I’ve been against this whole AT&T – T-Mobile merger from the start.  I didn’t think it was good for the many thousands of T-Mobile employees who’d lose their job.  I didn’t think it would be good for international travelers roaming in the US.  And I didn’t think it would be good for AT&T customers.

That’s all in the past now it seems.  Now that the deal is all but dead, for the time being at least I imagine AT&T is scrambling to replace the bandwidth it was expecting from the merger.  AT&T needs to work on their 4G, LTE or whatever it is they’re calling it today.  They need more bandwidth but not more bands.  I’ve heard rumors that AT&T is still trying to work with T-Mobile to share their bandwidth.  I’m not sure what exactly T-Mobile will get out of it but AT&T will get more speed and a wider internet highway.

The problem I see is this, T-Mobile uses 1700MHz for much of their high speed internet.  That’s nice and all but no one else uses it.  meaning AT&T will have to get new phones with new radios that will use that space.  This is a bummer for current users with new phones, it’s a bummer for current iPhone users and it’s a bummer for travelers to the US from foreign countries.  None of these people will be able to access the 1700MHz band and get LTE.

I never liked adding a new band that no other carrier world wide uses (as far as I know) on T-Mobile, let alone now onto AT&T.  This is a horrible idea and I hope it doesn’t go through.  AT&T needs to use bands that are supported on most current smart phones around the world and they must not even consider T-Mobile’s bands.

That’s just my 2 cents but it sure seems valid to me.

What’s going on in mobile?  It’s not a metaphoric question,  I’m serious.  Really, what’s going on?  Yes AT&T is trying to buy T-Mobile.  Yes HP murdered WebOS.  Yes the iPhone 4s came out and Google bought Motorola.  But what is going on in mobile?  Where’s the revolution?  Why aren’t consumers seeing any change?

AT&T hasn’t done anything exciting, Verizon hasn’t wooed me.  Sprint isn’t making me want to switch carriers.  No one is doing anything wild and crazy let alone conservative and hedged.

T-Mobile is the only carrier that’s got me excited these days.  I can’t think of 1 reason to be excited about anyone else.  There’s a new phone here and there but nothing really peaking my interest.  I read on MobileIndustryReview that Orange is offering free movies to download every Thursday for anyone with an iPhone.  A few years ago I remember 3 (a European carrier) offered free roaming on any of their sister carriers with the same name.  So if you live in England and you use 3 you could go to Ireland or Australia and pay as if you were walking around London.  Now if T-Mobile offered free roaming on any T-Mobile carrier around the world that would be eye opening.

I wrote about this before buy why don’t the carriers create their own clubs with all kinds of benefits.  Why don’t they make themselves useful and different from the next.  How about a deal with an airline or a chain of restaurants.  Maybe you could get points with a hotel chain every month you pay your cell phone bill.  Or a discount to join the Admirals Club from American Airlines if you spend more then $150/month with them.  Maybe people on business accounts on Verizon should get a complimentary TripIt Pro account.

The telco’s can put together benefit clubs like how AAA members get discounts at hundreds of places from hotels to mechanics.  Now that’s something that would get my attention and that’s what they need to do.  I need a reason to stick with AT&T right now and not switch to Verizon or Sprint.

1 top of the line Android device is as good as the next for the most part and the main 3 national carriers all have the iPhone 4s, so what’s to keep people from skipping from 1 carrier to the next.  I imagine it will be about the small benefits and I’m just not seeing them.  So bring them on telco’s!

By the way, I know I wrote a similar post a month or 2 ago but I felt like talking about it again, don’t think I’m that forgetful.

Image credit to Forum Nokia.

This one is for the carriers out there that might be reading this.  If you work for a carrier send this up the pipe so the right execs can smoke it.

Now to business, I’m tiered of our current mobile service plans.  I use my iPhone for everything, voice, SMS and data.  But my problem is I like many people don’t do a lot of talking, only SMS a bit now (because of iMessage), but use a GREAT deal of data.  I upload pics of my kids, I have email running constantly, I surf the web, but I also run my apps like there’s no tomorrow.

