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Bob Russell · 05-31-2005, 10:12 AM

One of the great features of the PalmOne Treo650 is that you are connected anywhere. Sure it's a great combination of cell phone and pda, but wireless is the awesome bonus.

Well, if you are a Verizon customer, don't count on it unless you're rich! Verizon's dirty little secret is that the Verizon version of the Treo 650 has been crippled, meaning that you can't connect with data any way but via Verizon's very expensive data plans. ($45/mo unlimited. $25 for 10meg/mo. And a single page can easily get close to 100K even with pictures turned off.)

For the average person, this means that with the Treo 650 you have a cell phone and you have a pda, but that's it. I think most people are not likely to pay $45/mo (which is $1080 for 2 years!)

As a result I HIGHLY recommend that you avoid the Verizon version of the Treo 650!

But I do like the Treo 650, so I'd do some shopping around to find the right carrier version for your needs.

It might be okay if you need the very good signal coverage of Verizon and are willing to either forego the data plan or shell out the $45, or live with less megabytes and byte counting. But I'd personally have rather paid the ~$200 fee to change carriers if I had known all this in advance. I could kick myself for not checking more carefully.

Don't know if it applies to the Treo 600 also or not. If I had bought it from a Verizon store, I would have returned it and canceled my service contract even now. But I don't have that option, and I guess I'm too lazy to do all that via ebay.

Note: I probably should have waited a week or two to post this info. I'm feeling a bit burned right now and frustrated at being trapped with a plan and phone that isn't going to give me wireless data at a price I can afford. I'm sure that affects the tone of this post greatly. But I want people to have the info. I'll edit this post later if I need to tone it down. So for the moment, just pardon my heated disgust at Verizon and my situation, and take out the information for what it's worth.

Like I told Alex, I'm extremely frustrated right now. Mostly because I wasn't smart enough to make the right choice, so I'm stuck for a year or two with a Treo but no data connectivity when I could be browsing away remotely with someone like Sprint.

The worst thing about the crippling of the Treo by Verizon is that you can't even do WAP web browing like what you can do with almost every other (WAP) "web enabled" phone they have. This is the part that frustrates me most. I would have expected Verizon to at least allow me to use the functionality of WAP browsing that I had on my previous $50 camera phone. It would have been great with the larger keyboard and screen.

I figured I'd add a WAP browser and simply change the network connection to either Verizons proxy server for $5/mo, or if they didn't want to provide that, I would use a public proxy server. But when I went to internet connections it said that "National Access" (Verizon's pricey data network) was locked and could not be changed. I should have done more research, but there's not much info about all this yet, and Verizon is very unwilling to share the info. Certainly they don't want to publicize it. Even their customer reps don't understand it all. I would have gladly paid another $100 or even $200 for an unlocked version, except the unlocked Treos sold are not compatible with Verizon. (Another reason to avoid Verizon!)

I don't believe you can use wifi or bluetooth to connect to the internet either, unless a hack shows up and you're willing to take a chance on it. Hopefully someone will provide a hack. Shadowmite has something, but doesn't seem confirmed much for Verizon phones, and I don't know if it handles WAP or bluetooth or just wifi. If others try it first with success, I'm just desperate enough to give it a try. But, of course, it's quite risky to do something like that anyway.

Bottom line is that Verizon forced PalmOne to cripple the device and force users to only connect via Verizon's very expensive data network. I can't afford $45/mo, and don't want to count megabytes, so I'm cancelling my data plan. Funny thing is that now, not only does Verizon lose the $20 or $25 per month I would have paid for a reasonable unlimited data plan, but they also lose the $5/mo I would have paid for WAP browsing.

The Treo is a great device, but much less great than it would have been if I could have at least used it for home connection to my wireless network via wifi, or if I could have had a reasonable monthly data plan like other carriers have.

One advantage of Verizon that I must admit to is that they have better coverage area. However, I suspect that Cingular/ATT is catching up fast. Personally, I'd have given up coverage to get data at a reasonable price, and I recommend that anyone with data needs avoid Verizon.

I made a big mistake, but hopefully this post will serve as a warning to future buyers out there.

