Get our Newsletter!
Sign up below, then download the free DCA Desktop agent
to receive notification of new issues and read them at your leisure.
The Wireless Outpost Newsletter Issue #17 Vol. 3
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Another issue of the Wireless Outpost Newsletter. This newsletter
is for the soon to be educated cellular phone user community. If you know of
anyone else that may have an interest in our newsletter, make sure to forward
them a copy. Now we move forward at Mach II speed!
[Note: This newsletter is delivered Bi Weekly on Wednesday.]
VERIZON REALLY (I MEAN REALLY) SUCKS AS A PHONE PROVIDER
This is my first experience with Verizon as a phone company and let me begin by making this comment. Nightmare on Elm Street was a pleasant dream compared to trying to get service set up with Verizon for local phone service. It was bad enough that I have hesitated to sign up with Verizon Wireless as of yet.
But this is how it all panned out. I needed two phone lines in my home so that I could use one line for home phone service and a second line for my internet connection. So I told them I needed their CD to set up internet service as well. I believe I called for service to be activated about 2 weeks prior to the time I needed it. The first line went fine and when I asked for the second line and internet service, all Hell broke loose.
The second line was set up and I still didn't have an internet disk to set up service. So I first called about the CD to set up internet service. After a week I called in and asked about the internet CD. They didn't have any record of my request. So I put in a second request. Another week passes and still no CD. I called in a third time and again was told they have no record of the request for the CD. It took me two weeks to realize I didn't need their internet CD to set up service. However, I was in the process of relocating so I wasn't thinking straight. I got the disc nearly 3 weeks after my original request.
Then I found out that they only offer 150 hours a month for the internet at $20 a month. I called them up and I said $20 a month for 150 hours? I needed more than that. I was told that they didn't offer unlimited internet service. The internet service rep decided to inform me that it was impossible to use 150 hours a month and that it was a really good deal. I told him I must be a miracle then because I can do the impossible with spending well over 200 hours a month online. He said I should manage the time I spend online and I told him to kiss my butt and set up service with another internet provider.
So then I get set up with another ISP and tried to dial into my account. The second line was dialing up into my primary home line! I immediately dialed into their tech support line. In total, I had to call into tech support 12 times and had a total of 5 field techs out to try and fix the problem. I might add that 3 of their reps hung up on me when I asked them if they had the proper training to take these types of calls. I only asked because they didn't seem to understand that I was asking for a tech to be sent out to see about the problem. Two others were mightily rude when I inquired as to when I could get someone out here who knew how to fix the problem. They literally wanted to argue with me that it was a problem with my ISP and not their phone service.
Through all of this I went through 3 "no shows" of the techs. Each tech claiming that nobody was home. I told them that their techs were taking a break on my time because I and my wife were home all day long eagerly awaiting the tech's arrival so we could get this problem fixed. The scary part was that they actually have a code for this type of customer response when there is a dispute as to
whether the tech really showed up or not. I told that to the rep and she chuckled a bit and agreed that it was scary. She was one of the nicer ones I spoke with on the phone.
I will say that there were two of their field techs who were very friendly. The first one I met was friendly enough but she didn't find a problem and left it at that. The second tech I met was just as friendly and he did find the problem. All the jacks in my home were miswired for a primary and second line. Some were crossed and the room I stole as my office
has one of those miswired jacks. The theory that the ISP being the culprit who was causing my problems ended up being completely unfounded.
In all, I spent two weeks, a dozen phone calls, and at least five days waiting for a tech just to get a second line set up along with my internet service. It came out to be a little Christmas jingle that goes something like this.
1 Local phone company that sucks
2 weeks to get a phone line installed
3 hang ups by rude Verizon customer service reps
4 calls before I could get internet service
5 techs to actually fix the problem
6 seconds to figure out that Verizon sucks.
I think you all get the picture. I will let you finish filling in the rest. Now onto Verizon Wireless. I will have to wait a few days before I tackle that endeavor. I still have to recover from this incident before I push off into another one. We will see real quick if I continue to praise Verizon Wireless or not.
CINGULAR IS LOOKING TO MOVE INTO GSM WIRELESS SERVICES
We are just about the only country in the world who does not use GSM technology for our wireless service. Cingular among others such as Verizon Wireless will be moving into the market with GSM products in the near future. In this case, Cingular will be pumping 3 billion dollars into building a new infrastructure and purchasing GSM handsets.
