Regarding cals and SQL Standard licensing, if 10 handheld devices run sql ce and sync with a  SQL serve, do these handhelds need  a device CAL?

hi

A SQL Server Client Access License (CAL) is required for any connection to SQL Server, including a connection from SQL Server Compact Edition

read this : http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/f/c/7fc20778-4e2e-4944-b432-ed74b404e542/sqlservercompactdatasheet_final.doc 

you can use a "User cal" instead, so only use 1 account to sync, as the devices will be always attached to server

check this: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2005/en/us/licensing.aspx.

"Server Plus User CALs Licensing Model
Server plus user client access license (CAL) licensing requires a separate Server license for each server on which the software is installed, plus a user CAL for each user accessing the server.
A SQL Server CAL is required for a user to access or use the services or functionality of either edition of SQL Server. For more information on the requirements for devices that use SQL Server functionality without directly accessing the database, please see the SQL Server 2005 licensing Special Considerations page.

Server plus user CAL licensing is optimal for customers who do not need access beyond the firewall and who have relatively low CAL-to-server ratios (for example, approximately 25 or fewer users per processor for Standard Edition and 75 or fewer users per processor for Enterprise Edition). The user CAL model will likely be more cost effective than device CALs if there are multiple devices per user (for example, a user has a laptop and handheld computer accessing SQL Server)."

So is it fair to say you can go the per user (1 user) or per cal (15 handhelds) route then?

Thanks for the advise