I've been irritated with Verizon (love the Nickle and Dime ya moniker! I will have to remember to use it.) for years.
They charge what... $4.95 a month for Visual Voice Mail?
$30 a month for "Unlimited Text Messaging"? What? Everyone knows the cost to send a text message is a fraction of a penny.
I could go on and on, but won't. A point I want to make - We as consumers must be diligent in making sure that the future contains lots and lots of bandwidth that's ubiquitous, cheap and accessible without long-term lock-in. We want a future where we can pump Voice, text, video, data all over the fat-bandwidth. Paying for "minutes" should be a joke. Paying extra for text-messaging and "Value Add" service (ha! What a joke) from Verizon such as Visual Voice Mail and VZNavigator will also be obsolete. We want more competition in the market place. We want more openness. The key to all this is making sure lots of fat, wireless bandwidth is available.
Of course... You have to remember, Verizon has NO motivation for this future to unfold. They want a future with Lock-in forcing you to stick with them for two years at a time; metered bandwidth so they can charge you overages; tiered services so they can censor some services and charge you extra to access them; bandwidth-throttling so they can dictate terms and sell you "upgrades". Wanna cancel? That's extra fees. Wanna watch video? Extra fees. Wanna check email? Sorry you have already gotten 5 emails today, would you like to purchase another block of five? Do you have another device that wants service? Oh that's another $39.99 a month with a two-year iron clad service agreement.
My 2¢
I've had service with VZW since they bought alltel, I was an alltel customer. At the merger my family had two BB's and two flip phones, of which the contracts were grandfathered in. Upon our first upgrades they allowed us to keep that contract. Of course that hasn't continued, and a few years later here we are. YES, our bill has gone up but SO has everything else. We have never incurred these ^^^ extra costs mentioned, of course if you WANT these extra unnecessary services just like Sprint, AT&T, and every other cellular company, You will have to pay. BTW, Google really does offer all of these services, and basically for Free! And if they don't? There's an app for that, you know if your worried about getting those NFL scores. Now all of this said, I am assuming you have an unlimited data plan. If you don't, you will incur overage charges from any of the big three and their competitors.
Before I move ahead here... I don't really care what carrier a person is with, if you have done your homework and understand what "IS" unique about each carrier then an informed choice has been made.
As I mentioned in my earlier post above, recently I worked for Sprint and at that time I carried a unlimited data plan from them as well as VZW... I've done the math and had I switched my family over to Sprint we would have saved 20-40$, on four lines, three of which are smart phones with unlimited whatever. Now here is where it gets good. I'm in WI so maybe somewhere else in the US its different. While with Sprint I had dropped calls, not once or twice but often, and in a metro area. And so did a lot of other customers, and they were un pleased. lol, a lot of customers also had time stamp issues, clearly networking, with no fix. And yet another issue, while traveling around rural WI I might leave the beaten path, with Sprint when I was a half mile off the main HWYs I'd lose service, obviously since I am mentioning it, this didn't happen with my VZW devices. IDK about you but if I am snowmobiling, mountain biking, or hiking this may be important. Again, I have NEVER had these issues with VZW... And for the extra $20-40 on four lines, I'm good with that! I have lost service with VZW, but, I was in the middle of a corn field or forest and that's to be expected. Unless, like a lot of people I had to calm down at Sprint, that is not understood, lol!
So, here we are at bandwidth. I am very sorry to say, bandwidth is only important "If you have service!" This is one of those informed considerations needed before choosing a carrier. Spectrum, frequency, & bandwidth are important. These spectrums were mostly auctioned off over 100 years ago, around ham radio times. Occasionally the government auctions off another spectrum though. FYI, this is exactly why AT&T wanted T-Mobile, for their spectrum. You can't just buy these things and there aren't more and more. Frequency is how spectrums are divided. It's like changing the channel on your car radio, and like AM & FM, different frequencies have different properties. Like distance and penetration. This is a good part, VZWs goes further and has better penetration but less bandwidth. And if you are really looking for bandwidth? Sprints slower, shorter distance, less penetrable frequency carries a much bigger load "bandwidth", hence its, lol, short comings. This is why Sprint is #3 and you pay a bit more at VZW, its called network capabilities.
So with 4g lte there will be some changes, we'll have to wait and see... VZW seems to have had a few issues with roll out, a few nation wide outages. If Sprint can change some of their ways they might change the game a bit. After working there though... I have little confidence in their network techs. I personally believe these guys are a big make it or break it, I mean they either know how to keep a network going strong or the towers crash.
One last talking point. I agree with everyone. A lot of the rest of the world has a much better system of purchase for devices and services rendered. And we need to migrate in that direction. So Google just started selling unlocked GSM aka AT&T or T-Mobile Galaxy Nexus's on the Play Store. Here is everybody's chance to put their money where their mouth is, show the carriers we want the change. But remember no more subsidized devices, full price! Whatever that is; $400 $500 $600 whatever.
Anyhow maybe a bit more than 2¢ but people need to know what they are getting dollar for dollar, carrier for carrier, service for service.
Peace, out!
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