Sorry to say it Chris, but you won’t be any happier with Cingular. Sadly I think the sentiment and frustration with mobile service providers and land line providers is growing more than ever. It’s not just a feeling us geeks have either. When I was in England I absolutely loved the service I received there. With any of the providers you got all your incoming calls and texts for free. None of this minutes bull. Texts were on average 6-10p per message (cheaper if you had a good contract). Most average contracts include 300-500 texts per month with 100-500 minutes. As an example lets look at O2 (the provider I had in the UK), here’s the plans they offer online. 200 minutes to any mobile and 500 texts for £30 on a year contract, so you might be thinking “that’s not a lot of minutes”. Well it doesn’t have to be, you don’t pay to receive calls. You might ask about the phones you can get. Well surprise, take one of the most popular phones out right now, the Moto V3, that’s free, the Rokr, that’s free too. So I’m not totally biased here. Personally I still felt as if I was being screwed for the service I received even while in the UK. I didn’t think it was good value for money either. The main point I’m trying to make is that in the US we’re being screwed on these huge 2 year contracts for phones that we’ve still got to pay $100+ for when in the UK they’re getting them free on 1 year contracts and getting free upgrades every renewal period. I paid £25 for a Nokia 6610 (unlocked) when I first got to the UK on a 1 year contract with O2. When I came home, about 3 months later, I was disgusted when I saw the same phone just finally come available and be marketed as new and such, price, $249 on a 2 year contract. Please tell me why, how does that make sense?

I get this feeling that the US carriers are just happy and giddy that they’ve pulled off the most amazing trick. They’ve managed to make America forget about the rest of the world. I highly doubt the average person realizes that everywhere else people don’t pay to receive incoming calls (or incoming texts [see T-Mobile US]). And in other countries they certainly don’t pay an arm and a leg for 2 year contracts and new phones. Plus just look at how Sprint, Verizon, etc can manage to just not have phones that only work in the US. They’ve certainly managed to maintain the existing America is the world mentality. Sadly it’s not like things are better in the north, Canada has it even worse, some there even pay for voicemail. How much is the V3 with Rogers in Canada? Currently $99 CAD on a 3!?!? year contract, $375 CAD on a 1 year contract!

Yet all of us in North America continue to pay. So many of us are just fed up and switch from one provider to another only to find they are all horrible thieves that continue to think we’ll just love them for the same crappy service that’s so behind the times.

I think secretly the reason why so many of us are dying for good data plans on mobile networks is so that we can just give the service providers the finger and start using VoIP. Heck I know I am. If I had my way, I’d use the data services while out and about to make VoIP calls and use Messenger. Then when near an open WiFi node, use that. How many of us would just die for a plan that provided unlimited data with say 100-300 minutes (just in case) for $20-40/mo. I know I would.

Don’t get me started on landline providers. The idea of choice there is a joke. So many areas are still only served by one provider when it comes to the basic local line. It’s horrible. I’ve been trying to get my Mom off of Verizon’s land line service which costs her something like $70/mo for unlimited US and Canadian calls and onto Vonage purely because of the huge price difference. She’s tied to it because Vonage doesn’t currently let her keep the number she’s had for over 5 years now. For those in reach of cable internet there’s a huge opportunity there to just be rid of a land line completely. The service speeds and reliability are probably good enough to just get a good VoIP service (Vonage being one, Lingo not) and save a huge amount of money.

Please tell me when will things finally change for the better? Maybe I’ve become far too cynical or far too impatient, I have just about lost any faith that consumers have anything going for them anymore. That’s another story though…

Tags: Friends, Outside, Rants