android: Sat Nov 8 00:53:00 2008

Sat Nov 8 00:53:00 2008

A bit of a downturn today: I started getting

Plan Required

Your current plan is not compatible with the T-Mobile G1. Please visit T-Mobile.com from your computer, call 611 from your phone, or visit a retail location.

while out of town. The web seems to think this is a new behaviour, though.

I'm still using "Unlimited VPN" service (and a vintage SIM that still identifies it self as "OmniPoint" :-) ... not because it's cheaper, but because

• I still need to laptop-tether, which is the whole point of that service class
• I live on the western edge of the Boston 3G blob - literally, a few streets West and I'm 2G only for the next 50+ miles, after which they don't advertise data at all... and 90% of the time I'm in the blob, I'm at my office and have 802.11... so I leave the phone in 2G mode to improve battery life, because it doesn't seem to fall back correctly anyhow, and I mostly don't have 3G.

I'll have to give them a call when I'm back in town (I have 802.11 on this trip, too... here I'm getting the "G" icon instead of the "E" one (and I don't generally get the "3" one at all.) I suspect I'll have to upgrade, which is ok if tethered use is still permitted, I may have to get that in writing (the web claims that customer support understands this, though.)

Footnotes:

• claim that g1 service counts for VPN use http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f41/g1-data-service-can-be-used-with-other-phones-and-data-cards-2203/