1. Yes
2. Nokia 6120c (3G+)
3. A piece of cake
4. T-Mobile UK
5. £7.50/m 1GB traffic allowance
6. I think the 6120c is the perfect complement of the N800 because of it's size and support of 3G+

1. Yes
2. Nokia 6131
3. Yes
4. Telmore (Denmark), TIM (Italy), Vodafone (Italy)
5. Telmore €0.50/Mbyte GPRS, TIM €6/Mbyte EDGE (offer €20/100Mbyte), Vodafone €1.50/hour GPRS (offer €20/100hours)
6. I use the Telmore dataplan little due to the Mbyte pricing. I used TIM in Italy for a month, but they didn't inform me when the 100Mbyte ended and just silently switched me to the €6/Mbyte plan, and then ran my prepaid account into a €200 deficit which I have refused to pay. TIM is a fraud. Stay clear of them for data access in Italy. Vodafone is great. Pricing per hour is good, and the price is not exorbitant compared to the other Italian providers. I was unable to use the 100 hours in a month there.

1. Do you use your Internet Tablet with your phone for Internet access?
Every single day.

2. What kind of phone do you have?
Sony Erricson K800i

3. Was it easy to get working?
No. This particular phone has an odd quirk. With most phones when you tether with them for net access you have to enter a set of details specific to your phone company. One particular setting causes problems for this phone. Normally you'd have to set GPRS APN address: general.t-mobile.uk but if you do that on a k800i it won't connect at all. You have to leave it blank which I've never had to do before.

4. Who is your service provider?
T-Mobile UK

5. How affordable is your data plan?
£12.50 a month for 3gig of data.

I really want to pair a phone with my tablet for an always on connection. Sadly my current carrier(Helio) does not support tethering at all and all the US carriers that do have it are either insanely expensive(AT&T @ $59.99/Month just for the data connection) or have phones that do not interest me (sprint/verizon).

Hopefully T-Mobiles 3G announcement on December 6th will be conducive to my always-on connection goals =)

1. Do you use your Internet Tablet with your phone for Internet access?
Anywhere and anytime there is no Wifi access, which means almost all the time except at home, family and friends - including at work during meetings :-)

2. What kind of phone do you have?
Second-hand Nokia 6280. The phone is only a 3G modem (and occasional crappy camera), I don't make voice calls with it.

3. Was it easy to get working?
Very, much more so than under Windows, thanks to Maemo's setup wizard and proxy support.

4. Who is your service provider?
Orange (the actual French mother ship, ex-France telecom)


5. How affordable is your data plan?
I think very. It's not actually a data plan but an option for a prepaid call card, charged to the card's credit.
It costs 6€ (8-9 USD) for 31 days. You can let it lapse if not needed and activate it later at will.
It supports all the carrier's networks (GPRS/EDGE/3G/3G+) depending on the phone.
It gives you unlimited Web (http) access by default. Unlimited https comes by configuring a proxy. Full, unlimited IP connectivity if you go to the trouble of seting up a VPN to a DSL landline.

6. What else should users know about that phone/provider/plan?
Now don't you go thinking France is a mobile data Eldorado. Data plans are actually very expensive, including all of those called "unlimited" that are actually limited in usable ports and have a traffic cap.
This is a hack, plain and simple. The "unlimited surf" option is supposed to work only for connections to the Orange World mobile portal - it's just that their setup has been broken from day one and lets all Web traffic through unbilled. The proxy for https is normally for enterprise data plans, but works here too. And it supports the CONNECT method so OpenVPN goes through.
It's been that way for almost two years for those in the know. It may stay or it may go, but hey, it's only a prepaid card :-)

1. Occasionally
2. T-Mobile SDA
3. Connected easily without having to mess with settings
4. T-mobile
5. $19.99 Total Internet
6. I considered providers carefully. Most of T-mobile's competition have superior (3G) data service, especially in my market (metro NYC), but data was one concern among many. I use my phone internationally, so Verizon and Sprint were out. That left AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T had better data, but a more onerous tethering policy. I know that the $19.99 Unlimited MediaMax works, but I understand that tethering technically would violate your TOS. Their stance over the NSA situation from a year or so ago also played a role in my decision (but a very small one).

