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Alternatives to MSN+Verizon Wireless?

Posted by Cliff on from the why'd-they-have-to-go-messin'-with-a-good-thang? dept.

a.h.s. boy asks: "I took a little visit to my usually-neglected Verizon Wireless online account site today, and found myself greeted with the following message: 'Attention This site will not be available for use after October 2002. Please go to http://vzw.msn.com to set up a profile and start using our new VZW with MSN portal.' And now what does it take to login to my wireless phone site? That's right, .NET Passport account. I want one of those like I want a hole in my bedroom wall, however I really do want the convenience of getting my phone information online. I'm sure more and more sites are going to start requiring .NET passports for access, and even if I use bogus information for the Passport, it's still tied to my (quite non-bogus) cell phone records, isn't it? I already sent mail off to the Executive Office of Verizon Wireless to complain, but I can't imagine they're going to care what I think. What are others doing to work around the growing need for a Passport account?" For current customers of Verizon wireless, the question basically boils down to: "Should I stay or should I go?". For those opting for the latter, based on this latest twist, are there other cell-phone companies offering similar features to Verizon's service?

3 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. ditch them by austad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Tell them it's a bad idea by dropping their sorry asses. ATT Wireless has what you're looking for, so does sprint.

    I'm with ATT (GSM service), and I'm very happy with it. The coverage is kinda sketchy sometimes though, but they plan on having the same coverage as their TDMA network by the end of the year. If you're that worried about the coverage, they have the Siemens S46 which is TDMA and GSM and offers excellent coverage, wireless web crap, and lots of other features that aren't available on a TDMA phone. BTW, I think Verizon is TDMA anyway, go with the wave of the future and get yourself a GSM phone. Sprint's new service is CDMA 2000 which is technically superior to 2G GSM, however, it's unclear if most providers will support CDMA 2000, so you'll be SOL if you're in a roaming area. It appears that most providers in Europe are now considering WCDMA which is superior to CDMA 2000.

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  2. Re:I'm tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You can thank Verizon's stellar DNS service for that. We host all the backend apps for your bookmarks and other phone content at InfoSpace. We don't host your myvzw.com DNS though.

    Since I work at InfoSpace, I get the privilege of watching monitors that check up on MyVZW.com and its related ilk 24/7. And guess what? I'm the very first person in the world to know when it goes down. Every single time I've called Verizon to report problems with MyVZW.com, they never knew something was wrong.

    At first they had both their primary and secondary nameservers on the same network. After quite a few incidents where that network fell off the internet (I was always amused) they finally figured out that you should keep your DNS servers apart. Redundancy and all. Did that stop them from having DNS problems? Hah! Of course not. Both servers continue to fall off the internet anyway. Who knows how they manage that.

    Back in the end of May (I think) myvzw.com went dark again. After a quick check I noticed the DNS servers were not to blame. They were responding to all sorts of happy requests. Unfortunately, it seems that they weren't getting all that much traffic. Verizon had let the MyVZW.com domain expire. Wai! You can check the whois database and see that myvzw.com was registered on May 31st.

    This story gets better. A coworker sent Verizon an email explaining their problem. 2 hours later, a Verizon tech called. It seems they couldn't figure out what was wrong. I explained again what the problem was, and sent another email. 4 hours later, they called again, still stumped. I explained again, and sent yet another email with all the gory details. All in all it took something like 7 hours for them to simply figure out what was wrong.

    Verizon was our biggest wireless customer for a long time. And Microsoft bought them away from us. There wasn't much we could do from what I hear. Amusingly though, I also hear that Verizon is unhappy with Microsoft already, about a great number of things from applications to mail services to a great deal of other things. But they're forging ahead anyway.

    Goodbye Verizon customers; we here at InfoSpace may not have been perfect, but at least we weren't Microsoft.

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  3. Re:Sprint PCS is obviously not the answer. by David+Greene · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Distinction between data minutes and voice minutes. You *HAVE* to get Wireless Web unless you want to pay 39 cents/minute for data calls whether they're microbrowser or simply using your phone as a modem. With Verizon, you only need Mobile Web if you need microbrowser capability. If you have an integrated PDA/phone such as the Kyo 6035 or use your phone as a modem for a laptop or other PDA, Mobile Office is free and simply uses your voice minutes for data calls.

    AFAIK, Verizon is the only service provider to do this, and it's over CSD, not GSM/GPRS so you'll only get 14.4kbps max. But it's better than nothing, I suppose. See my comment above the clueless ATT salesman. I'm still looking for an acceptable data solution that doesn't cost a fortune. Suggestions, anyone?

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