The acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T isn’t a big surprise. They both use the same technology (GSM), T-Mobile had no real 4G plan, and T-Mobile’s coverage is awful. I considered switching to T-Mobile from Verizon a little over a year ago so I could buy unlocked smartphones, but then I carried around a burner for a couple of weeks and made a few calls. What a miserable experience that was — once you’re used to Verizon having signal everywhere, the experience of “no signal” and dropped calls on T-Mobile is a real wake-up. When I studied T-Mobile’s network, it was clear that they weren’t building new towers at any kind of a reasonable clip, so it was only a matter of time for someone to either buy them and go on a building spree, or to put them in the grave. It turns out that AT&T played the role of grim reaper here.
If I had to bet on the next acquisition, it will be Verizon buying Sprint. Both have a CDMA network and Sprint’s WiMax 4G strategy makes them the odd man out, with AT&T and Verizon both using LTE for 4G.
Since T-Mobile and Sprint provide the only real competition in the wireless market, which isn’t much, I expect an unprecedented round of customer rape will follow in the next couple of years. My wireless bill is already the biggest monthly bill I pay (except for occasional winter heating bills), and there’s no regulation in sight, so I expect that the market will dictate that Verizon and AT&T make record profits for the next few years.
Brandon
If there was meant to be any competition, wouldn’t
godthe free market have given us any?You’re just bitter that AT&T and Verizon are the best at what they do and are being rewarded for their superior Galtian genius. As an AT&T customer, I can tell you that my customer satisfaction is 100%.
MattF
Well, you can always rely on Comcast for your data needs. Magic of the market. Ha ha.
debit
I am grandfathered in on my current plan with At&T. I don’t use my iphone as phone much, so couldn’t care less about my minutes, but I do use the data and am one of the lucky ones with an actual unlimited data plan. If that changes, I guess I’ll get to find out what life without my iphone is like.
Brandon
@MattF: What I don’t get is that surely the Sherman Antitrust Act is still on the books. So how the hell are we getting right back to where we started nearly 100 years ago? Rule of law my arse!
Ahasuerus
I think your analysis is pretty much spot on. The only wrinkle is that AT&T and T-Mobile use different (non-interoperable) frequencies for their 3G offerings, and managing the mismatch will make for an interesting future. My guess is that the T-Mobile variants will fade out over the next few years as T-Mobile plans expire and those customers are encouraged to “upgrade” to offerings supported by the current AT&T network.
It’s a shame, really. I’ve been a T-Mobile customer for the past decade, ever since they were the first to offer the Palm Treo line of smartphones. And now I have to chose between Scylla and Charybdis. O happy day.
Punchy
At which point they’ll be due for huge tax cut.
Sprint is dead as can be. It got in-laws that work for them, and trust me, everyone at the company knows it. They know they’ll be bought out, they just dont know by whom.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Which is why I prefer life without wireless strings. I have better things to do than spend hard earned money on something that is little more than a waste of my time.
I spend it on a killer broadband connection. :)
grillo
I am a t-mobile customer by virtue of t-moblie having bought my previous carrier.
It is true that the network sux, but, if you are like me, and are always in some kind of metro area AND you take advantage of the wifi feature, it’s fine.
Oh, what wifi feature, you say.
Well, if you have a capable phone on the t-mobile network, if you are within range of ANY wifi hotspot that works, like one in your house, or at work, or a cafe or hotel or whatever, it uses the wifi connection to tunnel all traffic. All your voice calls, all your text messages, and, of course, data. And it’s free. Your voice calls are all free, all the time, if you are using wifi.
I have trouble believing AT and T will be offering that.
mistermix
@Ahasuerus: Don’t most of their phones roam on AT&T’s frequency (850 Mhz) ? I’ll bet AT&T will start taking down redundant towers ASAP.
4tehlulz
I look forward to Tracfone moving into the smartphone market.
rickstersherpa
This will obviously lead to a Verizon/AT&T Duopoly. And that won’t be good for service or price, espcially with the Republicans running interference for them in Congress.
gene108
Sigh…the T-Mobile chick, who did the recent T.V. ads is really hot…I’m going to miss seeing her in the T-Mobile commercials…
RossInDetroit
I have Verizon and my wife has T-Mobile. Her phone works outdoors, near freeways. Mine has worked everywhere I’ve been for 3.5 years except the bottom of a valley in the Adirondacks and right up under the copper roof of a church. But Verizon is more expensive and I hate talking on the phone.
