The Great Phone Debate 2011

I've had AT&T since it took over Cingular and it's never been that great. Until I got a smartphone, the biggest problem was the dropped calls and lack of reception in certain areas. It was actually amazingly predictable in some places and people I talked to frequently could actually figure out where I was based on dropped calls. When I upgraded to a smart phone in 2009, I discovered a new reason to be frustrated: their internet. It wasn't that noticeable at first, since I had a Blackberry Pearl that didn't have 3G (which meant, though I didn't realize it at the time, that I only connected to the Edge network, even in 3G areas, yet I was still paying $30 per month for data). Once I upgraded to a Blackberry Bold, the problem became more pronounced, since I would sometimes have 3G (which works well enough) and have to deal with Edge other times (which is sloooooow). My other mistake was in getting another Blackberry and signing a two year contract that expires in 9/12. My reason for this was that I had trouble wrapping my mind around paying $200-300 for a phone with a contract (which ruled out Droids and iPhones) and I paid about $50 for the Blackberry with a contract. It worked better than my Pearl in the same way that even an old car running on the worst gas possible works better than a bicycle...except when it stops working completely.

I've been frustrated enough to want a new phone and possibly a new wireless company (Verizon is looking pretty good now), but I wanted to wait until the new iPhone came out. By then, I would be able to see how the iPhone looked, compare it to the available Droids, and the longer I waited, the lower my ETF would be if I switched to another provider. (Right now, it's $275.)

My view changed Gamestop debacle last week. I had a coupon for a "Buy Two Get One Free" on used games that I didn't print out, but decided to use in the store. The guys working there said I could just go to my account on the website and pull up the code, so I tried it. And tried it again. And again. First, I couldn't even log in with the Blackberry's native browser, so I tried Opera. Then, the coupon was a PDF file and while it downloaded to my phone, neither my roommate nor I could figure out how to open it. We tried multiple things and nothing. The frustration was increased by AT&T's slow Edge network (which made loading pages horrible) and the Blackberry's overall slowness (which made switching apps equally frustrating). We started around 8:45 and finally left the store at about 9:20 and we still weren't able to pull up the coupon.

This, more than any other problem I've had with my phone, drove home the fact that I'm paying for a service that I can't fully use. I've been debating whether I really needed a smartphone for a couple of months now, since I've noticed that I use my iPod Touch much more than my Blackberry. My Blackberry gets used mainly for a quick web check, email, Facebook (and the reliability on that is 50/50) or Google maps. I track my spending on my Touch, organize coupons, use Rhapsody, organize store cards, and lots of other things. Forgetting my Blackberry is inconvenient if I need a phone or if I need to check an address or pull up a number, forgetting my Touch affects my daily routine. And there's also the fact that I'm carry two devices, one that comes with a $30 monthly fee and I use 25% of my time, one that is free and I use the remaining 75%.

Based on this, I've come up with a few different plans of action. Here's what I have so far:

Stay with AT&T and Do Nothing. This one seems like the worst of all possible worlds. I'll stay with my current provider (AT&T), keep my current phone (Blackberry Bold), and current plan ($30 unlimited data pack). The one pro to this is that it requires the least effort and I won't incur any additional expenses by buying a new phone or paying an Early Termination Fee of $275 (it will keep dropping $10 per month). The other pro is that I'll keep my $30 unlimited plan, which is grandfathered in and I would lose if I dropped t. This may also be a con in pro's clothing, though. When I had my Pearl, with the exception of one month, my data usage never exceeded 26MB. Getting the Bold in September increased my data usage, so I currently use an average of 96.3MB per month with a max of 120.4MB and a minimum of 57.9MB. Not surprisingly, the amount of data used increased with the more time I spend in 3G coverage areas and decreases with Edge. Based on this, I could easily drop to the $25 2GB plan and probably drop to the $15 200MB plan. The other thing to consider on this is that while switching providers would cost $275 as of this payment cycle, keeping the unlimited data plan is going to cost $580.

