Hello from Cool

[Indianrock]

Yes there is such a place as Cool, CA. ( an hour NE of Sacramento ) I've had a Palm Centro on Verizon for 2 years now and I'm very happy with the coverage (family voice only plan, no data plan.) I also have a Verizon USB air card which replaced dial-up for all my telecommuting. ( our hughes satellite internet doesn't work for VPN). I'm living with the 5GB per month limit on the air card.

Now I'm considering a Motorola Droid since I'm up for my 2-year renewal upgrade. The catch is that it would have to replace the air card, using it tethered. I use the air card a lot, probably over 30 hours per week. I read articles from late last year indicating you could get the Droid, with two $30/month data plans. The total of that would equal what I pay now for using the air card, so I'd drop the air card, break even, have a better phone with more capabilities and the same internet/vpn access as with the air card.

If this is not currently possible, I'll hold off until it is.

Randy

[hookbill]

My understanding is you can pretty much tether without having a second data plan. You can tether whether your rooted or not rooted. If you use a lot of data there was a concern that Verizon might catch you but from what I'm reading that is not really an issue. You should be able to get by with just the 30.00 data plan. I almost forgot. to the forum.

[Indianrock]

Well that's tempting. I typically use about 4GB of the 5GB limit on the air card. However if I drop the air card and then find tethering is shut off due to terms of service or something I'd be facing a two-hour round trip commute on days I would normally telecommute. The air card comes up for 2 year renewal in August.

I'm also wondering if the Droid will pick up signal as well as the air card. I don't use an external antenna on the USB 727 and usually get about 77-85 dbm signal strength. Do you know if the tethering cable charges the Droid? Is it a usb connection?. I have a wireless router that accepts the air card in a usb slot so sometimes I use it that way instead of plugged into a laptop directly.

[gocflamedragon]

4-5gb a month isnt really going to show up as a red flag to verizon i have used 4.2gb of data on my droid since the start of the month without tethering now their are people using way more than me monthly. My point is the droid is a data heavy phone which is why we are required the unlimited plan so their really not going to notice a small 4 or 5gb increase on your usage.

As for the ways to teather their is no verizon plan for the droid right now and their access maneger does not work with the droid at this time so you have 2 options

1. you could try pda.net over usb
2. You can root and use wifi tether which i recommend

Good luck.

[Indianrock]

I've heard of pda.net, but not "rooting" I'm probably not going to get into serious hacking of the phone's operating system.

If you use the Droid for some web browsing, checking email daily and maybe using maps etc, then you are already eating into your data plan somewhat. I'd be doing that plus about 4GB while tethered each month. My impression is that Verizon has no "unlimited" data plan, just 5GB with steep charges if you go over that. Is there a Droid data plan that allows more than 5GB per month? If so that would be my choice ( if buying two $30/month data plans is not an option)

[lovelyhistorymom]

I've heard of pda.net, but not "rooting" I'm probably not going to get into serious hacking of the phone's operating system.

If you use the Droid for some web browsing, checking email daily and maybe using maps etc, then you are already eating into your data plan somewhat. I'd be doing that plus about 4GB while tethered each month. My impression is that Verizon has no "unlimited" data plan, just 5GB with steep charges if you go over that. Is there a Droid data plan that allows more than 5GB per month? If so that would be my choice ( if buying two $30/month data plans is not an option)

I have unlimited data through Verizon but I'm pretty sure I'm still on a plan grandfathered in from Alltel. Verizon is coming out with an unlimited data plan for Droid but it's release date is still in the air. You can buy two data plans but they will not work on the same phone, you would have to have two phones on the plan with data access. They won't stack the plans to the same number.

Really, IMO, the droid is a great phone and I love it and recommend it for most people. But if you are looking for internet and tethering and need THAT much data access in a month, just stick with your aircard. Because you will be wasting money on a droid. I do tether with it when WiFi isn't available but its not my primary web access. The Droid is not a modem or an aircard, it is a smartphone.

[hookbill]

Everyone talks about pda net but it's my understanding that the best program for tethering is this one in this link.

Tether Turns One Year Old!

No rooting required.