Monday, June 29, 2009

Cellular service, and the lack thereof

I have been a loyal, yet frustrated, customer of AT&T (nee Cingular) Wireless for almost eight years now. In an average year, my household will spend in excess of $2,000 on access and service charges, messaging, etc.; not to mention new hardware every 2 years or so as devices fail.

My contract is about to expire in two more weeks.

My frustration with them stems from the fact that my house location is less-than-optimal in relation to the wireless towers. Multipath distortion, picket-fencing, signal occlusion, and traffic density (the closest tower fronts I-95) all conspire to limit the phone's effectiveness at my residence. I have been complaining to them regularly, in boring detail about their failures, for the last couple of hardware cycles...ever since I had to go all-digital.

All to no avail.

So, when a new technology popped onto the market a couple of years ago (Femtocells, aka Microcells), I offered to be a tester. Yes, it was a nakedly selfish attempt at improving my cell service. No, it didn't work. No luck in 2007, nor in 2008. I was even willing to buy the hardware and told them so.

Fast forward to 2009. I gave AT&T one more opportunity to keep my business. They will actually be marketing Microcells soon (30-90 days). Would they sell one to me?

Nope. I am not an iPhone customer.

They are not sure when they will release the Microcell in my area. Would I like to buy 5 more phones and lock myself into another 2 years of service? We promise you that you will like the new shiny stuff better and won't notice the fact you are losing business due to dropped calls. Honest...

So to heck with them. AT&T, you can kiss my backside.

Hello, Verizon? Want some business? You phones better work, or I will kick you to the curb too within 30 days and get my money back. Because, SPRINT will be happy to sell me a femtocell to improve service at my home. Their customer service is worse than AT&T's though so they are bottom of my list.

For now.

Pax,

Newbius

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