December 17, 2003 Archives

This is the (hopefully) last in a series of entries about my cell service. If you'd rather read the whole series from the beginning, click here.

Hold your calls, we've got a winner... or more succinctly, we've eliminated most of the losers. I re-signed yesterday with Cingular for National GSM service.

A couple of notes and observations are in order. This took an unbelievably long time. I'm not talking about yesterday at the store - which did take forever - but my decision making process. The cellular carriers make this maddeningly difficult.

First and foremost, you have to read each and every thing that you're being offered and not offered. The cell companies know what they're offering (well, sort of) but most of us don't. While I was in the cell phone store yesterday, I watched customer after customer move up to the desk, like lambs to the slaughter. The salespeople offered and sold plans and conditions that weren't understood by the customers. And, the customers, with little choice, signed on without much thought.

In my case, this is a $2,000 commitment - 2 years of service for the three of us - and I wanted to be sure everything was acceptable... or as acceptable as possible.

Most customers don't know the difference between GSM or TDMA or CDMA, but these distinctions can be very important in deciding what you're getting. The companies offer beautifully named national or regional networks, and then never disclose what these networks are... or are not. The maps I've seen continue to paint a nearly seamless blanket of coverage, which isn't true.

The company that actually runs the Cingular store needs to reconsider the paper flow through the store. Forms had to be filled out by hand and multiple phone calls made to get my account set up. It's 2003 - these forms should be computer generated and authorizations automated. I was in the store for nearly 2 hours. Some people, who waited in line while I was being taking care of, left.

As I wrote earlier, when a plan says no roaming fees, that still doesn't mean you can use any signal your phone can hear. It used to be, if you were out of range of your plan, your phone would latch on to whatever it heard, and you'd pay for that privilege. But "no roaming" doesn't necessarily mean that call is now free. It often means that call can no longer be made!

The best example is here at home. My phone shows a very, very strong signal (probably from T-Mobile or AT&T). If I try to make a call, the phone says "Emergency Only" and spits me back to the main menu.

As far as I can tell, I now have a comparable number of minutes, nights beginning at 7:00 PM, some sort of national coverage (though still no coverage here at home) and three new phones for a little less than I was paying. And, I extracted 3 free months of service, 2 of the 3 phones, and a waiver of the activation charge by getting on the phone with the Cingular company agent (thanks Kendrick Alexander) and asking for it (the folks in the Cingular store don't really work for Cingular).

Helaine and I got LG G4010 phones. They are incredibly small with a stubby, fixed antenna. I have been pouring through the manual, looking for a way to use my company's voicemail with this phone. That means adding a pause during the dialing sequence. As far as I can tell, you can't do it. If that's true, this would be the first cell phone I've ever seen that can't perform this function.

If the manual wasn't translated from some other language into English, the person who did write it should be ashamed. It is disorganized and confusing.

Steffie got a much fancier Samsung S307. It has a color display and more toys. I was proud because she wanted it and was willing to part with her own (hard earned) money to get it.

There was another company I had considered going with. Oh heck - it was Sprint. I didn't go because of what I considered the very high cost of the phones and higher cost for monthly service. But really, the clincher was their move a few years ago (quickly rescinded) to charge for calls to customer service! To me, that showed a corporate culture that didn't value the end user the way I want to be valued.

I would be 100% happy with Cingular but for one small problem. There's no service here at home. Judging by the folks at their store, Cingular thinks it has coverage here. They recently put a cell site at Quinnipiac College, less than 2 miles away. But, it is blocked to me, and most of my neighbors because of Sleeping Giant Mountain. If they would have moved the site off campus, they could have killed two birds with one stone - putting coverage on campus and into this area and I'd be really smiling.

I just wrote LG, manufacturer of my phone (and its manual) concerning an operational question I had. Here's the response:

Dear Customer ,

Welcome to LGE.com


Your message has been sent to the LG Electronics Mail Desk.

Question Mail Id : Q_1071687715835

Don't forget it. This question mail id can be available for your question mail history


Good Luck !!
--2009636.1071687715892.JavaMail.tmax.LGEB2C-SE1Q--

The whole manual problem is coming into clearer focus now.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of flight - the day when the Wright Brothers little plane flew the dunes at Kill Devil Hills in Kitty Hawk, NC.

I know there were some ceremonies, and the new Smithsonian air museum's opening was meant to coincide, but I am personally disappointed that more wasn't done to celebrate this triumph. This has to be on the short list of most important inventions of the 20th century.

My parents tell the story of how, for their honeymoon, they drove to California. My mom says they felt, "When would we ever have the opportunity to go again?" Today, it's simple to pick up and fly nearly anywhere... and we do. I've gone to California from Connecticut to attend a birthday party and once flew in Saturday morning and out Sunday morning, allowing me to only miss one night in my bed at home.

For people, airplane travel has drastically changed over the last 20 years - since PEOPLExpress. It used to be, you'd get dressed up for the upscale experience of flying. Now, you're just a cog in the air transport machine. Though airfares are cheaper, I'd love to see a comparison of travel times, which have to be longer thanks to the hub and spoke system.

Over the past century, the cost of air transport for goods has also gone down. So now it's possible to have fresh fruit year round in the Northeast, or get parts shipped to a factory overnight to keep production running. One word: FedEx.

Much of aviation's growth stems from our government's sales of surplus aircraft after WWII. I believe that no longer happens, and it's a shame. The military destroys too much that still has value. Is there even a military surplus market anymore?

Wilbur and Orville were quiet men. The first flight wasn't a 'press event,' though a telegram home to Dayton asked the family to alert the press to what they'd done. The Wright Flyer, as designed, was almost impossible to fly with any stability. It's a wonder they got into the air at all (though gusty northerly winds didn't hurt) much less lived to talk about it.

Today of all days, I just wish we'd celebrate them a little more.