Gold Standard Phone Quality Shows Patina of Age

There's one simple task that's often a royal PITA, and that's the once monthly to my utility companies to enter my monthly meter reading. It's either that, or get the estimated bill which is curiously always substantially higher than what I actually used.

So, what's the big deal? Read the meter, record the numbers, make a phone call, right? Well, it's often not so simple.

Calling the utility company puts me into the voice tree straight from hell. Add in that the account number is many digits, and it repeats them back to verify. Unfortunately, the system is also voice activated, and any noise sets it off, and restarts. Last month, despite pressing the mute button on the phone, it took four phone calls, and then I eventually had to speak to someone anyway after holding for a while. Then I had to repeat it for the electricity as well. Don't even get me started that I can enter it online as the last time I tried that, I couldn't even establish an account and gave up after half an hour. So it goes, month after month.

I had figured out a while ago that a newer phone can help. When I replaced my staticky 2.4 GHz one, it was better for a while, but the last few months, it's been getting progressively worse.

Today, something surprising happened. As I placed the call, I realized that this was the first month I was doing it on VoIP, and not on copper. For whatever reason, both meter readings went through on the first try without any issue. This hasn't happened for months with my previous Verizon copper phone service.

I'm guessing that the rotting aging copper phone lines were just introducing too much interference, although even if I wasn't hearing it, the phone voice menu was. In any event, I think that the digital connection is just cleaner. Let's see what goes on next month. In the meantime, we'll see what we can do about gasoline prices...

Jonas

2nd Thought: Maybe it wasn't only the phone line, but the DSL piggybacked onto the copper voice line was throwing the whole thing off?

Stampede From Copper Phone Lines

Recently, the overwhelming customer service response I received from Verizon practically forced me to dump my phone company, and replace them with the local cable company, Optimum. While trading one giant provider for another is hardly that different, at least they were nicer, and communicated better. Apparently I'm not the only customer that "cut the copper:"

With features like unlimited domestic phone calls, cable companies have continued to take business away from rivals such as Verizon Communications Inc., which lost 3 million residential lines for traditional phone service in the first quarter, with total home lines down 11 percent from 2007. Verizon added 263,000 net new FiOS TV and 262,000 FiOS Internet subscribers.

Sure, they get a higher monthly fee from the Fios customers, but they lost ten times as many copper phone line customers. I'm sure my copper phone line account was quite profitable for Verizon as with cell phones, they get used less and less. It doesn't make any business sense to me to lose customers ten times faster than they can find new ones, and this while they're deploying Fios faster than they can run the cables.

While Verizon may have the better product from a technical standpoint, at the rate they're going, it's not going to matter. In the meantime, Optimum Voice, with all the features they throw in was a significant upgrade from my New York Telephone/ Nynex Verizon phone service that hadn't changed in the last three decades. Verizon is facing an uphill battle with their user base eroding, but they just haven't figured it out yet.

Jonas

Will Copper Phone Lines Be Killed By VoIP?

Not So Fast, We're Not Dead Yet!

I've written before about copper phone lines and VoIP technology, and continue to be interested in both, and the complex transition occurring. It's one of those situations where the shift to digital is not quite a no brainer like it was tossing out the cassette tapes for CD's, or VHS for DVD's. Anyway, I found this article:

Grant Thornton, an expert analyst in the business and finance industries, has issued a report stating that VoIP services are going to continue to grow rapidly and pose a threat to traditional telephony in just a few short years. Citing a four-fold increase in VoIP subscriptions over the past two years, he predicts that the VoIP market will see over $25 billion in revenue by 2010.

For the current offerings, I think we can all agree on some basic points about plain ol' telephone service (POTS) over copper lines: it's overpriced for what you get, it's definitely overtaxed, it's proven technology, it has an aging infrastructure that is not being maintained, it's 911 works the best, and it is the "gold standard" for voice quality that all else gets compared to.