I don’t like to worry about uploading home made movies or downloading huge apps, I want to just be able to blow through data.  I’d also like to use my iPhone as a data connection every so often.  Can I do any of that? NO.  Why you ask… Because I don’t want to pay the carrier through the nose.

I propose the carries offer updated plans.  I’d personally like a large data (throttling is ok after at least 5GB) plan, 500 SMS and maybe 200-300 minutes to non in-network numbers.  Yes it’s asking for a lot, but the networks are taking a lot of money from us.  My parents pay over $80 for service, pay $15 for 200MB and probably never use more then 20MB, never SMS and don’t talk on the phone all that much.  Other friends use 3GB or more per month of data but rarely make any calls.  We need more options from the carriers and I think a good start for people in their 20′s and 30′s (that’s just where I see the need the most) would be huge data plans and smaller voice plans.

Maybe I’m just tiered of feeling used and abused by carriers but something needs to be done and it needs to be done NOW!  If not the big 4 carriers are going to start bleeding subscribers at a rate they can’t fathom to smaller telco’s like Metro PCS and many of the other MVNO’s.  I know I’ve considered it and a handful of my friends are going that route.

UPDATE: I was just informed that T-Mobile USA now offers 100 voice minutes / unlimited SMS / 2GB of data for $30.  This might be the answer for a lot of people.  Kudos to T-Mobile for leading the way (as usual).

What ever happened to Latitude?  I had such high hopes for Google Latitude back in the day.  It had so much potential to be a game changer.  I was hoping to have heavy tie in to Android devices but haven’t seen it once.

I loved the idea of landing in London and having all my friends within 50 miles get a message telling them I’m in town, but also alerting my driver to come pick me up.  I’d really love for them to be able to SMS or IM me instantly and we could set up a time to meet.  I’d love for my credit cards to monitor my location so I don’t have any problems using my cards while overseas.

Even more importantly and a big money maker for the telco’s is that they could charge the credit card companies for knowing where my phone is in relation to my credit card and if they are more then 1-3 store lengths apart there is a problem and don’t let the credit card charges go through.

Latitude could alert my wife each time it comes back online in a new city after a flight and SMS my wife letting her know I’ve arrived.  It could tell the person I’m supposed to be meeting that I’ve just entered the building.  Latitude could alert me when my kids (when they get a little older) get home from school or if they leave their school campus during the school day.

I had a wonderful experience with Latitude years ago when a friend and I were trying to find each other in San Francisco, we didn’t have to talk, we just walked toward each other using Latitude to guide us.

I’m thoroughly disappointed that I haven’t seen any change in Latitude in what seems like years.  A really strong API for it could really be another game changer but that may be asking a little to much right now.  Either way, what has happened to Latitude?  Is it on it’s way to it’s deathbed?

I’m reasonably new to this whole iPhone business as well as new to data limitations.  Up until recently I was an Android/BlackBerry/Nokia user and had been on an unlimited data plan for as long as I can remember.  I’ve been enjoying the iPhone a great deal but I’m always concerned about going over my data allowance.  Onavo has been very helpful and has kept me from blowing through 200mb every month but that’s not good enough. Onavo is great but why are our plans so minuscule?  Why are the telco’s not not making data plans more reasonable?  Of course I know the answer, it’s MONEY.  The root of all telco evil.  If they could make more money with a 300mb data plan they’d drop 200mb plans in a second.  But no, 200mb is the sweet spot, at least for AT&T.  The thing is, I think telco’s could be making a lot and I do mean a lot more money if they made better bundles.  Or if they at least offered better plans.

