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Why Everyone Should Hate Cellphone Carriers
The Byelorrusian Spamtrap writes "Wired Magazine's made its position clear on the state of play in America's cellular industry, delivering a long, satisfying screed on why all of us should stop complaining and do something about it. 'They own politicians - Sure, it's just phones. In a world where worse things happen all the time amid the muck and despair of human existence, having to pay for premium text is hardly worth worrying about, is it? You can (and should) opt out, and not sign on the dotted line to begin with. But today's cell towers might be tomorrow's Pony Express: they're TV stations, internet access, emergency 911 and news networks all rolled into one. WWAN could well end up supplanting copper sooner than anyone expects: do you want these companies in charge of it?'"
In a world where worse things happen all the time amid the muck and despair of human existence, having to pay for premium text is hardly worth worrying about, is it?
That depends. Are you paris hilton? If yes, then yes.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
[This comment paid for by the American Association of Mobile Telephone Operators]
Let me get this straight... polticians are corrupt, so we shouldn't buy cellphones? Am I reading that correctly? Politicians are corrupt... so in response... we punish ourselves by not using a very convenient technology. Are we really that apathetic? Is that what this country has come to?
HOW ABOUT PUNISH THE POLITCIANS!? I'm so sick of people repeatedly voting in incumbents, then whining about how things never change, and they're just all so corrupt. Vote for an independent, hell, write in yourself, but don't whine that you'd just be *wasting a vote*, and continue to support people who are not serving you! Then tell people they should live the life of a hermit to *stick it to the man*. It is NOT the corporations fault that they attempt to maximize profits. That is the job of a public company. Our government allowing them to do so through shady practices is a problem with the GOVERNMENT!
putting in FIOS that I didn't ask for. I already hate them. They make phones with a bazillion features that do nothing without paying for it every time, and lousy user interfaces.
Since a lot of those same reasons can apply to ISPs and other companies in general, I propose we just hate all corporations whose profit margins are above 1 million annually. If we can assume that money corrupts, I think it's fair to say that any company in excess of $1,000,000.00 has doing something wrong to somebody on their way to that point. This blanket hatred will make it easier for me to keep track of what companies I do and don't like.
Is this top 10 list in base 14?
today's cell towers might be tomorrow's Pony Express
Probably not. While an exciting and deadly ride for its employees, the Pony Express was an abysmal failure as a business. It went bankrupt in just a matter of months as I recall. I see the cell phone companies neither providing exciting, deadly rides nor going out of business in a hurry.
I doubt carriers could suddenly gain control over all of these things, but it is something that needs to be avoided, however it may happen. The real reasons that would be a problem lie in their customer relations practices.
A billing error that can't be fixed at local stores, and the subscriber is forced to lead resolution of the issue while waiting on hold for 10 minutes every time an attempt is made, then arguing with customer "service" to convince them a problem exists. (AT&T)
Quality of tech support is laughable - I was told by a tech supervisor that data transfer on my phone was very expensive because the screen was large. Not just physically, but it had a high resolution too. (Cingular)
Salespeople lying directly to customers about plan availability when a similar plan with higher commission is available. (T-Mobile)
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
Seriously... how can you have a segment on "They have annoying commercials", and not even mention ATT/Cingular's "idk my bff [name]" commercials? They have the dubious honor of being some of the only commercials (Axe being the other one, for the curious) to make me feel like my iq was lowered just by watching it.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Yeah, I think cell phone companies in America suck. What am I supposed to do about it? The author suggests not owning a phone at all. Well, I guess I would do that if I could get a land line. But wait, those are owned by the same companies. The only alternative is phone service through a cable/satellite company, but those companies are just as corrupt and dreadful as the cell phone companies (and in a lot of cases worse). Hell, the state of broadband in America is 100x worse than the state of cell phones, and there is literally nothing we can do about that. Cutting yourself off from the phone companies (a lesser evil) just bolsters cable/satellite companies (a greater evil). The only real solution is some sort of uprising. First senator that gets the ball rolling on fixing broadband (making it comparable to the rest of the world) gets my write-in vote for president.
While the general public is apathetic/oblivious of these issues, nothing will happen.
It seems to take about ten years for the general public to really get their heads around technical issues.
expandfairuse.org
Could someone explain the Pony Express reference to me? Is the article referring to the company that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in startup costs, never got a government contract, delivered very little private mail for a very short time, and went bankrupt the same day the trans-continental telegraph was turned on?
Yeah, that's exactly what I'm afraid of cell phone carriers turning into...
Such futures can't be relied upon if innovation is permitted So, no company should invest heavily in innovation because that stifles progress. Check.
The remaining [author couldn't be bothered to count] reasons are similarly kvetching and dripping with angst.
rose is her bff lol ttyl
Yeah, the cellular providers all totally suck ass, I must agree. However, what can we possibly do about it? Nothing, because the alternatives are worse than putting up with it.
Many/most of us require telephone communication. I for one can't simply go without telephone service, if I want to have a decent relationship with my wife and relatives, and if I want to be able to function in society and business and my job. When I finally ditched the landline back around 2002, I was paying about as much for a crappy landline from Qwest with no features as I did for a cellphone. Somehow I doubt this has changed much. I might be able to save a little money by getting a landline from Cox cable (since I already have internet service from them, after all), but then I'd miss out on the versatility that I and so many others have grown accustommed to with cellphones; it'd be a real pain to be out of contact while driving or shopping, in the lab where I work, etc. The few extra dollars per month for cell service is worth it to me.
Am I jealous that people in other countries get far better and freer cellular service than me, for much less money? Sure! But there just aren't any alternatives here.
Until something else comes along that offers a real alternative, I don't see the point in saying "we should do something about it", because we can't. Cellular service isn't like writing open-source software: it requires not just phones, but a network consisting of central offices, antenna towers, fiber-optic lines, and billions of dollars worth of equipment and infrastructure. The cellular providers are just following the Golden Rule: "he who has the gold makes the rules", and our stupid government isn't bothering to regulate them to prevent them from acting so poorly.
Maybe eventually some brilliant quantum physicist will come up with a way for us to all communicate using "subspace" or whatever, so with the proper equipment we can just establish point-to-point communications with whomever we please, with no need for any infrastructure or middle-man like these cellular providers, and no worries about having to share limited spectrum. But until then, or until some other alternative is found, or until our government steps in and regulates them (yeah right), we're stuck.
...just because he carries a cell phone? I carry one myself.
More than 60,000 Windows programs won't run on Linux.
I must be a dynamo of a person because I don't own a cell phone, yet manage to keep in touch with my family and business partners.
the subspace you mention is known as 'the internet'.
Basically you toss out what you say you think is right for convenience. Well done.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I fully expect that these companies will wind up "in charge" of it by fiat if nothing else. It's only a matter of time. Like the article said, these companies own Congress. Well, Congress makes laws that govern "interstate commerce" (which the courts have interpreted as shorthand for, basically, any damned thing they please), so Congress can, and will, do the equivalent of declaring them as being the sole carriers for this stuff if the competition keeps them from taking that role otherwise.
Didn't you get the memo about what fascism is really all about?