If that does become the case both Qualcomm and Lucent are going to have problems. Both of them are heavily involved in the manufacturing of CDMA products. One winner who may come out of this is Voicestream. They are one of the
few carriers to be heavily involved in providing GSM services here in America.
Whereas Cingular customers may have to be on the lookout. With any transition that is to take place of this size, there are always going to be problems. There could be sporadic interruptions in service or a lack of support service when the transition begins. The other problem is that most Cingular customers probably use a TDMA technology phone. How long it will be before these phones become obsolete is not known.
The move to GSM in the US makes sense since from a global perspective you have 600 million people using GSM phones as opposed to only 100 million are using CDMA phones. The advantage to having GSM available in the US is that we will finally be able to catch up to our European counterparts with technology and grab
a hold of some of those cool cell phones too.
But we have heard only good things about Cingular so we would not advise current customers to start switching wireless service providers. If you like them then there is no reason to run. If Cingular continues to stay focused on customer service, you shouldn't experience any unusual problems. I would think they will probably be highly conscious of their wireless customers while trying to keep the transition transparent to current subscribers.
Heck, if your are lucky, you may get some nice incentives to switch from your current service to the GSM service when it becomes available. I don't know if they would do that or not but it doesn't seem like an unreasonable strategy to get current subscribers over to the GSM service. I can't say any more than that because the crystal ball is still a bit cloudy.
Besides I don't want to get a 2 million dollar fine like that psychic company just did that was promoting free psychic readings with Ms. Cleo. But my psychic predictions come with a guarantee. They will always be free, I won't surprise you with a $900 phone bill, and my psychic predictions have a 99% chance of being completely wrong.
GOOD THING FUNERALS DO NOT REQUIRE VOWS OF
'TIL DEATH DO WE PART
This one tops our last newsletter story about the interpretation of Islamic law allowing divorce by a cellular phone. This one has to do with a new and bizarre ritual taking place at funerals in the East European country of Slovakia. It turns out that this is a trend that is growing in popularity. I couldn't tell you where that is on the world map either.
On to the bizarre. If you had died in the city of Bratislava there is a chance that the mourners attending your funeral would have placed a cellular phone in your coffin prior to burial. I guess that they may have found a solution to communicating with the dead by doing so. I kind of like it so I might just have that added to my will.
In the case of one funeral, the sermon was interrupted several times because the cell phone was ringing inside of the coffin. Looks like someone just couldn't let go without saying goodbye or they didn't believe in letting the dead rest in peace. At another funeral, the sermon was interrupted when the son leaned into the casket to check the battery on the cell phone for his father.
Now I know that funerals are serious matters and nothing to joke about. Nor am I laughing at the tragedy of a family who has lost a loved one. I am making fun of this new ritual in and of itself only. I know the Egyptians used to fill huge tombs for the deceased to use in the afterworld. But in the present, I can't believe that anyone would follow this line of thinking. It sure isn't environmentally friendly.
I know that if I were to suddenly find myself in Heaven or Hell with a cell phone in my hand, I would immediately be coming back to haunt somebody. Every phone in the house would be ringing day and night to let everyone know I was there and didn't appreciate having my rest disturbed.
The reason why this ritual struck me as comic is because I often call my wife to tell her that the dog called me on his cell phone to tell me that she was not feeding him any treats or that he told me she was talking about me. I thought I was strange for doing that but I think this funeral ritual just about takes the cake.
If you hear of any other strange stories of what people may be doing with cellular phones, send it off to us so we can publish it for all of our readers to see. I am sure there has to be something more out there that can top this one. No urban legends as we see enough of those.
WHO KNEW THAT CELL PHONES WOULD CHANGE OUR BEHAVIOR AS A SOCIETY
This was an interesting if indirect study sponsored by Motorola on human behavior and cellular phones. The segment of our society that is most impacted by wireless use is teenagers from around the world and more specifically those that use SMS (short message service) on their cellular phones.
So what does SMS have to do with changing our behavior as a society. Well it has something to do with our opposable thumbs. Many SMS users can type messages by using their thumbs to reach the keypad on the cell phone. Typically, SMS messages use abbreviated sentences to make a statement. Such as GTG or "Got to Go".
With the constant use of these digits on our hands, the SMS types are using their thumbs to communicate in non-wireless forms as well. The subtle changes include pushing doorbell buttons with their thumbs and pointing with our thumbs, among a host of other activities. But it goes far beyond even the thumb issue. In some cultures, men use cell phones as a way to impress the female gender in an act of aggression. In other situations, cell phones are used to convey social or economic status. I would have to call that the "vanity factor" myself.
