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I read the C-Net reviews of coverage in the various places I live during the year. AT&T has a lot of problems according to reviews by C-Net. Also, there is no Verizon service offered in my home town though its stalking horse, Altell is there. I was really shopping for a cheap, non contract phone that would not drop calls wherever I am and that is what I have. The digital phone press says non-contracts are becoming increasingly competitive and eroding the big contract carriers, forcing them to offer cheaper, less profitable non contract phones. Sprint is in freefall from an eroding base but all the bigs are losing ground to non-contracts. AT&T is the least of the Bigs in terms of dropped calls and service, by nearly every criteria, according to C-Net. The only thing helping them is their exclusive tie to the I-Phone which has produced many new and expensive contracts for the company. Verizon is the best poised for the future of Cell Phones and phone companies in general. Traditional wired phone companies seem headed for some version of the dustbin of history. Wired customers are dropping their wired phones like crazy. The war is no longer between cable and wired phone companies. Wired phone companies without a cellphone line as well are likely to end up the property of bigger, full service cell, cable TV, Long Distance, VOIP phone and fiber optic internet operations, except possibly in intensely rural settings where the customers are few. The new war is between the Cell Phone and Fiber Optic Cable Internet Industries for control of the internet business in cars and other motor vehicles. The traditional POTS (plain old telephone service) companies are retreating into history as standalone operations while we speak. I may be speaking too soon but it appears telephone may be the only industry to benefit from the deregulation that began in 1978. It certainly didn't get this way until recently though.
I am typing this on my iPhone right now. I have never had any problems except when I am inside emory hospital. They have a contract with verizon so only their phones work inside.
Thanks for this info since my husband will be working at the hospital.
A quick thought about why only Verizon phones work inside Emory Hospital. It could be that the "contract" Emory has with Verizon involves the placement on a Verizon antenna on the roof of Emory Hospital.
The building where my husband works has several cell-phone carrier antennas on the roof, including our carrier, which is why he can get reception even in the elevator of that building... the entire building is, more or less, an antenna.
I recently spent several days in and around Emory Hospital. I had good AT&T service in a patient room (9th floor), the cafeteria and the outpatient surgery waiting room of the hospital. I had excellent service in the GI area. They had signs asking people to use courtesy in making and receiving calls.
I got no signal inside Building A, the Emergency Waiting Room, nor in the radiology area. Some had people had service, and not just Verizon. T-Mobile and Sprint, too. (I asked.) However, all Emory staff have Verizon phones. Some of the doctors and nurses have huge, clunky phones that look to be 15 years old. Emory's guest wi-fi is available everywhere, so Instant Messaging can be used and email can be used.
At Piedmont Hospital, there is a similar patchiness of AT&T service. Sometimes you have to walk outside to find a signal. The ground floor seems to be worst. Again, their staff all have Verizon service. Piedmont's guest wi-fi can be very spotty. That has nothing to do with the cell phone carrier.
The tower-on-the-roof theory is a good possibility, as these are both the highest buildings in their immediate area. Maybe Verizon gives them a price break on service as part of the rental agreement for the roof space and access to it.
A few years ago, we were not allowed to use cell phones in hospitals, as it "interfered with equipment." I don't know whether technology has changed, or if that was a myth to begin with.
AT&T barely gets 1 bar in Grant Park...sometimes 0. There's a dead spot in Buckhead on 400 and further up 400 near Alpharetta. Who would need continuous service on 400. Thanks AT&T.
Well, after all my research and y'alls input, *I* decided to go with Verizon or Sprint, my husband, on the other hand, wanted to stay with T-Mobile. Grrr! Well, since he's paying the bill, and since he qualifies for a corporate discount with T-Mobile through his employer, T-Mobile it is... we also got a new customer deal since our old contract was in my name and we opted to not port our numbers, which allowed us to qualify for the new customer promo... according to the salesclerk porting our number from one T-Mobile acct to another T-Mobile acct would disqualify us for the new customer deals - stupid, but whatever. Financially, it was the best and most affordable plan for our family. Coveraage in the Twin Cities has been excellent, and supposedly, according to T-Mobile's sales pitch, their G3 coverage in Atlanta is extensive, the regular network for mking calls is also, according to T-Mobile, suppose to be good... but we will have to wait and test it for ourselves.
I do have a friend in St. Paul who moved here with a TMo acct two years ago, he said the first 6-9 months he was in St.Paul he had to go outside or to his 3rd floor to make calls, then TMo put up new towers/antennas and now he gets 3-4 bars in his basement and 5 bars elsewhere in his house... his advise was to not worry about what coverage is now because that could all change in a years time...
