Verizon went national with 3G in 2004 --- and people are only starting to complain about it 6 years later.
3GPP went grandiose with video calling --- and we still haven't seen anyone actually using it --- worldwide.
LTE is a pure digital data network with zero voice --- just like ev-do. The future has spoken --- and it's Qualcomm's vision along.
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ?3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2?s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn?t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you?ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
Honestly, I think if customers can get unlimited data and unlimited voice for a family plan that costs $180 a month then what about people like me who is paying $180 already who is limited to 1,400 minutes? It seems like this price adjustment would cascade to other plans, too...
Maybe I've misses the point but... this was a quote taken directly from the story:
"Existing AT&T customers can choose to switch to any of the new plans without penalty or contract extension. Just visit the online account management tool at att.com/wireless."
So wouldn't u just switch to the unlimited plan and not even worry about extending the contract etc?
way too expensive for 2 people. I pay half that, I have 2000 mins per month, ulimited calling, web and texts, free world roaming and have 4 phones sharing the minutes with sprint. 3 smart phones one regular.
The unlimited data is false advertising not that they have the bandwidth to even let you take advantage of it even if it were truly unlimited.
Verizon Wireless has always been at the top of all customer service surveys vs. AT&T has always been at the bottom.
Cost has been the same for both Verizon and AT&T --- and it's always Verizon that start the price war with AT&T matching it within hours.
Verizon controlling the phone is the same as Apple controlling the phone --- you the consumer ain't controlling the phone.
3G has been available for about 10 years now. Only now when we are ready to move to 4G that this whole technical deficiency gets any attention --- which means only one thing, Verizon made the correct technical choice for ev-do.
Whatever. Last time I checked I wasn't a survey. I've had consistently great support and service with AT&T ever since I purchased my first iPhone. That doesn't mean I'm a shill for AT&T as YMMV. What it means is that me, myself and I have not had a problem. Although, the three of us are thinking that perhaps we should be on a family plan?
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ‘3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2’s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn’t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you’ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
That's my whole point, isn't it? It's only a very recent issue for this supposed technical deficiency. So Verizon's decision to go with ev-do 7-8 years ago was the correct decision. Qualcomm's decision to kill ev-dv was the correct decision.
Qualcomm WON the war --- they are the largest mobile technology company in the world. Qualcomm's size equals to Nokia and TI combined.
In 2005, Qualcomm bought Flarion and all of its flash-ofdm patents to create their 4G patent war chest. Doesn't matter whether UMB dies on the drafting table or not --- Qualcomm is the largest patent holder in LTE. They won once again.
All I see is basically the entire AT&T and T-Mobile android phone line-up are based on Qualcomm chipsets and that AT&T is going with BREW MP for their feature phones. 9 out of 10 AT&T phones will have BREW MP and Qualcomm chipset inside --- if you call that a Qualcomm loss, then who won? I don't see Verizon making a mistake with ev-do and was forced somehow to migrate to LTE. What I see is AT&T migrating to Qualcomm stuff.
3 - I want the cell phone service providers to get together and totally eliminate international roaming charges.
Until laws are present to protect the corporations, it will never happen. Even in the EU, where almost every country have Vodafone and T-mobile, the roaming charges withing the same network are laughable (although the EU forced these corps to lower them). Regarding global roaming charges, we can dream on...
I guess you will be happy with horrendous customer service, greediness in terms of cost, Verizon control over your use of the phone, and the ability to use only voice or data at a time unlike AT&T and T-Mobile where you can do both [e.g. no talking and surfing the net at the same time]. From experience, as much as I dislike AT&T, I'd rather suffer through it's growing pains then subject myself to Verizon. Verizon gets my vote for worst company on the planet.
To be fair, you should make the distinction in Verizon *wireless* and just verizon. Support for my FiOS connection and land lines isnt bad.
I also take issue with the mentioning of cost in an article talking about AT&T matching verizon's price drops.
Last, in terms of coverage, my girlfriend's verizon phone almost never drops a call, my AT&T phones do, not several times a day but several times a *conversation* sometimes. Why yes, I am in NYC, how did you know?
Cingular was actually good, SBC bought AT&T and everything went to pot.
