Keleigh.net : Thoughts & Musings » Cellular http://keleigh.net Everything you don't care to know. Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:01:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 AT&T vs Verizon – The Clash of Titans http://keleigh.net/2009/12/att-vs-verizon-the-clash-of-titans/ http://keleigh.net/2009/12/att-vs-verizon-the-clash-of-titans/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:52:12 +0000 Keleigh http://keleigh.net/?p=67 Since the iPhone’s creation and launch users have flocked to AT&T to get on board the iPhone craze and phenom. With the ever increasing Features and Apps you can pretty much do anything with the iPhone. Thus, “There’s an App for That” was born. In the widely popular “App for That” commercials to boast the abundance of apps available to do this, that, and the next thing while on “the World’s fastest 3G Network” just by purchasing and using the iPhone, popularity continued to soar and it seems like everyone had an iPhone.

Then, as it seems, Verizon had an epiphany. What good is the “World’s Fastest 3G Network” if you can’t connect to 3G because it is not available in your area. And so it begins. “There’s a Map for That” commercials begin. Verizon picked at the open wound of AT&T and the fact that they do have a small 3G network compared to that of Verizon. While this is only half true [read this for the technical hoopla], it resulted in a lawsuit filed by AT&T against Verizon, a counter-suit from Verizon and then the dropping of both lawsuits.

As if that sore was not sore enough Consumer Reports ranked AT&T dead last in Customer Satisfaction. Ouch. One thing is for sure, AT&T’s iPhone Exclusivity contract will be coming to an end, probably sometime in 2010, and if their act (and network) isn’t cleaned up and iPhone plans revised to be competitive instead of more expensive, we will see a mass exodus of iPhone users to competitors for network coverage, satisfaction, and/or price of plans.

Now, enough of AT&T, Verizon is not without its woes. Currently, the FCC is investigating Verizon’s sudden increase of their early termination fee for “advanced devices” from $175 to $350 and the FCC is also investigating whether Verizon is guilty of some shady charging practices. Apparently Verizon is charging a $1.99 fee for users who accidentally access Verizon Mobile Web without a data plan. $1.99 doesn’t seem like much but multiply that by thousands of users who inadvertently press it and they’ve made themselves some free money! Read more about this at The Register.

So basically we have a choice regarding the top two Wireless Giants. One that ranks poorly in customer satisfaction or one that has some shady money making agendas.

T-Mobile anyone?

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