Hunter:

The handheld phones are power limited as noted 600mw or 6/10 of a watt max. The wired mobiles are the full 3 watts.

On both types, the power output is probably not anywhere near the maximum depending on how close to the cell tower you happen to be. The system is designed so that the system controls the transmitter power of all active transmitters in a cell to keep down the possibility of same-frequency interference between cell sites. In most instances, the phones are at 10 percent or less of the available power when connected.

The interesting problem with a wired phone is that since the standard cell phone system uses a block of 800 mhz frequencies (near microwave) there is a huge loss of signal inside the coaxial cable normally used in the external antenna installations, such that many of the ones I have played with, and actually put a meter on, have sometime less power out than the handheld units.

I personally have only a Nokia digital handheld, and I have no problem operating anywhere inside my Tahoe. The digital system in the Baton Rouge area really sucks for quality (little or none, lots of echo), but that is another story.

If you really want the best of all worlds, all the current handhelds, with very few exceptions, have an optional fixed mobile docking adapter that the phone sits in which acts as a charger, hands free unit, and power amplifier to give the full 3 watt capability.

I had an honest salesman tell me to try the handheld by itself and that I would be happy without the mobile mount. I am happy (Bellsouth service aside) and did not have to shell out the 300 bucks for the mobile mount. I hang the phone on the cup holder.

Data adapters: Available in some analog and digital phones set up for data transmission. Problem here is that the cell site transfer switching really kills a data connection. You generally have to be stopped for it to work reliably at all.

As far as how it works, think of the laptop being plugged into a modem, and the modem plugging into a telephone lime. The cellphone is the telephone line, and the modem plugs into the computer and cellphone. Just dont think about the wireless link, and it works the same way as a landline phone. Theoretically speaking, of course ! Reality is altogether another matter sometimes !

Doug