I've never used my phone as a modem, but was thinking about trying it. What happens when you get an incoming call while tethered?
Probably about 30% of my Internet connectivity is via a tethered connection to my Curve.
If the phone rings (and it does) when I'm using it for Internet connectivity, I usually let it just go to voicemail. If I see it's an important caller, I occasionally grab my Curve, disconnect it and take the call.
I've never tried to stay connected and talk at the same time but that wouldn't be my style anyway because it would be hard to talk on a call and work on the computer at the same time.
Unless you're using a 3G/UMTS device (such as the BlackBerry 8800), the Internet connection will either "pause" or drop-out (I've only owned a BlackBerry Curve 8300, so I'm not sure which it is for the BlackBerry devices) - UMTS/3G handsets are the only ones that can utilize a telephone call AND an active data connection at the same time...
It may or may not be different for CDMA handsets, but I've not had much first-hand experience with this technology, so I can't comment on this at this time.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
My CMDA understanding is that 1X networks will drop/pause the internet connection when answering a call. Likewise, incoming calls may go directly to voicemail while data is being transferred (especially when using data-intensive applications).
EVDO bandwidth is large enough to handle voice + data at the same time.