But for men there is one advantage, the cell phone is making them more attractive to women. Not in that they own a cell phone but how cell phone use is changing the male mentality. Men are becoming more adroit in their communication skills and therefore more open to conversation. The part I like is that I can call to get directions rather than having someone see me standing at a C store asking for directions because I got lost.
Of course, you have critics stating that Motorola only commissioned the study to draw attention to the wireless world from those who are not normally intrigued by cellular phones. My response to that is who cares? It is still an interesting social phenomenon that is taking place due to the use of cellular phones. More changes in our behavior as a society will continue as our cell phones become increasingly integrated with our daily lives.
I was trying to think of a good term to be used for grouping cell phone users together but my creative abilities have failed me on that note. We wouldn't be technocrats so the best I could come up with was Mobile Citizens or MC's? If anyone should come up with a suggestion, I sure would like to hear it. I have been trying for some time to come up with a good one and it has continued to escape me.
CHECK OUT MOTOROLA'S NEW JAVA-BASED CELLULAR PHONES
We would have posted a photo of the phone but we didn't know if you could get it or not. The new phones being offered by Motorola are pretty sleek known as the IDEN i80 and i90. They have a special offer running through Bloomingdale's where you can get one with a blue light in the background and transparent housing.
The special offer is for some limited edition phones so if you are a Nextel subscriber or looking to sign up with them, you will have to move fast as I think these phones are going to fly out the door. These cell phones are pretty impressive and worth a look at their design. Just drop by Nextel's website at www.nextel.com and you can have a peek at them.
Both phones have advanced features to include two-way radio, internet service capabilities, hands-free speakerphone, voice memo, and voice activation. The i80 will go for $150 and the i90 will go for $200 each. From what I saw, I would have no problem paying that price for one of these phones with all the advanced features available. Personally, I like the look of the i80 a little more.
They are also running a promotion that offers you a $25 service credit and a coupon for a free slim battery for the phone. The i90 only weighs a total of 4 ounces! The difference between the two of them is that one is a flip phone and the other isn't. That and the i80 weighs an extra 0.8 ounces. I will warn you that the pictures on the website do not do the phones justice.
I ran into a problem with their interactive demo programs. I had to look at every feature and the interactive
demos are pretty cool when you download the player thingamabob. I am like a kid with a new toy. I mainly checked out all the features on the phone because I could. If you haven't tried their interactive demos then you should. Educational and fun too.
ANOTHER RED CROSS DONATION REQUEST (WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH THIS ONE?)
Most of you may have heard about the scam by the Red Cross? Well, here is the scoop. The Red Cross has decided to take funds that were donated by the American public on behalf of the WTC victims and earmark
them for other programs that had nothing to do with the WTC disaster. Not only that, most of the victims have yet to see the funds that were donated. I can't begin to tell you how much steam was rolling out of my ears.
Then they told everyone to keep donating blood. So we did and now there
are hundreds of thousands of blood donations that will have to be destroyed because it couldn't be frozen. You can say that I am just a little more than just ticked off. I simply don't like being tricked by a non-profit organization that is supposed to be an American Icon.
Because of that I have decided that I will never again donate to the Red Cross or many of the other 160 non-profits that were supposed to be collecting money on behalf of the WTC victims. The widows and children who are left with nothing were depending on these donations and they have nothing to show for it.
Now Suncom is saying they want to collect 25,000 used cellular phones to sell them to who knows who and turn the proceeds over to the Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services program. I am pleased to say that EVC will not be participating in this program at all. How do we know that the proceeds will actually be used for that program and not some other program that the Red Cross thinks needs more funds earmarked.
The fact that the WTC victims are not getting the donations that were sent well over 2 months ago is an outrage to say the least. I think the Red Cross should refund every donation,
and supply a list of trust funds set up for each individual family who were victims of the WTC disaster so that we can make our own contributions.
I know that the Red Cross has done many good things in the past for the nation. But that was then and this is now. I think the Red Cross has become way too bureaucratic for a non-profit, and they are taking forever to help victims and then they are taking our money to use on something else entirely. What is wrong with this picture?
No more of my money including donations or efforts to collect donations are going to any more of these WTC charities unless I know the money will be going directly to the victims and then only if they plan on dispensing my donation immediately to those who need it. That is my opinion on the subject anyway.
