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Cell phone, two way pager, blackberry, Palm Pilot… I’m trying to figure out the best way to keep all of my work information with me.

Cell phones are nice, but I like having a keyboard to send messages with. Sometimes text messages take a long time to get to the devices. I also need to keep a list of telephone numbers, circuit numbers, and assorted information with me for support purposes and can’t do that well with a cell phone.

Two-way pagers are great for keeping in touch with email, and they’re cheap. Verizon Messaging has some holes in their coverage, and one of the places I go to often doesn’t have service at all. This might change with a newer type of pager, but I haven’t gotten a chance to test it.

Blackberrys are nice, offer a place to carry information, sync with Outlook, and do real email. They have a nice keyboard and automatically capitalize the first letter in a sentence and automatically punctuate, which makes message from it look a little more professional. I need to buy a blackberry for a customer, and was thinking about getting the new 7290 for myself and sending my 7230 to the customer.

I’m trying to help save the company and save me money. If I keep the Blackberry, then I can’t justify expensing my cell phone bill. I’m on contract with until Verizon until next year. If I get ride of the Blackberry could save $40/month out of pocket by expensing my phone.

I’ve played with a Percomm E-80, a nice little pager. It’s got an 8-line screen, a thumb keyboard, and can send/receive email, SMS, and receive numeric pages. It’s rechargeable, and has a backup/restore kit and a means to get contacts from Outlook into it. The screen is so-so, but it uses the FLEX 2.7 network, which means better coverage.

I also have a Motorola T900 Walkabout pager, a classic little flip-open pager. It’s got a great Indiglo-backlit screen, nice keyboard, but uses the FLEX 2.6 network and doesn’t have a way to back up or restore contacts.

I suppose the common sense solution would be to carbon copy alerts to both my personal cell phone and pager, then use the pager for sending only. If I went out, I could have my phone and alerts and leave the pager at home. That doesn’t give me a way to bring my contact information with me, however, unless I dust off my Palm V or start printing information for my day planner.

Another solution - buy a Verizon Treo 650 on my current plan. Email, great coverage and a place to store information - but that’s close to $400, doesn’t sync well with work email, and Verizon data plans are EXPENSIVE!

I could always knock my phone down to a lower minute/lower cost plan, but I think I’m grandfathered in on a pretty good plan.