JGabriel
I’ve always liked T-Mobile. In my experience, they have excellent customer service, as opposed to the stick a hot poker up your ass, rip out your innards, search it for coinage, and dance a Satanic ritual on your corpse approach to customer service favored by Verizon.
So I’m very annoyed to learn that they’re going to be assimilated by AT&T, whose appraoch to customer relations favors the Verizon method, from what I hear.
I’m kind of hoping that the FCC rejects the merger.
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RossInDetroit
Our cell phones at work are T-Mobile because it’s cheap and they have the 2-way radio gimmick. Downside: no signal inside a lot of buildings. By definition, our work takes place inside buildings. It’s not unusual to step near a door and have your phone suddenly light up with a dozen missed calls and voicemails. I use my Verizon phone for work calls to avoid the delay and voicemails, which I hate more than actual calls.
JGabriel
@Brandon:
Treating their customers the way Tea Party Republicans treat Mexicans?
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Just Some Fuckhead
I could hardly ever get a call with T-mobile which was really great. I miss that.
Brandon
@mistermix: I don’t know how easy that would be. As far as I understand, most towers are tower share-lease arrangements with third parties. So they are going to need to terminate a lot of lease agreements. Which I guess is just one more cost to pass on to consumers on top of the premium they paid.
Corporations are awash with money these days, particularly those that make their profit the good old fashioned way… rent seeking. I expect that we will see a lot of M&A activity going forward across a lot of sectors for the next few years and all to the detriment to consumers. FIRE excepted of course, because everyone knows they are hiding a lot of toxic sh*t under the rug and are going to need many more years of the Fed giving them free money to sell back to the plebes for profit.
Napoleon
@gene108:
She is. I swear she looks like the girl on the Stone Temple Pilots “Gifts from the Vatican Gift Shop” but she has to be too young to have been the same person.
JGabriel
Hep me, I’ve been modereratered! It’s all bright red ‘n’ shit!
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MTiffany
Brings back (awful) memories of Frontier Cellular…
gelfling545
Granted I live in an urban area and don’t stray far from home often but T-Mobile has been fine for my non-smart phone. One town near here is a veritable pit for cell phone reception but my phone does ok. My son-in-law gave up his sprint phone when he couldn’t get calls in his own home and his T-Mobile phone seems to be doing the job there. I guess the area you are in has a lot to do with it. Also customer service at T-Mobile has been miles better than either sprint or Verizon. I have internet through Verizon and get a headache at the thought of calling them.
campionrules
I have the all inclusive plan through Sprint and I have to say I’ve been pretty happy with it so far – 4 months or so. Both the missus and I are on the plan for 129/month, only about 20 dollars more than I was paying for a AT T family plan that didn’t have a data plan attached to it. Additionally, Sprint’s bill is the easiest thing in the world to read and because my wife works in law enforcement, we receive a 19 percent monthly discount – which about eliminates all the taxes and fees.
And, even though I couldn’t believe it, the all inclusive plan really is all inclusive – heh, I used 3.2 gigs of data last month.
RossInDetroit
Reminds me of the first iPhone rollout with AT&T. An early adopter friend loved the device but hated that it only connected in one room in his house – the guest bathroom. Until I learned this was the problem I thought the iPhone had built in echo.
campionrules
And although I’ve heard some pretty bad reports of Sprint customer service, I haven’t had to experience that yet. Maybe that will be a pain. I did get a LG optimus for free though when I signed up and I don’t know how I lived without a smart phone before. Total dark ages.
JGabriel
gelfling545:
Ditto. Maybe T-Mobile’s coverage is not so great for the more rural bound among us, but for my purposes — NYC and the occasional trip to PA — it’s fine. And the thought of calling Verizon always fills me with an incoherent rage … for some reason.
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campionrules
@grillo: In fact, AT & T is bringing the hammer down on what they consider to be pirated tethering. If you jail break a phone and then tether it to a free wifi hot spot, AT & T will warn you and then if they catch you still doing it will enroll you in a higher data plan.