NEW YORK CELL PHONE BAN SLAMMED FOR PERSONAL LIBERTY EROSION
I always love to hear about somebody else who is slamming politicians for their foul use of legislation to erode our civil liberties. This time it was an editor in chief of a major trade magazine. I never thought I would see that day but it has come. On the other hand it is a slam against New Yorkers too so I will leave out the identification info.
As the editor put it, the politicians of New York were using the wireless industry as a scapegoat for New
Yorkers' lack of taking responsibility for their actions while driving. A slam yes, but a point he made was very interesting. He said that politicians need only to look at the laws on the books to find that there are already laws in place for this type of behavior.
He pointed out a law in Colorado which reads as such:
"Any person who drives any motor vehicle, bicycle, or motorized bicycle in a careless and imprudent manner, without due regard for the width, grade, curves, corners, traffic, and use of the streets and highways and all other attendant circumstances, is guilty of careless driving."
So why does there have to be a new law that specifically states cellular phones is the real question that was being asked. Following that was the concern that we were becoming over-regulated by the government. The initial stages of a big brother society is coming into the dawn. Are these proposed bills really of the will of the people?
For a majority of the public the answer is probably not. The tide is turning against politicians who are voting for legislation of all kinds that further regulates the public in a micro management sort of way. Then we move along to asking why politicians are even bothering with this type of legislation.
Is there nothing else out there that would have a higher priority that they can spend their time developing? Must not be since 40 states are now considering legislation that bans cellular phone use. William was elected to office back in May of 2000. He then resigned about a year later and said he would never again work in politics. The reason was because he felt that the politicians were so far out of touch with reality that nothing of any fundamental importance would ever get done.
It is these people that we elected to office who are now trying to tell us how we should live. Didn't our forefathers set up the elections so the common man's voice could be heard? I don't think the common man's voice is being heard in today's political arena. We can change that. So when the next election comes, don't forget to get out there and vote!
MORE CONTENT FOR ANOTHER URBAN LEGEND - DUMBEST OF THEM ALL
I have to put this one in just in case it is circulated and any of you read it. This has got to be the dumbest urban legend I have had to suffer yet. I don't know who may have authored it or why so it is probably a good thing that they left it anonymous. But I would have to seriously doubt that these people made it past the 7th grade. Here you go.
It was just a normal Sunday, or so thought Robert Fuller of Grand Rapids, when he picked up his cell phone to call to order a pizza. However, this was the last call Mr. Fuller, a 23 year old man, would ever make.
Fuller was only calling a local restaurant, but little did anyone know, but that same channel was being used by a man who had other ideas. A man whose identity has not yet been revealed, but who has since been incarcerated, and charged with international terrorism.
A team of communications experts described the incident like this. It appears that Fuller dialed the restaurant at exactly the same
second that the unidentified terrorist was dialing a bomb activation signal. Both were using the same frequency, and both were sharing the same satellite. That is when the signals became jumbled, and to make matters worse, the terrorist was using the word "pizza" as a code word, which was to activate several bombs, which he had placed at several locations throughout the world. Instead of ordering a pizza, Fuller actually triggered the bombs. The problem is that the terrorist had forgotten to insert a necessary pin, and thus, instead of exploding in an outward manner, the bombs actually imploded inward, and into the cellular data stream. Hence, when Fuller said the word "pizza", the bombs imploded and caused his phone to violently explode. His body was torn apart, and severely burned.
Fuller was pronounced dead when the Paramedics arrived. His funeral will be held at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, on Monday October 14, 2001 at 1:00pm. He is survived by his wife Rachael Fuller, and two children. The FBI is investigating this incident, and the bodily remains are being held for investigation.
[COMMENT] Now there may be some truth that a tragedy may have occurred. But in the above story, what is being claimed here is an absolute impossibility for a number of reasons. You can write this off as just another urban legend that has been peppered with absolute stupidity.
WHOA! THE SCOOP WITH TRACFONE AND THEIR SUPPOSED REBATES
A couple of things our customers should know about Tracfone. I know that we sold the phones and we are still selling the airtime cards. But we have discovered a
buyers beware warning that we will disclose as it is our duty to do so. However, in an effort to keep things in perspective, we are entirely independent of
Tracfone and we have no affiliation with them. Now on to this rebate program.
We have heard many complaints that subscribers who purchased a
Tracfone with a rebate offer have not seen hide nor hair of their rebates. Most of the
buyers' complaints that we have heard is Tracfone's claim that they didn't get the paperwork from the subscriber or that they were missing this item or that item.
Nor can we substantiate these complaints with Tracfone as we have not been involved in this process. But the number of complaints cannot be ignored. In some instances, visitors to our website thought we were
Tracfone and threatened us with boycotts and other means of punishment.
