvd [LCP ProtRej id=0x1 80 57 01 01 00 0e 01 0a 02 0d 93 ff fe 32 34 62]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : rcvd [IPCP ConfRej id=0x1 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:29 2006 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:32 2006 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:35 2006 : sent [IPCP ConfReq id=0x2 ]
Thu Aug 3 19:45:36 2006 : Hangup (SIGHUP)
Thu Aug 3 19:45:36 2006 : Modem hangup
Thu Aug 3 19:45:36 2006 : Connection terminated.

T-mobile raised the price this summer to $29/month for their GPRS service. Bummer.

dom -

I don't know what's going on here. Looks like you're authenticated OK but then the remote server is hanging up the line. You may want to speak to T-mobile internet technical support -- I've found them to be quite intelligent.

Here's a good website for using your bluetooth 3G cellphone as a modem under MacOSX. I didn't know that you could dial into analogue modems this way:

http://homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/tzones/

HAVE A PROBLEM CHARGING YOUR Motorola V330 PLACE THE CHARGER IN THE REFRIGERATOR FOR 1/2 HOUR THEN TRY IT. THIS SOLVED MY PROBLEM WITH 3 OF MY CHARGERS.

Just wanted to say thanks for the instructions.


The way T-Mobile instructs you to do GPRS via Mac OS X is really braindead; it requires you to type in a series of init commands into a terminal window every time you want to open the connection. Obnoxious, particularly since their instructions for PC don't require this.


Anyway, I noticed that with one of the recent OS upgrades, when I connect my Motorola V3 Razr to my G5 via a mini-USB cable, it is instantly recognized as a modem in the Networking control panel. Very neat! So I can use it either through Bluetooth, or tether it directly using the USB cable. The latter is nice because it also charges the phone at the same time, or gives it power, so that I only have to take up one outlet. Plug computer into outlet (like on train) and then phone into computer. I'm not sure if it charges it fast enough to keep the battery from draining over a long time, but it seems okay for as long as I've tried it.


Also, the cheapest price I could get on the GPRS Unlimited Data plan from T-Mobile was $30/mo., on top of my voice plan which was already that amount. It seems as though the $19/mo. plan is gone??? If anyone can verify this, I'd be interested to know. The only benefit of the $30 add-on is that it comes with T-Mobile WiFi hotspots access, but I'd really just have liked the GPRS for $10 less a month. :(

Windows Users: This one works,
Make sure your phone is paired up using Windows plug-play, it will detect automatically. Also assuming that your computer is bluetooth enabled and turned on.
1. Create a new dial up connection
2. In Phone Number (dial up) section put '*99#' to dial into tmobiles network