RipCordless

A pop-culture consumer who keeps it, by design, in the shallow end of the pool.

AT&T

Returned iPhone 4

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This afternoon I returned my day-one iPhone 4 to the Apple Store. I’ve just had enough. You see, I’m a fan of the iPhone. I love the intuitive interface, the clean lines, and the system. I’m not a fan of calls going directly to voicemail, hit and miss reception on 3G, and the numerous dropped calls.

I assumed this issues would be resolved with the iPhone 4. I was decidedly wrong. If anything, the frequency of problems has increased to an annoying degree. My bottom line: The iPhone 4 isn’t worth getting married to AT&T for another two years. No chance.

So, I’m currently rockin’ my old 3G (but won’t update to the iOS 4.0+). I’m going to sit on the sidelines, free of any contract from AT&T, pay on a monthly basis and watch the market. The Internet is buzzing about other iPhone carriers so that is where I’m going to focus my attention. I may give the Verizon Droid HTC Incredible a spin but aren’t sure. Rumor has it T-Mobile may get the iPhone before Verizon? We’ll see. Verizon iPhone in January next year? Possibly but I’m not holding my breath.

AT&T No-Service Fix iPhone 4

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Rumor has it, many people are running into problems with their new iPhone 4 showing “No Service” in the upper, left-hand corner. I worked through some issues and found a solution that worked for me so I thought I would pass it along.

I purchased my iPhone 4 around 3pm local time. The sales rep “activated” the phone using a Mac in the store, then told me there were some issues with phone activation but it shouldn’t be much of an issue. I left the store with my old iPhone 3G still working and my new iPhone 4 without service.

About 20 minutes after leaving the store, my old iPhone 3G lost service. I figured, “Ah, the network is transitioning from the old to the new phone.” However, three hours later, still no service on either phone. I was in the proverbial cone of silence!

I searched online and found some tweets from other people saying they had no service either. I noted one particular tweet from hwatkins which suggested people without service should call AT&T at 866-895-1099. I called.

I spoke with Lisa, a nice gal who, after 25 minutes of researching, said she could not find any issues and passed me to tech support. Tech support specialist Jennifer went right to the heart of the issue and had me remove the SIM card from the right side of the phone and read that SIM number to her. She asked me to replace the SIM card back in the phone. As soon as I did, the phone activated and I was back in business.  She claimed not to have done anything with the network but simply reinserting the SIM was the fix.

One small note: Jennifer asked me to use the SIM removal tool which, “should have come in the box.” I looked but found no tool She recommended any narrow tipped device and suggested a paper clip. I used the paper clip but it was tedious and not exactly simple. Use the paper clip at your own risk.

AT&T Does It Right

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attHaving an iPhone is both a blessing and a curse. The phone has fabulous functionality, is robust, provides a vector for many applications which add additional features. In my opinion, the curse comes with the sometimes dreadful reception that the AT&T 3G network provides. I’ve been paying for a plan to ensure I didn’t go over my monthly minutes. The additional charges can be draconian. Push over by just a few minutes and you’ll end up with a $400 cell phone bill. However, AT&T followed Sprint’s plan and offers roll-over minutes. They don’t advertise it but, on my last bill, I noticed I had one or two additional minutes. Well, let’s be specific, I had about 10,000 minutes in the roll-over account. You read that right, 10,000 minutes.

Clearly I’ve been paying too much for my account and not using the minutes so I called AT&T and wanted to reduce my plan. Initially, the AT&T rep said when they lowered my plan, I would lose the entire roll-over balance. I had barely raised a fuss when the rep anticipated my concern and said she would take care of it. Sure enough, they changed my plan, and sent me verifiable information regarding their assurance I could keep my roll-over minutes. Conclusion: lower monthly plan and a pool of minutes to draw upon. AT&T has one moderately happy customer. Now if they could fix that 3G network.