I knew it was possible, and that folks were taking advantage of it. For over 2 years there was free broadband internet from the cellphone companies, but they figgured how to throttle and charge for that portal.

But, there are still at least 2 legal options.

No landline required, but you need an unlimited cellphone talk account (available nationwide for under 40 bucks a month).

1st method is use Wash state's free dialup access and tether your computer to your cellphone and use itr as a regular modem.

Second method is a QNC connection to your cell provider. Available through MPT software (and similar).

I am on this free service now. I refuse to pay over $500 a year for poor dialup service (that is what I paid the last 5 yers each year because ATT said DSL would be here any day, still not here), free is good, though.

The down side?....14.4 speed. But with that $500 I will save in the next 12 months, WHOOHOO! a new S&W will be mine.


BTW, I am not in the cellphone business, do not have any interest in any of these companies. Everything mentioned is legal and widely available.

BTW, I have a cellphone anyway, too many out of state family members to afford long distance through mabell. Cell saves me on this. No contract, either.

I dunno, I'm happy to pay for my internet service and think 14.4 kbps would soon drive me to a padded cell. 28.8 was bad enough, but now that most pages are geared towards high speed connections, dial up make the internet more of a chore than anything else.

When I finally went from dial up to a cable hi-speed I almost forgot how to play solitaire. When on dial up, the pages downloaded so slow I kept a solitaire game going all the time waiting. I won't go back to slooooow.

__________________
H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Been using Verizon DSL for years, no complaints. Not likely to ever go back to a dial-up unless that was the ONLY option.

I have ATT DSL and it's not much better than dial-up unless you go on-line after midnight.
I've had dsl for almost four years and have had nothing but trouble.I get better and faster service if I bring my laptop over to the coffee shop.
They keep promising u-verse in my area but after talking to one of their outside techs I doubt that will ever happen.
ATT's cell service and dsl both suck.

__________________
U.S. Army Viet Nam Vet '68-69'

Wait till you try and download some of the picture heavy posts on this site - I speak from experience. I'm still on dial up here in the mtns

do not get Uverse,,,I have it and it sucks

Pics are a nice luxury, but I usually keep them and all banner ads and poipups blocked, have done this for years. My dialup ranged from 20K on a bad day to 45 K on a good day, I have gotten used to text only web.

I am most interested in the conversation, knowledge sharing, and news on this and several other forums. The net was originally set up for text transfer anyway (just ask Al Gore), and it still does this quite well at any modem speed.

The explosion in feature rich web surfing was pioneered and pushed by the porn industry. I am not interested in that stuff, though it was the only money making business model on the net till 8 years or so ago.

Gun porn does benifit by the strides smut made in net image transfer technology, though.

What I want to do is ditch ATT phone and keep DSL. Use the cell unlimited all the time. That would save me $45 mo.. They (ATT) want to charge me to put in "dry line" (DSL only). I gotta get on some of these bills as I can't afford all this ****.

__________________
SOS USA