T-Mobile

T-Mobile Customer Service Is Great (Today)

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I called to unlock my Sony Ericsson T-610 today. They took down some information and are emailing me the unlock instructions. No questions asked. I have been a customer on and off since Sept 2000. I have had my current account since early 2002. You would expect them to treat you right if you have been around for a while? Other carriers I have had for years didn’t, but so far T-Mobile treats me well.

If you have had an account for several months they will unlock the phone if you ask and have a good reason (for me potential travel to somewhere that I will want to put a local SIM card into my phone). Hey, I own the dam phone. They get their money back from the subsidy if I stay with them for a year, or pay the early termination fee. So why then does AT&T Wireless and Cingular not do the same thing? AT&T does not unlock for any reason. Cingular I am not so sure about.

T-Mobile also doesn’t make me extend or setup a contract for changes to my account. I have been running without a contract for over a 1 1/2. I don’t plan on changing carriers, but I would think twice about staying with T-Mobile if I called and asked to change something and they did make me sign a contract. It is the point of the matter that they (Cell phone companies) lock me in for making changes. Verizon, and AT&T were terrible about that. T-Mobile has been good so far.

To sum this post up: If you are a T-Mobile executive, don’t change your relaxed customer service approach. Customers actually do appreciate it. I for one am a loyal customer not because I am locked into a contract (i have paid $175 to break out of other companies contracts because of draconian rules, etc.), but because T-Mobile can keep me without making me sign a contract.

Honestly T-Mobile may not have the best network in NYC, but they make up for it in all the ways I stated above. Verizon in my experience (and I have tried all carriers in NYC except for Cingular) has the best coverage and network. They do, I tell people that when they ask my advice. The problem is they cannot make up for the shitty customer service, and restrictions with good voice quality. They still suck even if they have the best signal strength, because support just sucks.

HBH-65 Update

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The headset is good so far. The phone I am using with it (Sony Ericsson T610) right now sucks. You don’t really know how good or bad a phone is until you use another one in the exact same places and get totally different results. This time I used the T610 on my trip up from NYC to Kingston. On the train my Treo normally backs out allot, so did my verizon phone. In the cab from the train station I am usually able to make calls, and sometimes have spotty service. With the T610 I had almost no coverage at all on the entire trip. In the cab from the train I had no signal until I was 5 minutes from the office, and our office has a T-Mobile tower in the same building complex.

The headset worked well when I had good cell signal. No complaints from people about voice quality. I probably wont use the headset that much since the phone sucks. I am sticking with my Treo 600 for now. It actually gets a signal. Palmone, please put bluetooth on the Treo!!!

Blackberry Pagers

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My company uses several blackberry 950 pagers for our on call staff. People carry them and get automated emails when a server is having an issue. We get allot of them sometimes. Originally when we got pagers we used Skytel. They were good. Then we switched to Motient. They are good also. The coverage is great, but they just changed their pricing.

It used to be that you got unlimited email’s for $49.99 a month. Now that gives you 1 meg of downloads. You pay for everything over that. We have been going way over our quota. Our bills are upwards of $250 per pager. I have been looking for a solution for a few weeks, but my CEO asked about the bill yesterday. he was like how many pagers do I have? I explained the situation, and he agreed that a new solution should be out there.

So far all I can think of is buying Cingular or T-Mobile Blackberry phones and using their unlimited data plans for our paging. I am going to replace 1 pager with a bigger blackberry and see how it works out. It is just going to take a little time to get that setup.

This blog entry was written while listening to Mandolin Rain from the album “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby

Bluetooth, Powerbook, And A T610 = Awesome

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I have had a new Sony Ericsson T610 for a little over a week now. Actually I am on my second one. The first one’s camera stopped working on day 2, so T-Mobile gave me a new one. So far this one seems fine.

This phone is nice, but the best feature is the bluetooth. I can sync with my Powerbook while the phone is in my bag. No more entering contact information into the phone. I know I could have (and have) done this on other phones, but the sync software on the pc and the usb or ir methods sucked. This is a breeze. Setup on the powerbook was easy too. I also got GPRS dial up to work. Now I can use my T610 as a modem anywhere I get good signal while using my Powerbook. I was just checking my mail on the rail road. The phone was still in my bag. Now that is technology that works.

The only kink is that the GPRS is slow, and on the train the signal is sometimes spotty. When I get good signal the connection rocks.

Sony Ericsson T610

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My new T-Mobile phone is a new Sony Ericsson T610. It is supposed to be the upgrade to the T68i that I had. I actually still have the T68, but I am never happy with the signal strength I get on it. T-Mobile discounted the phone by %50 with a mail in rebate so I took it. I will wait till they offer the Motorola V600 and the price comes down.

So far my reviews of this phone are limited. The screen is nice. It is bright and crisp. The buttons are small and annoying like the T68i, but I can deal with that. I only used it for 2 minutes on the phone so I am not sure about voice quality or volume.