I think it's more than safe to say that there will definitely be less subscribers to POTS as the years pass. Despite the quality advantages, and proven technology, it's simply not enough value. Cell phone penetration has reached very high levels where there are multiple phones per household, all with included long distance and caller ID thrown in. I already make all of my long distance calls on my cell phone, and despite my incessant grumblings about T-Mobile, I will throw them a bone here and say that their voice quality is just as good as my landline, and so if I had a plan with more minutes, I could consider ditching the home phone.

If Verizon wants to wonder why folks are ditching their landlines, they need to look no further than their pricing. Copper phone lines are quite a la carte. I was paying, with the taxes, just under $25 for a single phone line to the house, with nonpublished service. I had no long distance to avoid another charge, whether or not I used it. The Caller ID that I really wanted was $8 monthly. I had a local calling plan where I paid for each call, but within the county they were not timed then, although calls to the next county, less than 10 miles down the road were charged by the minute! Hence, why I use my cell phone for such calls, and use the Verizon line for mostly incoming calls. To get a better plan, such as unlimited long distance, ran a friend $60 monthly, which is quite ridiculous these days given the competition (she ditched it and went to cable just last month). On top of this, Verizon isn't maintaining their copper infrastructure, in favor of fiber optic, so expect some down time, as I experienced last year. Finally, Verizon is heavily marketing for their Fios offerings, and making it nearly impossible to go back to copper once the fiber gets hooked up. By doing this, they also trade folks up to a higher priced monthly plan, coincidentally, just when more "affordable" unlimited monthly cell phone plans are rolling out. Not to mention services such as T-Mobile's HotSpot at Home which is unlimited VoIP, but cleverly marketed more as a cell phone so it probably has higher consumer acceptance.

However, given all of these forces against traditional copper landlines, I still don't see them going away overnight as some are predicting. For starters, not every household has a broadband connection, or even access to a broadband connection, particularly in rural areas. On top of that, many folks have affordable DSL as their broadband, and in most cases that requires a landline as well to get (Verizon has millions more DSL customers than Fios folks). There are also plenty of folks that don't change their services, and don't reevaluate periodically, particularly among the senior set. They've always gotten their phone that way, and if it ain't broke they're not gonna look to fix it, or try anything new. As homes turn over, and new services are selected, clearly copper lines are on the decline, but this could take many years to accomplish the transition. Incidentally, the digital TV transition may be hastening things as folks (such as myself) sign up for new digital TV services, and end up getting forced into triple play pricing for the best deals.

So, how will this all work out? I think it could take 20 years for copper phone lines to go away. Perhaps future technologies will change the rules of the game. How about broadband and telephony over satellite? For that matter, what about a Skype like service over nationwide WiFi hotspots or WiMax? And who knows what the wireless spectrum auction might bring in terms of new services? While the future is not copper, this is all going to take time to sort out, and lots of it.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Verizon Won't Go Quietly Into That Good Night

So, yesterday, I spoke to the Verizon folks, and they couldn't do better on the price for "triple play." I told them I was leaving for Optimum, and reconfirmed my install date of next week. While I had them on the phone, I also confirmed, not once, not twice, but three times to keep my phone service intact until next week when my number would be ported.

The best laid plans, and some things in life are inevitable, etc, etc. Anyway, the home phone was disconnected today. When I called the house number, I just got the message "this number not in service," and that terrible sinking feeling. I called up Verizon, and they told me they didn't do it, they no longer had anything to do with it, and it was the fault of my new telephone provider. They suggested that I contact Optimum. Something didn't sound so Kosher with that, but I figured I'd call cable anyway.

I got in touch with Optimum. They explained that they had no control of the number until the port date, which is next week, and so far they had only requested the number, that's it. I also confirmed that they would send a real Optimum installer, and not subcontract it out. They also confirmed that the number would be unpublished, and the date/time of the install. The person I spoke too also told me that "this happens all the time," and this exact same thing happened to her. Her theory is that "Verizon doesn't want to lose you," and they'll make it difficult to leave. I was starting to think that this was too much fingerpointing, and no answers.

