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Message:Years ago I regularly used a Motorola analog "flip phone" with the unit people call a Motorola "black box" to do faxing, emails and internet browsing. The black box also worked with the first digital mobile phone Motorola released to the US market, because the phone could be manually reset to "analog" mode and (more importantly) the wireless sytems did not yet have the ability to force a digital phone capable of an analog connection to stay locked in digital mode, as they do now. If the phone established a solid connection, the top modem speed was 9600bps. But that was all with a laptop, long before I had been bitten by the "Zaurus bug". Now those old phones and the "black box" are gathering dust. There are such limited combinations of situations where they would work at present, I have gone on to other solutions. For one, the "black box" ONLY works with the old Motorola "flip phones". There are some mobile service providers that will still activate those old phones, but most (AT&T Wireless for example) usually won't. I happened to see one being used on the street today, so they are still out there in use - but rare. Secondly, many wireless service providers have physically pulled most all the analog modem capabilities from their systems. The technology is just too old compared to what's now available. So even if you get a phone activated that would be compatible with an analog modem, you will only be able to make an analog voice call with it, not an analog data connection (the wireless systems do know the difference). Or third, since the systems can tell if you are attempting an analog data connection, some will allow it but at a "per-byte" cost that will be much more than you will ever want to pay. So, unless you have a service provider that offers analog data connections, you are out of luck no matter what phone you have. I think it might be a little more likely to find a way to connect using a Z with a PC Card modem. A lot depends on the service providers available in your area. Ask their tech support staff, not sales. If you find out more, please post again. It's a great project!
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