Bluetooth phones, iPAQ, and more...

[Pneumatic]

Some of you have heard of my escapades with AT&T over the years. I have multiple cell phones with them and have been stuck with them due to the fact that I have about 10 years worth of business cards out there with my current cell phone number on them. I am constantly amazed at how many calls I get from people that say "John gave me your number" when I haven't talked to John (or whomever) in over 3 years. As such, I have been bound to AT&T for fear of losing business.

Now.... Number portability has FINALLY become a reality.
That means that as of the 24th of this month I will be able to take my current cell phone numbers, give AT&T the one finger salute, and go shopping. (/me dances with complete joy)

There are a lot of companies out there with really good rates. Even better, they have great data plans. I have an iPAQ with bluetooth built in, so I want to get a plan with data and upgrade to a bluetooth phone. That would allow me to use my iPAQ (PocketPC) to surf the web on the go. Has anyone actually done this, and if so which phone and service is the one to use (in your opinion of-course )

Also, I would assume that I could connect my laptop via the bluetooth in my new cell phone. What kind of speeds can be expected? Will it make me long for a dial up connection, or will I throw away my cable modem and go full time wireless? (just kidding about the second one)

Just polling the crowd to see if there is any experience with any of these things. Anyone have any opinions on what to look for and what to look out for?

Thanks!

[Wombat]

There was an article on slashdot about bluetooth on Friday or so. In the comments, lots of people were talking about doing these things. I'd check those out.

And even if you get a bluetooth phone, you have to make sure that it supports the proper "profile" to do data communications. Many will only use bluetooth for things like auto-dialing and headsets.