Poor Man's Medium Speed Internet.

Centrist CCW and I are now connected to the World Wide Web at home. Being a Cheapskate with an uppercase C, I didn't want to fork over setup fees plus modem cost plus $24 per month for a dry run DSL only phone line, or $37.75 plus setup fees plus modem fees for cable. We recently re-upped with our GSM cell provider and received two free phones, which have bluetooth and have packet data (internet) capabilities. It turn out that for an additional $15 a month I can sign up for unlimited data on my number.

Now, via Dell Inspiron -> Wifi -> Powerbook G3 -> Bluetooth -> Nokia Phone -> GPRS we have medium speed internet for two laptops. As I write this on the Powerbook, the Centrist CCW is watching TV shows on the Dell. Granted, it's not a high speed setup. Speed tests show 128 K down, 64 K up.

If we download video, the phone gets hot, and forget about running for more than 2 hours on the phone battery, it has to stay plugged in.

So far we have downloaded 955 Megabytes. Yes, that's Megabytes, this week. That's 1.5 cents per Megabyte. If we work it out on a monthly basis, that is 0.4 cents per MB.
One advantage over DSL or cable is that it works anywhere we have a GSM signal on our phones.