The Palm Treo is a fantastic device. You have your cell phone, email, PIM data, Internet, and whatever else you download for it all in one happy place. But let's say that you are someone that wants to get a Treo for the convenience of having a device like this, but you are not interested in paying for the data plan because you want to cable-sync the device. Okay, that would work, but wait until you get the first months bill.
The Treo is first and foremost a cell phone. This cell phone wants to be able to talk to the wireless data network. Secondly, the Treo is a network device. It too wants to talk with the wireless data network. So even if you do not have a data plan for your device, the Treo will try to make a connection with the cell tower every 6 minutes. Basically a ping. And if you do not have that data plan, you will be charged with a text message cost, actually two. One going to the tower, and one coming back from the tower. Again, this will happen every 6 minutes.
So the moral to this story is two-fold. First, pay for the data usage. Second, read the fine print of your contract. It will likely say in there that you are responsible for all charges to the device. This isn't something that had happened to me. It was a scenario that our management wanted us to explore. Be warned!
I will now return you to your regularly scheduled Domino programming, already in progress.
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