Smart Phone Dumb Economy: Internet Access

Now that we’ve got an extremely inexpensive yet feature-rich smartphone (BenQ E72) and an extremely inexpensive money-saving phone service ($10/year pay as you go), you’re probably going to want to get on the internet. Unlike other “smartphones” that require you to purchase a data plan with your carrier, Windows Mobile phones have a variety of other options for internet access. The most obvious one is that the BenQ E72 includes WiFi support. That means you can connect to any WiFi network that you have access to for free without paying for data charges on your carrier. So if you’ve got a WiFi router at home or at work, you’ll easily have internet access there without paying extra. Sometimes when people buy phones that have WiFi built in, they don’t know that you can actually use that on any WiFi network that they have access to. If you’re paying for broadband internet at home, take a look at the details of your plan. Some services, such as Optimum Online and ATT for example, offer free WiFi access at a variety of public locations which you can use with your home’s internet account information. There’s also plenty of other public locations, such as libraries and coffee shops, that offer free WiFi internet access. Read on for more...

Another way to access the internet without paying for it on a Windows Mobile phone is to connect it to your desktop computer via ActiveSync/WMDC using a USB cable or Bluetooth connection. ActiveSync has an internet pass-through feature which allows the phone to access the internet while connected. That means you can download your email, sync with any cloud service (Gmail, MyPhone, LiveMesh, Exchange, Windows Live), and download offline content like RSS feeds or AvantGo news sites while near or connected to your internet-connected desktop computer. So say you’ve got a computer at work and one at home, both of which have internet access, just plug your Windows Phone in with a USB cable, allow WMDC or ActiveSync to connect to the device (you can even connect as “guest” and bypass creating a partnership), and now your phone has full internet capabilities in all applications. If you wrote any emails while you were offline, you can send them now too. Having your phone connected to your desktop has other advantages as well; you can control it completely using something like the RedFly Viewer or Pocket Controller. You can also send/receive and manage your text messages with Jeyo Mobile Companion.

Windows Phones even support accessing the internet via a Dial Up connection. This method is so slow it’s not worth mentioning, but if you really want to, you can use a normal Dial-up internet service to go online with your mobile phone. The only problem (other than being extremely slow), would be that it takes up your mobile phone service plan minutes based on how long you’re connected.

One thing you’ve got to watch out for is that some phones will pre-configure themselves for internet access on your service provider’s data network and, depending on your plan, you might get charged for data based on how much you use. To make sure you don’t use any of that so that you don’t get surprises on your bill, simply go to the connection settings and delete those settings for your network providers data connections. This will effectively disable the phone’s ability to access the expensive internet that you don’t want to pay for.