DATA PLANS

The PocketSurfer Web Viewer uses your cell phone as a wireless-modem. To use the service, you need to pay a monthly ISP fee of $9.99 upon registering the device. Additionally, you may need to have your cell phone enabled for wireless data from your wireless carrier.
Wireless Carriers charge for data by:
a. The amount of time you spent online (minutes) on their Circuit Switched network (CSD), or
b. By the amount of data consumed (MB - megabytes) on their Packet network.
Paying By Minutes
There is an advantage of paying by minutes with some carriers if they allow such usage to be part of unlimited evening/weekend minutes. Additionally if your plan allows you rollover minutes, or if you have a sufficient cushion of minutes in your existing plan, you do not need to commit to an extra plan.
Paying By Megabytes
The advantage of paying by megabytes is that if you spend 20 minutes reading an article, you only pay for the data consumed, not the time spent. Additionally, a number of carriers are starting to offer unlimited usage megabyte plans on their networks. On such plans, the carriers provide you an unlimited amount of data usage for one monthly fixed fee, for as low as $20/month.
Please check with your carrier for their current rates, to make the most economical decision based on your usage patterns. Each of the carriers use unique terminology to refer to their circuit switch data networks and packet based networks, here's a guide: |