The cell phone being used in the picture above is a Nokia 6190 purchased from Powertel in Atlanta. This is a digital cell phone using GSM 1900 technology. Powertel provides service in most of the SE, with coverage in other areas of the country provided by companies like BellSouth Mobility DCS, VoiceStream and others.
Connection to the laptop is through a special cable that plugs into the bottom of the phone and the laptop's COM port.
The cable and software needed to support this configuration, the Nokia Data Suite, is available from Powertel (and other sources) for $150. The cable has the Nokia part number DAU 9P, is just over two feet long and can be purchased seperately from Powertel for $45.00 (also available from other sources). No "modem" is required (like the popular 3COM PCMCIA card modem shown below) since this phone has a "digital modem" built-in.
Connection was consistently and reliably made at 9600 bps, even with minimal signal strength on the cell phone. This speed is very adequate for e-mail, even with small attachments. It's useable but slow for web browsing. The biggest issue with digital vs analog service is coverage. Currently digital coverage is less prevalent than analog. Digital coverage continues to improve nationwide and eventually analog service will go the way of the 8 track tape. Also, analog service is usually more expensive. Many "no long distance, no roaming" rate specials only apply to digital service.
But....when we are in the "boonies" and don't have digital coverage I do wireless e-mail via analog. To do this I use a second cell phone we have in a handsfree mount in the RV. This Nokia 6161 phone uses BellSouth Mobility as the service provider.
The Nokia 6161 is a "dual mode" cell phone. When using the phone for voice, it will use digital service when available or automatically switch to analog when digital service is not available.
This is great for voice calls because it gives you the best of both worlds, the better service digital provides when it is available plus the advantage of the wider coverage areas provided by analog service. So we use this phone as our primary voice phone and our "back-up" wireless e-mail phone.
We have a 3COM Megahertz 3CXM556 56K Cellular Modem PCMCIA card in our laptop. This card can act as a standard "landline" modem for your laptop on those occassions when you have a "standard" phone line available (see the "pop out" telephone cable connector, known as an X-JACK, on the right side of the card pictured above). And it allows you to connect your laptop to an analog cell phone.
A special cable is used to connect our Nokia 6161 to the 3COM card. The 3COM PCMCIA card can be purchased from CompUSA for $219.99. Two cables are needed to connect the card to the cell phone. They are Nokia part number DAR3, about 4" long, which plugs into the phone and a NOK3, about 2 feet long, that connects the DAR3 to the PCMCIA card. These cables were purchased from BellSouth Mobility, $39.95 for the DAR3 and $29.95 for the NOK3. They too are available from other sources. This PCMCIA card and cable arrangement will work for Nokia 6160, 6161 and 6162 phones no matter who provides your service.
Analog cellular connections are slower than digital, typically 4800 bps (this type phone does not have a "digital modem" built-in so you can not use it's analog capabilities for e-mail). They are also subject to drop-outs and they work best with strong signal strength. If you are in an area of weak analog signal strength, reliable e-mail can be "challenging".
But I would rather have that in the comfort of our RV then try to find an accessable phone line in most campgrounds, etc.
GSM digital service providers:
Powertel - GSM digital provider for the SE
VoiceStream - GSM digital provider for Florida, Texas, Oregon and several mid-West/NW states
Source links:
Megahertz 3COM PCMCIA card and cables for Nokia 5100/6100 series phones
Phone-Dock - holds cell phone on side of laptop
Click here to e-mail us about wireless e-mail