I went with the T-mo total internet plan over the $5.99 T-zones plan again because of the TOS issue as well as the fact that I wanted it to just work with a minimum of fuss. It's not that I'm unwilling to play with settings, I'm under the impression that T-mo shuts down the proxy server every now and then, so the $5.99 plan is not guaranteed to work all the time.

With all of this being said, the T-mo plan works best for me because I tether only occasionally, so a tethering plan on another provider doesn't make sense for me. If my situation changed (for example, a new job that required a longer commute on mass transit), I would certainly consider paying for 3G with unlimited data and tethering.

1. no(dont have mine yet) yes on other devices like my laptop

2. HP Ipaq HW6515

3. very easy ipaq has easy tools to share the connection

4. tmobile in the US and Vodafone in Portugal

5. Tmobile sux, $10 for only 32 min(12 month exp), internet access is slow and very costly
/
Vodafone rules, even on international roaming it is still more reliable and cheaper than cingular, 15cents a minute for all networks, free in-calling, free text, no contracts, internet access at 1.8mb/sec for only a logon fee of 2 euros after that it is free and unlimited!

6. see #5

I feel your pain Rob!! I'm currently looking at a T-Mobile (UK) just SIM 20 + web'n'walk Max combined plan that works out to £42.50 per month! Anyway, to matters at hand:

1. Do you use your Internet Tablet with your phone for Internet access?
Didn't really consider it until I read your article. Was intent on using an Nokia N95 8GB for outdoor hsdpa roaming and an HTC Tytn II as an hsdpa modem for my laptop indoors. Will look into a Nokia N810 + N95 8GB combination now though!

2. What kind of phone do you have?
Will be using an Nokia N95 8GB

3. Was it easy to get working?
Haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it will be.

4. Who is your service provider?
T-Mobile (UK) using their 'just SIM 20' + 'web'n'walk Max' combined plan. Gives me unrestricted internet access with a 'fair use' policy of 10GB per month.
Even though just SIM 20 allows me 300 minutes of calls and 500 SMS messages a month, I will be using Truphone for all of my telephone calls. Why get SIM 20 if you're not going to use it, you ask!! Well, it was the only way I could get to use my own N95 8GB without having to purchase a branded one from T-Mobile!

5. How affordable is your data plan?
£42.50 per month!!

6. What else should users know about that phone/provider/plan?
If you want access to hsdpa internet 'on the go' whilst retaining the right to using your own unlocked/unbranded hsdpa phone here in the UK, then a 'just SIM' + 'web'n'walk' plan is the only way to go. The only other mobile broadband players here in the UK, Vodafone and 3, force you to purchase one of their branded/voip locked phones!!

1. Do you use your Internet Tablet with your phone for Internet access?
About half the time - other half over wifi

2. What kind of phone do you have?
LG AX8600, CDMA, EVDO

3. Was it easy to get working?
Worked first time I set it up.

4. Who is your service provider?
Alltel

5. How affordable is your data plan?
Not very - T-Mobile is cheaper as is Sprint, but T-Mobile has almost no high speed (3g) or even EDGE coverage around where I travel and live and Sprint customer service is very poor in my experience.
Cost for web is $6.00 a month, add unlimited web minutes for $10.00. Not really intended for 'tethering' but works fine.

6. What else should users know about that phone/provider/plan?
They are a great alternative to the big guys (AT&T, T-Mo, Sprint, Verizon) and with roaming agreements with Sprint and Verizon, you get service just about everywhere.

1. Do you use your Internet Tablet with your phone for Internet access?
Yes - I have it set up to connect automatically I leave my home wi-fi connection. The N800 then connects via Bluetooth with my phone.

2. What kind of phone do you have?
Nokia N95 with 3G connection

3. Was it easy to get working?
Very easy - no problems

4. Who is your service provider?
T-Mobile (UK)

5. How affordable is your data plan?
Pay around £12 for a 3GB per month, but never been told if I have gone over. I also use the modem off the phone to connect to a laptop to do some big downloads.

6. What else should users know about that phone/provider/plan?