05-31-2005, 10:12 AM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Verizon's Dirty Little Treo 650 Secret One of the great features of the PalmOne Treo650 is that you are connected anywhere. Sure it's a great combination of cell phone and pda, but wireless is the awesome bonus. Well, if you are a Verizon customer, don't count on it unless you're rich! Verizon's dirty little secret is that the Verizon version of the Treo 650 has been crippled, meaning that you can't connect with data any way but via Verizon's very expensive data plans. ($45/mo unlimited. $25 for 10meg/mo. And a single page can easily get close to 100K even with pictures turned off.) For the average person, this means that with the Treo 650 you have a cell phone and you have a pda, but that's it. I think most people are not likely to pay $45/mo (which is $1080 for 2 years!) As a result I HIGHLY recommend that you avoid the Verizon version of the Treo 650! But I do like the Treo 650, so I'd do some shopping around to find the right carrier version for your needs. It might be okay if you need the very good signal coverage of Verizon and are willing to either forego the data plan or shell out the $45, or live with less megabytes and byte counting. But I'd personally have rather paid the ~$200 fee to change carriers if I had known all this in advance. I could kick myself for not checking more carefully. Don't know if it applies to the Treo 600 also or not. If I had bought it from a Verizon store, I would have returned it and canceled my service contract even now. But I don't have that option, and I guess I'm too lazy to do all that via ebay. Note: I probably should have waited a week or two to post this info. I'm feeling a bit burned right now and frustrated at being trapped with a plan and phone that isn't going to give me wireless data at a price I can afford. I'm sure that affects the tone of this post greatly. But I want people to have the info. I'll edit this post later if I need to tone it down. So for the moment, just pardon my heated disgust at Verizon and my situation, and take out the information for what it's worth. Like I told Alex, I'm extremely frustrated right now. Mostly because I wasn't smart enough to make the right choice, so I'm stuck for a year or two with a Treo but no data connectivity when I could be browsing away remotely with someone like Sprint. The worst thing about the crippling of the Treo by Verizon is that you can't even do WAP web browing like what you can do with almost every other (WAP) "web enabled" phone they have. This is the part that frustrates me most. I would have expected Verizon to at least allow me to use the functionality of WAP browsing that I had on my previous $50 camera phone. It would have been great with the larger keyboard and screen. I figured I'd add a WAP browser and simply change the network connection to either Verizons proxy server for $5/mo, or if they didn't want to provide that, I would use a public proxy server. But when I went to internet connections it said that "National Access" (Verizon's pricey data network) was locked and could not be changed. I should have done more research, but there's not much info about all this yet, and Verizon is very unwilling to share the info. Certainly they don't want to publicize it. Even their customer reps don't understand it all. I would have gladly paid another $100 or even $200 for an unlocked version, except the unlocked Treos sold are not compatible with Verizon. (Another reason to avoid Verizon!) I don't believe you can use wifi or bluetooth to connect to the internet either, unless a hack shows up and you're willing to take a chance on it. Hopefully someone will provide a hack. Shadowmite has something, but doesn't seem confirmed much for Verizon phones, and I don't know if it handles WAP or bluetooth or just wifi. If others try it first with success, I'm just desperate enough to give it a try. But, of course, it's quite risky to do something like that anyway. Bottom line is that Verizon forced PalmOne to cripple the device and force users to only connect via Verizon's very expensive data network. I can't afford $45/mo, and don't want to count megabytes, so I'm cancelling my data plan. Funny thing is that now, not only does Verizon lose the $20 or $25 per month I would have paid for a reasonable unlimited data plan, but they also lose the $5/mo I would have paid for WAP browsing. The Treo is a great device, but much less great than it would have been if I could have at least used it for home connection to my wireless network via wifi, or if I could have had a reasonable monthly data plan like other carriers have. One advantage of Verizon that I must admit to is that they have better coverage area. However, I suspect that Cingular/ATT is catching up fast. Personally, I'd have given up coverage to get data at a reasonable price, and I recommend that anyone with data needs avoid Verizon. I made a big mistake, but hopefully this post will serve as a warning to future buyers out there.