My Cellphone

What can I say? It's the coolest damn phone on the market! No, it isn't a Blackberry! It's the PalmOne Treo 650.

I was very lucky to get one of these at the price I did - FREE. I had been having problems with my 7135, so I gave Verizon a call. For some reason, they offered to GIVE me a brand new Treo 650. Who was I to argue?!?!

Actually, I think I know why they're doing it. With the 7135, you could get Internet access via their "National Access" system (semi-broadband; about 144kbps) without incurring any data costs. Your alloted voice minutes ticked down while you were online, but that was it. With the Treo, there's no such mechanism. If you want to get on the 'net with your Treo, you have to buy a data plan.

Verizon has two options for data:

1. Unlimited
This is the "all you can eat" plan, giving you unlimited Internet access for a flat fee (currently $44.95/month). That's on top of your regular monthly voice plan. Yikes.

2. Pay as you Go
Also known as PAYG, this plan has no monthly charge, but you get billed $.015 per kilobyte up/downloaded. That's right, fifteen bucks a meg. Double-yikes.

So they give you a phone that probably cost them $150, sign you up for a data plan at $45/month and lock you in for another two years. I think that's probably worth the free phone...

In any event, I've got me a new toy. I was starting to think about upgrading, anyway.