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Buyers' Guide to Wireless Phones

A mobile phone's voice and data capabilities are only as good as the wireless service plan that goes with them.

Grace Aquino

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Sony Ericsson T68

Motorola V70Mobile phones have become more than just convenient communication tools. But choosing a phone--and the service plan to go with it--requires some legwork.

Your choice of phone almost always depends on your choice of wireless service provider. With few exceptions, mobile phones work only on one provider because carriers have exclusive networks.

Next year, carriers will release the third generation of mobile communications technology, called 3G, which is supposed to deliver data transfers up to 2 megabits per second, compared with the current data transfer rate of up to 115 kilobits per second. 3G will be handy if you use a phone for wirelessly accessing data such as e-mail, text messages, and the Web.

Also on the horizon is Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 platform--a pared-down version of the Pocket PC OS that will support Outlook, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player. Samsung and Sendo plan to release pocket-size handsets running this platform, and Cingular Wireless says that it will support it.

PC World Spotlight on Wireless Phones (chart)

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