Mike Miller wrote: > On Mon, 17 Jul 2006, Rob Terhaar wrote: > >> On 7/17/06, Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote: >>> It's too bad they don't add 802.11 to the Treo. >> Don't hold your breath on that! The cellphone companies are smart- They >> know if they include 802.11x to the phones that people will use voip. >> Thus subtracting from the amount of airtime minutes! > > > That might be it, or maybe the PalmOne people just haven't gotten around > to it yet. I'm sure you can use VoIP over EvDo, but is it really worth > it? > The economics of cell phones are such that you can't sell a phone if you can't find a carrier to support it. If the carriers don't want 802.11x, Palm won't put it into their product line. Just look at the extent to which Verizon cripples their phone to prevent you from loading up your own ring tones or transferring pictures by means other than their upload service. I really can't see them getting too upset about using voip over EVDO but I can see them wanting to force you into a data contract rather than using 802.11. Just look at some of the threads on folks trying to use their Blue Tooth phones as modems for MacBooks - Verizon wants an extra $15/month, in addition to the data service, to use the phone as a dial up modem. Sheesh! I seem to recall that there was a hack available for the Treo 650, or perhaps the 600, that would let you use an SDIO 802.11x card. At the time I think that Palms concern was the potential for interference between the cell radio and the network card. I'm afraid I don't recall how well the hacked version worked. --rick