…what is the answer? In anticipation of giving Sprint the same consideration they’ve been showing me for low these 12 years, I visited my friendly, neighborhood AT&T Phonaporium today. The 3G iPhones (or iPhone v. 2.0 for those of us outside the Macinverse) will be available this Friday. I was keen to learn what all this über-coolness is gonna cost me – or at least get a picture of how AT&T’s version of rape differs from Sprint’s.
I have to admit – my first impressions were pretty favorable. The AT&T staff was cheerful (unlike the generally sullen folk at Sprint…kind of like the diifference between flying Southwest versus American Airlines). The guy I worked with was knowledgeable, and seemed genuinely interested in steering me to the best plan for me – and not whatever AT&T has a spiff on this month.
I learned a lot – for one thing, iPhone love ain’t cheap. There’s a $30 up-charge per month, per iPhone, regardless of your plan. A case to protect all that touchscreen goodness is a la carte (that’s French for “extra” for those of you here in the Panhandle). And they don’t (yet) offer insurance on the 3G iPhones (which means a decent case better be your first purchase).
Of course, living in the technological ghetto that is R.O.A. (Rest Of America…you know – the parts that don’t include major metro areas like Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, etc.), you can forget about (for now) getting any 3G speed off of any phone, no matter the brand or carrier. 3G is AWOL in the Panhandle for Sprint, Verison, Altel, and…AT&T. Sigh…
I’ve been living with my crapalicious Sprint HTC Mogul for a year or so, now, with it’s little “1X” indicator winking up at me. That means that surfing the web, looking up a map, or getting a movie showtime is an experience in tedium. I’ve seen grass grow faster. Jet over to the Metroplex, and it’s a whole ‘nuther ball game. There, you can get 3G speeds, and your crappy, garden-variety Mogul looks like somebody slapped a turbocharger on your web access. Download times look like WiFi speeds – with five bars worth of signal strength. The difference in 2G to 3G is like the difference between a Yugo to a Ferrari. And I’m NOT exaggerating – even a little.
So when does Amarillo get the 3G treatment? “Really Soon Now,” according to everyone I’ve spoken to. “Really Soon Now” could be 6 months, or it could be a year or two. It seems that Nobody’s particularly eager to light up their 3G towers first. They all want to wait to see the OTHER guys do it first. So it’s a waiting game. You can buy all the cool phones you want, but to get them to actually work as fast as their capable, you’ll have to move to a Major Metropolitan Area. So unless you live in an MMA, you’re SOL. Sigh…
Still, what it comes down to for me is a question of, “does the bloody thing work?” My HTC Mogul decidedly does not. I’m hoping that the 3G iPhone will work, even if 3G speeds are something I have to travel somewhere else to experience. Because the dirty little secret of cell phones is that 90% of the time, they are just used to make calls. And when your cell phone bites at making calls, all the 3G speed in the world won’t help you.
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