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AT&T Wireless Phone "Upgrades" Aren't
An anonymous reader writes "AT&T Wireless is requiring customers in parts of California and New York and elsewhere to "upgrade" their phones and offering free replacements. The catch? In most cases the upgrades have worse features than the phones they're replacing."
Yeah, there is no Bluetooth on the new phones which is proving to be quite a hassle. It is amazing how ones life becomes adapted to a technology like Bluetooth that truly works, and then to have AT&T Wireless simply say, "sorry, you have to upgrade" simply sucks.
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In my area AT&T wants me to update my (TDMA) phone to a GSM phone...and in the proccess I loose about 60% of my home coverage area. Sound good to you? I don't think so. I switched from SprintPCS to AT&T BECAUSE of AT&T's coverage. I fear the day my phone dies, maybe by then the GSM coverage will be better in my area.
-Daniel
KD5UZZ
www.w5yj.org
I'm in Ann Arbor Michigan and had AT&T service with my T68i. Last year I had problems with dropped calls and my service meter would go from 5 bars to 0 when I would try to make a call. I got my handset replaced twice and it seemed to more or less alleviate the problem. This winter things got worse and worse.
:)
Finally I got fed up and switched to T-Mobile. I got a nice phone for $0, and get unlimited wireless web usage for $10/mo (which got me 4 megs on AT&T). Getting my number transfered from AT&T to the new account took an 11 minute phone call and 6 hours to process.
Most importantly my calls aren't having the same problems, and I can actually use my phone again.
The irony is that between the time I called to switch my number and the time that the number switched I got an SMS saying that they were sending me a new (bluetoothless, underfeatured) phone for free. Now I'll have two to put up on eBay
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Too often, upgrades really mean downgrades. I was recently forced to "upgrade" my Nokia cell phone to a "newer better" model.
The newer model as the number keys laid out in converging diagonal lines, instead of straight up and down like the old one, so I have to think about and hunt for each number key. I guess the standard phone-button layout was just not good enough for Nokia.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
AT&T is attempting to do good with this. I believe the "upgrade" phones run at 850mhz, providing better service to the areas the "upgrades" are offered. They're trying to offer better service to their customers without losing a lot of money on giving away expensive phones.
Shame the feature they remove is the Bluetooth and the serial connection, rather than the phone, sucky non-regular keypad or the colour screen.
I'm sticking with my 6310i until it dies, then I'll buy another one off eBay.
Beep beep.
According to the article, "The now obsolete phones will still work on the AT&T network, howeverthey will continue to have poor reception. Use them at your own risk."
So you can still keep your old phone, and it'll still work as it has in the past -- somewhat poorly, but not differently. Or, AT&T is offering free replacement phones that have improved reception but may not have all the features of your old phone. I don't see the problem here. If you want to stick with what you have, nothing is stopping you. AT&T is giving you a choice, which is more than most companies would do.
Just my two cents.
Up until November of last year me and my SO were att wireless subscribers. It was rather obvious that at&t wireless service couldn't really get any worse than it already was. Phone call quality always sucked unless the signal strength is at least at the halfway mark. That is if you were lucky to be in an area with any reception whatsoever. Their local calling areas were piss poor, and we got hit with roaming charges every month.
As soon as number portability kicked in, we bailed out for t-mobile GSM. The difference was like night and day. at&t wireless showed no signal in my home. The new phones (free t610 camera phones, by the way, with bluetooth, infrared, etc...) now show a good signal. No roaming charges, the call quality is now much better, and there are hardly any dropouts even if the phone shows only a single blip on the signal strength meter.
When I called to cancel at&t they lamely offered an upgrade to gsm. No thanks. Even if gsm is supposedly a better technology, I'm sure that at&t would find a way to screw it up, somehow.
Cingular wants to swallow up at&t? I hope they choke.
Almost switched to AT&T a little bit ago, but then found out that all of their modem capable cell phones can only use that capability on their digital network. I explained I was wanting to use my cell phone as a regular analog modem, and was told it didn't matter. It was charged by the MB regardless, and to get more than 4 MB a month was extroidnarily expensive. Can you imagine you land line provider telling you that you would have to pay extra for using your line for a modem instead of voice? This wasn't a case of minutes or the like either.
I think even the old 270 was. Makes you wonder how much fact checking was done before posting the article.
OK, here's the deal. AT&T Wireless sends these users a card saying that they'll be getting an upgraded phone within the next couple weeks. This is ONLY in areas where a GSM850 network now exists. The T68i does NOT support GSM850. So, you've got two options - Keep using your T68i keep on whining and moaning that the service sucks, or use the T226 and use the GSM850 network and the GSM1900 network. Either way, you're not really REQUIRED to send the T68i back, it's just begged that you do so in the papers. They give you a postage-paid box to send it back in.
Yeah, the phone blows. You're the moron that bought a phone that didn't support GSM850. I've had a phone from the BEGINNING that did, and still do. A SonyEricsson T616. It's easy enough to get one cheap, too. It's called a contract extension. And don't whine about the contract either, you COULD go prepaid. ATTWS has some of the best prices in the business. Mod me troll is you like, but hey, caveat emptor. It's your own fault.
For anyone who thinks that camera phones are useless, my anectdote is being able to email pictures of my car's accident to my insurance agent while still at the scene of the accident. She then changed her mind and decided that I really couldn't drive a car with that front end and they sent a tow truck.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?