That's not bad at all. Sprint is $15 a month, but that's slower. I would go for Cingular but the reception in my area isn't very good. Family and friends have Verizon, so I'm wasting so many minutes a month just because I'm not on the same network.

Re: Cingular and MediaNET / data service... I decided a couple months ago that I wanted a Treo 650. My choices were therefore Cingular whom, by way of AT&T I had been a customer for 2+ years with, or Sprint. So I rolled into my Cingular store and asked what they could do for me. I had heard MediaNET was $20/mo, which seemed reasonable. Turns out, as you alluded to, they charge extra for "devices which are primarily data devices" or somesuch, and if I wanted unlimited data on a Treo, it was $80/mo. Yes, $80. Sprint, on the other hand, for what is now the same speed of service (but will soon be a bit slower due to Cingular upgrades, allegedly) offers unlimitee data for $15/mo, or $10 if you're skillful with the CS reps. Cingular lost me as a customer faster than you can say "raising the bar." Couldn't be happier with the Sprint voice or data service, either.

Ooo. Happy to hear that. I assumed that it was already slower, but I do remember getting pretty good bandwidth when I tried using my phone as a PDA modem.

Mind if I asked how you managed the $10/month? I've always been quite polite to my reps

I haven't managed it yet as I'm on the $0/month plan (free trial for 2 months.) But from what I read on the Treo Central foruns, people have had success getting one of the PCS Vision plans for $10/mol I think it's the one that includes a $5 credit towards games/ringtones/etc. and you just say you don't download that stuff, so you'd rather have it as a $5 credit towards the service itself. Something like that. They may change their tune, but I know many folks have gotten the $10/month plan, and I plan on being one of them when my 2 month trial is up.

Check this thread on TreoCentral for more info on the magic words to use when asking for the $10/mo plan, especially the last post which apparently has the actual plan name the reps will use or something. And let me know how it works out for you, apparently mileage varies.

Well, I'm already on the plan, so I'm not sure how well I can do with it. I'll read it over, though. I'd love to shave $5 off the bill. That would probably cover the taxes