RossInDetroit
My wife is switching to Virgin because it’s a little cheaper than T-Mobile, has unlimited TXT and data, she can use a Blackberry and the Blackberry email app will aggregate all of her email accounts into one. Makes sense, but we’ll see how good the coverage is.
Corner Stone
@RossInDetroit: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m starting to get the general sense that you prefer to not use the phone very much.
Bill Cole
Huh? They sure have been marketing like they had one. Their TV ads have a fetching young lady in a magenta motorcycle suit babbling extensively about 4G and their network coverage website leads, follows, and closes with 4G.
What’s most funny is that those TV ads have also featured a Hodgmanesque character representing the AT&T network, always holding back his poor callow buddy the iPhone. I guess the next ad will show the hot chick and the schlump getting married.
Binky
I always love to hear the T-Mobile bashing from Verizon customers. I’ve had T-Mobile for years and years and certainly don’t suffer from this horrible coverage situation that I keep hearing about. Plus, I typically get data rates around 4 Gbps, much faster than my AT&T DSL connection at home.
Oh, and I pay much less per month I would with Verizon and AT&T.
Corner Stone
AT&T is absolutely awful in buildings in downtown Houston. With Sprint a very close second. You’ll see guys leaning against a window trying to keep the signal.
Both T-Mobile and Verizon are pretty decent. Verizon starts dropping as you leave the city but T-Mobile seems good in all the suburbs.
Dennis SGMM
My wife, son, and I are in a Verizon family plan. No data and we rarely use more than thirty minutes a month so the cost is reasonable. I am confident that the efficiencies that will be generated when Verizon Borgs Sprint – not to mention the layoffs of thousands of redundant personnel – will result in our paying no more than twice as much for the same service.
Corner Stone
So it was the Brits who popped one off at Gaddafi’s compound last night. MSNBC says, “English missile narrowly misses Gaddafi”.
I’m having fun imagining a cruise missile with an accent and the English characteristic for understatement.
JGabriel
RossInDetroit:
Modified for clarity.
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Tone in DC
@Brandon:
I truly hope this is snark. AT&T’s customer service and business practices are what made me switch to T-Mobile years ago.
Corner Stone
@Dennis SGMM:
So you all hate each other then?
JGabriel
@Corner Stone:
“Sorry, old chap, but this is going to hurt you more than it hurts me”?
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Dennis SGMM
@Corner Stone:
Quite the contrary: we prefer to talk to each other face to face. We’re old fashioned that way. Cell phones are for flat tires, running late and “Hey, Dad, can you pick me up at work?”
Corner Stone
@JGabriel: “Sorry old bean, I was looking for the tennis courts.”
RossInDetroit
@JGabriel:
That wasn’t me.
Corner Stone
@JGabriel: “Hmmm, frightful mess I seem to have made, what?”
“Oh bother!”
Corner Stone
@Dennis SGMM: You “talk” to the people you’re related to? Damn, kickin’ it old school!
30 minutes for 3 just seemed a little tight. I spend more than that just chatting with my parole officer.
Dennis SGMM
@Corner Stone:
“No one expects the No-fly Zone! Our two weapons are cruise missiles and fighter aircraft. Our three weapons are cruise missiles, fighter aircraft and bombers. Amongst are weapons are…”
JGabriel
@RossInDetroit: Oops. Too late to edit. Apologies to you and campionrules.
RossInDetroit
@Corner Stone:
I find that most of my communication can be accomplished through TXT, interrupting neither party and consuming a fraction of the time. If discussion is required, face to face is superior to half-duplex voice only over the phone. Reaching for the phone is a reflex that I’m struggling to extinguish in the world so I can get a little peace.
Dennis SGMM
@Corner Stone:
Heh! Son is autistic and he still lives with us. My wife and I will have been married thirty two years this April. We formed our bad habits before there were cell phones.
JGabriel
@Corner Stone:
That’s a special bond, though.
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campionrules
@JGabriel:
Heh – I accept the edit for clarity and truth.
Ryan
I’ve lived in the Congo where the average yearly income is something like 50 dollars. Everyone has a cell phone.
I’m currently in Vienna, Austria and can get internet, home phone, and wireless for 25 Euros per month.
Every time I live in the States, I am shocked by how awful their service is and how much it costs.