All that's not to say verizon wireless isnt horribly crappy in 100 other ways (like locking down phones, less *broad* coverage area, yes horrible customer service [far far worse than at&ts!), limitations on their 3g implementation, etc) but at&t aint *that* much better
And what has the free market done for roaming charges? Roaming charges are for most people a rare enough event that people are not price-sensitive to them.
If one could choose a different provider for roaming purposes, there would be a lot more competition. Or if SIM-locks would be illegal, you at least could get a local SIM card. Providers could still recoup their subsidies by two-year contracts with high baseline charges.
This is not at all what I need. I'm a fairly heavy iPhone 3GS user. Voice communications (the telephone) doesn't make my top twenty in terms of the functions that I use the iPhone for. It's all about Apps for me. I'm constantly checking email, watching a CNN news video, downloading a file from my iDisk, checking stock quotes, checking realtime traffic maps, playing iPod music from the iPhone through my car stereo, etc. I don't like to talk on the phone and don't do it very much. Also don't ever use texting. In fact, I opted out of texting when I set up my current iPhone contract.
Number 1 - I want unlimited data. Number 2 - I want laptop tethering at no additional charge. Number 3 - I want the cell phone service providers to get together and totally eliminate international roaming charges.
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ?3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2?s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn?t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you?ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
Only someone deluded by Apple marketing thinks that 3G was utterly pointless before the iPhone. Laughable.
The iPhone was utterly pointless before it was 3G.
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ‘3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2’s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn’t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you’ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
dude you rock
thanks for the timely clear info
i guess apples data farms will power up the iphones even more
Verizon Wireless has always been at the top of all customer service surveys vs. AT&T has always been at the bottom.
Cost has been the same for both Verizon and AT&T --- and it's always Verizon that start the price war with AT&T matching it within hours.
Verizon controlling the phone is the same as Apple controlling the phone --- you the consumer ain't controlling the phone.
3G has been available for about 10 years now. Only now when we are ready to move to 4G that this whole technical deficiency gets any attention --- which means only one thing, Verizon made the correct technical choice for ev-do.
What a set of garbage those sentences are.
Verizon controlling the phone is not the same as Apple controlling the phone. If it were, Apple would only allow you to have Apple applications on it, only music purchased through Apple, movies, videos, etc. That's what Verizon control is (was, thanks to Apple.)
Verizon is more expensive than AT&T, always has been, and you can check my posts on other threads on this topic for plenty of factual information, as solipsism and I have gone over time and again.
On the surface Verizon looks less expensive, until you break a plan down feature for feature. With Verizon logic, you can have a data plan now for $9.99. As soon as you use it, however, you'll go over the ridiculously low data allowance and get charged extra for going over. It's not as inexpensive as they advertise it. Read the allowances and you'll see that AT&T trumps Verizon every time.
The thing that kills me about this is the following:
I barely use my phone for voice outside of calling my girlfriend (who is also on AT&T), therefore, I rarely use more than ~150 minutes a month... I don't want a cheaper unlimited plan, I want a cheaper/fewer minutes plan!
I use alot of data, so $30/month for data is fine, but I would be ecstatic to pay 20/month for 200 minutes (I have an office phone and work 12 h/day).
its all just a silly way to take my money!
but I need my iPhone -- its way too fun to abandon!
I am seeing things, or all carriers including T-Mobile upping their monthly fees for no good reason? I see plans starting 39.99 at T-Mobile... have they gotten greedy? I think they're preparing for the onslaught of iPhone users...
Actually, there's NO reason why carriers shouldn't offer lower priced plans. It's like they all want the current customers to stay, so they all raise their entry prices. WTH, this is real competition? A continual raising of prices on lower-tier plans?
Comments
Verizon went national with 3G in 2004 --- and people are only starting to complain about it 6 years later.
3GPP went grandiose with video calling --- and we still haven't seen anyone actually using it --- worldwide.
LTE is a pure digital data network with zero voice --- just like ev-do. The future has spoken --- and it's Qualcomm's vision along.
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ?3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2?s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn?t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you?ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
Honestly, I think if customers can get unlimited data and unlimited voice for a family plan that costs $180 a month then what about people like me who is paying $180 already who is limited to 1,400 minutes? It seems like this price adjustment would cascade to other plans, too...
Maybe I've misses the point but... this was a quote taken directly from the story:
"Existing AT&T customers can choose to switch to any of the new plans without penalty or contract extension. Just visit the online account management tool at att.com/wireless."