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
Some of the reasons that people hate cell phone companies have to do with the abusive service contracts which are difficult or impossible to get out of. One way to avoid this is to buy a GSM cell phone with a US SIM chip. This has a side advantage that you can easily use the phone overseas by buying a SIM chip for the country you're visiting. You buy prepaid cards for these phones. Calling is a little more expensive, but you don't have a contract to deal with. There is also much less information about you as a cell phone user, since the only way to track you back to your phone is through the company you bought it from.
In theory if more people used GSM phones and phone cards, there would be more competition since the cell providers can't lock you in to a contract. This is, by the way, the situation in Europe where GSM is the standard.
Has anyone considered that the excessively long voicemail introductions used by almost every cell carrier amount to conspired gouging? We pay airtime when we are leaving a voicemail, right? When you get voicemail on my cell you get my brief away message, followed by the phone company's useless 20-second blather. For example:
ring... ring... ring... (me):"Hello, I'm not here right now, please leave a message" (sprint): "To leave a voice message press 1, or just wait for the tone. To send a numeric page press 2 now. At the tone please leave a voice message. When you are finished recording, you may hang up, or press pound for more options"
Several gripes here.
1) 20 seconds of instructions doesn't sound like that much on its own. But if that pushes your phone call to roll one minute longer it's a minute of possible airtime charge the phone company gets. You start paying the minute the call is answered, even leaving voicemail.
2) A typical voicemail message is probably 2 minutes or less. The phone company's instructional message here is taking up a significant portion of that airtime.
3) These instructions are ridiculous and seem to be there only to draw out the duration of the call. They couldn't be phrased more verbosely. Oh, I can hang up when the message is done? I didn't know that. I can press pound for more options? How about you tell me about those AFTER I've left a message.
4) The features are really ridiculous, too, and I suspect some 1% even use them. Send a numeric page? Why the hell should I do that? Cellphones have caller ID already. Send a FAX?? Please Slashdotters tell me who has sent a FAX over a cellphone. Do you have to make the modem sounds with your voice? If anyone DOES use these features they probably don't need the help message to remember what button to press to initiate their cellphone fax.
5) There is no option to turn these messages off. They probably also require you to add your own greeting. Resulting in a totally redundant 30-second prelude to leaving any voicemail.
6) Every mobile company I know of has these messages, some worse than others. Is this an unspoken or conspired arrangement between the mobile carriers? Sprint doesn't necessarily make money when someone has to listen to their God-awful pre-message, but they might. They certainly will make money when my Sprint phone is waiting on Verizon's equally obnoxious introduction, or T-mobile's, etc...
7) The worst part of this, in my perspective, isn't that I might pay, if I totally screw up, 50c or 5 bucks some month because a few extra minutes were incurred waiting to leave my friends voicemail - or dropping coffee on the bus trying to press 1 to bypass the spiel. The worst part is I leave a moderate amount of voicemail messages, and this amounts to Minutes, Hours, or God knows, even Days of my life eventually wasted listening to a robot tell me how to leave a voicemail and that it's ok to hang up. It's robbery, I tell you!
Today: Anonymous prepaid
- buy a pre-activated T-mobile 2 Go SIM off of ebay
- buy an unlocked GSM phone off ebay
No contracts, no fees, no lame choice of stupid phones, nobody knows who you are or how to hassle you. You put minutes on the SIM card and that's that.
This is the "plan" my wife and I have been on since May. Works nicely. Some friends just asked me to set them up with the same deal, since they were sick of paying $90/mo for a set of phones they barely used.
Tomorrow:
Replace handset you bought in "step A" wth an openMoko device. My next handset will hopefully be 100% open-source. I can get partway there with the P2k tools and what not for Motorola, but a truly open device just makes it all that much easier.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
The REAL question we should be asking is why are none of the companies willing to step up and offer better, cheaper plans? In a free market, we would have the same plans (if not better) as the Europeans do. Businesses undercut each other in a free market in order to steal customers. So why are no cell phone companies doing this? Don't we have laws that are supposed to prevent companies from banding together to screw the consumer? I was under the assumption that price-fixing was against the law (and is clearly what's going on; the cell phone companies have agreed to offer minimal features for similar prices, so everyone gets part of the pie without any real competition)
If you don't like the product, don't buy it as the article submitter says. Don't buy the contract, accept the contract, then bitch about it later.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
They belong to us! Do not sell them to rich corporates that then monopolize,horde and charge ridiculous fees. As long as you people sit on your hands and don't organize then the dream will never happen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_spectrum
So the issue is how to get out of the current muddle and to cut ties with these carriers. Of course, we can use Skype or various IM and video conferencing tools to talk to people without making a traditional landline or mobile call. The coming deployment of WiMAX networks will increase our ability to use IP-based devices for calling.
The forthcoming FCC auction of the 700MHz spectrum, now scheduled for January, will introduce more openness into the bidding process, and should enable a company such as Google to develop a competing service. Assuming that happens, there will be an alternative our dependence on the incumbent carriers, which will have its ups (price, flexibility) and possible downs (advertising, privacy concerns).
There are also numerous efforts underway to create devices based on open source software. The Nokia N800/N810 http://www.nseries.com/ is a Linux-based device with a useful developer site http://www.maemo.org/. The OpenMoko project http://www.openmoko.org/ is aimed at developing an open source phone. These devices are, of course, unlocked. When OpenMoko has advanced a little further, you should be able to take anyone's SIM chip, put it in your OpenMoko phone, and make a call. For now, though, the best you can do is to have an unlocked phone. (I have about 8 SIM chips from different countries, and switch them when I travel, thereby avoiding the extortionate international roaming charges of the mobile carriers. You can easily buy "pay-as-you-go" service almost everywhere, including in the US.)
So we can already take various steps to loosen our ties to the cellphone carriers. With some luck, many of us will be able to extricate ourselves completely. It's only then that the cellphone carriers will feel the need to improve their products and services to attract and retain customers.
Shouldn't this (wireless, internet, comms, all of it) be treated like a utility rather than a commodity?
Is it really efficient to have, say, 20 companies all sticking up cell masts and laying fibre?
Wouldn't one network with sufficient capacity be more cost efficient?
If you do have only one network, who gets to build it, and what stops them from abusing it monopolywise?
Free market. Sometimes it's not always the answer.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Is this article and invite for everyone to say why they hate their cell phone company?
I have many reasons, but I'll throw out the most current situation. I'm a customer of the old AT&T. My contract expired but I have an old TDMA phone and they are shutting down the network. Fine, technological progress, I support that part. But, do they have to send me a text message at least once every day to tell me this? I was given an AT&T GSM phone from a friend, but they won't let me use it unless I sign up for a new 2 year contract. I have tried calling customer service and going into the store, but they still won't let me do it. The guy in the store actually said I could, but then he went to do it, asked the manager a question, and the manager shut him down. One of the guys on the phone asked me why I didn't want to sign up for a contract and I told him that I'm getting anything out of it. He said I could get a free phone and I told him that I don't want any of their phones. He asked incredulously if there was no phone they had that I wanted. I said that I kind of liked the Tilt, but part of the reason that I would want it is for the internet and I don't want to pay the $80 bucks a month for the cheapest plan and data. He said that I could get the internet on any phone. I told him that it is hardly usable on a regular phone and he grudgingly agreed.
