January 10, 2007

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!!!!!

So after drooling over the iPhone some more I went over to Ezra's place (where I found out about the phone in the first place) to check the comments. Most of the discussion revolves around why Apple would make this phone a Cingular exclusive, which led to a lot of discussion about which carriers are better than others.

There's no consensus about which carrier is the best, but there's plenty of discussion about which ones *aren't* the best, particularly Sprint. I've been with Sprint for four and a half years now and I guess I just don't understand what the cell phone experience is supposed to be. Other than the state of Nebraska, where Sprint, it seems, believes people are still using the String-and-Can network of communication, the only place I have had with coverage is in my old apartment. I don't know what it was about that place (I lived in a room in a very old house), but the second I stepped outside I got full coverage, so it wasn't that Sprint was bad in that area. My old phone (recently replaced with a shiny *new* phone) didn't do text messaging so well, but I was, and still am, able to get on regular internet pages while folks on other networks don't seem to be able to.

I don't know, is there something I'm missing? Some piece of the cell phone experience that I'm not missing because I don't realize I should be having it?

I did just read that Cingular is the only carrier in the US that's fully unionized, which I like, but that can't be the way these companies jockey for customers. Is getting exclusive phones really persuasive to you guys, enough so that you'd switch providers? And what, if anything, is it that you like about your current provider?

1 comment:

Noumena said...

When I finally broke down and got a cell phone a year and a half ago, I went with Sprint because it was the cheapest. Now, I don't talk on the phone much, and don't use text messages or access the internet on my phone, so perhaps Sprint is more expensive when you start paying for those extras, but otherwise I don't understand the Sprint hate. I've certainly never had any problems with reception or audio quality -- in fact, until Cingular put in a new tower nearby, I got better reception at home than my housemate did.

Perhaps it's just fashion or a clique identity -- the same sort of non-reason certain circles of computer nerds hate Macs. Cingular's popular, and that popularity is rationalised post hoc by declaring Cingular the best.