Ever since I heard that the "3G" cell phone networks were being developed, I was hopeful that within 3-5 years, I would be able to use my phone to get network access anywhere I had phone service. While the networks are slowly being developed, the cost to use cell phones for data are still prohibitive to anyone that isn't critically dependent on a network connection for input.
From what I've seen & read so far, Verizon Wireless currently has the best data capabilities, but I can't find any online information about the kinds of costs associated with using their data network.
T-Mobile doesn't seem to have the fastest data network, but as far as I can tell, their pricing is the best: $20/month for unlimited data access. I currently use T-Mobile as my cell phone provider (as I have since 1996 (nee Voicestream)), and while I'm quite happy with the voice service (and my ability to use my phone as a modem, for at least 19200 speeds), the price of even having the data functionality annoys the heck out of me. My wife and I got the phones we currently have, Nokia 6610 phones, for $35 each during a promotion through T-Mobile. I enjoy the phone, the SMS and WAP features work nicely, but I cannot use the phone for data without buying a data cable, which I have yet to be able to find for less that $30-$40, which seems silly to me, especially when I would need to also add $20/month to be able to use the data features with my laptop.
Ultimately, if I just bit the bullet and spent the money on a Sony Ericsson T610 I would have all of the features I wanted (data features as well as synchronization of contacts using Bluetooth) and the option to use the phone as a modem or a 2.5G/3G gateway.
Yet again, technologies are verging on convergence, but cost and difficulty hinder widespread use.
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