Wow, reading this thread....

John and Bryan are correct (Bryan simply rebutted the wrong person).

Also keep in mind, that if you aren't able to see the plans or prices someone else is talking about, it's possible they are "grandfathered" in. I, for example, get free T-Mobile paper billing even though I use EasyPay, but if I decide to stop getting paper bills, and decide to get them again later, it will start costing me a few cents in fees. The zero-fee paper bills are grandfathered in for long-time T-Mobile customers.

There are also corporate discounts from certain providers to employees of companies they contract with.

I have a 3G phone (the most under-appreciated PDA phone, the XDA Flame) -- I've had it over a year. It should work on T-Mobile's 3G network when it rolls around in my area.

Unlocked GSM phones have had 3G for over a year as a standard feature. Most of HTC's phones are quad-band and 3G, for example.

The really exciting wireless broadband to come, is ClearWire/Sprint's mobile WiMax. It will allow you to have DSL speeds almost anywhere -- no hotspots needed!!! Whether it will allow unlimited data, I don't know yet.

My recommendation:

Buy an unlocked GSM phone that suits your tastes and needs. Don't buy services or choose providers based on their phones. That's like only buying gas from your car dealer, or choosing a Pinto because you like Ford Gasoline.

Use T-Mobile total internet and a voice plan on your phone, or if you only want web (ports 80/443) and email (ports 110/143) , use T-Zones/T-MobileWeb (if you're technically sophisticated and run a server, you can even set up SSH tunneling to work around the blocked ports).

For laptop mobile broadband, use Sprint or its upcoming partner ClearWire. I'd jump on ClearWire, except that they don't support ExpressCard 34 yet, only 54. ComSys only recently came out with WiMax ExpressCard 34 cards, and they aren't available to consumers yet.

My only negative first impression about this notebook is the display's limited viewing angle, limited contrast, and backlight bleed (bars of light around the edges -- set the background to black and look at the top edge of the screen).

I don't care whether it's the latest and greatest processor -- weight and battery life are more important. If I want speed I'll log into my RISC servers :)

The P8010 cones with XP Professional, not Bad Vista.