Hopefully, we’ll keep cutting regulation until our corporate overlords start creating jobs. It’s only logic!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ryan:
Fuckers are prolly eating tbone steaks and watching big screen teevees too.
JGabriel
Damn, who does a guy have to blow around here to get a comment out of moderation hell? It’s been sitting there for 45 minutes, probably due to a perfectly cromulent description of Verizon’s Beelzebubian (Beelzububic?) customer relations.
Edited to Add: Thank you! It’s out now.
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The Dangerman
@gene108:
My first reaction, too. Scorchin’. Though Angel from the DirectTV commercials will be a fine replacement in the commercial zone (with the Girl From 4E being a runnerup).
Just Some Fuckhead
@JGabriel:
I can’t promise anything..
Dennis SGMM
@Ryan:
But it’s Star Spangled Service™ and no foreigners could possibly do better.
Corner Stone
@The Dangerman: And a hot tub!
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
Corner Stone: I think it’s time to repost Fighting Trousers from the other day.
jibeaux
I don’t know anything about this stuff, but what network does Tracfone use? I got my son a prepaid Tracfone for emergencies, he’s just a lil dude but at $20 for the phone and about $20 worth of minutes every three months it was worth the piece of mind. When I couldn’t get my husband at Disneyworld (AT & T), I called my son and it went through just fine, crystal clear. Just wondering.
Southern Beale
My FA recommended I buy Verizon stock last year, one of the only recommendations I’ve ever gotten from those folks that actually was correct. The stock has steadily increased and not all of it is related to the long-rumored/finally implemented Verizon-iPhone deal.
Southern Beale
Oh yeah, and see how deregulation is always a winner for customers?
/snark
Omnes Omnibus
@Dennis SGMM: Traveling through Europe last summer, I saw people using their phones in the metros in Paris and Rome, but I am sure our service is better ‘cuz it’s American.
Dennis SGMM
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s the bestest in the world but, a few tax breaks for the carriers would make it much, much better.
4tehlulz
@jibeaux: IIRC, nearest available tower, could be wrong though.
My wife and I both have Tracfones. We love them. If they made a basic smartphone with low-power apps (read: no games) I would be all over that.
JGabriel
@Southern Beale:
No, part of it is due to worshipping Satan and all his minions via blood sacrifices of fawns, lambs, puppies and bunnies.
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JD_PhD
Why does CDMA matter anymore? I’m not sure there’s enough time left in that protocol for it to make sense for VW to acquire Sprint on that account.
Fuck U6: A More Accurate Measure of the Total Amount of Duck-Fuckery in the Economy
Also, too: There is a Times op-ed from the 19th titled “Teaching to the Text Message” that has me contemplating suicide. The hesitation wounds are gettin blood on the keyboard.
Southern Beale
Heard about Another day in our glorious war ….. U.S. media won’t talk about it but Der Spiegel published the photos.
Note from where one of the soldiers hails … Wasilla. Sarah must be so proud.
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@Brandon:
You’re just bitter that AT&T and Verizon are the best at what they do and are being rewarded for their superior Galtian genius.
I find it funny that “The Phone Company” had to be broken up because of its unnatural monopoly: And after 29 years of the resulting pieces buying each other up over time, we will now have… a DUOPOLY!
Progress.
Woodrowfan
I like Verizon’s service but yeah, it’s expensive. But I own some Verizon stock. Not much though., If I sold it all it’d cover a couple month’s cell bills. I guess we just need to have faith in the magic of the free market!!!! (/sarcasm)
Southern Beale
Speaking of the stock market, someone must have burped because the Dow Jones is zooming back up again. Dow likey war!
Southern Beale
@JGabriel:
Well that has certainly been effective at our house … /sarcasm
Linda Featheringill
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
#7:
“killer broadband connection.”
I agree. I was forced into a good service because of my job and now I wouldn’t want to give it up for anything.
I can hunker down here in an out-of-the-way part of Ohio and still be in touch with folks everywhere! Amazing!
Sentient Puddle
Guys, we’re missing something fundamentally important here. If the lady from these T-Mobile commercials really is that fetching, we need links.