I told him that if they allowed me to get the $60 iphone plan for a different phone, I would consider it. He said that the iphone is apple's deal. I told him I wasn't talking about the iphone, I was talking about the plan. I told him that I wanted him to note that I suggested it with the hope that if enough people do the same, they can make some f-ing graph to show the decision makers who don't get the pleasure of hearing real customers. I don't think he actually noted it, though.
Anyway, all this because I WAS TRYING TO STAY ON THEIR SERVICE AND NOT GET A FREE PHONE OUT OF THEM!
One clear evidence of how badly the "market" for cellphone service is performing is the lack of any "bring your own phone" plans. With T-Mobile and most other carriers, it is simply impossible to sign up for a monthly contract that does not have a minimum term. I would like to buy my phone on eBay and sign up for monthly service, but without the 1 or 2 year commitment. I am prepared to pay a reasonable "connection fee". However, most carriers simply don't offer this, except in the form of the more expensive (per minute) pre-paid phones. Why can't I do this?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Somehow, before cell phones existed, the world kept on turning, families stayed together without needing cell phones and life continued just fine, you dont a cell phone no one really does. Only an overblown sense of self importance makes anyone "need" a cell phone. Get a life!
You sounds like someone who's single and lives in his parent's basement. No offense; I used to be single too.
Personally, my wife places a lot of value on being able to reach me any time she has an important question or concern, whether I'm shopping, at work (I'm not always next to my desk phone), etc.
Many people have jobs which require them to have cell phones and be on-call. Obviously, you don't have such a job, but don't deride people who do, and tell them they don't need a cellphone, because that would get them fired.
Most people require telephone service of some kind for the daily lives, even if it's not a cellphone. Guess what? The landline companies are the same evil companies that provide cellular service, so you're not getting away from them by using a landline. Do you go without a phone altogether? Most people with jobs don't have that luxury. I certainly don't.
"the internet" isn't like subspace; it's a shared infrastructure just like that provided by cellular providers. How do you access the internet? Do you use a pringle's can and steal from your nearby Starbuck's? Most people have to pay for internet access, and this usually means using another big, evil company like Qwest, Cox, Comcast, Verizon, etc. So you're not getting away from these companies by using the internet either.
So unless you have some way of keeping in touch with family and business partners which doesn't involve using a big, evil company like one of those above (and you live in the USA, as this discussion is irrelevant elsewhere), then you're completely missing the point and your argument is invalid.
Well of course the telcos are buying people out. That's entirely why they torpedoed municiple wifi: they are more and more being forced into the role of "dumb pipes", which as everyone knows is really hard to loot money from. They need these other businesses in order to obfuscate what it is they really do.
If municiple wifi becomes a reality, so does their chance to make insane and obscene profit. Sure, it sucks for "we the people", but conservatives don't care, they are too busy spewing their anti-America hate speech.
Same story here - ditched my cell phone (T-Mobile) in February, and yet my landline (which curiously enough is done through Vonage) seems to suffice quite nicely. While (almost) as evil with the whole contract thing as the cell companies, I can honestly say that they actually do provide a decent service all around.
In spite of that, I can still work w/o a problem for a rather large technology company... if the pager goes off (the employer provides that, pays for it, etc), I can still deal with its reasons even if I'm not home.
I'm hoping that free public WiFi can get just a teensy bit more ubiquitous (I'm in Portland, OR), then I'll happily buy an overseas unlocked smartphone w/ WiFi that can run a Skype client, and mobile calling will no longer be any sort of a problem (or even a cost factor).
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I remember selling cell phones when they first became popular. I was already employed and selling other services for a company selling cell phones. When we were told to sell the $29.95 package or the $39.95 (whatever) price when first mentionned wasn't to include the system access fee, the 911 fee the ..... fee.
... offering to slightly rephrase. But then we asked, well shoudln't the $29.95 be a $50.00 monthly plan. Well, if its $50 a month we won't sell too many of those. It doesn't matter the country or the provider. They all seem to think the same way about the miscelaneous fees. Everyone knows about them and asks what the bill will be (or is told) but it isn't being very forthcoming.
When we asked what the hell the "system access fee" was they only explained "to access the system"
Don't even get me started on costs of PDAs, family plans, voice mail, Blackberry messaging. I'd really like to see a SkyPE or VOiP based cell phone/PDA.
What's wrong with a hacked iPhone?
My team of ~20 developers manages to create a least one new language each year despite efforts to prevent it. It is in there nature.
"Personally, my wife places a lot of value on being able to reach me any time she has an important question or concern, whether I'm shopping, at work (I'm not always next to my desk phone), etc."
Grow a pair. Seriously.
Not to be picky, but from what I read on /. it's US telecomms that suck. In Australia we have hardly any of the same complaints. My 3 mobile is on a good cap ($29 capped until $149), a good handset, great coverage and most shockingly, good online support. I can change all my account details via 3G web.
So let's get some perspective. Not all phone carriers are in the US.
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While I sit here and defend the obvious, I do not own a cell phone, and probably never will again. I realized that I REALLY don't need one. If you sit down and think about it, 90% of you probably don't either.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Be sure you are dealing with a reputable company... I bought an unlocked Mota V3 from CellHut.com in New York, only to get a defective product that I couldn't return. As it turned out... by the time I had figured this out (only 3 days for the date of purchase) the warranty from Motorola had expired.
The phone originally intended for the Hong Kong market. I suspect that some enterprizing young scammer from that part of the world has set up a business in Manattan/Long Island with a call center in the Phillipines that "recycles" defective Motorola phones without reconditioning them. They sell for an attractive price and require RMA shipping in 3-4 days. (You can't do that without considerably greater expense than they incur to ship to you, and then they don't provide a correct address, so you can't meed their terms.)
Even when you do get a reasonably sericeable phone, there's no guarantee it will work well over your prepaid network of choice. I have a friend whose unlocked V3 was dropped from the network regularly... and he was on an AT&T plan.
I have a cheap Nokia throw-away phone that never fails to find it's network... It has the worst software interface design of any device I have ever used, but I have come to expect that from cheap devices... it's just another example of Marginal Differentiation. After all, why even Nokia has to allow it's now engineers to develop something, and AT&T doesn't care you you dislike your cheap gratis phone so little that you upgrade at considerable expense.
What about VoIP? I could see it posing a real challenge to the cartels in the near future. There are some pretty nifty attempts at wifi skype phones out there from Belkin and Netgear. There's still some issues with them, but as wifi becomes more prevalent, I could definitely see it as being a real solution in the near future. Personally, I am almost always near a hotspot when I am at work or at home or visit a friend's. Sure you wouldn't have it on highways or anything, but I don't even use my cell while driving anyway.
I've never owned a cell in the US. Yes, I've spent most of my life there, and in the past decade, I've bounced between Europe and the US, yet spending most of my time stateside. Funny thing, though: while in Europe, cellular communications have gotten easier, to the point where I've now had three separate cell phones, and five separate phone numbers in four countries (including Switzerland, which is right up there with the US in terms of pharmaceutical and cell phone costs), in the US, I have never seen the point in having a cell phone. It just isn't worth it. Phone calls cost. Text messages cost. To get access, you effectively need a paid subscription. Then you need to use their hardware on the network, from which they have removed the balls. Yeah, I know, there are ways around many obstacles, but I'd have to be motivated and seriously mobile to care. I'm not.
