My blackberry is pretty good for checking emails-excellent coverage and overall use. I enjoy having the ability to remotely keep up with messages. So many customers seem to be moving to emails versus phone calls.
Like all bberries it's okay for sending short messages/emails but not long ones. Mine is not very good at interfacing with the internet so that is where tethering really helps me.
Plus, work wise I need internet access to send files that are on my hard drive so the tethering is a big help to me. I'm presently in a rented villa that doesn't have wireless and tethering is working great for me-and it's not the strongest signal or "highest cellular network". It's not as fast as a cable connection but not too bad.
I just couldn't imagine going back to dial up again.........a 1mb file just wouldn't transmit.