Parrotlover77
Everybody likes to beat up on Sprint, but I’ve had my best mobile experience with them. Their network is, IMHO, better than AT&T, but shy of Verizon. However, Sprint and Verizon can roam on each other’s network and roaming is free, so really it’s almost as good as Verizon’s network. (Almost because it prefers a one-bar Sprint tower to a four-bar Verizon tower.)
I’ve literally never had a dropped call (but I don’t do a whole lot of voice). When driving down I-95, I listen to internet radio the whole way. It stutters in a few areas, but even the non-3G internet is fast enough for streaming audio (unlike GSM).
And, best of all, unlimited actually means unlimited.
This is an interesting announcement because just a few weeks ago a Sprint rep was telling me that Sprint was looking into buying T-Mobile and going dual band. But, AT&T has deeper pockets, it seems. Still, I hope that the fact that Sprint was looking to buy another mobile is a good sign of the company’s health. If Verizon buys Sprint, we’re all fucked in the mobile market.
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@JD_PhD:
Why does CDMA matter anymore?
CDMA is faster than GSM, has better noise rejection (especially multi-path, i.e. if you’re in the “urban canyon”), and its handoff protocol as you move from tower to tower is superior (less likely to drop the call as you move).
If you spend most of your time in cities and/or near major highways, you’re better off with Sprint or Verizon.
I’m not sure there’s enough time left in that protocol for it to make sense for VW to acquire Sprint on that account.
CDMA will eventually be replaced by 4G. But then again, so will GSM. Then folks will be arguing about LTE versus WiMax with the same vigor.
Linda Featheringill
@gelfling545:
#22
I have Windstream and am quite pleased with it. Nice people. If that’s available to you, you might look into it.
burnspbesq
@debit:
I had a grandfathered unlimited data plan, and I was initially pretty annoyed that I would have to give it up in order to use my iPhone as a hotspot.
Them I looked at my bills for the last six months, and saw that my highest data usage in any month was < 1 gigabyte.
The 4 gigabyte data plan is more expensive than the old unlimited plan (which didn't surprise me or freak me out; as a frequent business traveler, incomprehensible pricing is something I deal with every week), but on a net basis, after shutting off my Virgin Mobile hotspot, I am paying less for mobile data access.
The moral of the story is don't assume that unlimited is the only way to go.
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone:
Maybe it uses that weird Cockney rhyming slang. Like, “Eh, bruv, booze whistle up yer bum, rite.”
FlipYrWhig
@Sentient Puddle: Just picture a younger and slightly messier Anne Hathaway.
MattR
@Sentient Puddle: Your wish, my command.
gene108
I can’t wait for Verizon and AT&T to merge, therefore eliminating whatever inefficiencies exist because of competition.
burnspbesq
@RossInDetroit:
Read the fine print re Virgin’s “unlimited” data plan.
R-Jud
@FlipYrWhig: I would think a missile would be hardcore Scouse. Possibly even Scottish. None of this soft-handed, shandy-drinking southerner stuff.
Corner Stone
@MattR: I wouldn’t mind tappin’ dat azz!
Wait…did we decide “I’d hit that!” or “Tap dat ass!” was the more respectful term when sexually objectifying another person?
This New Era of Civility is hard.
gbear
Crap. I’m still using a Nokia 6010 that I bought 6 years ago and buying minutes from T-Mobile rather than paying for a monthly plan. I’ve been getting by for what averages out to about $5/month (obviously, my cell phone is not the center of my life). I hope the merger doesn’t bring an end to my cheap service.
Southern Beale
The young guy in the 4G ads looks like Ashton Kutcher with a bad dye job.
What is up with that hair color?
NonyNony
Crap. I switched to T-Mobile pay-as-you-go to get away from AT&T’s crappy-ass “customer service”.
I imagine that AT&T will fuck-up T-Mobile’s pay-as-you-go plan now, like they did their own pay-as-you-go plan. And I’m going to be looking for another phone. I’ve been really happy with T-Mobile’s coverage and service for the small amount of money I pay. I can generally pay about $100 every 5 months for cell-only service.
Probably have to start looking at Tracfones now. I imagine someone will buy them next if only to kill them.
burnspbesq
@JD_PhD:
If you live or work in a place like NYC where AT&T’s service is le suck, and if you don’t travel internationally, CDMA is not obsolete.
