Alltel Cell Phone Internet Bluetooth Connection

Alltel claims I can have Internet connection through my cell phone with speed as good as or better than high speed DSL through a land line. Alltel reps work with PCs mostly and prefer to connect with a PCMCIA card. ($50 a month. $100 for the card.) but they also connect with data cables from the cell phone to USB, or bluetooth, or infrared. Their claim is that these are all fast connections (like DSL) - and getting faster.

I spent hours (more than you'd believe) at Altell while the rep tried to make a bluetooth cell connection with my Nokia 6255i. Couldn't get connected. Told me my fastest and best connection would be with a new phone that could handle the fastest internet speeds so I decided to keep my Nokia as my speaking phone and add a Motorola E815 to use as a modem. This is because you can't talk on a phone and use it as a modem at the same time. On the up-side, this connection would be so fast I could discontinue my landline DSL. (FYI - $25/mo for internet - $10/mo additional line)

Well - We got the phone connected and up on the internet. It runs about the same speed as aol dial-up. I'm on it now. Either this works much better on PCs or It doesn't work as Alltel claims. I called Apple help, their not interestd in helping on this isue. It's encouraged - but not supported.

This is the beginning of a two week trial, I can totally bail on the new phone, the service, etc. I'd rather make it work. If the soultion requires going with a different phone or cellular provider, I'm interested in that too.

Any Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Directions?

Thanks...

MacBook Pro 17 Mac OS X (10.4.8)