Since we are planning to do the urban pioneering thingy, my husband's argument is the rapid growth in sales of BoostMobile phones, which my husband calls "cellphones for da hood gangstas types" should work in our favor since BoostMobile is on the TMobile network... sales of BoostMobile phones should encourage Tmo to deploy more towers/antennas into the neighborhoods where we intend to live. LOL, there maybe some logic in that analysis! In fact, sales of pay-as-you-go phones is starting to outpace cell phone plans, many ppl are choosing to ditch being tied to a plan altogether. Our plan looks to be a good plan now, but a year and a half from now we may feel as if we are paying too much - that's how rapidly the cell phone market is changing!
As a concession to my concerns about lack of coverage in Atlanta, he did write a clause into the contract allow us to back out if we don't get good coverage in ATL... how many hoops we will have to jump through to enforce that clause, if need be, I don't know - hopefully we will never need to cross that bridge.
I was still a bit ticked, since all indicators seem to point away from getting a 2-year plan with T-Mobile when our plan is to move to ATL in a year... and he went to the T-Mobile store behind my back because he knew I was not going to go along with the Tmo plan.
Well, let me tell you, my husband knows how to make me happy... a week into our new contract, to sweeten the deal, he got me the G1 Android Google phone, and let me tell you, the geek in me is very much lovin it! Actually he got a G1 for himself as well, even with the two data upgrades, our total bill for 4 phones is the same as it was previously for 3 phones, with no data plan... if we had stuck with the freebie phones, or phones w/o Internet access, we would have saved $50/mo compared to our old Tmo contract... our teens do not have Internet, but they do have unlimited texting, which is good since our 13 year old sent/received 4,000+ texts in her first month!
Buckhead Betty, in my opinion Android is going to surpass the iphone, but I'm a long time fan of linux and open source, my desktop computer is dual-booted with Ubuntu, so the Android platform appeals to me on an almost spiritual level. The iphone beats out the G1 in some areas, in other areas G1/Android reigns supreme... I was given the option of holding off on my upgrade phone until the mytouch G3 comes available, but I don't want to go without a physical keyboard. By years end Android will be running on numerous devices and offered by several carriers, so consumers will not be forced to dance with anyone hardware design or cell phone carrier. There are plus and minus to that... so it's probably just personal preferences tipping the scales at the end of the day. I lean towards open source.
The seemless integration of gmail, which I have used since it was first introduced 5 or so years ago, and google maps, support for multi-tasking, rapidly switching between certain application, and other features fit my computer habits. The rumor is Flash will be supported on the browser by month's end, which will place it ahead of iphone, there are no iphone announcements for flash support pending, and the physical keyboard beats softkeys, which in used on my PPC Axim PDA for years... GPS, barcode scanner, shazam, mp3 player, ability to read pdfs, constant development of new & better apps, it just keeps getting better...all this to say, I love my G1! I am making this post from my G1 ;-)
In October we will be in ATL, so I'll put T-Mobile's network coverage to the test at that time.
Last edited by StPaulEastSider; 07-12-2009 at 02:31 PM..
Reason: typos
I'm glad you're so happy. I've never tried the G1, so I can't make a comparison about ease of use. T-Mobile is very widely used here. They have a good reputation. I really think your coverage will be fine with them.
Not being a geek at all, I know nothing of Linux, Ubuntu, Opensource or any of that techy stuff. I'm happy being confined to the Apple sandbox where I don't have to know anything -- no learning curve. Android may indeed surpass iPhone in numbers because, as you point out, it is a platform, not a device, and can be put on many different models at different price points, but I have no worries that Apple will disappear. I will still most likely stick with the iPhone simply because it is made and backed by Apple, which has incredible customer support. Integration has some big advantages when a problem arises, especially when it's not immediately clear whether it's a hardware or software-related. Google cannot be found for tech support, at least with any of their web-based products I've used. I've never been able to make heads or tails out of their support forums. And Apple's aesthetics make their products so pleasurable to use. I realize that's not the least bit important to many people, of course, but the elegance of multi-touch and the iPhone's interface are so lovely.
I do LOVE the Google maps app on the iPhone (I actually prefer it to my Garmin GPS, which stays locked up most of the time) and there's a nice Google search app that has always been voice-activated. I use GMail for some things and it works fine. I have no complaints with any email service working with my mail app.
For someone who purports to not be a geek, you very elegantly summed up the advantages of I-phone, the with the software and hardware integration and Apple tech support perhaps being paramount.
Competition is key for spurring on the development of both platforms, there is room for both in the marketplace and both will, no doubt, benefit from the other's existance. For example, I'm fairly certain I-phone will be pushing hard to get Adobe Flash working on the I-phone browser should the Android promise in this area indeed materialize yet this summer [online rumors range from yet this month to early fall... part of the fun for us geeks is the anticipation of 'what's next' :-) ]
The MyTouch G3, which does not have the physical keyboard of my G1, is obviously Tmo/Google's response to the I-phone. The Android OS in it's initial release did not yet have support for softkeys, but they knew the needed to get that working to compete with the I-phone.