Keep AT&T, Switch Smartphones. A better phone might offset the incredibly slow internet. I know that a significant portion of my problems last week were related to the Blackberry's limitations. The problem with this is that getting a new phone will involve signing a new contract and buying a new phone, which would probably run at least $100. There are a couple of Droid and iPhone options below that, but most are at least $200. And I'm still going to be paying $30 per month (or $25, if I drop to a limited plan) for a service I'm not happy with. This is the worst choice.

Keep AT&T, Downgrade to a "Dumbphone." This option has its merits. The biggest cons again would be either signing a new contract or else paying a significant amount out of pocket to avoid a contract. A contract would mean a free or very cheap phone and, since the non-smartphone ETF is $175 less $4 for every month of completed service, if I rode it out for the remaining 18 months on my Blackberry contract (I have extra lines available for upgrade), the ETF would be a little over $100. The data plan would run $30 per month for unlimited data and texting and I'm currently paying $45 for a smartphone data plan and 1500 texts. Alternatively, I could drop to 1000 texts which would put the cost at $25. The biggest pro to this is that I managed to get a 450 plan. Looking at last month's bill, I used 143 rollover minutes, 323 minutes, and 220 expired. I also have 3300 rollover minutes banked. Switching to a regular phone would drop my bill by between $15-$20 dollars per month, not counting fees and taxes.

Switch to Verizon and Keep My Blackberry. Pros here would be faster internet. Cons are AT&T's $275 ETF, higher prices (the cheapest plan I could put together with a smartphone still ran about $25 more than my current bill), losing free calls to my parents' landline (they're on AT&T, so it doesn't cost minutes), and losing free mobile to mobile with friends who use AT&T. I could get Friends and Family, but that would increase my bill another $20. Also, I'm still stuck with my Blackberry, so I'm on the fence.

Switch to Verizon and Get a New Phone Same cons as switching to Verizon and keeping my Blackberry, but also add the cost for a new phone (again, budgeting $100 would be conservative, I think), another contract, and my $275 ETF.

Switch to Verizon and Get a "Dumbphone" This would reduce the cost of a new phone and a data plan, but it's still going to be more with Verizon. Also, given that I would use that phone less for internet access, I'm not sure how much 3G would matter.

Drop to Voice and Texting Only and Get MiFi This would work for either AT&T or Verizon, but AT&T would have more advantages. I've been looking at the Virgin MiFi Hotspot for a while and I really like the idea. It costs $150 for the device and then either $50 per month for unlimited data (2.5GB 3G, then 256K when 2.5GB is reached) or $10 for 10 days with a limited of 100MB. The second plan is intriguing to me, because daily use would mean 30 per month for 300MB assuming daily use and possibly being able to get away with $10 per month when I didn't use the service daily and used it lightly. The MiFi also works with multiple devices and the devices treat the connection as a WiFi connection instead of 3G, which makes a difference with some sites or services. (Verizon offers a similar service with the device free with a 2 year contract or $70 with a one year, but the monthly service fee is $60). Since I jump back and forth between my Touch and my iPad, this might be a nice option and if I knew how well Virgin MiFi would work, I'd probably jump on this option right away. Unfortunately $150 is a lot to spend when I don't know how it works.

The bottom line is that I'm pretty fed up with paying $30 for a service that's unusable half the time and I'm not that crazy about dumping another $100-300 for a new phone that may or may not improve my issues, but that will extend my contract with a company I don't like doing business with. Verizon looks good and seems to have some great reviews and some loyal customers. (Plus "Verizon Sucks" gets 323,000 Google hits, "AT&T Sucks" gets 4,410,000 hits.) That said, I'm not sure how much wireless phone service is worth to me period and how much good (or great) service is worth to me vs adequate service. (And make no mistake, AT&T service is adequate. Calls go through, but drop more than I like, service is sometimes spotty in places where it shouldn't be, and I'm thoroughly unimpressed with their customer service.) But is Verizon service really worth an extra $30 per month or $360 per year? Or, for a two year contract, $720?

