Good Riddance To Bad Cell Carriers...

[wolfwings]

...Verizon is no longer having anything whatsoever to do with any phone calls I make.

I'm not on T-Mobile, amusingly though NOT with a Sidekick. Got a Razr of all things so I could use it to wirelessly connect my laptop to the internet (which I'm using to post this from Terminal 4 of LAX outside the Quantas Arrival Gate ATM) and as evidenced by this post it works well. The screen is readable, the phone is a little tempermental about operating inside heavilly-fortified buildings but works quite well otherwise and is nice and lightweight. Thankfully I can avoid being a trendsetter since 90% of the time my phone will stay in my backpack holster, accessed through the wonders of BlueTooth. Huzzah for a phone that actually supports all of the god-damn specification instead of the restricted-crap Verizon shovels out by the bucketload.

And the best part? It's an unlocked SIM-based quad-band model I'm in the process of completely de-branding, so if I ever get the chance to go visit Australia or England, I just pick up a local SIM card, slot it, and away I go. Just need to order a replacement battery-compartment cover from Motorola to remove the laser-etched T-Mobile logo on the back of my phone and finish uploading the replacement images to change the T-Mobile icons back to Motorola defaults and I'll have a completely plain Razr.

I'll try to refrain from performing open-parts-surgery to replace (not cover) the shell with a dark forest green one. For now. =^.^=

And the best part? One-year contracts, and the phones were nearly free so my mom said to pounce on it. She got one that was much smaller, and had a better camera, but lacked BlueTooth since her laptop doesn't have that feature, but hers can still tranfers files with a standard USB cable, no muss, no fuss, no secondary charges.

Now if I can just figure out a way to use the cell-phone as a live webcam. It already lets me transfer video-clips and the like without issue at least.

Comments

Sidekicks

[catwoman69y2k.livejournal.com]

I really like the sidekicks but of course TMobile did something that not many have done. They locked the phone so that it can only be used for Tmobile (even if you manage to unlock it, a Sidekick still cant be used for data because it only responds to the Tmobile data center).

Re: Sidekicks

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

Actually it's very common in the United States to lock all cellular devices to a single carrier by the carriers. And the Sidekicks will work at phones and SMS devices (alphanumeric pagers) on any network, but only T-Mobile is linked into the Danger data network, which is what the Sidekicks communicate on for their data, they're not GPRS like, for example, my cell phone. =^.^=

Re: Sidekicks

[catwoman69y2k.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I mean. I like the sidekicks but Im on cingular service. The current phone unit I have is pretty universal and was unlocked. However I ahve seen it sold both at Cingular and Verizon.

Kat

[thespatula.livejournal.com]

Wow. what did verizon do to annoy you? they are my absolute favourite. I have seen too many people screwed over by sprint and tmobile...

Well...

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

...more than three times we've had to call them up and bitch because they try to change either me or my mom's plans over to their 'latest and greatest' and keep claiming their old plan that she was on is no longer in their system and they can't change it back. And then tried to claim that locked us into another two-year contract and it'd cost us $175 to break it per phone and the salesman told us the plan I was on included nationwide free roaming, and suddenly our bills would have $50 in roaming charges at $0.60/minute tacked on mid-way through the contract near the end...

Yeah, we're both annoyed at Verizon. T-Mobile? $100/month for two phones including unlimited data-mode use for mine that doesn't use minutes and has no bandwidth cap.

And I've seen many people screwed over by T-Mobile about two years ago, but for comparison their tech support helped walk me through setting up the Bluetooth link for modem and file transfer use to help me change the T-Mobile branding to what I wanted, and the first-level tech support was able to get me up and running despite some really odd errors we ran across. They were actually fairly well-versed in the tech. So either I got someone that should have been Level 3, or their Level 1 TS is actually worth a damn now. =^.^=

[lionman.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking seriously about getting one of the RAZR phones, and there's a new 1500 minute plan for $40/month out there...so, it'd not cost me an arm and a leg, provided I can find a good deal on a RAZR.

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

This Razr (yes I refuse to all-caps it) only cost us about $150 w/ $50 mail-in rebate with a one-year contract through T-Mobile.

[mira-fastfire.livejournal.com]

What did Verizon do to piss you off? They're the only service I'm aware of that covers Boulder Creek.

Well...

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

...they have repeatedly told us we wouldn't get charged for X, then later charged us for X, usually a large amount. Roaming being one example, and when we asked to have it corrected they said we'd have to sign up for another 2 year contract from that date, and my mom would have to lose the plan she was on to do so which would have nearly doubled our monthly bill for an equivilant 'currently available' plan, among the other stuff I listed in more detail in reply to Niki's query of the same question.

We've been given the run-around, tagged with numerous 'gotchas' in the past by them, and given run-arounds like having insurance sold to us on phones that were valued at less than the deductable for the insurance plan they sold us, and that included such gotchas as having to return the broken phone to get the same model back, otherwise having to pick from their currently-available line of equal or lesser value (and not getting the difference refunded or anything like that) despite the fact that our plans list which model of phone we bought since our plans are tied to those specific phones.

And yeah, I know it means I may not get service when I visit your place, but I've almost never had to use the phone once I actually got up to your place so I'll try to bear with it, hon. *snugs* BTW, I'm going to be out of town until just before Christmas, sweety. =^.^= Long story short, Larry and Misty (ask your mom who that is if you don't know, I think she'll know) asked me and a couple other folks over to help clean their place before they get it appraised for a refinance, and they're paying for my gas to get out there so I said yes.