shahine.com/omar/

So is using the phone as a modem allowed under the normal data plan, or does it require one of those extravagant $80 a month deals? (With Sprint, it's apparently possible to do it, and people do it without getting into trouble, but it's expressly against the terms of the cheap plan.)

I agree wholeheartedly. I just upgraded from a Samsung SGH-i320N to a SGH-i600 and have found it to be reliable, decent battery life, good 3G (UMTS & HSDPA) reception, and the tethering feature rocks. The i600 is very similar to the Blackjack (SGH-i607) but adds WiFi and a cool new home screen plugin. I too am hopeful that Samsung will release a WM6 upgrade for this phone as promised on May 26th.

Hey now, I get 768 kbps up with my DSL package which blows the pants off your cable, eh. :)

I've got uverse... hooray, no more Time Warner (but I've got new problems of course).

It's VDSL is 3/1 (or 6/1 if I wanted to pay). I was 10/1 with TWCable... when it worked.

Speaking of, the DVR for uverse is a MSFT product... and it sucks. Omar, you need to get on that team and wake them up. Seriously, it's not like they need to write a spec or anything... just go to Best Buy and buy a Tivo S3 and say "make it work like this and ship it"

The BlackJack is a wonderful phone Omar, I wish the Internet Sharing link was in Start Menu where it belongs, but I think Cingular/ATT wouldn't be happy if that was very apparent. Thankfully it's easy to copy and paste from \Windows. I still can't get over the fact that you can make and receive calls while still browsing the web! I remember my first phone, from Sprint, would send all my calls to v-mail if I was on the web. Then after moving to Cingular, GRPS/EDGE would permit incoming calls, but would drop the data. I think this is one advantage UMTS/HSDPA has over EvDO, which is only a data upgrade.

As far as the PDA Plan, it isn't necessary, as I've had the 8125 and now the BlackJack on MEdia Max 200 for almost a year [since the introduction of MEdia Max]. The only good thing about PDA is it allows you to sign into the data network with your own IP address. However, this feature is disabled by default and requires you to modify the Internet settings of the phone [below]. It also may increase the speed of the connection, but I can't verify that since I no longer have the PDA plan.

Additionally, according to Opera Mini, which lists Internet settings for many carriers, there is acceleration that is used with PDA plans if you change the settings. As far as I knew up to this point, the only acceleration was provided by a proxy server, which also gave access to intranet sites like MEdia Net's home page, and also let's web sites identify the device as Cingular/ATT to add a footer with a link to MEdia Net, etc.

Anyway, this is what the settings are for your own IP:

Cingular (With acceleration): Manual Setup
Address ISP.CINGULAR
Username ISPDA@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password CINGULAR1
DNS 66.209.10.201
DNS 66.209.10.202

Cingular (NO acceleration): Manual Setup
Address ISP.CINGULAR
Username ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password CINGULAR1
DNS 66.209.10.201
DNS 66.209.10.202

http://www.operamini.com/help/connect/

One thing to note is the DNS servers could be fine left blank, as the device gets these numbers automatically. However, if you do have Internet problems on your device, I might keep the numbers there. For example, sometimes the Internet stops working for me, and sometimes simply disconnecting the data and/or wireless, or rebooting the phone solves it. It could be a problem with the DNS servers, as I've experienced problems like this with Cable Internet service before.

I was actually on the phone with technical support today who found it odd that I'm even able to browse the Internet with my BlackJack and the MEdia Max bundle, but thankfully they didn't change anything. He says that audits are preformed every once in a while, and certainly if the phone has excessive [1GB+] data usage a month, and then might cancel the Internet service on my plan until I get a PDA plan. However, even if they do, there's nothing stopping me from putting my SIM card in a standard phone and then calling to have the IMEI "updated". For that matter, even if I'm "forced" into the PDA plan, there's nothing stopping me from removing it on myWireless online site, and then adding the MEdia Max back on. But after I claim that I'm using a standard phone all the time, I can put the SIM back in the BlackJack.

I think it's rather outrageous that although the BlackJack is running SmartPhone software, it's considered a PDA because it has a keyboard. Thankfully ATT/Cingular isn't too concerned about the loophole, obviously. I believe they only charge extra, because businesses who pay for the service really don't care, and as long the business accounts are willing to fork it over, it doesn't matter what the occasional consumer does. They get their money no matter what in the end.

@Matthew

Oh, one last thing: I get about 886 down/288 up on average, maximum of 1041/318 through USB on speedtest.net. Of course it really depends on where the tower is, and especially if you're moving or not.

@Matthew