Then, I called Verizon back. When I spoke to them, I reminded them that I was with them from before they were Verizon, before they were NYNEX, (one of the "baby bells") when they were NY Telephone decades ago. I also told them it was vitally important to get my phone back on pronto, and before I started to tell them that this would be all over the internet, they told me it would be back on within six hours.

Thankfully, I'm happy to report that my history lesson paid off, and I was reconnected about two hours later. Hence the title of this piece, those copper lines must make them a fortune, and they're not gonna let you leave without a hassle. Geez, all of this because my DSL modem died, and they tried to shake me down for a new one.

Jonas
Soon to be a VoIP Champion

Verizon's Copper Showing Patina of Age

Verizon has been very focused on deploying Fios, their fiber to the home offering for the last several years. Actually, they bet the farm on this new technology, after spending tons of green on the infrastructure to make it possible to compete with the cable companies right where they live. Overall, they're doing ok on signing up folks, although there have been plenty of unsatisfied customers due to billing issues and lack of customer support.

However, Fios is only available in a minority of communities to date. That means that the backbone of their network is still copper, much of it not aging gracefully. Almost a year ago, after my own experience, it became clear to me that Verizon's copper network was being neglected, and like an uncle without an inheritance, was being parked in the nearest public nursing home wearing a c'est le vie t-shirt. Now it's being confirmed that the problem isn't limited to my area:

While we all love that Verizon is focusing their attention on deploying fiber to the home, that attention hasn't been without cost. The last few years have seen a growing number of allegations that the telco is neglecting their DSL & landline infrastructure to focus on getting into the more lucrative TV business. Union workers say they aren't getting the tools and resources they need to support DSL & landline customers effectively.

My buddy a few towns over also is having similar issues. His phone has been out several times in the last few months. Each time it goes down, it takes too long to get it fixed, and there's still static on the line. Verizon's answer is to just sell them on fiber, but given the current economy, many folks are not eager to take on new expenses, and they are forced to put up with "mostly working."

I think it's a shame if Verizon is letting their entire copper phone network fall into disrepair. Is it just a marketing ploy to push folks to Fios? Could it backfire and cause just as many to go into cable phone and alternative VoIP offerings like Vonage? Will there be a backlash from consumers that fed up with a nonworking Verizon copper phone line won't give Fios a fair chance and flock to anything else? Until Verizon can roll fiber out to all, they should toss a few bucks into keeping their existing network up to par.

Jonas

Hard To Beat POTS

In case you're wondering, POTS refers to "plain old telephone service." You know, the copper wires that we all used for communication for a century or so. Alexander Graham Bell definitely knew what he was doing, and it has become hard to improve upon the simplicity of a direct copper connection.

What gets all the attention these days is VoIP. This is "voice over internet protocol" that chops up the stream of your voice and then sends the packets over the internet to be reassembled at the destination. This is the digital telephone service that is sold by companies such as Vonage and AT&T CallVantage. It also is the basis of voice chat over IM protocols like Google Talk and Skype. While these are affordable options, and they get the extras right, such as CallerID and call forwarding, they tend to miss on the basics. More specifically, voice quality can suffer because of network traffic congestion (locally because of what else your internet connection is doing), and also 911 location services probably won't be able to find you (e911 attempts to fix this but it has mixed results and shouldn't be trusted when you're choking and can't talk).

Aside from the problem with 911, VoIP often falls short on voice quality. This is because the packets of voice may not arrive at the destination in the correct order. Think about when you watch a video on the internet; there are often stutters and buffering issues. Well, the same thing can happen with VoIP, but when you're trying to have a conversation it gets real old, real fast. While it may be fine for talking to a relative on the other side of the country, it's probably not the best way to seal the big deal for your business as your voice drops out. Your neighbors running a BitTorrent server can definitely screw up your phone call, especially if you both have your internet from your cable company.