I'm going to talk to Verizon to see if I can get a better deal in-store than on the website. My sweet spot is about $90 for the equivalent of my current plan. If someone can offer my that, I would switch in a heartbeat because that's going to put me in the same place financially that staying with AT&T would leave me. I doubt that's realistic, though, so I think it's going to be a game of "how low can you go" until I find out exactly what "good" vs "adequate" service is really worth to me.

That said, being able to leave AT&T without losing money would put me over the moon.

Why AT&T Is Making a Strong Case for a Verizon iPhone

I'll admit it, I'm lazy. That's pretty much why I'm with AT&T, despite never actually choosing AT&T. It was pretty simple: Years ago, for whatever reason, my parents signed up with CellularOne and came home with shiny clunky new cell phone for me, too. No complaints. I stuck with CellularOne who was then bought out by Cingular...which then turned into AT&T.

Over the years, everything has been a bit of a pain. The first problem occurred when making a phone call from my driveway (which was about half a mile from the store where I bought my phone) resulted in a roaming charge. That became less of an issue when companies stopped hitting you with roaming charges. After that, the issue became dropped calls. (Interestingly enough, the dropped calls didn't become a major problem until AFTER AT&T started advertising themselves at the network with the fewest dropped calls.) It was so bad people with whom I had frequent phone conversations were able to track where I was based on when calls would drop and I started warning people when the call was going to drop.

Lately, the issue has been 3G coverage. This didn't matter to me until a couple of years ago, when I finally decided to upgrade to a smartphone. I had originally decided on an iPhone, but decided against it when I realized that AT&T had no 3G coverage where my parents live (and where I spend a lot of time). Look at a map of AT&T's 3G coverage sometime...it's pretty limited. Did I say pretty? I mean extremely. And those ads that AT&T keeps running about how the iPhone users can talk and browse only on AT&T's network? That's AT&T's 3G network. If you're using Edge, talking and browsing isn't an option.

In the spirit of fairness, apparently AT&T's 3G is faster than Verizon's...where you can get it.

I finally chose a Blackberry Pearl which I then upgraded about a year later to a Blackberry Bold. I was able to get the Blackberry cheaper and decided that I refused to get an iPhone as long as it was exclusive to AT&T.

The other big argument for AT&T was their free mobile to mobile calling. Since the people I talked to the most on the phone also had AT&T, there was a very strong disincentive for switching carriers. If I switched carriers, phone calls to my friends would start eating up my minutes and their minutes....and probably wouldn't make me very popular. However, my phone habits have changed enough that this isn't the issue it was a year ago.

So, basically, I don't have a lot of incentive to stick it out with AT&T except for the early termination fee (I'm about four months into a two year contract on my phone). And since my bill is so high ($85 for one line, not including taxes), I'm willing to bet that my savings with another company would offset the ETF.

Fast forward to now and everyone is excited about the Verizon iPhone. My reaction? I can't decide whether to upgrade to an iPhone (I like the features) or get rid of a smartphone altogether. It's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds, since I have a 4G iPod Touch. (You know, the one Steve Jobs referred to as an "iPhone without a contract?") More and more places have free wifi now, so lately I've seriously considered switching to an iPod Touch and a regular phone. Another option my roommate and I have kicked around has been getting MiFi, especially since the iPad is now in the picture.

I've decided to wait it out until this summer, since there's a good chance that Apple will release a new model then. In the meantime, I'm getting more and more annoyed with AT&T's policy of rewarding only iPhone customer loyalty and ONLY iPhone customers. They seem to be confused about the fact that they're in danger of losing non-iPhone customers to Verizon.

For instance, when I checked Google Reader, I found this story about how AT&T is now offering iPhone customers 1000 free "loyalty" minutes. I don't need the minutes. I have 3199 as of last billing cycle and 308 minutes expired last month. The fact that AT&T has also started offering some iPhone users unlimited data plans again doesn't affect me either, since I never lost my unlimited plan. But the fact that AT&T is exclusively wooing iPhone users to keep them from switching, while ignoring other smartphone users who are paying just as much? I don't like it.

It's not enough to make me decide to leave AT&T right now, but it's definitely yet another little thing that's slowly tipping the scale towards....well, anyone but AT&T.