Corner Stone
@R-Jud: From all the HGTV’s House Hunters Int’l I’ve watched I think the first thing it would say would be, “Brilliant!”
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@Parrotlover77:
This is an interesting announcement because just a few weeks ago a Sprint rep was telling me that Sprint was looking into buying T-Mobile and going dual band.
IMO a big reason AT&T went ahead and bought T-mobile was to prevent Sprint from buying it.
I half expect Sprint to try and block the sale.
gene108
@FlipYrWhig: With a bit of Liv Tyler, circa Empire Records, thrown in.
FlipYrWhig
@gene108: Actually, that’s a better call than mine.
@Corner Stone: And end every remark with “Isn’t it?”
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Some of the comments in this thread are Pure. Comedy. Gold.
Martin
There will be more consolidation. Sprint will either go under or get bought.
Infrastructure is incredibly expensive and competition in standards is not needed. We need a single national wireless standard and network, leased out to the providers. They can compete on 100 different metrics other than the communication standard. Why we are so incredibly dense at grasping this point continually escapes me.
gbear
One of the other things I liked about T-Mobile was that they were the only phone company to ask the Bush administration why they needed to monitor every fucking phone call anyone made. All of the other phone companies complied no-questions-asked. IIRC, T-Mobile asked a few questons and the Bushies backed off.
Ahasuerus
@mistermix: I’m pretty sure that T-Mobile phones can roam on the AT&T voice frequencies, but not on data.
Thought – after the merger, AT&T may have access to the T-Mobile data frequencies, which are the ones used by the rest of the GSM world. That might allow an eventual unification between the AT&T and Global GSM frequency hegemonies.
Triassic Sands
I don’t own a cell phone and I doubt I ever will (I won’t, unless for some currently unforeseeable reason I have no choice). Still, my hatred of AT&T runs deep and if ever there was a “phone company” that deserved to go out of business, it seems like AT&T had as good a claim as any. Yet, they’re still out there making life miserable for millions of people.
But that is the genius of the US — first, breed a population full of mindless consumers; then offer lousy service and high prices. In place of good service and inexpensive prices substitute endless jabbering about being the greatest country on Earth. Then, sit back and watch the profits soar.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
@Corner Stone:
Cover all the bases – “I’d hit that thing like Mike Tyson working a speed bag” is by far the most respectful phrase I know.
Brachiator
@mistermix:
Apparently it surprised Sprint, which previously had been in talks to buy T-Mobile.
It’s also interesting to see that ATT’s $39 billion offer is a huge premium over analysts’ valuation of the company.
It is also interesting to note in passing, how ATT has claimed that it might have to raise rates and throttle back on service because people were taxing its resources with streaming videos, etc. But, typically, they find the money for acquisition deals.
singfoom
Gah,
I switched to T-Mobile so I could jailbreak my iPhone 2G and get away from AT&T’s absolute blackhole in the block that I live on.
They absorb T-Mobile and my JB iPhone dies. Jerks.
Hopefully this won’t happen before June/July so I can check out that Verizon open network iPhone 4G.
andy
This is yet another reason I won’t have a cellphone. Our uniquely American love of corruption ensures we pay through the nose for poor service and a poor product while the rest of the world enjoys their cheap reliable Socialized cellular telephony.
Patrick
@grillo: Right, T-Mobile UMA. It’s the one killer feature of t-mobile. I have the lowest minute plan available on t-mobile. I rack up 2500 free UMA minutes a month while using less than 200 charagable minutes.
Any other plan, I fall into the “unlimited calling”.
My theory is – ATT will keep UMA technology since it does in fact offload bandwidth. They’ll just charge for the minutes or jack up the monthly cost to use this feature.
TheF79
The fact that the telephone industry just keeps trending towards monopoly shouldn’t be too surprising. When we discuss natural monopolies in class, students always ask why utilities are regulated with rate of return rate setting while phone service is not, because the underyling economics are pretty similar (high capital costs, near zero marginal costs, inelastic demand). Basically a recipe for consumer bone-age.
SIA
This is not good news. I’ve had T-Mobile since the early 90’s when they were AirTouch Cellular. T-Mobile has been great, never a problem. I hate, hate, hate AT&T and will switch to…hmmmm…someone else, as soon as the contract stranglehold expires, sometime in 2022. AAARRRGGGGG.