I actually have a PowerPC Mac G4 which I picked up second hand for the kids to share in the family room, and I do have appreciation for all things Apple, but for some reason, my love and passion remains with Linux / Open Source.
BTW, the Android does have voice activated google search, I love that feature! Google maps will get a workout for sure when we go to ATL in October on our scouting trip of neighborhoods and everything ATL.
So you can enjoy your I-Phone, and I will enjoy my Google Android Phone, and we can compare notes as the spurs on the other!
Whats funny about the Iphone to me is that they threw on a few features that most smartphones have had for years like video and copy and paste... expand the memory and people just ate it up like it was something amazing lol. Pretty much everything that phone does is old news, I think people just love it because its an apple product. The only thing IMO that even makes the phone more than just an ipod you can make calls on are the apps... most of which you have to pay for and arent that great. I play around with it from time to time because my lady has one and constantly brags about it but I end that pretty quick. And it really doesnt help that at&t coverage is terrible.
Just for the record, I have the htc touch pro. I love the phone and will be upgrading to the touch pro 2 as soon as it drops. I switched from alltel to sprint and on the sero plan I get unlimited everything for $49.99. The 3G data speeds are by far the best as far as downloads and 4G coverage will be unveiled here in Atlanta soon.
Im not an iphone hater I just get so tired of everyone acting as if its the best thing since sliced bread when in reality its just catching up to the standard smartphone. No expandable memory, cant remove the battery... I could go on but I use my phone moreso for work so the keyboard is essential for me.
The google phones are HTC devices, only with the Android OS rather than the Windows Mobile OS. I used WM onPDAs for the past 7 years, utilizing wifi connections for Internet. The problem is the IE browser on WinMo, quite frankly, sucks. The OS is slow and unresponsive, and developers are moving away from WinMo in droves. I have closely followed a couple WinMo apps over the years and let me tell you, these guys pull their hair out trying to get anything to work on the WinMo platform.
Blackberry dealt the first death blow, Symbian, Apple & Android are going to finish the job. Even the Palm Pre has a better OS than the WinMo. The problem is not your hardware it's your OS.
The strength of WinMo, for now, is the fact Apple and Android do not have mature apps for handling microsoft office docs & spreadsheets, but at the rate both platforms are developing, it won't be long. Android works with exchange servers via a third party app and I think the Iphone does as well. Blackberry has a strong base of third party apps aimed at business professionals, including mature 3rd party apps for windows office.
Your smartphone works for you because it is what you are familiar with, and that's valid. But you may want to wrap your head around the idea your next WinMo purchase maybe your last WinMo purchase, cuz you got yourself an ailing dinosaur.
My HTC G1 phone cost less than 1/2 what your phone cost, we got it for $129. Believe me, my first inclination was to get a WinMo phone, I have spent they last few years juggling my cell and PDA and was anxious to get a smartphone. I have purchased probably a couple hundred dollars worth of apps for my PDA over the years, so I didn't want to chuck all I'd invested in software [much of what I purchased were attempts to improve upon the inadequate OS and native apps.]
I am a huge GTD fan ['Getting Things Done'] and my life is in the WinMo app "My Life Organized", it klls me to not have that tool at my side, although I am in the process of transferring my data to an app with online backup, so having my data automatically backup to the cloud is better, still the new app is stripped down from MLO on the PocketPC or WinMo platform. Well, Tmo only offers two-year old hardware options, it would seem they are moving away from the WinMo platform. And their WinMo phones are not on the 3G network... my husband made the Tmo decision and so I had to choose from Tmo's offerings.
As I've gotten to know Android I've come to believe THIS is the future of mobile computing, and I-Phones sales are headed toward 5 billion worldwide, with a B... that's a mind boggling number.
My cousin, a C++ programmer, and I debate microsoft vs linux and apple all the time, so I know loyalties for MS can run high, and I myself have had a love/hate relationship with MS for years... I know MS is not going to give up leave the mobile computing market quickly, but Blackberry currently has 48% of the market and at the pace the I-Phone is selling... and the Android platform is slated to be available on more than 20 device from numerous carriers worldwide by years end - including Sprint & Verizon, the writing seems to be on the wall regarding the future viability of the WinMo platform.
BTW, what do you plan to do with your old phone when you upgrade to the Pro2? I am pretty sure it could be hacked to run Android! You might want to look into that, if not for yourself then as a marketing angle when you go to resell it.
BTW, I am not trying to attack you here, this is only intended to a heads up regarding my take on where the future of mobile computing / phones is headed, if you disagree, oh well. Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion.
Last edited by StPaulEastSider; 07-12-2009 at 09:53 PM..
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