Beware of telcos bearing SaaS gfts

So, as I played with my new AT&T Tilt over the last week, I have been irritated by a number of AT&T's "services"...because they mirror functionality already bundled in to the product or available elsewhere for a one time price, and they offer it as " as a service" on a recurring monthly basis.

Here's some:

a) GPS. At the store, I asked the AT&T sales guy if I could use my own GPS software I had on the 8125. Answer: No, you have to sign up for our $ 9.99 a month TeleNav service.  Reality: In the last week I have used MS Live Search Mobile in Tampa, Dallas and Atlanta for free and it works pretty well since the 3G network can paint maps as fast as the GPS coordinates at highway speeds. Could not do it with the previous 2.5G. It does not have voice commands, just beeps where you need to turn or merge but I got used to that after the first drive. Or you can buy a slew of mapping apps like OnCourse, with maps on a storage card at a one time cost.

b) Phone as a modem. AT&T discussion forums suggest they want another $ 30 a month for such plans. They appear to have masked a native Windows 6 feature called Internet Sharing. I imagine some people misuse tethering, but in this day and age of broadband, why they use dial up speed is beyond me. If I did, it would be short burst to download something on my laptop at an airport without Wi-Fi. $ 30 a month for that?

c) Voice calling. PDAs, in my opinion, should all come with voice calling. When you are driving, you better not be fiddling with the keyboard. My 8125 had a voice dial button. Disappeared off the Tilt. Because they want you to sign up for their $ 4.99 a month VoiceDial feature (you still need to dial *08 to get there). You can also get a third party app for $ 29.95 - one time and have it do much more than just dial out. Or unmask the native Windows Mobile 6 voice dial capability and reassign one of the unused buttons to trigger it.

d) XM Radio at $ 8.99 a month. A limited version (25 out of 170 channels on full version), and through the mobile network not via satellite. Well, price for portability I guess, but you can pick up so many stations now direct via Windows Media Player or via a third party app for a one time cost like Resco.

e) WordCard Mobile. One of the nice features in the native phone was this app which allows you to take a photo of a business card, and then OCR it into your contacts. AT&T removed it - I suspect they will offer something similar as a service.

f) Skype.  I was hoping  when I travel overseas  I could use Skype.  Appears to work fine if I use WiFi and have a  tethered head set.  But using  the AT&T network could not hear the answering party . Not sure who to blame for this, but AT&T would prefer I use instead use their friendly rates from overseas.

g)  Headphones.  I understand HTC used to include one in the shrink wrapped box. AT&T sells them separate. I bought one for Skype and for my music. (Disappointingly, the Tilt will not stream music to my BlueAnt speakerphone even though it supports the A2DP profile. My daughter's basic Nokia happily sends music over.)

$ 29.95 for the headphones. Well, somebody in AT&T pricing goofed...they could have forced me to buy it at $ 4.99 a month as a "service" -)