It just comes to this: when our country, which should be representing us, sells our resources to private corporations, it has an obligation to ensure that it represents our interests in doing so.
I don't consider it in the public interest when all we get from such a transaction is a couple billion bucks the oligopoly will have a hard time recovering and a parking lot hand job for select bureaucrats. Oh boy. We can finally afford to pay the cell phone companies for that no-warrant surveillance system we always wanted. woop de doo.
Well, it is their property. Should we expropriate the assets of the capitalist class in the name of the the glorious People's Revolution, for the dictatorship of the proletariat?
Or if that's not your thing, we could pull a Putin, and seize the property of the telecommunications industry for reasons of "State security."
Conclusion: You don't like something that exists, make something else, better. Don't steal what has already been created by others.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
Learn to say no to your wife. People got along just fine before cell phones. Your wife doesn't need to know where you are 24/7.
This is not true. There are CLECs which are owned by companies who do not provide cellular service. True, the baby Bells own the infrastructure, but switching to an independent CLEC alleviates many if not all of the problems discussed in the article.
No, but that has nothing to do with avoiding cellular phone carriers. Using VoIP for telephone service would also alleviate many of the problems listed in the article. I agree with Geekoid, you're prioritizing convenience. And that's fine, but don't try to convince us that it's hopeless. It's not, there are alternatives to using cell phones.
By maintaining these two policies, I limit the control the provider has over my phone and I limit the control the provider has over their cash flow. At any month I can terminate my service and switch to another provider. They do not like that. If they want to continue to be my service provider, they must continue to satisfy me with their quality of service, and they must offer a price I agree with.
I understand that this could be an expensive endeavor, however, it is well worth it since it preserves my leveraging power. When I sign a contract, all leverage has been eliminated for the duration of the contract. When I am not happy I can simply take my business away from them and move to the next guy. The $100 or so dollars I save up front is not worth cost of being locked into shitty service and a shitty phone for 2 years.
This is wrong on so many levels I have smoke coming out of my ears: Like having dealt with Verizon DSL Tech Support.
1) GSM Phones work on two major networks in the US
Crapular
T-Shitty - both of these networks are less than... adiquate
2) The GSM system in the US uses two different carrier bands than GSM systems in the rest of the world. If you want a quad band phone, you pay significantly more.
3) If you want the ability to use another companies sim card in your GSM phone, you have to UNLOCK your phone. Various companies have variously bad policies on this, but if you don't have a good relationship with your rapist, I mean cell phone provider, - assume we are talking about something like an additional $150
To quote the site:
Get it? If it's that easy to explain, why isn't everyone doing it?There's no reason to forgo cell phones entirely to make a statement about how they run their business, all you really have to do is be a smarter (and more moderate) consumer.
First thing to do is rid yourself of the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mentality when it comes to cell phones. If the phone you have is working fine, and there is no major benefit to you to get that new model, don't. What allows the subsidized business model to succeed is the throw-away society pushed by advertisers where people feel the need to get a new phone (and extend a contract) for no reason.
I signed up with my carrier (T-Mobile) in 2000. I took the free phone. It was a one year contract, and I took the lowest rate plan at the time ($20/mo) since I was unsure of what my usage would be. My contract ended, and after that I've been month to month with them - not prepaid, just not on contract. I ended up upgrading to a special rate plan for $30/mo later on due to my usage, this did not involve a contract extension/"service fee"/or anything else. And I could downgrade if I wanted to as well with no penalty. Most carriers will allow this sort of change in plan as far as I've seen.
Anyway, I replaced my phone when the backplate tabs on my original one (a Nokia 5190) started to fail (the phone would lose power every once in awhile due to the battery losing contact with the terminals from the loose tabs). I did not get a new phone from T-Mobile. I bought a Nokia 6610 used on eBay. I bought a locked one because I had no immediate wish to leave T-Mobile, and the fact it was locked made it worth less on the market, so I saved money.
I slipped in my SIM and used this phone with no problems until this year, when I actually lost the phone. I went on eBay again and bought a new, factory unlocked (but Cingular branded), Nokia 6030. There were a ton of auctions for these phones, by the same two or three sellers, so competition was nil, and I got it for the minimum bid. Then I went to a T-Mobile store and got a new SIM. A new SIM is generally $25, I got mine for free after the rep saw how long I'd had my account (in other words, loyalty and not asking for freebies and upgrades all the time DOES pay off in small ways).
Do you ever notice how the $40/mo cell phone plans are the ones the companies push most to consumers, and they always make the $20/mo plan much lower featured and disproportionately minuted in comparison? My personal theory is this plan is the lowest priced plan over some magic threshold where the cell phone companies are making a comfortable profit off you while subsidizing a phone. That's why they always want you to take that plan or higher.
I don't use text messaging really, even though it is active on my phone, because it's cheaper to just call the person, even if you're over minutes. Think how much conversation you can fit into one minute of overage time (at 35-40 a minute) verses text messaging at 15 a send and maybe another 10-15 for a receive. This denies the carrier text billing revenue from me, I have co-workers who have it disabled on their phones to avoid incoming charges, too.
Cell phone carriers have the tendency to remove features from plans more than add them, so if a new plan comes around, make sure you look carefully at your usage verses what it offers. You may find you're getting a better deal with what you have, and carriers rarely try and force people off old plans due to legal worries in sue-happy America. I still have my $30/mo plan because it isn't a normal plan, I can't get it back once I drop it. It provides me with enough minutes for my needs without being excessive, I get my first incoming minute of calls free and 50 incoming te
The "free market" has developed a multi-billion dollar wireless net work that is many times more profitable than any of it's original investors ever dreamed might be possible. The fact that we (collectively) accept inferior voice quality, service and treatment at the hands of our illustrious carriers is the biggest reason that these networks don't improve more quickly.
You can always find out where, at the state level, to make your complaints meaningful. Every state has a regulatory body responsible for approving the tariff rates and slapping the carriers for poor service, bad business practices and the like. There are people to whom you should be addressing your complaints, passionately but with reasoned and accurate description. In the state of Washington, it is the Utilities & Transportation Commission.
Don't be so quick to take advantage of that which you don't really need. There is a long pipeline of technology that underlies the telecomm industry. If more people limited their expenses to what they actually needed, instead of supporting the deceptive, unfair and highly profitable business models we have all come to know and detest, then companies that want your dollars might be forced to roll out improvements or treat you like the 'valued customer' they all claim you are when you call to complain.
Alternatively, look for disruptive technologies, like wireless VOIP, over WiFi, thru eBay and Skype. Consider buying one of several Wifi phones that support Skype. (BTW - I have no interest in Skype nor am I employed by either eBay of Skype).
I am amazed at who quickly Americans come to the trough, lowing and bleating after the latest hogwash, just because it is easy to afford. I understand that it makes life easier, and it complements our habitual spontaneity, i.e. lack of discipline, but rewarding the wireless carriers and their financiers with the opportunity to reconstruct monopolies via leveraged buy-outs is RIDICULOUS!
All anyone really needs to do is to exercise the opportunity to be an informed consumer and vote with your dollars. W can't all be Dot Comers and Tru$tapharians, can we?
The GSM networks are indeed more limited (T-Mobil and Cingular are the ones I've accessed) and the reception is not as good perhaps. However, you can buy very reasonably priced unlocked phones. I bought an unlocked from from Telestial in San Diego three years ago. I think that it cost around $100 US. I've used it in Spain, and twice in Italy. I now have a US SIM chip for it. I feed it T-Mobil cards every once in a while.
