MollieMae

...data - but is NOT a phone? I need web access outside of wifi areas. But my cheap cell phone is all I need for the rare calls I make. So can I get web access without paying iphone's monthly fees?

Thanks!

accorn34

You can just get a Windows PocketPC PDA device, and tether it to your cell phone.

Boost Mobile offers the cheapest tethering.
You just purchase minutes for your pay as you go prepay phone, and they allow you to tether boost data for free. (So it ends up costing less than $10/month).
(you just dial s=2 via your PDA modem settings).

The only downside is the internet is really slow, like 8-18k.
If you need something faster you will just need to get a cell phone data plan with another provider that will let you tether with your PDA.

For a PDA with the best internet experience, you would want something with at least Windows Mobile 6, like this:
http://syncpedia.com/cgi-bin/hardware/asp.pl/astore.amazon.com/syncpedia-20/detail/B000VU0CQG/assid

You could save some money with an earlier Windows 2003 device like this, but the web applications are more limited:
http://www.syncpedia.com/cgi-bin/hardware/asp.pl/astore.amazon.com/syncpedia-20/detail/B0009IU4OA/assid

You can browse other handheld pda's here:
http://www.syncpedia.com/cgi-bin/hardware/asp.pl/astore.amazon.com/syncpedia-20/assid?_encoding=UTF8&node=56