EarthLink’s New Talkabout E-Mail: Is It Much to Talk About?
As many Internet service providers have found out recently, we--the computing public--are no longer just sitting at our PCs waiting for e-mail to pour in.
We have places to go! Things to see! We’re mobile--so shouldn’t our e-mail roam with us?
EarthLink, the No. 2 service provider in the country, has been only too happy to oblige. Last month, the firm announced a new wireless e-mail service using the Motorola Talkabout T900 two-way messaging device.
EarthLink has been offering a similar service using the Research in Motion Blackberry pager. But the device costs an eye-popping $300 to $400 (depending on the model). The service fee tacks on an additional $40 to $50 a month.
The Motorola Talkabout is priced at a more palatable $125, with a $24.95 monthly service fee. The T900 is small--the size of one of those “super packs” of chewing gum you find in the checkout line at Wal-Mart. Yes, it is handy, slipping into a holster that clips to one’s belt or purse or whatever. Yes, it will turn heads--at least in some circles.
But in using it, I found a host of frustrations. Messages are truncated--sometimes severely--to save space and memory, which in this case is measured in kilobytes, not megabytes. Though 128 KB of RAM is generous, I guess, for a pager, it’s rather poor for e-mails longer than a haiku.
Truncated e-mails.
Transmission difficulties.
Frustration abounds.
Retrieving the balance of truncated messages is tricky. First, you have to select “Reply Menu” from the list of available options and then select “More” to get the next chunk of a message. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I still couldn’t call up an entire message.
Creating and sending outgoing e-mail is a separate test of dexterity and patience. Motorola boasts about the device’s full QWERTY keyboard (QWERTY refers to the traditional layout of keys for typing). But the unit’s diminutive size means that composing even a simple message requires a lot of hunting and pecking.
And then, as I discovered recently on the 10th floor of a major hotel in downtown San Francisco, there are times when sending an e-mail is not possible. There may have been a problem with SkyTel, whose wireless service EarthLink is using, or it may have been something else. All I know is that it was frustrating as all get out.
In my view, wireless e-mail should be easy, or at least not too hard. The combination of the Motorola T900’s size and layout along with the vagaries of the EarthLink/SkyTel service were enough to substantially damp my enthusiasm.
Then came sticker shock. That $24.95 for monthly wireless e-mail is on top of the $19.95 the company charges for Internet access; you get no price break for ordering both.
EarthLink says this is because it doesn’t have its own wireless network just yet, so it can’t cut customers a break.
That’s a pity, because without a compelling price for the service, or some better hand-held device options, the opportunity for mobile e-mail with the Motorola T900 and EarthLink is one I’ll pass on.
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Mark A. Kellner is editor at large for Government Computer News and hosts “Mark Kellner on Computers” at https://www.adrenalineradio.com from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursdays.
