Re: best HA mobile phone?

["Patrick Lidstone" <patrick@xxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, Stephen <mail@s...> wrote:
> What is the best mobile phone for HA?
>
> I was thinking it would need to do WAP. Presumably Orange offers the
> best deal (free 0800 data access, fastest speeds, etc) but what is
> their coverage like compared to Vodafone and O2? What is their
> international coverage like?

Orange data access to 0800 numbers is no longer free.

Vodafone now also support highspeed data, but unless you roam a lot -
GPRS roaming is still patchy - you should be thinking about GPRS.
Even if you do roam a lot, high speed data coverage is patchy,
although normal data is generally widely available - but you will
typically be dialling an ISP over an international connection
(expensive).

There are lots of WAP/GPRS promotions at the moment, many offering
free access whilst on the home network. In practice, WAP access is
very cheap because the pages are so small. If you only want to use
GPRS for WAP access (and never e-mail or generic web access), I'd
recommend a pay-as-you GPRS tarrif rather than fixed monthly xxxMb
usage (which most providers will supply on either contract or PAYG
accounts).

Do look for handsets with bluetooth support if you think you might
ever want to use a PDA or laptop whilst out and about - it is much
more convenient than data cables and more reliable than infra red.

If you are tempted by Three, remember their internet access is
currently a walled garden.

>
> Tri-band would be nice, so you could keep an eye on home whilst on
> holiday, and perhaps the ability to receive picture messages so you
> could get webcam pictures if motion was detected?

At the risk of stating the obvious, you will only need tri-band
access if you holiday in the Americas. If you insist on tri-band,
it's going to restrict your choice of handset significantly.

Theoretically it should be possible to send picture messages when
away - in practice MMS routing is still in its infancy, and a roaming
agreement with a network which supports GPRS is a pre-requisite. I'd
guess there is pretty much zero chance of it working anywhere in the
US. WAP can do pictures though, and stands a reasonable chance of
working (Zoneminder even supports this unofficially IIRC).

> What model phone would provide all these?

Pretty much any mid-range handset on the market today will do WAP.
Most do MMS. GPRS is less common, as is bluetooth. If you want
integral web access, look for phones which support the excellent
Opera browser - limited to the top end "smartphone" devices
today. If
you want a small phone, but still want full web access then look at
bluetooth + iPaq or similar. From an HA perspective, java enabled
phones offer some exciting possibilities - because anyone can write
apps for them - so I'd add that to my list too.

Patrick