By me, there are two other options. These are Optimum Online phone service, and Verizon Fios phone. While not as affordable as Vonage, they both do provide one advantage to a pure VoIP service (I was gonna say connection, but service is more accurate due to the nature of packets wandering around the internet). In both cases they are digital phone services. What you're getting is that unlike VoIP, some priority is given to the voice communication, so that a steady stream of data can be exchanged with no dropouts. In the case of Fios, reportedly voice gets its own frequency of light in the fiber cable so that it doesn't compete with the rest of the data to get to its destination.

I often hear the phrase "cell phone quality," to describe these new digital phone services. I've had a cell phone for almost a decade now, and it's definitely been varying quality. I remember my first cell phone, with AT&T service (way before it was Cingular), and it would wander connections between analog and digital towers. While the digital sounded clearer, the analog got dropped less and sounded more realistic so I can't say which was really better. Due to increasing numbers of users on a limited number of towers, cell phones are all digital now, but the signal dropouts remain.

I see a parallel to our home phone service. While we move from analog (POTS) to newer digital VoIP systems, while we gain capabilities, and in some cases affordability, I'm not sure that the core service, namely voice transmission, is really improving. At any rate, it probably won't matter because over the next decade the future of the telephone is clearly on the internet.

Jonas

Cell Phone Pricing "Shakeup?"

After cell phone pricing has been fairly stable for a while, today the "big four" all announced a new cell phone plan of $99 for unlimited voice minutes in a month. While Verizon started it, before we could even digest it, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile jumped on board this mobile all-you-can-eat bandwagon. However, I think they really had to do this, and it's not really that great of a deal as they face increased competition.

Firstly, while the trend for a while was to dump our landlines, not too many more have followed the trend. I keep my landline mostly for incoming calls, and local calls. Also, with triple play offerings, and unlimited domestic long distance for around $30 monthly, only those always on the move will need that many cell phone minutes.

Next, the VoIP services have gained traction. The likes of Vonage for $25 monthly for their unlimited residential plan put the cell carriers to shame. T-Mobile's Hot Spot at Home for $10 monthly turns the T-Mobile phone into a virtually unlimited account with a little planning. Also, let's not forget the popular SkypeOut service which is an affordable $3 monthly for unlimited domestic long distance.

The cell carriers are also facing increased competition from more regional carriers. Helio is offering a nationwide plan of $99 with its trendy devices (as an aside, they need to market this better as I had heard of the devices but didn't know they were a service as well). Ever hear about Cricket? They have unlimited regional plans for $45 to $60 depending on the other features. Or how about MetroPCS' $35 monthly unlimited plan that is only in limited areas?

Finally, many users, such as me, are frustrated by the lack of affordable plans. I never use all my minutes, and have been waiting for the day to cancel with T-Mobile. Others have turned to prepaid phones with $100 annual cards that should more than cover light phone usage, and not break the bank. While prepaid phones were once only for those with mediocre credit, others are turning to them for more affordable options as the low cost plans have mostly disappeared from the mainstream carriers.

So, now you can see that a $100 monthly all-you-can-talk plan is not really that great a deal when you really think about it. The big four phone companies are facing increasing competition on all sides in a somewhat saturated market. While they each thought this would set them apart, they look quite the same once again.

Jonas

Internet Issues

My regular readership will realize that it's a rare event when I don't get a post up on a Thursday evening. Here's the reason why, and it's not that the dog ate my homework...

I turned on my internet connection last night, and my desktop. My USB WiFi adapter connected to my router, but FireFox kept not connecting to the internet. I then tried MS Explorer with the same result. Clearly the problem must be with the WiFi adapter (as an aside, the Buffalo one has worked really well, but they stiffed me out of the $10 rebate claiming I didn't send the UPC even though I did, c'est la vie). After trying two others, including this one, I simply wasn't connecting to anything despite a reboot of the 'puter, WiFi router and modem more than once.

Ok, time for the next plan, and some network troubleshooting. I powered down my desktop, and fired up the notebook wondering if something had monkeyed with my settings. Again, I connected to the WiFi router, but couldn't load a page in two different browsers. When I looked at the router, the LED for internet was on, so I was starting to wonder if my WiFi router had gone haywire and need replacing, although I was able to detect its signal.