I hope you're able to take care of that smoke coming out of the ears problem. It sounds painful.
Cellphone companies suck in America- just ask anyone (especially anyone returning from Japan...)
I've never met anyone who actually recommended a carrier...sometimes a phone, never a carrier.
Now, it's not all their fault; America is a *huge* landmass compared to England and Japan where coolness dwells. I'm told that England and America have the same number of towers, but in America they're only in populated areas.
But maybe it's an America thing like women's breasts- is it only in America we HATE (and I mean, with passion) our computers, but it never crosses our collective mind to investigate an alternative?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
The GSM system in the US uses two different carrier bands than GSM systems in the rest of the world. If you want a quad band phone, you pay significantly more.
Significantly more? Not really. Triband & Quadband are pretty common, especially on higher end phones, since the manufacturer avoids the overhead of maintaining different phones for different markets. I have an Ericsson world phone that I bought secondhand for $50.
If you want the ability to use another companies sim card in your GSM phone, you have to UNLOCK your phone... assume we are talking about something like an additional $150
Really? There are shops in any major city that will unlock most phones for $25 or less. You can do it yourself with a cable and the right software. Type "GSM unlocking service" into Google and see how many results you get.
Ha, I was a customer care rep for AT&T back around 2002-2003, when they were slowly switching from TDMA to GSM.
Fine, great, GSM's superior in almost every way.
We had an internal website where you could check for known service outages in the event that a customer calls and reports no service or other technical problems.
I can't remember where it was, but mostly in southern california, they had one 'known outage' listed. It explained that the transmit power on cell towers in a given area for TDMA customers was being slowly diminished, in order to make the difference in call quality between TDMA and GSM seem more dramatic. Alongside this were strict instructions in big red letters DO NOT GIVE THIS INFORMATION TO THE CUSTOMER.
So, customers would call saying "damnit, before X date I was able to use my phone in my house just fine, but as of "fill-in-the-blank-date" it's been the shits, or no service! What did you guys do!?"
So we'd go thru the motions of troubleshooting, but essentially we were 'gaslight-ing' (look up the movie 'gaslight' if you don't understand) our customers.
The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".
If the author is so into *not* buying services/products from unscrupulous/corrupt companies, how exactly did he get online to post said article? Big ISP's in most cases aren't much better than telcos.
I MUST MAKE MY WITNESS.
Sure thing, Mr. Beale.
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Look it up before modding. And I'm not YELLING!
What?
It strikes me that Apple did not choose to play the ridiculous game that Carriers play when an OEM launches a new device. Years ago working at SonyEricsson, we could not believe when the geniuses at one carrier came up with MyMediaNet and demanded we modify the UI we had designed - and tested - in favor of this baloney. The carriers are so geared toward generating revenue that they forget what users actually want to use. It seems our friends at Apple told AT&T they're not going to budge on stuff like visual voicemail and we all benefit as a result. More OEMs need to take charge like this.
The thing about all the cell phone companies is that you likely have a choice. I live in a county with more moose than people, and I have a choice of Verizon wireless, Sprint/Nextel (both networks), and Union Wireless (a small regional player who is GSM and roams with both AT&T and T-mobile). All have some trade-offs as far as price, coverage and bullshit. Verizon has the best price (and good coverage), but the BS is just too much to deal with. Sprint/Nextel doesn't have GSM and my new phone uses it. AT&T is cheap, but again with the BS and long contract. TMO has a great price, but I can't get a real answer out of them for anything. The sales kids in both AT&T and TMO had no idea where I lived, even though it was only a few miles as the crow flies from the mall I was in, but when I asked about coverage, they said that it was "great" according to the computer.
I just checked in with Union Wireless this afternoon (they don't have a store nearby, so I had to drive a little). The salesguy was very honest about coverage when asked (provided more info than necessary, mentioning specific highways that were troublesome), he knew the area well, understood exactly what I wanted from them (provision my phone and don't rape me on data), and gave me honest advice about a plan. Guess who I'm going with when I get my new phone, even though I'll be paying a $10/month premium over the AT&T equivalent plan. However, if you read the fine print on an AT&T contract you find that if you spend too much time roaming they'll terminate the agreement. Since they use Union's towers, I'd be roaming most of the time, so it is for the best anyway.
So, lesson learned (so far): Not every company is evil. Just the ones that think everyone just wants the same thing, and forget customer service.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
The ability to hop onto wifi to place a call is interesting, but the coverage is too haphazard for effective cellphone use. The notion of using wifi nodes to substitute for cell towers does suggest possibilities for a massively multi-nodal communication system (many orders of magnitude larger than what the internet currently contains) to carry both voice and data. Wifi nodes aren't individually powerful enough to impinge on any spectra regulation, and the government wouldn't dare try without incurring the wrath of salespeople and PHBs everywhere. But blanketed thickly enough, there's no reason your packet request couldn't hop from wifi node to wifi node without ever touching one cell tower or one inch of POTS.
Naturally there are privacy and security issues. Wifi communications are notoriously prone to eavesdropping. But given what AT&T, the other telecoms, and government are up to these days it's pretty safe to say that the "official" networks of copper/fiber optic and cell towers are no safer.
Network math says that something on the order of 6 hops (the famous "six degrees of separation") will connect any two nodes in a given network, regardless of how many nodes are in the network. So it should be possible to cut the dickhead cell companies, big fiber, and government largely out of the loop because your single point of failure, a.k.a. the carriers, are reduced in importance to equal that of every other node.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
There are CLECs which are owned by companies who do not provide cellular service. True, the baby Bells own the infrastructure, but switching to an independent CLEC alleviates many if not all of the problems discussed in the article.
:/
I used to work for one, and it really isn't any better. Here in Michigan SBC screwed the CLECs hard a few years back, jacking up the price of resold copper so much the CLECs couldn't come close to providing competitive rates (thanks FCC!). And heaven help you if you have service issues: you'll probably end up in a finger pointing match between the CLEC and the ILEC. It was good while it lasted though.
Landlines ARE the lesser of two evils though, because they still aren't allowed to screw you quite as hard in that market since it's more heavily regulated. For example they can't force you to sign a contract if you want service. That's why the telcos are so keen on the idea of everyone going cellular and dropping their land lines.
Using VoIP for telephone service would also alleviate many of the problems listed in the article
I agree, and this has the big guys running scared. Look at the sheer ruthlessness with which one major carrier after another has pounced on Vonage with patent lawsuits like predators on a wounded animal They're trying real, real hard to either kill them or beat them up so badly they can buy them for next to nothing and kill the whole thing...or just replace it with their own crappy VoIP service so they can say "see, that whole VoIP thing sucks, you should stick with our landline/cell service instead. Here, take this shiny new cell phone. Ooohh, see, it blinks!"
The perfect setup would be to get my community to install dark fiber with fiber to the home and open Wifi access points. Each 2-3 years you ask companies to offer services to your fiber like VoIP, TV, Internet, etc... That way you get more control. WiFi to Voip could eplace cell phones but only localy. But what if another close community does the same think and we hook up, we get more buying power for services, and another, and another. The net must be owned by the people and I hope I will live the day to see that happened.
http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/ and I couldn't agree more. The cell providers are a bad joke.
