Usable cell phone or how much Verizon sucks

I guess I am a self-proclaimed gadget freak. I always like to be the one that has all the latest and greatest electronic goodies which have no seemingly useful purpose in the here and now. However, months later those gadgets somehow get integrated in some useful way into my daily routine. I always tend to find things I wish those gadgets could do better and then I go buy the next greatest thing. The cycle starts all over again. I’m a slave to the system I suppose but it sure is a lot of fun.

Now, let’s get onto my rant for today. Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless sucks. I hate Verizon Wireless. Why do I hate it? I just do. Wait, let me qualify this before the Verizon Wireless fanboys come to chase me out of these sandbox. Believe me when I say I have used just about every provider out there (i.e. Cingular/SBC, Pac Bell PCS, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Voicestream, etc) so this isn’t just an uninformed consumer speaking. I got my first cellular phone back when the Motorola brick phones were all the rage. Sure, I was less than half (if not a third) of my current age, but I was the first kid in my school (if not distict) to have a “mobile” phone. So I have a fair bit of experience over the years.

Verizon has the best coverage of any of the cellular providers I have used. Now with the introduction of EVDO high speed data services by Verizon, they are the current king of the broadband-over-cellular arena. However, Verizon phones are horrible. Why? They have very poor selection and the limited choices they do have are further crippled by lame corporate policy. Verizon takes a perfectly good Bluetooth phone and cripples the profiles. In layperson speak, Bluetooth provides me the ability to use my phone with not only a wireless headset but to connect to my computer. Why would I want to connect to my phone to my computer? First of all, phone book management. I hate having 10 different phonebooks on my various phones, PDAs, and laptops. I would rather I have one central electronic phonebook which I can then copy to whatever device needs it. This makes my life a lot easier. Secondly, I want to be able to run custom made programs such as e-mail clients or instant messaging software on my phone. This way I can always be in touch even if I am not in front of my laptop. Thirdly, I want to be able to use my OWN personal ringtones and wallpapers without having to pay my phone company extra money for a standard feature. I use bluetooth to copy this data to my phone. Lastly, I want to be able to connect to the internet on my laptop through my phone.

Now, all of these things are very easy to do on modern phones. However, Verizon purposely takes features out of the phone so you, the consumer, have to pay Verizon to put things like your own pictures or ringtones on YOUR phone. They won’t allow all things Bluetooth technology allows you to do because Verizon has services it offers which compete with these features. Again, they want you to pay for those things. So why should I give Verizon any of my money at all? There plans are already expensive as it is but then I can’t do anything the standard phone can do without somehow paying Verizon to reactivate that feature with their own in house services.

My solution is to go to the competition because they offer slightly worse coverage but make up for it with amazing new phones and features. GSM is the wireless standard that Cingular, AT&T, T-mobile, etc. use (Verizon & Sprint use CDMA). You know you have a GSM phone if you have a little SIM card under the battery of your phone. That SIM card carries the identification information of your billing account with your cellular company. So, you could take any GSM phone in the world, put in your SIM card and that phone would automatically ring when someone dialed your number and any calls you made on it would go to your bill. Furthermore, all of your phonebook is stored on that SIM card so you never lose that either. Neat idea isn’t it?

This feature of GSM phones allows anyone to go find a phone with all the features they want without worrying about a limited selection. I don’t have to worry about limited features this way either. Yes, the coverage isn’t as good and the data download speeds aren’t as fast as Verizon but you get a whole lot more. The only reason you’ll ever see me carrying a Verizon phone again is if I need high-speed internet on my phone or if they change their corporate policies over selling me half-broken and restricted products.

July 5, 2005 | Filed Under Tech/Gadgets 

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