The next plan was to bring the notebook to the router, and plug directly into the Ethernet port, completely bypassing any wireless issues. Should work now- except it didn't. Ok, maybe the whole router is bad, and I plug directly into the modem taking the router out of the equation. When I send a request, I then notice that the modem light blinks red (normally it's green). Hmmm. That's a new color, and probably not a good one that everything is working fine.

I then think back to what happened in June, and wonder if the whole telephone line went down, and realize that I probably should have checked for a dial tone before getting so far down the troubleshooting tree. I also take a minute to check all the wires are still in place, which they were. Yup, I still have a dial tone on the phone, so that's not the problem. Guess I'll need some professional help.

Next, I pull last month's Verizon bill, and call the company. I'm immediately greeted with the "We're experiencing heavy volume" message so something is probably going on as we're after business hours. I work my way through the voice prompts, and when I'm asked what my problem is with my phone, I say "INTERNET" until the voice recognition kicks in. The robot then tells me that I should contact my ISP. Huh? Verizon is my ISP so I'm confused now. Wait a sec, they give me a new number to call that wasn't on my bill.

Calling the second number, I'm again told that they are experiencing heavy volume. Yeah, I bet if the internet is out. I'm then told that it's out for most of my entire area code, at least on the DSL service. I didn't get to speak to anyone to find out what was really going on, and when it would be fixed.

Curiously, I checked with a neighbor, and their Verizon Fios was working fine. I'm not sure if my DSL ever came on, as I called it a night, and accepted I was off the information superhighway. Could a whole county's DSL really go out all at once? Would I be better off on the newer fiber optic network: Fios? The conspiracy theorist might think that perhaps the phone company would do this to get at least some of us to switch to the higher priced offering, but as I've been generally satisfied with the DSL service for two years now, I'm not going that route quite yet.

Keeping this in perspective, I've been without electricity, heat, hot water, phone service and even any water for more than a few hours at various points in the last several years (thankfully not all at the same time), and the lack of internet is probably the least painful. It's probably in the same category as my cell phone outage which is annoying, and inconvenient, but not terrible or dangerous in the end. I just hope this doesn't turn into an unending saga. If I hadn't taken so many steps to diagnose the issue, I could have just read a book.

--Jonas

PS: I looked online to see if anyone had posted about this, but if the internet is down, that would definitely explain why "mum's the word" on this issue.

Update & Another View On T-Mobile

My regular readers will recall that I've not been a fan of T-Mobile for quite some time now. I was talking to Rapcomp, and letting him know that they still haven't delivered on the cell tower that they promised to build, but they do have some time left on that promise (although I give it very little hope). I'm also happy to report that my strategy worked to eliminate all spam text message issues on my phone.

Anyhow, Rapcomp then shared the following thoughts on T-Mobile:

I've had Voice Stream/T-Mobile for about 6 years, and have very few problems. My biggest complaint has been with the voice mail notification, their are times when I don't get the message for days because the system didn't send me a message. As for coverage, it's mostly good in my area, except in my house. I can talk on my deck, but if I walk into the kitchen, it's a crap shoot whether the call will drop. My other complaint, actually it's an annoyance, is with the phone replacements. They advertise that you can replace your phone every year for free, but the selection is crappy. I usually call customer service and give them an ear full of how they take better care of new customers than loyal customers like me. That usually guilts them into getting a supervisor and approving a better phone. If not I tell them I can get a better deal, and new phones for all (I have 5 lines with unlimited messaging) if I call another carrier. That does the trick. After all, they get almost $150.00 a month out of me. Besides, I don't replace my phone every year, just when I've beat the old phone so bad it doesn't work any more.

I'm glad to hear that others have had a better time with them than I have. I also never thought about the phone replacements, and complaining about the lack of choices. While I was initially satisfied with my Motorola V195, lately, I will admit that as I see some of the other gear out there (not to mention the iPhone), I'm feeling kind of third tier, and looking forward to an upgrade next year. At the rate T-Mobile is not improving my service, it will likely be with another carrier, no matter which phone they're willing to give out.

