Cell Phone Modem

If you have never thought before, you must know that now you have the possibility to tether your cell phone for Internet access on your laptop, and one of the most frequently asked questions about mobile computing is: ‘How can we connect a cell phone to a laptop for Internet access?’.

Tethering is not a very complicated procedure, but the answer to the question can still be tricky as wireless carriers have different rules and plans when it comes to allowing or not tethering. Plus, all cellular phone models have their limitations.



To avoid any kind of doubt, it would be better to ask your service provider and handset manufacturer for more specific instructions. Until then, here are some hints on how to get started on using your cell phone as a modem. You need the following: a device you want to be able to go online with, usually a laptop or a PDA; a data-capable cell phone (that means that the cell phone should be able to go online on it`s own; a data plan for the phone from your wireless carrier ( most cell phone provider require you to have a data plan for your personal smartphone anyway, but you must know that regular or feature phones are also web-capable, so you will probably we able to use them as modems for your modems). The most important aspect in this issue is that you need to have data plan for the phone, be it a cell phone or a smartphone.

If you have no restrictions in your contract for using the phone as a modem, or might have a separate or additional data plan allowing you tethering you must respect the tethering instructions by wireless carrier. You can get information from your provider on whether tethering is allowed or not and how much does it cost. If you are studying the specialized market for a new cell phone or cell phone service, reading through all profiles is very important to find out which phone company is the most flexible regarding tethering procedures. You might also have the option of a third part solution for using your cell phone as modem if the provider does not support tethering.



For example, if you wish your AT&T cell phone as a modem for your laptop you should be careful to the following steps: you should check if the model you posses is on the list of LAPTOP CONNECT compatible cell phones; secondly, you need a Data Connect Plan, usually starting from $20 for the light users and rising up to $60 for a 5GB usage per month (these plans are usually similar to AT&T`s mobile broadband plans allowing laptop users to directly connect to the Internet using a network card). The company can provide you a comparison chart with available rate plans so that you can compare options. Usually, the Data Connect plans are additional to the data plans you need for your smartphone or PDA, and be careful as the amount of data you can access with the plan is limited. That`s why sometimes, tethering can be quite pricey.

To tether your cell phone to your laptop, you might use either a Bluetooth (if both devices are Bluetooth capable) or a cable (USB or serial), depending on the kind of cell phone you have. If you want everything to work as best as possible, you needn`t forget to install AT&T`s Communication Software Manager on your laptop. Unfortunately, the software is only compatible with Windows. Once you have all these right, you can initiate the connection you were longing for.