'Did you know even the stock holders of "The Phone Company" hate the phone company? '
--- The President's Analyst
I think the rant also included "Beduin nomads in the desert hate the phone company" but I couldn't find online confirmation of this.
(Incidentally, I don't have a cellphone. For a while I had which was given to me by my father - it had been given to him, and then he'd been given a better one. It was on a pay-per-call, no-monthly-fee scheme. The reason I don't have it anymore is that it was so obsolete that about 6 months ago, they dismantled the network it used.)
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Crapular - They are AT&T now, no matter how much you dislike them. I have a plan with them, and so far they have been very reasonable
T-Shitty - They are called T-Mobile. That is the name of their company. You must have misspelled the word Mobile. By the way, name calling gets you nowhere.
About the GSM bands - you have a point there. You can always buy a phone with no contract from a US store. Or EBay, or overseas. Yes, you will probably pay more, but since you obviously detest phone companies, that shouldn't bother you
Or, you could get your phone unlocked. The "variously bad policies" are unlocking for 3 after three months. See this wikipedia article. Here is the relevant section
Remember, name-calling gets you nowhere in life. Even if you have a good point, you come off as a ranting jackass who can be safely ignored.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
... that carry them into the restaurant, or the movies.
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
Full disclosure: I work for one of the "major wireless carriers". But guess what? I also own a wireless phone!!! Oh and guess what? So do 280 MILLION other people in this country. Let's be honest here please: Anyone remember what long distance cost as little as 7 years ago? Before the whole "One Rate" plans came out? Anyone recall Peak vs. Off Peak minutes on fucking LANDLINE phones??? Apparantly NO ONE remembers. Because all I see on every board across the net is people complaining about the carriers. "Oh, I'm so sorry Mr. Customer, you can call VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE IN THE FUCKING COUNTRY for $59.99/mo. My bad, you're right, it should be TOTALLY FREE!!!! Nevermind that we built a network that handles 2 million voice/data connections per day, and you can be basically anywhere and make a call!!!" This shit is ridiculous. You don't like paying for text messaging? BLOCK IT. Every carrier offers that feature I promise you that. You don't wan't to pay for certain calls? DON'T ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I remember correctly, they haven't made a phone that automatically connects to the network, let alone one that doesn't have a POWER BUTTON. Don't want to sign a contract? GET A PRE-PAID phone. This is the classic "sense of entitlement" mentality that really drives me insane in this country. Take a look at Klobuchar's bill... Prorated ETFs? Over 100 millions customers already have this (AT&T, VZW). Plan changes? Doesn't make a difference on Verizon!!! Wanna check service?? TRY THE TEST DRIVE!!! Taxes??? TALK TO YOUR STATE REP, they're the bastards that impose most of these charges. Oh I'm so sorry that they charge an "administrative fee of $.7/mo. ANYONE RECALL LANDLINE TAXES???? Once again, no one does... because proportionally, they are much much higher. Why oh why is everyone so fucking pissed about the state of wireless?? I really don't get it. "Clear disclosure of fees"? Is it too much to ask that the CONSUMER take it upon himself to test out the reliability of service within 15 or 30 days? Is it too much to ask that a CUSTOMER READ THE terms and conditions FREELY PROVIDED by the companies offering these services??? I'm not even going to make any analogies here. DO YOUR GODDAM HOMEWORK and deal with what you signed up for... jesus christ
I have a Motorola V3. It does more than I even use as a cell phone. It has a camera, mp3 player, voicemail, cell phone and other stuff. I only use it as a phone, and every now and then I take a couple of pictures of my kids. It has great battery life, sounds very clear, and gets great reception. My cell phone rate per month is reasonable. Its actually cheaper than having a land-line phone in my house. Why should I be all upset about cell phones again? I remember what cell phones were like 20 years ago, and think they are progressing very nicely at this point. (My carrier is T-mobile)
I agree with Geekoid, you're prioritizing convenience. And that's fine, but don't try to convince us that it's hopeless. It's not, there are alternatives to using cell phones.
Do you have a car? A car is a convenience, too. There's plenty of alternatives to cars, such as horses and buggies which many people in Pennsylvania still use.
I just finished up my Verizon contract and have switched to Unicel. You may not have heard of it, but Unicel is the only GSM provider in most of New England and parts of Minnesota and a few other patches of rural America. Since they are a small provider and not [yet] part of the oligarchy, they provide comparably great rates.
...no telecommunications at all as Verizon also is the only provider of land lines and DSL.
When I went in to the locally-owned reseller last week (Terrapin Communications, if you are in VT check them out) and got a subsidized unlocked GSM RAZR for $50, 300 peak minutes per month, and unlimited incoming calls and text messages, all for $35/month.
After taxes and stuff it all stays under $40/month, $10 better than anything I could find from AT&T, T-Mobile, etc, even if they did offer service in my area. From what I was told, Unicel doesn't lock any of their devices, so swapping is as easy as buying a new unlocked phone and reselling the subsidized one on EBay. Not a too-shabby deal.
All in all, it was a wonderful change from being regularly overcharged by Verizon, et. al. In the past month I've been outright lied-to by both Verizon and AT&T sales-people who seem all too willing to say anything you want to hear just to make a sale.
Unfortunately Verizon is currently trying to buy Unicel and "move all customers to its CDMA network", but apparently there are some big FCC and Justice Department hurdles that will need to be overcome before anything like that can happen. Talk about anti-competitive -- that would leave me with Verizon or....
- Adam
"When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
Why iAm iFrustrated / My reasons for hating Cellphone Carriers
So here's the story of what's gone on with my iPhone. As soon as
iHeard that there was going to be a hack to unlock the iPhone iOrdered
two phones and had them sent to my brother's executive office manager.
iSoon found out that you DID not have to sign up for a two year
contract if they didn't like the credit card number you sent them
(maybe i am not credit worthy), so iWas able to get both on pay as you
go contracts, this was good because iKnew that iDidn't want a contract
on one of them. (iWas going to transfer my account from T-Moblie on
the other so it didn't bother me so much on that one.)
Anyway, she did a great job in activating both of them with the
monthly pre-paid accounts and sent them to me in Vietnam. Of course
by this time the company that claimed that they would unlock them
decided to only provide this service to resellers (probably to keep
themselves out of direct legal trouble). The problem is they didn't
say who, if any, resellers were in Vietnam. So after some searching
iHad a serendipitous discovery of a place that would unlock the phones
for $100. (This guy must have made a TON of money). iCannot tell you
what a pain it was to try to find a mobile phone shop that 1) knew
that their phone company provided internet services, 2) knew what
services there were, 3) knew what plans there were 4) knew how to
activate it. In addition, iWanted to get the advanced EDGE network
support here (it is the same 2.5G network AT&T uses in the States) so
iHad to figure out how to configure that as well. Finally iWanted to
get a flat rate plan because iKnew iWould get a huge bill otherwise.
This proved to be quite a challenge but iDid it!
So, iHad probably one of the best configured iPhones in the entire
country because iWas probably one of the few people who knew what they
were doing compressing media to be downloaded onto it. iWas feeling
quite smug but iRealized that iWas still paying about $50/mo. for my
AT&T account that was essentially doing nothing while iWas in Asia.
