Random: April 2006 Archives

So for some reason I get drawn into a conversation about Wireless Carriers several times a day. Could be that I'm looking for them.

Either way, I thought I'd draw up a quick chart describing all the carriers in the bay area and what I see as their strengths/weaknesses.

First, the handy-dandy table:

Explanation of grades:
A - Exceptional
B - Above Average
C - Average
D - Poor
F - Lame
F-- (special category for exceptionally lame)

The whole thing reminds me of the "fast, friendly, cheap, pick any two," joke. None of the carriers are really head and shoulders above the rest. They each have their strong points, and each one as at least one negative. Unfortunately it's not about picking the best wireless carrier, it's about picking the one that sucks the least. I'll go into my opinions of each below.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile is my current and favorite carrier. T-Mobile has exceptional customer service which is open 24/7. The agents there have almost always been polite, helpful and quick to solve any issues I've had. They only make you wait 30 days after buying a phone before they will unlock it for you, and they don't give you the run around when you call and ask for it. T-Mobile tends to have relatively generous plans. More minutes per price level than any other carrier and they don't try to nickel and dime you to death like Sprint or Verizon. I do wish they had rollover minutes though, and they can't do anything if you run out of minutes in the middle of the month, which was a problem for me last January. The big downside for me with T-Mobile is the fact that they stopped carrying Sony Ericsson phones a few years back. This is a bummer for me because generally Sony has had the best phones out there lately. I can't wait for the new K790a to come out. 3.2 Megapixels of Sony CyberShot goodness. Almost all Sony phones have Bluetooth and they're GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Some of my friends complain of network weirdness from T-Mobile. I haven't had any problems lately, but I do know of a few things that have bothered me with T-Mobile's network in the past. For a long time Cincinnati was in the wrong time zone. This meant that our "evening" hours didn't start until 10pm (they'd fix our bill if we called them about it). This was lame, but then again, Cincinnati is lame, and I don't live there anymore. I really don't care if they've fixed this or not, although I think they have. The other problem I've occasionally had with T-Mobile is weird behavior when roaming. Things like calls going to voice mail without the phone ringing, or trouble getting a signal. I don't think this is as bad as it used to be, but a few years ago I had problems when I was visiting my family in Aspen. In the bay area I rarely find that I don't have a signal.

Cingular

Cingular has exceptionally lame customer service. Their customer service is actually the worst customer service I've ever had from any company in any industry. That's including credit card companies, car dealerships, and even the evil Best Buy. They've earned the special F-- for their atrocious customer service. If you really don't care about customer service, and I mean customer service that randomly turns off your account and can't give you a good reason why, Cingular has a few positives going for it. It has generally good coverage in the bay area, and it carries Sony Ericsson phones. If you really want a Sony phone, buy it from Cingular with a prepaid account, wait 90 days, ask them to unlock it and then use it with T-Mobile. Or even better, buy an already unlocked one with the OEM Firmware off eBay. T-Mobile will even tell you how to reset your internet settings to work with their network. I guess I should also mention that Cingular has roll over minutes, so if your usage varies a lot from month-to-month this might smooth things out for you. Cingular off-sets this a little by giving you less minutes per price point than T-Mobile.

Verizon

Verizon has the best network hands down. If you want coverage everywhere, this is the one to go with. A lot of this comes from the technology they use. Verizon uses a CDMA network that is much more advanced than GSM, they're bringing up their EV-DO network, and most of their phones still work with the old school AMPS analog network. There is a huge downside to this though - it means you have to wait for phones to be developed specifically for Verizon's non-standard technology. If it wasn't bad enough that their phones are 2-3 years behind the GSM phones from T-Mobile and Cingular (and those are at least a year behind the ones in europe) Verizon cripples their phones. Verizon locks out the OBEX protocol on their Bluetooth phones. This means that while you can use a Bluetooth headset, you can't sync your address book with your computer. It's about the lamest thing I've seen a company do. It's right up there with Best Buy's rebate policies. I guess they did market research and found that only geeks ever actually transfer files, contacts, photos, ringtones or whatever using bluetooth and everybody else just wants a wireless headset. The logic behind this is that it forces you to use their expensive network to get your photos off your phone, and you have to pay them for ringtones, you can't just copy them over to your phone. Verizon Wireless actually had to settle a class action lawsuit because of this. This is a total deal breaker for me, both because it's just lame and because I have a Mac. One of the coolest things that Macs can do is they can use a program called iSync to sync your address book on your computer to your phone. I never loose my contact list. I don't loose phone numbers and it really isn't a problem for me when I get a new phone. This is all due to the magic of iSync. All this adds up to earn Verizon a special F-- for phones. Their customer service can also be a total pain in the ass. It took a friend of mine months of calling them to get her phone account separated from her ex-boyfriend's after they broke up. Overall, unless you really, really need the network strength (like your parents live in Maine), I'd stay away from Verizon.

