[charting]

This afternoon, when my cable TV/phone/Internet service disappeared briefly, I attempted to use my Samsung M300 as a modem. I had been using the same phone for such purposes from time to time since I purchased it (over 2 years ago). Today, I got "Error #67" -- a registration failure. I called Sprint customer support and the tech told me that I did not have a PAM plan for the phone. I currently have the Everything Messaging Share1500 plan (4 lines). My phone had the $15/month Data Pack, which seemed to allow PAM usage (until today), but now I'm told that I have to pony up an extra $30/month for PAM (Pro Pack + Data Pack). Rather than do that, I removed the Data Pack addon, since I rarely use the web browser on my phone (not a terribly pleasant experience, anyway) and it's not capable of any of the other services provided by the $15/month fee...

I want my PAM back, without having to pay an arm and a leg. Do I have any recourse?

Why can't I find a PAM plan on Sprint's web site?

As if I'm not disgruntled enough with the unplanned outage by my cable provider, now I don't have a backup Internet connection!

[Dan H.]

charting, on 06 November 2009 - 08:26 PM, said:

This afternoon, when my cable TV/phone/Internet service disappeared briefly, I attempted to use my Samsung M300 as a modem. I had been using the same phone for such purposes from time to time since I purchased it (over 2 years ago). Today, I got "Error #67" -- a registration failure. I called Sprint customer support and the tech told me that I did not have a PAM plan for the phone. I currently have the Everything Messaging Share1500 plan (4 lines). My phone had the $15/month Data Pack, which seemed to allow PAM usage (until today), but now I'm told that I have to pony up an extra $30/month for PAM (Pro Pack + Data Pack). Rather than do that, I removed the Data Pack addon, since I rarely use the web browser on my phone (not a terribly pleasant experience, anyway) and it's not capable of any of the other services provided by the $15/month fee...

I want my PAM back, without having to pay an arm and a leg. Do I have any recourse?

Why can't I find a PAM plan on Sprint's web site?

As if I'm not disgruntled enough with the unplanned outage by my cable provider, now I don't have a backup Internet connection!

For a long time, Sprint didn't monitor phone as a modem usage. Eventually, they figured out that they were losing a lot of money, and started. Lately Sprint has decided to ditch phone as a modem (you can't even get it at retail anymore) and go with aircards only. If you talk to the correct representative, they will set you up with a plan ($40/month) for phone as a modem. Otherwise, there are some smartphone options (Palm Pre, Windows Mobile, Palm OS) that have resources that will allow you to do phone as a modem for free, but no phone is going to do it out of the box for free anymore.

[Christopher Price]

Using your phone as a modem with a standard data pack is permitted by the FCC, but unsupported by Sprint. Meaning, you have to hack your phone to do it.

Unfortunately, on the Samsung M300, that's not really possible. Sprint removed all the backend menus, and besides, your experience without EV-DO would be less-than-stellar (circa 2003 performance).

If you want to do it, my suggest would be what Dan H. suggested, and get a Windows Mobile phone. You can then install WMWifiRouter on it and use your phone as a Wi-FI hotspot... sans any additional data plans than what you have right now.

[FlowerPower]

Christopher Price, on 09 November 2009 - 11:17 AM, said:

Using your phone as a modem with a standard data pack is permitted by the FCC, but unsupported by Sprint. Meaning, you have to hack your phone to do it.

Unfortunately, on the Samsung M300, that's not really possible. Sprint removed all the backend menus, and besides, your experience without EV-DO would be less-than-stellar (circa 2003 performance).

If you want to do it, my suggest would be what Dan H. suggested, and get a Windows Mobile phone. You can then install WMWifiRouter on it and use your phone as a Wi-FI hotspot... sans any additional data plans than what you have right now.

I believe the 1xRTT phones no not have modem-NAI and thus should work with PAM without the need to hack the phone.
I was going to suggest using sprints usb drivers but not their connection manager software and establish
the connection using windows dial up connection (phone number "#777").

But, since I don't have a 1xRTT phone to try, it's just a guess.

[Christopher Price]

1xRTT-only phones do now have Modem NAI. They were not a priority to get it, but as they were upgraded out... Modem NAI was indeed added. The M300's A-series predecessors lacked Modem NAI, but the M300 and M320 do.