So, on my last trip to L.A. iWent to an AT&T store and talked to a
sales rep. who said there was another account that didn't have a
monthly charge but only billed you per day. iTold him iWould
immediately sign up but he said iHad to sign up on-line. Since iWas
leaving soon for Vietnam iDecided to postpone it until iGot back to my
apartment in Ho Chi Minh City.
So, very carefully, iChanged my account over to the pay-as-you-go
account. iEnded up doing it by calling up AT&T and talking with a
sales agent. Unfortunately iForgot to ask what would happen to my
voice-mail and the sales agent didn't mention it. So after a day or
so iTried to call my voice mail via a land-line to check my messages.
Of course, iFound out that there was no voice mail available!
So iPanicked. Aside from my e-mail, this is my only link to my
clients. iImmediately called up AT&T to try to figure out what was
going on, iDidn't know that my knew pay-as-you-go account didn't have
voice mail (though iShould've figured it because otherwise it would
essentially be free to anyone who signed up). iDidn't realize this at
the time and iSpent more than half an hour (at $1.50/min.) on the
phone with AT&T because their rep. didn't know that there was no voice
mail on this type of account and kept trying to work with tech.
support to get it activated. Finally iGave up and called up my
brother's executive office manager to see if she could get any
further. iTold her to do anything necessary to get voice mail back,
including of course going back to my old plan.
Well she spent almost two hours on the phone first retracing my path
to make sure iDidn't make some sort of mistake and then getting old
account set up. Unfortunately that was as far as she could go, the
AT&T rep. said that iHa
Especially when they carry them onto the bus, sit right behind me, and blab away like there's nobody around.
I am almost positive that the cell phone carriers are required to offer free 911 service. I have seen the phones in the various stores selling phones and with an expired/non-activated SIM card it said "Emergency Service Only".
"Done"
I find that where I live T-Mobile is more than adequate and Sprint will drop to Analog. This is an anomaly, I know.
OSx86 FTW
you can unlock any cellphone yourself. Google it.
It does help, even if you don't subscribe to the notion that an outside candidate can win. Parties will generally shift stances on issues to where they are losing a lot of votes. A strong showing for an outside candidate brings those issues into the public forum. Look how much influence extremist and minority groups have on all the major parties. Maybe your candidate wont win this election, but the tide of opinion you've helped generate will steer the parties in that direction the next time around. Why waste your vote on someone you don't really support? Using a vote for a candidate that doesn't win will at least voice your disapproval of the old guard candidates.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
The problem is much larger that just the cell providers. They're probably the worst of the bunch, but they're hardly the only industry with abusive contracts and pervasive fraudulant practices.
The most obvious is the concpt of contracts where one paarty may chang the terms at will and the other is simply stuck with them. I simply cannot imagine a sufficient contortion of reasoning that could make that seem conscionable or that could make any legal system that supports it seem just. For that matter, in a truly just world, the inclusion of such terms should be sufficient to void any contract. After all, nobody who would put such a thing in a contract and then stuff it down someone's throat could possibly be contracting in good faith. Before someone makes the inevitable "you aren't forced blah blah", yes, when most or all providers of a particular service do that, they ARE stuffing it down someone's throat. Becoming a hermit in a log cabin with candles for lighting is not a realistic alternative to electricity and phone service!
Billing errors in general are an issue, plenty of companies seem to routinely make "errors" in their favor (never in the customer's favor) In the case of many cell providers most of the bills they send out are that way month after month and we're supposed to believe it's NOT fraud? They deserve no mercy here. If they billed a million customers fraudulantly, charge them with one million counts of criminal fraud. Only large corporations can seem to get a bulk discount on felonies. If the evidence there isn't airtight, charge them with a million counts of negligence. Surely that has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt over the years. I have deealt with many companies large and small over the years. Only telecomms providers (not just cell BTW) ROUTINELY make billing errors.
Here's a simple one that IS specific to cell phones. They should not be allowed to charge for dropped calls. At the very least, they should be forced to refund any connection charges (since the need to connect again is clearly due to their screwed up network).
Truth in advertising! Is there anyone at the FTC who even knows we have truth in advertising laws? The public SHOULD be able to presume that advertisments are at least basically truthful. Unlimited means without limit. Making promises in bold and retracting them in fine print is a fundamental dishonesty. Fine print on television that is not clearly and easily readable even with 20/20 vision should not be lgally considered to have been displayd at all. Occasionally, out of curiosity, I freeze frame a commercial disclaimer (perfect digital reception) and frequently find that it is greeked, unreadable at any distance from 10 feet away to nose pressed against the screen. How can that possably be considered an act of communication?
Finally, the fines themselves. If they are not at LEAST as large as the ill gotten profit that caused them, they will be (and are) treated as a tax rather than a penelty.
Like Revol (my employer) in the Ohio/Indiana/Pennsylvania area; I don't know about other such companies, but Revol is all pre-paid, no-contract service. I'm guessing you end up with cheaper service with one of the large companies, but not having a two-year contract removes a lot of the bullshit.
Uhh, where the hell did you get the idea that they are keen on it? If they are 'keen' on it, then why did Verizon hit me up for an extra $5/mo to have DSL without dialtone in spite of the fact that I had a Verizon Wireless account?
Sprint and especially T-Mobile (look at the Hotspot@Home service, marketed as landline replacement) might be keen on it, but that's because they don't have a landline business to worry about. I've seen zero evidence that Verizon or AT&T are encouraging people to ditch landlines. I'll grant you that landlines aren't on the top of their priority list anymore, hell Verizon has been fined by several state public service commissions for ignoring problems with the copper plant, but they aren't encouraging people to ditch them. If anything, all those landlines are a free source of revenue for them, because they don't have to invest hardly anything in the infrastructure.
Besides, I hope people do ditch landlines. If everybody had a cellular phone, then maybe the state legislators would grow some balls and give the various public service commissions oversight authority on the wireless carriers. They'd fight it tooth and nail, but while Verizon and AT&T might be big, most state Governments are bigger.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Uhh, where the hell did you get the idea that they are keen on it? If they are 'keen' on it, then why did Verizon hit me up for an extra $5/mo to have DSL without dialtone in spite of the fact that I had a Verizon Wireless account?
The long answer: It was one of the little presents the telcos managed to get themselves when the telco laws were rewritten. If they're not going to get the $20/mo out of your for dialtone they're going to make damn sure they get something out of you.
The short answer: because they can.
Didn't you get the memo? It's "The new at&t" now ;)
T-Shitty - both of these networks are less than... adiquateDefine adequate. I took a coverage hit to switch to T-Mobile instead of Verizon and live in one of the worst areas for T-Mobile (Binghamton, NY). Go to this site and key in "Binghamton, NY" and check it out for yourself.
In spite of the spotty rural coverage, it works at my house, it works all around the city and it works in every major city where I would conceivably travel to. It worked like a charm in the Outer Banks when I went there for vacation. And on a daily basis it provides me with coverage in 90% of the areas where Verizon would have. Plus I can use it anywhere in the World free of charge with an open wi-fi and broadband connection. If I'm willing to pay I can use it almost anywhere in the World with a GSM network. Let me know how seamless that international roaming is for you with CDMA.