--Jonas

Triple Play

With the deregulation of the telephone industry, now we traded the monopoly for a duopoly. In many areas, now the phone company sells in addition to phone services, television. Also, the cable monolith is branching out from TV to your phone. As they both already also provide internet broadband access, they now package their services into a phone, internet, and TV combo, and call it "triple play" with supposedly one low monthly fee (although in my opinion, it should be a little less).

In my area, the offerings are Verizon Fios for $95, or Optimum for $99. While at first it appears a good deal, when I remember that my phone bill and internet access are under $45 a month, and I don't watch that much TV, I stick with what I currently have which is less than half price.

I've thought about changing the phone to a VoIP provider, such as Vonage. For the same amount of money per month on the phone end of things, I can have unlimited calling. There are three deal breakers though. The first is that I'm not sure how I would physically connect my phone to the internet without pulling Ethernet cable throughout the house. My router and DSL modem is in the basement, while my phone lines are upstairs. This is not the simple plug and play that an apartment dweller can take advantage of. The next issue is that my DSL is not that fat of a data connection (hence the affordable price), and while fine for surfing, it may not do so well with voice data and simultaneous surfing, so that's not good. The final problem (maybe I should have mentioned this first), is that if I cancel my phone service, I can't keep my DSL. Yup, those phone company bean counters are no dummies, and the DSL requires a phone account with them.

So, up to now, I've kept the status quo, not triple played anything, and been on the lookout for a new offering as this is a dynamic area. I heard that Direct TV, those makers of that mini satellite dish, were feeling left out of combo services, and expanding their offerings. Hmmm. I head on over to their website, and take a look. Turns out those satellite endowed folks are teamed up with Verizon in my area, and they can sell me both satellite TV (Choice Extra Package, 185 channels), and my same DSL for $55/month (it would go up a few dollars at the end of the year as the $14.99/month goes up to $17.99/month). This would then allow me to use Vonage as a telephone service, and the total would be around $80/month. Can I really put together my own triple play for less?

Not so fast! After reading the fine print, this is only for "new" Verizon DSL customers. So they want me to cancel the service to sign up for it again? For all of the deregulation, I'm still seeing too many restrictions on all of this. At least for now, I guess, once again, I'll stick with what I've got.

--Jonas

Update: TMobile

This is starting to become the ongoing saga with my cell phone carrier. As I still hadn't heard what was going on with the lack of roaming, and my monthly bill didn't have the promised credit (although it did have some), I decided it was about time to reach out and touch someone.

I spent over twenty minutes on the phone with TMobile, but it least it was better than the 40 plus that has been the usual as of late. It would seem that the folks that I speak to need to speak to a manger to do just about anything which explains the slowdown across the process. They did promise to deliver on the full credit promised, but I have to wait for next month's bill- maybe they're hoping I'll forget.

I also inquired about the roaming issue, namely that the phone doesn't roam onto the other networks. Not only is there still no answer to this, but today they couldn't even find the issue in the computer. Even when I gave them the tracking number, they still couldn't provide any information. Kinda weak, no?

The service rep promised to call me back tomorrow with some more information as to what is being done on this issue. I'll keep ya posted, but don't hold your breath for a quick resolution, because I'm certainly not...

--Jonas

iHype For the iPhone

Well, here we are on the long awaited day that the iPhone would be introduced, June 29th, 2007. There has been no shortage of coverage of the device, and the "iHype" is just about everywhere. During this last week, this little mobile device has dominated the tech news by a healthy margin.

I wrote a piece about the iPhone several months back, and for the most part, my initial conclusions have not changed. The one exception is the battery life, which Apple appears to have gotten under control, and makes the device eminently more usable.

I still think the darn thing is simply too expensive for what it is- a phone. And not even a great one at that. I saw on the news the other day the four screens that must be gotten through in order to be able to place a simple phone call, and I'm frustrated just watching it. In this day and age, $500 to $600 for a phone, with a built in iPod Nano is just not that exciting to me. I spent a similar amount of dough on my last computer parts order from NewEgg, and that money is much better spent to me. Not to mention that the service contracts are also way overpriced in typical Apple fashion. Sixty bucks a month for 450 minutes has got to be the most overpriced plan in the industry, and it's the cheapest one!

