A while ago I purchased a Sony Ericsson Z1010. I was excited about this phone for months already because it's the first real 3G mobile phone on the Dutch market. I bought it not only because of the load of almost star-trek-like features (video call anyone?) but also because it could make one of my dreams come true: internet everywhere. And I really mean EVERYWHERE. Once again it became clear that with every new product the buyer must be a lot smarter than the company selling it. Going online with a mac? No sir that's not supported by us.... Here's how to do it.

Affiliate program available

It turned out to be rather simple to discover what no one from my mobile operator knew. Half an afternoon of surfing on the web was all it took. The only thing they could tell me about unleashing the 3G network for my powerbook might be the (but we are not supporting this sir!) piece of software called 'Mobile High Speed' by Nova Media. Well, I thought, let's look around a bit before I shell out another E75 for a piece of software to accomplish my rather simple goal.

After a while I stumbled upon a nice little page by a smart guy:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~m10/gprs/

On this page you will find all you need! I was suprised by how simple it really is. Just slam the modem script in /Library/Modem Scripts on your powerbook and configure Internet Connect to use a Bluetooth Modem with this particular script and you're good to go! The only thing this guy could have been more clear about in his explanation is the phone number, username and password to use for the KPN Internet Everywhere account in the Netherlands. Just fill in 'internet' in all three fields and you're a happy roaming cyber pirate!

I tested the connection at SpeedTest.nl and came out with a whopping 32kb/sec download speed. That's quite nice if you're sitting in a train moving at a speed of 140km/h I can tell you that. Kudo's to KPN for offering a product that really works. Now if only the people they hired to sell it would be a bit smarter....