Bluetooth looks good on it. I was able to setup and pair the phone with my Powerbook in 2 minutes. I don’t know how that will work with my Thinkpad. I like that the new bluetooth devices don’t need you to specify that you want to make them discoverable. That is good for setup, but bad for security. Also nice is the fact that I don’t have a big bright blue light that is always on when bluetooth is on. My T68i did that. It was really annoying. All I have is an icon on the top of the phone screen telling me I have bluetooth on. That is all I need.

iSync with bluetooth was easy also. I dumped my entire phone book to the phone in 3 minutes. I didn’t even take out the Sony Ericsson software for the PC since I can do that all on my Mac with no special software. Have I mentioned I love my Powerbook?

Downloading or uploading pictures was a snap also. Just told my Powerbook to browse folders on bluetooth devices and up came my phones memory. I downloaded the two photos I took yesterday.

What I was unable to do was setup my powerbook to use the T610 as a GPRS modem via bluetooth. I found a few sites on the internet that explain how to do it. I downloaded some modem scripts, but have still not been able to get it to work. I only worked on it for like 15 minutes last night before I needed to get to bed. I had an early train to catch today.

I got bluetooth GPRS to work on my old Powerbook and my T68i using AT&T Wireless last year. I should be able to get it working with the T610. I just need to work on it. Kind of pissed that I couldn’t get it working before my trip. I could be using it right now on the train. Instead I get to clear my head and update my blog!

This blog entry was written while listening to Angry from the album “Mad Season” by Matchbox Twenty

Mobile Technology

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I tell everyone I used to hate traveling for work. That is partially true. In the end I dreaded the trips, the waits in the airport, getting lost in po-dunk towns in rental cars, etc. In the beginning I loved traveling. I think I did too much too quick. Also I did this during a period of the worst air traffic delays in the history of US air travel. I also flew out of the most delayed airport in the US. An airport that the FAA said accounted for 25-30% of all delays at the time, Laguardia airport (LGA).

This entry is not about my love or dislike of travel, that I can save for many entries later. What I am thinking about is the cool technology you can use or rely on when traveling.

Studies are coming out now saying more and more people are “cutting the cord” or becoming wireless phone only households. I have been using my cell as my primary (or only) home phone since 1998. Earlier than that I lived at home with my parents and they did have an extra line, even though I never used it.

When traveling you can use the coolest tools that keep you in touch or working. The stuff out now is even better than what I was able to use when I traveled regularly 3 years ago. Wow, it has been 3 years since I did that.

When I was on the road I relied on a laptop (Compaq Presario 1875 or something with an AMD K6-2 180mhz processor, then a number of Micron 15″ TFT laptops, and eventually a Dell latitude CPx). The laptops I have now kick the ass of the ones I had then. My thinkpad T-40 I use for work is literally half the thickness of the micron’s I used and 3-4 times more powerful. The battery lasts like 4 hours. If I got 90 minutes on the micron or 60+ on the Compaq I was happy. Even my tiny Powerbook gets better battery life than the old desktop replacements.

My cell phone back then was several flavors of the Nokia 6160, Motorola Timeport, or later on a Nokia 8890. The service actually was as good as it is now. T-Mobile’s coverage has gotten better, but I used to go everywhere with my AT&T Tri-mode TDMA Nokia’s. The phone was big but worked all over. From Canada, to Portland Oregon, to Portland Maine. The difference is I am paying about half the price I paid back in 1999 for about the same amount of minutes or even more minutes now.

The other difference with cell phones are that my Treo 600 is a handheld and a phone. I also get wireless internet access on it. For me between 1998 and 2001 that was impossible for me. now I can get email on my phone or use another phone with bluetooth to get mail on my laptop. I didn’t even have a blackberry then. I would have killed for a blackberry when I traveled. I take it for granted now.

The WiFi hotspots would be awesome to have had when I traveled. I used to use Laptop Lane at some airports back then, but they weren’t everywhere.

VPN software and Exchange 2003 with RDP over HTTPS would have been awesome. Either would have been awesome. At Datastream we had to use outlook from outside the firewall using AT&T Global net dial up. It was so slow. Now it would be trivial and fast to use, especially with high speed internet in some hotels now. When I went to vegas last winter I plugged my Powerbook (then a 15″ TiPowerbook) into the network jack in the hotel and I was able to VPN back to work. It came in handy when Keith needed something when I was out. That is the coolness I am talking about. Technology that just works when you are on the road.

If I was still traveling I would probably look at the bluetooth GPS receivers they have out now. Connect it to my iPack 1945 and know where I am. It would be killer.

What is also funny is that more and more people are using gadgets on the road. Besides the pain in the ass people on cell phones everywhere (writing this as someone’s phone goes off on the train). I mean laptops PDA’s, and other neat stuff. Around me right now on the train is 4 ladies with huge laptops doing work. One has to be my mom’s age. 4 years ago that wouldn’t be going on. When I am on the train to kingston I always see several people with blackberry’s or Pocket PC’s & Palms of several varieties. Then there are the iPods. They are everywhere. Note to self need new iPod for train trips like this. must replace sold one ASAP.

