GPRS Phones have an IP
Okay, in my learning process about GPRS and smartphones in general, I'm discovering new things and relearning stuff that I was fuzzy about before. I've read before that each phone had an IP, but then I started using the Nokia and couldn't find anything about it, so I figured that I was wrong and there was something else going on. I wasn't wrong - each phone has it's own IP. I finally found the place to put that under "advanced options" on my Nokia.
It's JUST like your computer accessing an ISP. You need a username, password, a gateway and name servers as well as an IP if it's not provided dynamically (I can't imagine it ever not being assigned dynamically - there's too many phones!). Once you "connect", you're on the internet just like if you connected to Earthlink via a modem.
On the Nokia 7650, these options are under Tools -> Settings -> Access Points -> [Choose an Access Point/Create a New One] -> Options -> Advanced Settings.
Now, Robert Nicholson just sent me a link to this page listing all the GPRS Internet setup info for various telecoms around the world. It's GREAT info to have! Thanks Robert! It REALLY cleared up things in my head about how things work on these phones. I'm 100% positive now that either 1) my phone is broken (which I doubt) or 2) my service isn't activated yet (most likely).
You have to tell your phone to "connect" to use the internet. That's where my problem is now - it won't connect. But if it did, I could also tell the phone to connect all the time if GPRS data is available. (I'm not sure if that's bad for my bank-account - is there data flowing all the time? - so I haven't chosen that option just yet.). The part I'm still fuzzy on is the difference between voice and data, how they work and how the telecom charges for it. Right now there are at least four ways to charge me money: 1) Voice calls are around .29 Euros a minute for local calls. 2) SMS are .10 Euros a message. 3) MMS are .25 Euros a message with an account and .60 Euros a message without. 4) Data charged by the kilobyte. I'm not sure how much this costs just yet, because I bought a 20 Meg voucher for the month. Wow.
This is a lot of ways to charge me. No wonder telecoms love these phones. ;-)
-Russ