My One and Only iPhone Post
Enough is enough. Dear media, Please get off Uncle Job’s lap and report some real news. Yes, I realize that the opportunity to buy one of the most overpriced, underwhelming, overhyped phones in history with the worst performing, most overpriced and least privacy-rights-supporting mobile service providers in the country is oh-so tempting, but move on.
iPhone? YouTool!
You posted this from your place in line, didn’t you?
http://theappleblog.com/2007/06/29/iphone-campout-live-blog/
No, you’d have to pay me to be in line or to own an iPhone and only then, with the realization that I’d be eBay it moments later. 🙂
What services are better for supporting privacy rights? My company is probably going to be changing from AT&T, because the service has gone right down the toilet since the changeover, and that would be a plus. Verizon and T-Mobile are the front-runners right now, just for coverage area.
Whether you know it or not you’re already on the right track. When major privacy concerns started popping up, Verizon and T-Mobile both told the feds to come back with warrants (AT&T trading some lucrative government deals in exchange for open access to their (i.e. your) data). Furthermore, Verizon and T-Mobile also went after cell phone record pre-texters in civil courts.
Verizon is known for having a somewhat better network than T-Mobile but I’ve had better pricing and customer support from T-Mobile (though I’ve only dealt with their Blackberry, Sidekick and other Smart Phone services).
I have a personal bias against Sprint because of their dubious billing practices (back billing, refusing to cancel services and outright fraudulent charges), but some people swear by them.
Cingular used to be good but they’ve been all but dismantled and neutered by AT&T (think Mindspring to Earthlink).
Hope this is helpful.
I loved T-Mobile, but for complicated reasons had to go to Cingulair. My coverage is better, but the policies are really stupid.
Cingular was actually a satisfactory mobile provider, but when AT&T decided to reabsorb them things went rapidly downhill. Ironic really after the huge amounts of money spent on making Cingular such a powerful and easily recognizable brand in the highly competitive mobile phone service industry.
I liked Cingular, but since being taken over by AT&T, we’ve had nothing but problems. Less coverage in areas that previously were fine (I don’t know how that happens, did they actually deactivate some of their towers?), and a lot more dropped calls and calls that simply went to voice mail instead of going through. So, we’re getting ready to change from AT&T, I need to hit a T-Mobile store and a Verizon store to see the coverage areas.
T-Mobile’s street level coverage maps online: http://compass.t-mobile.com/Default.aspx
Same ones they use in their stores. I get reliable data down to about 2 bars, sometimes 1.