So wouldn't u just switch to the unlimited plan and not even worry about extending the contract etc?
The unlimited data is false advertising not that they have the bandwidth to even let you take advantage of it even if it were truly unlimited.
The unlimited data is false advertising not that they have the bandwidth to even let you take advantage of it even if it were truly unlimited.
So they don't have the bandwidth making it a non issue and/or it is an issue for you no matter what?
If you regularly download 5GB of crap on a smart phone you have no life.
LTE is a pure digital data network with zero voice --- just like ev-do. The future has spoken --- and it's Qualcomm's vision along.
We've been pure digital for 12+ years now, where have you been?
If you regularly download 5GB of crap on a smart phone you have no life.
Without tethering, I can do that at an airport renting movies or buying the previous night?s TV Shows for a trip.
We've been pure digital for 12+ years now, where have you been?
In his defense, he likely meant IP data without a voice channel, not analog.
Verizon Wireless has always been at the top of all customer service surveys vs. AT&T has always been at the bottom.
Cost has been the same for both Verizon and AT&T --- and it's always Verizon that start the price war with AT&T matching it within hours.
Verizon controlling the phone is the same as Apple controlling the phone --- you the consumer ain't controlling the phone.
3G has been available for about 10 years now. Only now when we are ready to move to 4G that this whole technical deficiency gets any attention --- which means only one thing, Verizon made the correct technical choice for ev-do.
Whatever. Last time I checked I wasn't a survey. I've had consistently great support and service with AT&T ever since I purchased my first iPhone. That doesn't mean I'm a shill for AT&T as YMMV. What it means is that me, myself and I have not had a problem. Although, the three of us are thinking that perhaps we should be on a family plan?
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ‘3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2’s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn’t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you’ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
That's my whole point, isn't it? It's only a very recent issue for this supposed technical deficiency. So Verizon's decision to go with ev-do 7-8 years ago was the correct decision. Qualcomm's decision to kill ev-dv was the correct decision.
Qualcomm WON the war --- they are the largest mobile technology company in the world. Qualcomm's size equals to Nokia and TI combined.
In 2005, Qualcomm bought Flarion and all of its flash-ofdm patents to create their 4G patent war chest. Doesn't matter whether UMB dies on the drafting table or not --- Qualcomm is the largest patent holder in LTE. They won once again.
All I see is basically the entire AT&T and T-Mobile android phone line-up are based on Qualcomm chipsets and that AT&T is going with BREW MP for their feature phones. 9 out of 10 AT&T phones will have BREW MP and Qualcomm chipset inside --- if you call that a Qualcomm loss, then who won? I don't see Verizon making a mistake with ev-do and was forced somehow to migrate to LTE. What I see is AT&T migrating to Qualcomm stuff.
I use that much driving down the road with Google Maps turned on!
. Number 2 - I want laptop tethering at no additional charge. .
Jailbreak + carrier settings
[e.g. no talking and surfing the net at the same time].
I've had quite a few times where the iPhone is not on 3G and on Edge and you can't talk and surf.
Ymmv
just sayin'
3 - I want the cell phone service providers to get together and totally eliminate international roaming charges.
Until laws are present to protect the corporations, it will never happen. Even in the EU, where almost every country have Vodafone and T-mobile, the roaming charges withing the same network are laughable (although the EU forced these corps to lower them). Regarding global roaming charges, we can dream on...
I guess you will be happy with horrendous customer service, greediness in terms of cost, Verizon control over your use of the phone, and the ability to use only voice or data at a time unlike AT&T and T-Mobile where you can do both [e.g. no talking and surfing the net at the same time]. From experience, as much as I dislike AT&T, I'd rather suffer through it's growing pains then subject myself to Verizon. Verizon gets my vote for worst company on the planet.
To be fair, you should make the distinction in Verizon *wireless* and just verizon. Support for my FiOS connection and land lines isnt bad.
I also take issue with the mentioning of cost in an article talking about AT&T matching verizon's price drops.
Last, in terms of coverage, my girlfriend's verizon phone almost never drops a call, my AT&T phones do, not several times a day but several times a *conversation* sometimes. Why yes, I am in NYC, how did you know?
Cingular was actually good, SBC bought AT&T and everything went to pot.
All that's not to say verizon wireless isnt horribly crappy in 100 other ways (like locking down phones, less *broad* coverage area, yes horrible customer service [far far worse than at&ts!), limitations on their 3g implementation, etc) but at&t aint *that* much better
See...the free market works. Government, keep out!
