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."

Comments

"Free upgrades"

[KD5UZZ]

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.

This happened to me

[GeorgeH]

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 :)

Not so bad

[PtM2300]

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.

This doesn't sound like a bad thing

[jovian_]

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.

Re:No Bluetooth

[BWJones]

Lets see: Bluetooth headset for hands-free calling, Bluetooth for automatic hands-free talk within my Bluetooth supported car, Bluetooth for wirelessly synching my phone and Palmpilot with my G5s at work, and at home and my Powerbook when I travel.

Once you have used it, Bluetooth is hard to give up.

Re:No Camera!?

[GeorgeH]

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.