Spb GPRS Monitor

Back in the early 1990s I got my first huge and expensive cell phone. One of the "advanced" features it offered was a beep tone that would sound every minute you were using the phone, to remind you that another couple of dollars was leaving your bank account. In the years since, costs have gone down and mobile rate plans have become considerably more complex. What has not changed much is the software used in mobile phones to track your usage. In fact, every phone I've owned since that first Motorola "brick" has provided the same simple call log feature, without the ability to track use in peak and off-peak hours or to tell me to reset when a new month began.

Like the early adopters of cellular technology, today's users of packet-switched wireless data services are paying a premium for being first, and discovering that it's easy to rack up huge monthly bills. Keeping track of their data usage is vital in keeping the cost down. Fortunately, users of Pocket PC wireless data technology have an excellent utility for this purpose: Spb GPRS Monitor from Spb Software House.

Installs on and works with any Pocket PC

As a Pocket PC user you have a few different options for wireless hardware. You can connect a standard Pocket PC to a variety of mobile phones via IrDA, cable, or Bluetooth technology. You can also use a device with an integrated mobile phone, such as the Pocket PC Phone Edition. GPRS Monitor works equally well with either of these scenarios.

Pre-configured billing options makes setup easy

Once you install the GPRS Monitor, a simple configuration is necessary and then you're ready to go. Since every wireless provider has its own rates and billing policies, you need to configure GPRS Monitor to calculate the costs properly. Fortunately, the software comes with dozens of rate plans pre-configured and identified by name, such as "Cingular (USA) 3 Mb" or "T-Mobile (USA) Internet 20 Mb" (Screen 1). Selecting one of these pre-programmed rate plans automatically sets all parameters with the exception of the day of the month that starts your billing cycle. If your rate plan is not listed, you can still enter each parameter manually.

Screen 1: GPRS Monitor comes with dozens of pre-configured rate plans to make setting up the software easy.

The number of parameters available is a bit intimidating. You can set a fixed monthly payment along with the amount of data traffic included for that payment. Then you can set the price for any additional data usage above the included amount and the rounding amount. Plus, there are further settings to allow for daily or hourly online charges. Fortunately, with such a long list of pre-configured data plans, you most likely won't need to deal with any of these settings.

One setting that you will want to change is the Month start day. This is used to align the GPRS Monitor with your billing cycle. Oddly, this option is somewhat buried on the Tariff Options tab (Screen 2). Since this is something that everybody needs to set, I think it would be more appropriate to have put it on the main options screen.

Screen 2: GPRS Monitor's Tariff Options tab lets you set the "Month start day" of your service.

GPRS Monitor icons in task bar summarize status

The installation procedure adds a GPRS Monitor icon to the Pocket PC's task bar (top of Screen 3). The icon provides three status indicators. The first shows the GPRS signal status. The second shows how much of the current data block has been used and the last gives the Pocket PC's battery status.