Sprint

Ooo spiffy! You can have push-to-talk. Actually, that's a feature of the now long gone Nextel. I basically got nothing against Sprint. They use a network technology that, like Verizon is only used by them. Ok, to be totally fair, Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS and a few others all use the same technology -- but their phones won't interoperate on each other's networks. This means their phones, like Verizon's are outdated. They also like to retain control of their brand, so you don't buy a Samsung phone to use with Sprint, you buy a Sprint phone to use with Sprint (made by Samsung). Their plans are so-so. They require long contracts (I think they were the first company to go to two-year contracts), and almost everything else about them is unremarkable. I did really like Nextel when I used to have a company provided phone. The push-to-talk thing is kinda handy, but it's not that much more useful than just dialing someone. Nextel also was the first company to do a really neat user-interface thing with their phones (since copied by Sony Ericsson and others). If you store multiple numbers under a contact you can scroll up/down to select that contact in your address book and then use the left/right buttons to select which number you want to dial. It really is the best way to navigate an address book I've seen so far.

MetroPCS

I want to say I haven't heard anything negative about MetroPCS. If you never leave the bay area they do have decent phones and really cheap plans, but they charge roaming anytime you go anywhere - which just doesn't work for me.

Well, that's it. If you've got any comments (or Cingular horror stories) you can leave them below.

Actually, one more thing. Before I step off my soap box I have to say that the whole "network locking" thing is crap. If I buy a GSM phone I want it to work no matter who's SIM card I put in it. Maybe the mighty carriers have studied this and found it stops fraud, or keeps their customers, but quite frankly all I think it has done is create this cottage industry around unlocking phones. Anyone who wants to can download software, or go to chinatown and get their phone unlocked. To me it's just a stupid way to piss off customers. Okay, now you can leave comments

I'm shamelessly copying this from someone who shamelessly copied it from someone else... but such is the way of things on the internet. I cleaned up the formatting a little, but I left the capitalization mistakes, only because I find them ironic, and I don't care enough to fix them.

sometimes being a guy is frustrating, because if you're not like a typical male, the actions and patterns of typical males make you want to rip your organs out in a fit of rage, shrieking profanities. in that light, i'd like to offer a few pointers to all you guys out there who still think the phrase "SO WAHT ARE U WARING" will win you the favor of any woman, especially online.

1. for god's sake, use a fucking spell check. literacy is your friend and makes you appear more intelligent, which is becoming increasingly more important in a woman's eyes. they can get a brawny dipshit anywhere. dare to present yourself well.
2. "do u wanna fuck" = REALLY lame attempt. can't you do a little better than that? this is an indication of your penchant for immediate gratification. i've laid groundwork for up to six months leading to the seduction of a woman i desired. LEARN SOME PATIENCE.
3. incessantly steering conversation towards sex makes you reek of desperation. and in fact, that sort of desperation implies that you need to be validated... which makes you sound like you have a little dick. you may someday discover that being able to engage a woman in conversation that doesn't center around your penis from time to time will get a much better response.
4. you are not god's gift to women. so don't assume a girl will be interested in you just because you may have taken the initiative to talk to her.
5. don't bother talking to a woman if you don't have anything interesting to say. all that small talk shit is worthless. they've heard it all before, and from much better looking and more interesting guys than you.
6. women are as unpredictable as the weather, and therefore not necessarily subject to formulaic approaches. don't assume the same approach will work on all of them.
7. insecurity is apparent in everything that you do, and it's unattractive. some typical manifestations: seemingly unwavering bravado, an obvious and desperate need to impress, uncertainty regarding what course of action to take, obsession with (and the constant mention of) material possessions that you feel set you apart from the crowd.
8. don't always try to steer the conversation towards topics that you're knowledgeable about just to seem intelligent. it SCREAMS "i am insecure", or at the very least, "my knowledge is too specific for me to be interesting".
9. women who are not virgins are not "defiled" or "tainted". women who *are* shouldn't be considered more desirable just because nobody's "been there" before. this is an immature and amateurish attitude towards women and sex.
10. lying or pretending you're something you're not just to get laid is SELLING OUT to get pussy. you obviously aren't good enough to get any without deceit as a fulcrum. i would pity you if you didn't make me fucking sick.
11. it's really not that hard to tell a girl up front if your interest in her has boundaries. and then you won't seem like a piece of shit when you reach those boundaries.
12. a girl is not obligated to kiss you or provide you with ANY sort of sexual gratification under any circumstances WHATSOEVER, no matter what. get over your ego. you don't deserve SHIT. nobody does. you are not special.
13. emotional retardation is universal. guys apparently don't seem to understand women's emotions. women don't understand most guys' lack thereof. open up a little, for fuck's sake. being afraid to open up emotionally denotes fear.
14. the majority of human beings seek out other human beings, subconsciously or otherwise, with the intent of feeling better about themselves. you may want to question your pursuit of another for any purpose if this applies to you.

I could go on and on and on, but i don't feel like it. keep in mind that, like all rules and guidelines, these have exceptions. But remember, exceptions don't rule out the possibility that you're a douchebag. so you might want to work on yourself or your technique a little. thank you. drive through.