And what has the free market done for roaming charges? Roaming charges are for most people a rare enough event that people are not price-sensitive to them.
If one could choose a different provider for roaming purposes, there would be a lot more competition. Or if SIM-locks would be illegal, you at least could get a local SIM card. Providers could still recoup their subsidies by two-year contracts with high baseline charges.
But the free market would never outlaw SIM locks.
This is not at all what I need. I'm a fairly heavy iPhone 3GS user. Voice communications (the telephone) doesn't make my top twenty in terms of the functions that I use the iPhone for. It's all about Apps for me. I'm constantly checking email, watching a CNN news video, downloading a file from my iDisk, checking stock quotes, checking realtime traffic maps, playing iPod music from the iPhone through my car stereo, etc. I don't like to talk on the phone and don't do it very much. Also don't ever use texting. In fact, I opted out of texting when I set up my current iPhone contract.
Number 1 - I want unlimited data. Number 2 - I want laptop tethering at no additional charge. Number 3 - I want the cell phone service providers to get together and totally eliminate international roaming charges.
Yea so do we all. Keep dreaming buddy
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ?3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2?s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn?t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you?ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
Only someone deluded by Apple marketing thinks that 3G was utterly pointless before the iPhone. Laughable.
The iPhone was utterly pointless before it was 3G.
And the disinformation continues. You ignore the fact that higher-speed data for phones was mostly pointless for most users until the iPhone made smartphones viable for the average consumer creating an entire shift in the market. You ignore the fact that Qualcomm lost the ‘3G' war by charging such outrageous licensing fees that an entirely new standard was created and adopted over most of the world, utilizing only select Qualcomm patents leaving EV-DO in the defunct state it is now with hardly anyone upgrading to Rev. B. You also omitted the fact that Qualcomm had no choice but to get behind LTE in producing HW because their sponsoring of 3GPP2’s UMB was a complete disaster as the world wasn’t going to let Qualcomm control so much of the mobile infrastructure ever again. Finally, you’ve ignored the entire reason why Verizon had to move to LTE before 3GSM-based networks and why Sprint made the wrong move to WiMAX even earlier, which was the dead-end tech that is EV-DO in comparison to the wide-open, feature-rich, high-bandwidth path of HSPA and LTE.
dude you rock
thanks for the timely clear info
i guess apples data farms will power up the iphones even more
Verizon Wireless has always been at the top of all customer service surveys vs. AT&T has always been at the bottom.
Cost has been the same for both Verizon and AT&T --- and it's always Verizon that start the price war with AT&T matching it within hours.
Verizon controlling the phone is the same as Apple controlling the phone --- you the consumer ain't controlling the phone.
3G has been available for about 10 years now. Only now when we are ready to move to 4G that this whole technical deficiency gets any attention --- which means only one thing, Verizon made the correct technical choice for ev-do.
What a set of garbage those sentences are.
Verizon controlling the phone is not the same as Apple controlling the phone. If it were, Apple would only allow you to have Apple applications on it, only music purchased through Apple, movies, videos, etc. That's what Verizon control is (was, thanks to Apple.)
Verizon is more expensive than AT&T, always has been, and you can check my posts on other threads on this topic for plenty of factual information, as solipsism and I have gone over time and again.
On the surface Verizon looks less expensive, until you break a plan down feature for feature. With Verizon logic, you can have a data plan now for $9.99. As soon as you use it, however, you'll go over the ridiculously low data allowance and get charged extra for going over. It's not as inexpensive as they advertise it. Read the allowances and you'll see that AT&T trumps Verizon every time.
I barely use my phone for voice outside of calling my girlfriend (who is also on AT&T), therefore, I rarely use more than ~150 minutes a month... I don't want a cheaper unlimited plan, I want a cheaper/fewer minutes plan!
I use alot of data, so $30/month for data is fine, but I would be ecstatic to pay 20/month for 200 minutes (I have an office phone and work 12 h/day).
its all just a silly way to take my money!
but I need my iPhone -- its way too fun to abandon!
Actually, there's NO reason why carriers shouldn't offer lower priced plans. It's like they all want the current customers to stay, so they all raise their entry prices. WTH, this is real competition? A continual raising of prices on lower-tier plans?