JGabriel
@Southern Beale:
Actually, I meant Verizon’s CEO and executives. No offense intended toward you or its other non-voting(?) stockholders.
.
Brachiator
@TheF79:
Would cellphones and smartphones even exist had the telcos not been deregulated? Would the Internet exist the way it does now had the telcos not been deregulated?
There was a time when everyone rented their phones from the telephone company. You couldn’t buy them, let alone customize them or jailbreak them. And you could have a wall phone, a desk phone or a Princess phone. That was pretty much it.
This is not to say that deregulation has been an unalloyed good for consumers. But any discussion of the economics of telcos has to factor in their transformation since over the past 40 plus years, as well as the impact of cable, computers, etc.
KXB
My boss used to be with T-Mobile, when he had just an ordinary cellphone. We had no problems with it, and coverage nation-wide was terrific. Then, when we decided to consolidate our different communication services under one company, we went with AT&T. On paper, they offered the most competitive plan and coverage.
My boss switched to Blackberry, and one of our veeps chose an IPhone. Once we officially switched, we found that coverage was really poor in southern CA, where our Veep works from. When our boss heads out there, he often cannot get a signal when indoors on his Blackberry.
In Chicago, we have a mid-sized company called US Cellular, which I have always been very happy with. It’s most attractive feature is free incoming calls (like a landline). It has made a name for itself by tagetting consumers who will not be spending most of their time travelling across the country, but still want the convenience of a cellphone.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@RossInDetroit: This is where I am at. The only thing that is worse than a phone conversation is someone who leaves voicemail instead of texting or emailing. The overhead to check voicemail is just a waste of my time and irritating as hell. So I don’t. I just get back to them via phone/text/email to ask why they called.
KXB
@Barb (formerly Gex):
Gotta disagree – I hate it when people call and don’t leave a message. I then can’t tell if the call needs to be returned right away or not. Especially for work, leaving me a voicemail allows me first to gather the information a client or co-worker is requesting, then calling them back information in hand.
burnspbesq
@Triassic Sands:
Then why inject yourself into a conversation that, by your own definition, is irrelevant to you?
Barb (formerly Gex)
@KXB: But that’s if they just hang up and don’t give you a text or email. Of course, people are encouraged not to call me in the first place, so they aren’t taken aback by needing to text or email.
I’ve been trained not to care about phone calls because my mom is the kind of person who if she calls me when I can’t take the call will hang up without leaving a message. Then she’ll call my girlfriend. Then she’ll call me back again, still no message. Finally, when I can call her, it is some dumb question of no urgency. I used to interpret the frantic need to reach me as a sign of urgency. Never is.
ETA: I’m sure someday it will be an emergency, but how would I tell by the behavior?
Corner Stone
@Yevgraf (fka Michael): And you see, I always thought this was the witty repartee a buddy would say back to me. Like this:
Me: Ouch! Damn I’d hit that!
Buddy: Damn skippy! I’d hit that thing like Mike Tyson working a speed bag!
Me: Oh yeah boy! Tappin’.Dat.Ass!
The we’d giggle a little and feel awkward for a second when we realized she’d never, ever want to have anything at all to do with us. Then we’d pop open another beer and put it on ESPN8 The Ocho.
Ruckus
@Martin:
Why we are so incredibly dense at grasping this point continually escapes me.
Missing the point seems to be an american point of pride.
Arclite
Nice reference to “The Wire“
The Raven
I think many of you hominids may end up “relying” on local free wifi networks for telecomm.
Thlayli
Y’all like that T-Mobile chick, huh?
My reaction was “They dumped Catherine Zeta-Jones for her?”
Djur
@Barb (formerly Gex): It changed my life!
Greg
T-mobile is the only carrier I can get a signal from in my near-downtown Dallas apartment. Neither Sprint or Verizon could provide that. And I don’t give a rat’s ass about 4G technology, internet access, texting or any other of that crap. My phone is for phone calls. Nothing else.
grillo
@Djur: Plus one on the google voice. Does a mountain of good. For free.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
My reaction was “OMG, she’d give a corpse an erection. Heck, she’d give a woman an erection.”
Wife thinks Zeta-Jones is a stunner, but somehow she never had the same reaction from me. To me, magenta girl was an upgrade.