Sure, save the comments. I realize it's more than a phone, and we can be connected all the time to the internet, the one real "killer app" that this device promises to deliver in my mind. And don't even get me started that the AT&T Wireless data network is one of the slower ones, and they would have been better off with another company. When the commercials show this thing flying through web pages, they're doing it via WiFi, which you don't need an iPhone for anyway, my Palm T/X does that just fine with no monthly fee.

Many of us that cover technology are relieved that in a few days, all of this iPhone nonsense will fade back into the background. I would like to see some elements, such as the larger screen and WiFi connection incorporated into the new iPod. They've been very mum about the sixth generation device because they don't want anything to detract away from iPhone sales, and the lucrative contracts. Now that the iSheep can stop camping out, and get on with their lives, it's time to get back to something I find more interesting.

--Jonas

T-Mobile Update

After some major cell phone issues last week, and some less than informative answers from T-Mobile’s service line, I’m happy to report that over the weekend and this week the cell tower has been mostly up and running. There have been some times where there was no coverage again, but overall it has been more up then down.

However, things are not quite perfect. When I complained about the tower outage, I also complained as why my roaming capability for my quad band phone doesn’t get onto the neighboring network. They promised to have an engineer look into things, and get back to me within 72 hours. After more than double that time period, I have yet to hear anything back, and the dead spots, that there are towers from competing companies in. Not good. (As an aside, I sent a copy of last week's story to their media relations department. They called me back on my cell phone, but I had a lot of difficulty hearing the callback number they left. I returned the call to my best guess of the number, but it only said that due to heavy volume it wouldn't go through- four times! Also, the received calls on the cell phone only was the general 800 number for the company so we're not exactly communicating).

Also, the supervisor on Thursday was going to call me back to follow up on the issue, and determine the final credit. He did not, nor anyone else from the phone service center. Also, not good.

In this era where the cell phone carriers are all pretty much the same, in that the contracts are similar, and the plans are very similar, the only thing to distinguish them is some level of service. Unfortunately, T-Mobile is not doing well in this area. I’m thankful the phone works again, but they really could do better overall. When my contract comes up next year for renewal, I'm going to think long and hard before just signing up again for this.

--Jonas

I Spoke Too Soon...

After my initial positive experience with T-Mobile earlier this week concerning my cell tower outage, I've been soured to the entire experience. Here's the inside scoop...

When they first told me that the tower would be down for another two hours, it sounded reasonable, and I could surely understand that everything electronic needs to be serviced/upgraded/fixed or whatever they do to their equipment. The only problem is that the two hours came and went, and the service didn't return.

On my next 45 minute phone call to the service line on the next day, I graduated from the regular crew, to what they call "Tier Two" technical support. These folks told me that it would be up in three hours. All right, these were the "next level" folks, so they should know. They assured me that their engineers were working hard on the problem, and understood the hardship of having no mobile phone. While it was reassuring, long after three hours, I still was not connected. I powered off the phone and went to bed hoping that the engineers would be working through the night.

Well apparently they went to bed too. Or maybe they need to ship a part from Djibouti or Nepal or somewhere that FedEx doesn't deliver from. At any rate, today's folks, including the supervisor on service could only tell me that it is an open item, and that they were working on it, and gave me no estimate when it would be fixed.

I find this rather unacceptable. With the recent problems with my landline, I really need the mobile phone as a backup, and now it's not working at all from the house, and for several miles in any direction. The only consolation that the company will give is that will refund me $5 per day for each number that has no service. That hardly seems to compensate me for the 45 minutes (no exaggeration!) I've spent daily with them over the last three days troubleshooting their network and explaining my difficulties to the next person who is in another state.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. I really don't wish to endure another three week outage like I did last summer. I'm paying for service that I'm not receiving. If this continues into next week, I think I'll insist that they let me out of my contract and try someone else. It really can't be worse than no service, no?

