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 Camping Canada's RV Lifestyle
February 2002
Volume 31 No. 1, page 9
RV Tips: Keeping in Touch on the Road
By Garth W. Crane
Many of us are addicted to our E-mail when we are at home or at the office. But when we go on the road in our Rvs, we lose contact with business associates, grandchildren, and friends. Many Rvers want to be able to check their stock quotes, bank balances, or shop online. Having an internet connection from the RV in the campground is not always easy. Some campgrounds have telephone connections at a few sites, for an extra cost, or a place in the office where you can plug in your laptop computer to collect your messages with an 800-number.
Our writers who are on the road have to be able to access the internet to send stories back to the office. Some go into the nearest library and book time on the internet, often for the next day. So it is necessary for them to stay in an area for more than one day to be able to send out their stories. Sometimes it is even necessary for them to send their stories and photos back to the office by overnight courier.
In the past, we have used Bell's Data-To-Go program if we were in a digital cellular area. But this doesn't work at all in an analogue transmission area. And to make matters more confusing, some areas do not use the same system for digital transmission. Ontario uses one system, while Vancouver uses a much higher frequency to transmit digital information. Data-To-Go connects your computer through your digital cell phone to a modem in the telephone companies' offices to allow you to send and receive e-mail.
Digital cellphones with e-mail capabilities allow users to send short text only messages (up to 160 characters) from one phone to another. Later this year some cellphone companies will be upgrading their networks in certain metropolitan areas of the country to accept the newer GPRS 2.5G phones. This could speed up the transfer of data, but any new development comes with a higher cost for early adopters. This service will mostly be used by companies until the price comes down, and service areas become more universal.
Some of our readers stay in e-mail contact with family and friends when on the road using a toll-free number (1-800-320-6727 in the USA or Canada) from any telephone with a system called PocketMail. The service is available for $14.95 per month or $149 per year in US dollars. You can send faxes to destinations in USA or Canada fro 25 cents per fax. The system allows you to store the equivalent of 20,000 - 500 character messages on the PocketMail Network.
You compose your message using the integrated keyboard on the Composer, which is a full-featured 512Kb organizer with personal digital assistant features; such as, scheduler and alarm, to-do list, calculator, address book, and Memo pad. You dial into the PocketMail service with the 800-number, when it answers "Welcome to PocketMail", hold your Composer to the telephone receiver and press the PocketMail button. In moments you will have sent and received your e-mail. After activation, your PocketMail Composer will include one e-mail account, and you can also store alternative Reply-To addresses to help you access mail from your other AOL, POP3, or IMAP4 e-mail accounts, receive forwarded mail and reply as if from those accounts.
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Media Contacts
USA/Canada
David Marchant
(408) 689 1240
PocketMail Inc.
david.marchant@corp.
pocketmail.com
Media Kits
•PocketMail® Composer™
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