Tagged in: at&t

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Come on AT&T! Seriously!?

So, it’s summer. News to everyone, I know… Like the rest of you, we will be traveling a bit. As most of you know, I have a hard time cutting my digital cord, so I was researching option for mobile Internet. I looked at a pc card, $60.00/month, of course, I’d only use it one month. But the best option to me, seemed to be adding the tethering option to my iPhone data plan. For those who don’t know, tethering is using your cell phone’s data connection to get your computer online. Like a cell modem, of sorts. So, instead of an extra $60, I would just add $20 for the month. Well, not so fast. And for those of you who think you can just enable that feature, you can’t. AT&T has to turn it on (unless you jailbreak your phone, that’s another post)… So, I called.

“Hey, I need to add tethering to my iPhone data package.”

“No problem ma’am (yeah…) I can help you with that.”
“That will be the 2GB data plan for $25 + $20 for tethering, pro-rated…” blah blah blah

“whoa, sir (pretty sure it was a lady), I have an unlimited data plan. Will I lose the unlimited plan if I add tethering?”

“yes sir (I must sound more manly when I’m irritated)”

Insert-we don’t really want people making any meaningful use of our services.

“well, that doesn’t really seem fair. That I have to give up my unlimited plan jut to add tethering.”

“well, it isn’t fair that you get to tether with unlimited usage for the same price (referring to the $20).”

“it’s perfectly fair, I’ve been a customer for almost a decade now, and I’ve had my plan for 3 years. If they wanted unlimited data, they should have got on the boat sooner.”

“sorry.”

“thanks.”

Why is the 2GB package a big deal, you ask? That seems like plenty of data you say… Well, consider the overage charges on 7.8GB of data on a 2GB plan. That’s how much data I used last month I haven’t done the math, but I’m sure the bill would be over $500.00. No happening. I’m a heavy user. Not just for fun, either. A lot of my data is from remote accessing my servers at work. That’s a big chunk of my usage.

So, now I’m back at square one… I can still jailbreak and enable it myself… It looks the same to AT&T. They can’t tell if it’s my phone or my computer connected through my phone. Or just live without. I’m sure I’ll figure something out, I love a good fight with “the man” (or woman, it hard to tell over the phone…)

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You want the traffic… You Can’t Handle The Traffic!!

Steve Job's at D8 (from engadget.com)

I was reading through engadget’s live blog of Steve Job’s interview from D8 and something caught my attention.  Check out this excerpt:

6:54PM Steve: Well it wasn’t like this. Now it’s huge. And also, when you bought a phone the carrier dictated what you had on the phone. iPhone was the first phone where we said you worry about the network, we’ll worry about the phone/.

Walt: How are they doing on that network?

6:54PM Steve: Pretty good actually. Remember, they’re handling WAY MORE data traffic than all of their other competitors combined.
 
(excerpt from engadget’s live blog of Steve Job’s interview from D8)
Did you catch that?  “…they’re handling WAY MORE data traffic than all of their other competitors combined.”  I’m pointing this out for all of you whiner babies who complain about AT&T’s network or gripe about how much better Verizon would do with the iPhone… Blah, Blah, Blah…  There it is, straight from the horse’s mouth!  AT&T has more traffic than all of their competitors and does pretty well with it.  They are improving their service as quickly as they can.  I dare say, it is probably ALOT harder to upgrade a network where every city is different, than it is to create one new device and make a billion copies.  So the phones, tablets, netbooks, etc… are going to advance far faster than ANYONE (Verizon included) can upgrade their network. 
 
So for now…  I’m happy to be on AT&T, just like I have been for almost a decade.  Boom!
 
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FOUND: AT&T Towers in Clarksville

Well, I didn’t much sleep last night…  Being the huge geek that I am, I stayed up late messing with my new 3G signal.  I’m loving it.  I wanted to find just where AT&T put those shiny new antennae, but could quite find them.  I stumbled across an AT&T website called ATTTowers.com.  You have to register, but it is free to use and search.  They even have pictures of the towers.  Below are two screenshots of the google map that was generated from my search on that website, and an excel doc listing towers in the Clarksville City limits.  I’m curious how far the 3G signal goes…  Let me know where you are and if you have 3G in Clarksville, TN or Montgomery County, TN.  Thanks!

Spreadsheet of Towers: ATTTowers

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3G in Clarksville! Whaa?!

I was just about to go to bed when I checked my phone and discovered something that I never thought inwould live to see… The 3G symbol on my phone! Clarksville has arrived! I wasn’t sure how long this would last so I grabbed some screen shots from kayce’s phone (my power button still doesn’t work, see post about water and iPhones…). Those pics are below. Notice the speed tests I ran. Pretty sweet! I’m pumped. I’ve been so irritated not having 3G for so long. Finally! I feel like u should stay up late watching YouTube videos just to make up for lost time and bandwidth… I won’t. Did I mention how pumped I am?!?! The pics are thus: 1) Home Screen with 3G symbol. 2) Speed test on 3G. 3) Speed test on Edge. 4) Speed test on WiFi. 5) All the speed test results.