If you are an urban/suburban dweller then I don't see why T-Mobile isn't a viable solution. It doesn't work everywhere that Verizon does, but I honestly don't give a shit if my phone doesn't work in the boonies. I only go to the boonies if I want to escape for awhile, and when I'm looking to escape I really don't want my solitude interrupted by my fucking cell phone ringing.
he GSM system in the US uses two different carrier bands than GSM systems in the rest of the world.Uhh, don't make it out like it's JUST the US. Most of the Americas use the 850/1900 bands. Europe and Asia tend to be 900/1800 And since when did quad-mode phones "cost significantly more"? My quad-band Motorola V195 on T-Mobile set me back a whooping $20 with one year contract. Don't want a contract? You can buy them on eBay for less then $50.
If you want the ability to use another companies sim card in your GSM phone, you have to UNLOCK your phone. Various companies have variously bad policies on thisUhh, what exactly is a "bad policy"? T-Mobile will unlock them after you've been a customer for three months, free of charge. It's my understanding that AT&T's policy is similar, though I have no direct-hand experience with them.
GSM isn't as widely deployed (outside of major cities) as CDMA is, but it's a workable technology for any geek that would rather have control over their phone and use a published open standard instead of the crippled phones/royalties owed to Qualcomm of the CDMA market.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Basically. Though I wasn't pointing it out to bitch about that fee in specific (though they really are a bunch of fucking bastards aren't they?), merely to refute the assumption that the carriers want to see people ditch landlines.
If Verizon was keen on me ditching my landline they would have offered some sort of bundle deal for the wireless and DSL, instead of nickel and diming me for ditching a service that I never used.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I read the whole fucking article. The author has some vague plans about boycotts and electing the right people. Nothing we haven't heard before — or is likely to overcome the huge political and financial clout of the telecoms. It's just an incoherent rant. I think he's channeling Howard Beale.
*** 1) GSM Phones work on two major networks in the US
Crapular
T-Shitty - both of these networks are less than... adiquate ***
Yes, I know that Cingular's reputation is so bad that they changed their name to the fabulously well regaurded AT&T. The fact is that in Washington, DC (the capital of the US) I cannot drive eight blocks down 13th St without loosing a call about a block south of U. This happens in the middle of a big city in an area without major obstructions to wireless.
My wife recently got back from some especially impoverished area of Cambodia: her t-mobile phone worked there, but not in Virginia 20 miles out of DC
***2) The GSM system in the US uses two different carrier bands than GSM systems in the rest of the world. If you want a quad band phone, you pay significantly more.***
Significantly may vary from person to person. If you go to tigerdirect.com (for example) and sort the gsm phones by price - the first page or two have phones labelled US, European, or refurb. although there are a few that are tri band.
***3) If you want the ability to use another companies sim card in your GSM phone, you have to UNLOCK your phone. Various companies have variously bad policies on this, but if you don't have a good relationship with your rapist, I mean cell phone provider, - assume we are talking about something like an additional $150***
If you can't wait three months to use your phone with your carrier. (Say you work in IT and have a wife from another country) there is a fee. If you have been with your carrier, they will *eventually* unlock you. I have done this twice - and in neither case did T-mobile, or AT&T meet the timelines they promised.
If I sound bitter about the cellular carriers, it's because they always act bitter towards me. I have learned that acting nice towards monopolies that don't care is a waste of time.
The vast majority of towers are no longer owned by the cell carriers... if companies want to put up equipment on the towers, they can. Any company. Not just the cell carriers. Call up American Tower. Call up any of the companies. Anyone can rent space on a tower.
-Daniel
You're absolutely correct.
The great American corporation BP gives ten million to the Republican and another ten million to te Democrat, and no matter which one wins, you lose.
Don't waste your vote on a candidate who will vote against YOUR interests and for the corporate interests. Your two choices are to stay home and be thought apathetic, or vote independant/minor party. I've been splitting my vote between teh Greens and the Libertarians, because I want to gamble, smoke dope, and get laid in an ecologically sound manner.
You think I'm kidding.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Corporate-Welfare for US, not democracy or capitalism.
... in the future ... provides Corporate-Welfare.
...
... all and more ... empire, nation, culture.
... supporters/sheep for fleecing and slaughter.
Corporatist-Welfare is taxation without representation.
Legislative solutions for personal privacy, voting, health
insurance, legal and illegal drugs
social security, education
That is why there are no problems solved. Politicians (most,
maybe all) have no objectivity, honor, ethics, morality
or personal interest/investment in supporting the welfare of
US Citizens. Proportionally it is very unlikely the a
politician's, plutocrat's, corporatist, televangelist child
will die defending "The USA Constitution" and US. Our Sons Of
Liberty and Equality (SOLE) die for US, but on missions
benefiting only the most evil, vile, and treasonous USA citizens.
We have less and expect less with tax percentages increasing and
weighing ever more heavily on the best of US, and light on the
least of US. USA Telecommunications went from #1 to #22, Medicine
from #1 to #40, Global Respect #1 to last place
in less than 50 years. Well that is about 5 times longer than the
Aryan Nazis empire/nation/culture, but it is many centuries less
than Egypt, Greek, Rome, China
Leaders are the cause of failure, citizens are their gullible,
uninformed
Our leaders do not pay for failure/harm, but our children will
suffer and turn against US upon a leaders request to stop the
trouble/problem. Just put all US poor old folks in cost effective
camps with vapor showers to reduce overhead cost rapidly.
PLEASE, Be a responsible USA Citizen pick the least likely local
and federal candidates to get elected in either party, then vote
the least likely and likable candidate into office. Next election
never vote for anyone previously in a political office, and repeat
the above ALWAYS! We must save US All.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Here's the table of close house races that I tried to include:
http://www.cfinst.org/pr/pdf/06-PostElec-Table3.pdf
Who WOULD you want to run them then?
Once those things are done, remove restrictions on self defense and we would see a RASH of dead thugs/robbers/rapists.
I used to think that, too.
Back before the shall-issue CCW movement I used to think that, once people started carrying, there would be a short bloodbath as the crooks found out the hard way that people were packing. Then a few states states started experimenting with letting the people arm, and it worked out surprisingly well - leading to a trickle, then a flood, of states joining this bandwagon.
It turns out the crooks aren't THAT stupid after all. When shall-issue goes into effect, most of 'em are smart enough to move to a less-armed area, switch to less confrontational crimes, or find another profession. Of the remainder, most of them are usually not so dumb that, when looking down the wrong end of a barrel, they keep pushing.
Of course a FEW are so dumb, pig-headded, or stoned that they DO keep on. But it's in the low single-digit percent of confrontations. (And then the defender usually doesn't bother to mention it to the cops and thus avoids buying himself trouble. That's why it took Kleck's seminal research to dig out the actual, enormous, effectiveness of with-gun self-defense.)
Net result is that passing shall-issue results in the benefits of the "polite society" right away, minus the bloodbath. Even the crooks end up with a lower getting-hurt-or-dead rate. B-)
It might be a good move to adjust your rhetoric in light of this, to reflect the actual situation. It might be feel-good to talk like every man becomes his own Dirty Harry. But it also scares the uninformed and plays into the hands of the anti-gunners, which makes it harder to actually get the laws fixed.
(Of course with DC v. Heller probably going to the Supremes the whole issue might be decided without legislation, one way or another...)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way