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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?'"
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!
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)
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
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.
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
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!
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
The reason is cell phone companies are spending billions to upgrade their equipment. Those billions have to come from somewhere. We went from analog to digital 1x to data over 1x to 2G to 3G. Even after 3G was introduced we had data rates increase in leaps and bounds.
Customers demand performance and features. While mobile companies could probably provide you with voice-only service pretty cheaply, they'd lose customers to other companies that provided a fancier service.
I work in the business, and I have no idea why people want to watch videos on those teeny tiny screens. But they do, and the networks have to be modified as a result.
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!
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.
No shit. The author seems totally disconnected from simple logic. On the one hand he's all bent out of shape because of the monopolistic abuses of the cell phone companies. On the other hand, he claims that we can do without their services. Hello? If people don't really need their services, how did they become monopolies?
The submitter refers to the story as a "long satisfying screed". In other words, it feels good to read it and yell "right on! you go!" That's the problem with current political discourse: it's designed to make you feel good, not to actually accomplish anything.
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.
What would compel me to put up with all of the nonsense associated with the iphone?
The company works overtime to try and brick my phone; on a limited-data plan like what i've described, an iphone doesn't sound very useful anyway.
OpenMoko has no features explicitly designed to piss me off. That puts it head and shoulders above the iphone. When it's done, I'll buy one.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
That's a great idea until an FBI agent is standing on your neck when they track down illegal activity to your connection. I'm not trying to be cynical because I really do think your idea is great. However, I have a hard time believing the government will buy (or even understand) all the precautions you are taking when they find out someone is snarfing kiddie porn through your wireless.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
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)