Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Wichita KS
Posts: 99

I'm sure this is a stupid question to many of you, but I can't be the only one wondering...

If a modem can communicate data over a phone line with tones and screeching, why can't it use the same tones and screeching with a cellular phone.

Based on what I have read, you cannot make a cable that plugs into the hands free socket in a phone on one end, and plugs into the phone jack of my visor modem on the other.

I have been looking into completing my "bat belt" with one of those annoying cell phones. A local company is offering $30/mo service with unlimited local calling and no contract. It uses some digital technology called CDMA and only offers a Nokia phone without a built in modem or IR port. To get a phone with widely used visor syncing capabilities I seem to be looking at $40+/mo and lots of per-min calling limits and charges.

I just can't see why this is so complicated. Is the audio signal coming from the phone so poor that the modem can't make sense of it? Why would I need a phone that has a built in data modem if there is already a modem in my visor? Why are phone companies tied into using only specific phones if there are other phones on the market which offer the same technology? I would gladly pay retail for a phone that offers a visor-compatible cable and the same technology as the no-contract/no-limit service if that service would allow it.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can clear these questions up for me.

Jeff

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Luxembourg
Posts: 68

You can find some answers to the question "why cant wire modems work with cell phones?" on this page: http://www.cellular.co.za/gsm_data-...se-analogue.htm

It relates to digital GSM cell phones, but I assume some of it must be true for any cellular network.

Other pages on this site also have good information on how data-over-GSM works.

HTH