Palm.net Drops Unlimited Service Plans

Palm.Net was never a good idea. It cost too much, plain and simple. People don't want to have to pay $40 a month to get wireless emails. My phone can do that, and it cost me $20 with a $20 per month plan that includes minutes, free talk mobile-to-mobile, and data services. It makes doing it on a PDA for $40 per month impractical.

The T|W is a way to ween (sp?) the users off Palm.Net because it's too expensive for Palm SG. Good move, IMHO.

Hopefully, they'll make it back into the black.

-Bosco
Proud Member of the Top Non-Mods
Members: abosco and ImpReza M3

Especially in anticipation of the Tungsten W with its SMS and GPRS. Palm's network solutions are (thankfully!) moving away from a single-vendor solution.

This is NOT Palm SG's fault. If you read the article again, you'll see that this is due to the Mobitex network (run by Cingular) that is raising it's rates. So, if you want to be upset with someone look to Cingular. :)

And this isn't just Palm.net that is facing this problem. Several CPDP carriers are raising their rates as well. So, this could be a sign of the times.

Michael T. Ashby
Director
InterPUG
http://www.interpug.com

Do you guys read? First, Cingular made the change forcing Palm to up the pricing. Second, how could this make "Palm" unattractive? This only impacts the VII series and the i705's, not like they are the number one sellers for Palm (or even in the top 10%).

So many people here have knee jerk reactions to things that won't even show up on the radar of most people buying Palm OS devices. And of course, we are always the victim (being taken to the cleaners yet again??) and it always represents the "end of Palm"...

Perhaps I should have said it would make Palm wireless units which use Palm.net services unatrractive compared to better pricing using other means of always-on communication. If you use more than 1 MB of data per month or do not wish to count he KB on a regular basis you'd probably want to look elsewhere.

Data access usually works well, but it is odd to pay extra AND lose the minutes. My plan has been rather amusing, seeing that I cannot login using the phone. I have to use the Palm for everything because no one at Cingular knows how to fix their own service.

It's been over half a year now with multiple visits...

Nobody from the store clerks to the CEO can fix it.

3360? I understand why you have such a low opinion of Cingular. You still have that CDMA/TDMA crap. Thankfully I'm in a Cingular GSM area, and have never had any complaints about my coverage or phone.

I don't use data services, but then I've never seen the need to have constant access to the Internet. Thankfully my job doesn't necessitate it. I'd probably be upset about it if it did. There are no decent wireless data carriers in my neck of the woods.

(BTW, if you can't tell the *DMA comment above is a blatant attempt to start a wireless technology zealot war, you obviously weren't paying enough attention)

Ick

I'm actually very happy with my Cingular service, calling plan, and handset. I'm on one of their Nationwide calling plans (unlimited off-network roaming included) and have a Motorola V60t. Granted, I'm not using any data services, but I can't think of a single US-based carrier that is offering decent speeds and/or prices for data access yet, so there's no rush.

I think it's unfortunate, however, that Palm is dropping the unlimited service plans. The i705 was just released within the last year ... if anyone purchased it with the understanding (and the need) that unlimited service options would be available, this is really a show-stopper for them. I hope Palm.net can compensate such users in one way or another (e.g., by providing refunds for the i705 to those users and/or upgrade options).

Agreed, Sprint's unlimited Vision plans are the best value around today. CDMA2000 and GSM/GPRS are the way to go today for always on email connectivity. Palm.net was an old technology that quite frankly wasn't going to survive against BB's, BB-like Treos and new devices like the Nokia 6800 and T|W.

More interestingly, I think this annoucement brings new light to Palmsource's licensing agreement with HuneTec utilizing their ReFlex 2-way messaging technology:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=4800

Obvioulsy, there is still a market for this niche and
ReFlex may provide an inexpensive and reliable alternative to 3G networks...

Palm.net was always just a stop-gap solution - even Palm must have known this. Standardization on 2.5 and 3G networks was on the way when they launched this. I have never thought of the Palm.net as a real solution to the problem of wireless net access, for the same reason that it seemed obvious as day that WAP technology was going to go down the drain: people want REAL internet access on their wireless/mobile device. Customers and developers don't want a wonky, proprietary solution - they want standard TCP/IP applications. Hell, the only reason SMS took off in Europe was because regular dialup wired connections are so damned expensive there. I just have to laugh at the out-of-touch idiocy on the part of North American service providers who thought that customers used to a cheap, media-rich, internet experience would be willing to pay double to go back to the stone age, just to have it on their phone. Well, WAP backfired big time, and although many North Americans find SMS nice - it still didn't take off like in Europe. Its the same thing with Palm.net - people want the internet, not a lame limitation. I have used the service, and i can see how this would be great for some people, so i am not entirely slagging the technology. But in comparison to what people are used to this was too much to begin with - people are being asked to pay an insane premium for the fact that this is wireless bandwidth. With newer, faster technologies heading our way, Palm should be lowering their price not uping it - if they seriously plan to compete. Personally, i feel that this shows they actually want to get out of the game. I just feel bad for anybody who shelled for a Palm VII or worse, paid $$$ recently to get a Palm 705. The industry media should of done more to point out the obvious temporary nature of this technology.

There seems to be some confusion here.

Cingular Interactive which runs the Mobitex network is a very small piece of Cingular wireless. It has its own Corporate HQ in NJ apart from Cingular Wireless HQ in Atlanta.

Cingular Interactive is who maintains the Mobitex network. The infrastructure that Cingular wireless uses for their wireless voice/data system is not connected in any way to the mobitex network maintained by Cingular Interactive. There is no hardware relationship between the two. Period

Cingular Interactive Corporate continues to put money into building out the Mobitex network. I know this becasue I'm one of the engineers doing the work, now, today. In fact today I was on the upper east side working with Verizon installing a 56K circuit to replace the 9.6 ckt so we can add more channels to that base. We also continue to add capacity wherever it is required. While our Mobitex Network build out has slowed it has not stopped.

What has happened to cause this announcment from Palm I believe is that there are a small amount of unlimited users that are just hogging most of the available BW. These are not just palm users. Because a few of these Data hogs can hose an entire base that serves 500 other moderate users by trying to download/sync the entire contents of their inbox every day, Available BW has become an issue. We need to reel-in some of these non-stop data hogs.

Yes we have a mature network, perhaps even closing in on geriatric, but bottom line is it continues to be reliable and work well. Yes I know there are places where coverage is poor. But in major metro areas coverage is generally good.

Corporate America continues to be addicted to the Service. I know this because we continue to install coverage enhancement equipment in their corporate HQ locations. Two months ago I was investigating an interference problem at Big National Company HQ. I needed to take the base down for 1 minute to connect the spectrum analyzer. They would not permit me to do it. I told them 15 seconds and after much discussion and phone calls the IT guy let me take it down. "It is vital to our execs, they dont want it turned off even for a second" is what I was told.

On more time
Cingular Interactive runs the Mobitex network that RIM, Good, Palm.net, GE, Sears, Airborn, RPS amoung others use. Cingular Wireless runs its own independant network and owns Cingular Interactive, but so far has pretty much left us to ourselves.