That is part of the reason for our scaling back on what we offer from
Tracfone. At the moment, we continue to sell the airtime cards so that we can continue to service our existing customers. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be selling the
Tracfone products at all.
Another problem that we heard about was that customer service reps were rude to subscribers and some people were put on hold for lengthy periods of time. Well the cat is out of the bag on that one. We recently learned that the problem at
Tracfone was that they had a lack of employees showing up to work.
At one point they were at approximately 30% of the necessary staffing and one individual there claimed that they had lost 3000 hours a day due to "no show" employees. If we do the math on that then it would equate to 375 employees not showing up to an 8 hour shift. How that may have affected the rebates being processed and returned to customers is not known.
Supposedly the customer service representation has steadily improved and they now have a staffing of around 80% in their call center. If I recall correctly they have 750 seats to service
Tracfone customers. That means they have around 600 seats staffed but if those seats are staffed full time or not is a question that we cannot answer.
We also know that they had hired an outside company who was responsible for monitoring the call center employee's conversations with customers. At a 30% staffing, it would have been difficult for the outside company or for
Tracfone to address any customer service issues that were found.
I will add that neither Tracfone nor their vendors know that we have discovered this info and that we are passing it along to you. Nor did we use any type of stealth to gather this info. We just doggedly pursued this subject through various means of our network until we were able to establish the truth of the matter.
I don't know if I will ever understand why they just didn't outsource their call center operations to a company that could have helped save their reputation and image along the way. In my opinion, I still don't think they have enough employees to handle their call center operations to properly service subscribers.
Other companies offering prepaid cellular service have probably already recognized that staffing would be a problem and outsourced their call center work to handle the call volume. Again, I don't know that for sure but I haven't heard this volume of complaints against the other prepaid cellular service providers so far.
COMMENTS FROM THE WATER COOLER - RETRACTION NOTICE
Alright. I have to admit that I may have been wrong again. Turns out that this Uncle Kracker thing was actually a band of some sort. Stupid name if you ask me. I hate it when I am wrong so I will ignore that I am wrong. Not that it will make much difference either way now that you all know the truth.
As to our relocation, we are pretty much back to business as usual. We have had a couple of minor snags but all seems to be operational,
and now we have to catch up on a few things like research requests, interviews for articles, etc. I believe we are to be recognized in an upcoming article in a trade magazine that is geared to the telecom industry in December. Maybe not.
Who knows. We have been recognized in so many articles with various publications that we don't even keep track of them anymore. The goal is to educate the public and consulting or being interviewed for various articles just goes along with the job. We missed an interview with another magazine publication because we were in transition at the time of the request.
Which brings me to my next point. We sure could use a few more article contributions. It should would make my life a little more easier. You can't imagine how much time it takes for me to scour publications and using other resources at my disposal to come up with the info presented in our newsletter.
I really don't mind doing the work if only one of you were subscribed to this newsletter then it would be worth the effort. But Christmas is just around the corner and I would gladly accept article submissions as a Christmas present! Why don't some of you ladies get some photos taken with using a cell phone so that we can make you famous by posting you on our website?
OK, saying that you will be famous might be a little far-fetched but it sure does sound good. Do we have any brave souls out there who are going to be featured on our website. If you don't do it then I will ask William to dress up in women's clothing and pose on the website. Trust me that it would be a horror to your eyes. How about we vote on it. Any of you want to see William pose as a Cell Phone BQ? If you want to see it, then send us an email. If we can figure out how to do it, we will put up a survey box on our website with your responses.
We are going to give all of our subscribers a 20% discount on any consumer telephone product order made between today and December 15th. It can be a standard telephone, novelty phone, or something from the Kid's corner. You are welcome to shop around but you should find the 20% discount to be a very good deal. The other option you have is to purchase a gift
certificate at a 20% discount valid towards any consumer telephone product or
kid's corner item.
PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND ASSOCIATES ABOUT OUR NEWSLETTER. WE
APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE IN MAKING OUR NEWSLETTER A SUCCESS.
If you want your name to vanish from our list because our newsletter is just too
boring or someone else signed you up, let us know. We will reluctantly take you
off of our newsletter list. And we still reserve the right to make faces at you
when you aren't looking. If you want your name to vanish from our list because our newsletter is just too boring or someone else signed you up, let us know. We will reluctantly take you off of our newsletter list. And we still reserve the right to make faces at you when you aren't looking.