--Jonas

Annual Cell Tower Issues

Over the last year, I've had decent cell phone coverage by my house, although there are still too many deadspots not too far down the road. You may recall that last year the cell phone tower in my town went down for a three week duration last summer. Still, for whatever reason, I've stuck with T-Mobile through it all.

Now with the warmer weather, I noticed that again today that I had no bars of coverage on my cell phone. In another area, I had full coverage. Ok, it must be the tower again.

I went ahead and called t-mobile, yelled "English," my phone number, and other verification data into the phone until I got to an account representative. This was the Tier One person. While she tried real hard, she gave up and kicked me up to the next level before too long.

The second tier tried to make the phone roam onto another network. I kept pointing out that I have free roaming in my plan, and there are other providers in my area, and why didn't my quad band phone make friends with a new tower. She didn't know, but she put in a requisition with the engineers, and they will text me when they figure things out. More importantly, she told me that the cell tower would be up in two hours. I wasn't holding my breath.

While it took closer to three hours, and my usual four bars of coverage has dwindled to one to two, I will say that the phone is at least more than a paperweight again. Compared to last year when they only wanted to sell me a new phone, this was much better this time around.

As the cellular phone market consolidates, and increasingly the providers all have many of the same phones and similar contracts, one key way to distinguish themselves is with service. Assuming the cell tower is up and running tomorrow, T-Mobile appears to be doing tons better than last year. Then again, they had nowhere to go but up.

--Jonas

The 2nd Loneliest Repairman

Over the last weekend, I had a disconnect from the telephone grid. I get both my internet and my telephone from Verizon, but alas, I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me back up and start again.

I was doing some work in my basement where my DSL modem and router are located. I had to move them in order to do some painting. Unfortunately, things got a little pulled as the wires didn't quite reach, but nothing appeared to pull out in the end. The next day, I noticed that I had no phone service. Curiously, the DSL still worked just fine. I went around and checked all the connections, and both the cordless, and the "non-cordless" phone had no dial tone, couldn't dial out, and were otherwise useless. My neighbors are on the newer fiberoptic (FIOS) network, and experienced no outage.

At first, I assumed that it had to be related to the router relocation even though it was only about two feet in the end. I called the phone company and requested a service call. They tested the line, and it was indeterminate- it could be in the house, or further up the line- basically no help. Of course, it was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and no one was coming until the Tuesday. While it was refreshing to not have the phone ringing so much, this got real old quickly. Thankfully the cell phone kept me in touch.

I didn't give much hope of getting back connected too soon. Even for a $91 service call if the problem was inside, my "appointment" covered the whole day, and not any specific time. I figured the tech would show up around 4 pm or so.

I was pleasantly surprised when the bucket truck pulled up at 8:30 am on Tuesday morning. He went right to work. I went outside to check on him only to see the truck driving away. I still had no dial tone, so I was wondering if this was break time already. After around 45 minutes he returned, and explained that there was a break in the cable on the main street. Needless to say, it had nothing to do with me moving the router even though I had fixated on that. It turns out that the DSL signal because it travels at a higher frequency than phone can jump over small breaks in the wire that stop the telephone completely, explaining my service enigma.

The tech seemed real excited to have something to fix. He told me he was a "dinosaur" as the network had gone fiberoptic in my area. He has too old to retrain, according to the company, and too young to retire. Therefore, he was more than happy to have some old fashioned copper wires to repair! Next to that Maytag guy, the Verizon copper tech may be the 2nd loneliest guy out there.

In the middle of this, I thought that perhaps I should upgrade to FIOS. However, now that I'm reconnected, things are working fine again, and I think I'll leave well enough alone for now.

--Jonas

BTW: I pay only $17.99 + fees for DSL now, and FIOS Internet starts at $39.99 + fees even with a one year commitment. Yeah it's faster, but I can already stream video ok, so I hardly see the need unless I want to download some more Linux distros...