Smartphones These are devices that are both PDAs and mobile phones rolled into one. Some run Palm OS, others run Pocket PC Phone Edition, and there are some that run Symbian OS as well. You'll have Internet access anywhere a digital mobile phone connection is available, and you can also use the device as your mobile phone. When accessing the Internet with CDMA providers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS, you'll generally pay for the amount of time you spend online (minutes used on your plan). With GSM/GPRS providers like AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile, you usually don't pay for connection time but rather for the amount of data you download. Voice calls are billed in the manner you're likely already accustomed to when using a traditional mobile phone for calls. Most of these devices use either GPRS or CDMA2000 (1xRTT) connections for data. GPRS, a high speed data service that averages 45k transfer speeds, is offered by GSM carriers, and it's widely available in Europe and parts of Asia, which have been GSM areas for quite some time.

It' also now widely available in the US from carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Cingular, though their GPRS coverage is mostly in metropolitan regions. If you use a GPRS provider, you generally pay for the amount of data you download rather than time spent online. CDMA2000 (also called 2.5g and 1xRTT) runs on the current CDMA network that drives most cellular services in the US, parts of Canada and Mexico. Verizon and Sprint already have most all cities online and the data transfer rates range from 50k to 70k.