I’ve been a long-time customer of T-Mobile which started waaaay back when they carried current, and powerful, mobile devices. These days they have a boring hum-drum of low-end consumer handsets - Blackberry and Sidekick excluded.

Staying a T-Mo customer has been easy. I’m paying $45 for 1,500 minutes and $20 for Hotspot and unlimited data which I use for my Nokia E61 and ocassionally my MacBook Pro. I’ve been holding out to use my upgrade credit for a new mobile device (preferrably a Nokia Symbian-powered phone) and waiting for 3G.

It seems neither are coming in this century.

I call Customer Service every few months and have found T-Mo is very tight-lipped. They could give Apple a run for its money in the secrecy department. In all: no upcoming Symbian devices and no word on 3G. If T-Mo waits any longer 3G will become 6G everywhere else.

Recently my in-laws made the switch from Verizon Wireless to AT&T Wireless and made my wife want to do the same because AT&T offers unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling within their customer base. Since my folks are on AT&T as well it got me looking to switch.

I’m dead set on a GSM provider which means T-Mo or AT&T. Here is my switching criteria:

• A generous calling plan between $40-$60
• Unlimited Internet data for my E61 between $20-$30
• Preferably the Internet plan includes tethering of my E61 to my laptop; wi-fi hotspot would be a cherry on top
• Avoid a long-term (i.e.: 2 year) commitment
• Use my existing E61 (future unlocked Symbian device) on their network

I’ve been contacting AT&T customer service every week in an attempt to get answers to these seemingly easy questions.

You won’t believe the answers I’m getting and it doesn’t bode well for advanced mobile users like me. Watch for part 2 where it all begins.

Ben from WHU responded to questions I had about their screening process:

We check whois history on reviews to make sure they used the host and to match up names. And just general making sure their site looks like its not owned or run by someone with the host, we track IP and cookies too to see if they submitted a lot of reviews and a few other tricks.

Regarding the quality of user-submitted reviews:

We also make sure they give us something specific about the host and not just general bad or good comments. For reviews that do mark specific things we mark them as featured and soon you will be able to see featured reviews on the host pages marked as such. Right now they all just look the same.

He also shared with me a sneak peek at their upcoming comparison feature. It’s compact and tidy with what you need to know in one page.

When it comes to finding a web host the problem isn’t which are good, it’s which should be avoided. There are sites which claim to review web hosts but none of them are as slick (or helpful) as WebHostingUnleashed.com.

This is a Web 2.0 site and it’s pleasing on the eyes. The founders did their homework on how people research web hosts. The top tabs get right to it: (Shared) Web Hosting, Resellers, VPS, and Dedicated.

There are many hosting resources found here such as guides to questions like “What is Cpanel?” but the best feature of the site are user reviews. Click the User Reviews tab and instantly see user supplied comments about their experience with a particular web host, the name of the host, and whether they recommended it. Drill down into a review and see how long the user was/is using the web host and a ranking of 1 to 10 for Support, Value, and Overall experience.

Reviews are very honest and aren’t ashamed to name names. Often you’ll see “I was with host XYZ and left them because of ABC.” Reviews will comment on topics such as tech support, up-time, and the billing process. All the bits you want to know before you commit to a hosting platform.

You can search for a host based on feature set or browse the best and worst hosts based on the number of positive reviews (15+) and recommendation scores over 90%.

If your web host isn’t on their list, click Submit Host and put it there instantly. Click Submit Review and give your opinion, even listing one of your sites for others to experience the hosting platform. The reviews are sent to a moderator who approves it before publishing it.

I’m not sure how the screening process works but I hope they discard reviews that don’t say much. Reading through the negative reviews I can say they don’t edit the content. The tone of the negative reviews tends to be professional without much ranting or overuse of capital letters and exclamation points.

I submitted a review last night and within minutes a moderator sent me a note thanking me for the review. A real person, not an automated bot.

Nice work.

According to EarthLink’s web-based order status page, my DSL connection went live today. (Thanks to my Nokia E61 for being able to reach the web sans a land-based line.) Unfortunately my equipment hasn’t yet arrived but I noticed my old Zyxel DSL modem (still powered on) showed an active DSL link. Hmm…

Since the Zyxel is already configured as a bridge I changed my Linksys PPPoE parameters and, voila!, it works. EarthLink was supposed to provide me with downstream speed of 3.0 or 6.0 Mbps rather than the typical 1.5 so I headed over to the Speakeasy broadband test to see what I had: 1.5 Mbps / 256 Kbps. I can live with that since it’s $25 less than what Covad was gouging charging me for the same. Maybe I’ll get more bandwidth with the Earthlink modem when it arrives - we’ll see.

When it comes to technology I like having a contingency plan. Why? Because when you need your computer, ISP, or printer in an emergency they don’t work. I’m too reliant on my Internet connection for everything, so when I bought a Nokia E61 smartphone I wanted to utilize its ability to act as a wireless modem when my DSL goes down or there isn’t a Starbucks in sight.

Scouring My-Symbian and All About Symbian I finally came across Ross Barkman’s home page chock-full of GSM modem scripts for the Mac. Of the many Nokia scripts to choose from, the one which worked for me had nothing to do with Nokia. It’s called “Generic 3G CID1″ and worked flawlessly.

Your mileage may vary, but this is my hardware and software configuration:

• T-Mobile with Unlimited Internet plan
• Nokia E61 Smartphone
• Mac PowerBook G4
• Belkin Bluetooth 2.0 USB adapter
• OS X 10.4.7
• PPP settings
• Account name: (blank)
• Password: (blank)
• Telephone number: internet2.voicestream.com
• PPP Advanced Options: (all unchecked)
• TCP/IP settings: (blank/defaults)
• Bluetooth modem settings: Modem: Generic 3G CID1 / Enable error correction: (unchecked) / Wait for dial-tone: (unchecked)

It’s possible these settings can be tweaked to work better or faster, but they work. You can forego all this and purchase Nova Media’s launch2net which works flawlessly but you can’t beat free.