I just find these observations amusing. Why, because all this stuff that I see I have been doing for years. That is no big deal, but I always used to get made fun of by some of my friends about doing it. Then like clock work 6 months later they would be doing the same thing. I don’t consider myself a trendsetter but some technology stuff I get right away because I think it will work for me. I was that way with the first bluetooth phones. I got it and used it to connect to my PC and use a bluetooth headset. Turns out that it didn’t work very well, but it worked and I used it for months.

Enough of my observations. I am off to stretch my legs on the train for a while and maybe take some pictures with my Treo and post them to my MoBlog!!!

This blog entry was written while listening to Higher from the album “Human Clay” by Creed And Superman from the album “America Town” by Five for Fighting

I Got Rid Of Verizon Wireless

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Finally after months of waiting and/or plain old laziness I have gotten rid of my Verizon Wireless account. I have had 2 wireless accounts for years. I have had T-Mobile (Voicestream) and Verizon Wireless since September 2001. I have been using my T-Mobile phone exclusively since December 1. I am always concerned about good reception and didn’t want to get rid of my Verizon account without being comfortable that T-Mobile worked everywhere I needed it to. I haven’t needed to use my Verizon phone since December so it is a good sign that I can get rid of the extra expense. Since by now it was almost the same price to leave the account active and let the contract run out vs. canceling it and paying the termination fee, I just canceled the account so I don’t have the recurring payment.

What I did was port my old verizon number over to T-Mobile. I setup a family share plan so I can have my 2 numbers. I am truly a tech geek because of my reasoning for this. I want my PalmOne Treo 600 for my primary phone. I love that phone. But I want a bluetooth phone that I can use as a wireless modem for my laptop, and I also want some other bluetooth accessories such as the wireless headset. With a family plan I can share minutes between two phones. The price between this new plan and the plan I had was only like $10. To me it was worth the charge to have the flexibility to play around with the second phone.

Today is a good test of the new phone also. I am off to Kingston. it is north of NYC and phone signal isn’t always that good everywhere.

Photo Blog

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Sunday, almost a year to the day from when I started my blog I put up a Moblog or photo blog. Not sure what to call it. It is photo’s taken from my Treo 600 camera when I am out and about. The timing of the start of the new blog is coincidental. I have been thinking about doing one ever since I got my Treo 600.

I am still skeptical about the whole camera phone phenomenon, but for now I am going along and seeing if it is a cool new invention or a waste of time.

The Moblog is located at textamerica. They seem to be the best at hosting them.

It is really cool that I can take a photo and email it off my phone to them and it is posted instantly. Well almost instantly. T-Mobile data service is still spotty some places. It is really cool anyway.

Hot Chocolate Or A Frapachino

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My throat hurts today so I am debating if I want hot chocolate or a starbucks frapichino? The frap will wake me up from my drug induced sleep from last night, but the hot chocolate will ease my throat a bit. I will have to hit starbucks and find out.

Its funny, I hit the starbucks in Union Square. There are two of them, but I always goto the same one. That place is like a starbucks commercial. There is always one or two people with the laptops (one always a big powerbook) on the T-Mobile Wifi, sipping some concoction of coffee. I always find it amusing. I can’t believe that the majority of starbucks across the country people do that, but they are making there money back at the one by my office.

I will admit I have never done the coffee house wifi experience. Actually don’t think I have ever used a hot spot anywhere. I have used high speed internet at hotels, and at Laptop Lane in airports but never a wifi hotspot. Maybe I am not as big a geek as everyone thinks I am:)

The Cell Phone

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I have mentioned that I began using T-Mobile exclusively as my Mobile Phone service back in the end of November. Since then I canceled my old AT&T account. I still have a phone and account with Verizon sitting in a drawer. I used verizon before I went back to T-Mobile and I still have several months left on my contract. I have lowered the price plan I have but I have been slow to cancel the account. I wanted to be sure T-Mobile worked everywhere I went. It seems like it does, but now that I waited 2-3 months to cancel the Verizon account I am not sure if canceling is worth it.

In December I added up how much it would cost to keep the phone until the contract ran out, vs paying the $175 early cancelation fee. Back then it was cheaper to cancel the account, but I wasn’t ready to get rid of it at the time. I am known for changing cell phones allot, but I have never ever paid the cancelation fee. I don’t want to start now. Now it is March, I think it is cost effective to just keep the phone until the contract is up and then cancel it.

I bring all this up because I am trying to figure out what service I can use to solve a problem I have. I love my Treo 600, but it doesn’t have bluetooth. I want a bluetooth phone with internet access so I can use it to connect my laptop to check email and browse the web when out of the office or home. Right now I am on amtrak and am able to get my mail off the Treo, but it would be much better to download it right into my mail app (outlook 2003 for the PC, or Mail on the Mac). That way I could write real response to messages and not just the 1 line comments I can eak out on the Treo.

My options are to get another phone and service, or get another phone with bluetooth and swap the SIM card when I want to use it. I do not want to spend money on a new service. I can’t wait to get rid of my Verizon account as it is. FYI, verizon does not offer bluetooth phones and they have a really expensive data plan. The other option of swapping the SIM card can work, but it can get messy with all those small parts of the phone lying around while I am making the change.

The dilemma continues…