Seems all is not rosy in wireless land if you're looking to upgrade your device to the new Treo 650 on Cingular's network. I've gotten reports (confirmed by very long phone calls to Cingular support) that if you're looking to do anything besides web browsing on Cingular networks, you'd better look for a different carrier. In other words, if you're looking for functionality such as VPN or SSH, you're going to have to look for a different device on a different network. According to Cingular support, VPN is "against policy."

Of course, almost every business worker on travel needs access to either one or the other of these tools, so Cingular is certainly putting itself in a precarious position by offering a device as powerful as the Treo 650, only to put it in a sort of data stranglehold. These reports were brought to geekE by existing mMode (AT&T wireless) users looking to upgrade from an older Palm device to the Treo 650. In order to use the newer, more powerful Treo, mMode users would have to pay an $18 "migration fee," and give up their existing wireless plans, which, of course, support both VPN and SSH.