Any time I’m at home, my parents, my friends houses etc I’ve set my wifi to connect so I save my data bundle.  Same thing with a service called Boingo I use,  at Starbucks, airports, and (most) hotels the Boingo service automatically connects me to the wifi that’s included in my subscription.  The telco’s are losing out big time on this, why aren’t they making a big fat deal with Boingo?  Why doesn’t AT&T charge an additional $5-$10/month and include Boingo service in their data package?  I know a lot of people would pay that just for internet access in their hotel instead of paying the Hilton $15/24hours.  I’d pay it just so I could do Facetime with my wife and kids at night and in the morning when I’m away.  AT&T and all the other telco’s could be making a huge amount of money on top of their data plans if they just charged on a per use basis for Boingo access or per week.  Anytime you’re around a Boing hotspot it could pop up on my phone and ask if I’d like access for $2 for 24hours.  I know I’d go for it if I was laying in bed just waking up in the morning and my kids were just going to bed at night at home.  I’d pay double that so I could see them and say good night.

So when the telco’s complain about not making enough money and having to charge more for less maybe we should ask them why don’t they innovate and come up with some ideas to line their pockets while making their customers happy.

Disclosure: Boingo has given me free service as well as S.W.A.G over the years.

I need a reason to stick with AT&T right now and not switch to Verizon or Sprint.  I’m not enjoying my AT&T experience and I’m not sure why I’m sticking with AT&T at this point.  There are more options then ever in terms of service providers but what sets one apart from the next?  Only 2 things as I see it, there really isn’t much these days.  They all have some sort of limited unlimited plan and there prices are all about the same.  So the only thing separating the different mobile phone service providers is just reception and handsets.  T-Mobile doesn’t have reception in my house but they have some really nice handsets.  Sprint has the Samsung Nexus S that I was eyeing but again poor reception where I need it most.  AT&T has the GSM iPhone and reception in my house.  So that’s who I’m on right now.  They have the phone I want and have reception at home.

The telco’s need to differentiate themselves from each other.  Maybe the telco’s can put together benefit clubs like how AAA members get discounts at hundreds of places from hotels to restaurants.  Now that’s something that would get my attention and that’s what they need to do.  I need a reason to stick with AT&T right now and not switch to Verizon.

Why don’t they make themselves more useful and different from the next.  How about a deal with an airline or a chain of restaurants.  Maybe you could get a free phone when joining a gym or get points toward OpenTable every month you have your cell phone service.  Or a discount to join the Admirals Club from American Airlines if you spend more then $150/month with them.  Maybe people on business accounts on Verizon should get a complimentary TripIt Pro account.  Or if you pay your Sprint bill on time every month for 6 months with an American Express business card you get 1 free day every 6 months at a Regus office space.

So AT&T what are you going to do to keep customers like myself?  How are the telco’s going to differentiate themselves from each other?

Does anyone find it interesting that AT&T doesn’t have any visable deals with MVNO’s to use their network?  It’s because it’s more expensive, understandably so, it’s superior to T-Mobiles but it is more expensive.  Now T-Mobile has a few MVNO’s it works with like Simple Mobile and Straight Talk, why you ask… Because they’re cheaper.

Now what do you think is going to happen if AT&T buys T-Mobile?  They are going to raise the rates for the MVNO’s and put them out of business.  This will mean more telcos going out of business and less competition for AT&T.  It also means more people unemployed and lastly many low income people use these cut rate MVNO’s because they are so cheap, so this will hurt them as well.

How is AT&T buying T-Mobile going to benefit anyone besides AT&T and Deutsche Telecom (T-Mobile USA’s owner)?  Any benefits are heavily outweighed by the devastation this will have on the families of T-Mobile employees who will have to bare the brunt of joblessness and the local communities who will have less income being pumped into the economy.  This is just all around a bad idea.  T-Mobile has something really good going of late and if they keep it up I believe they can start to make enough profit for Deutsche Telecom to want to keep them.

I was thinking this morning that if the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T goes through it won’t only be bad for Americans for a variety of reasons.  Starting with the lack of competition.  Yes there are still 2 other companies to compete with but that’s 1 less then before and the only other GSM carrier in the US will be swallowed up by AT&T.  There are many many more reasons that it won’t be positive for American consumers but that’s for another blog post.  What I want to touch on here is the fact that anyone coming from overseas to the US will be roaming on AT&T then instead of AT&T or T-Mobile.  This means that instead of paying the outrageous rate of $2.16/minute they’ll be paying over $2.76/per minute.  I’m making these numbers up but I don’t imagine them being that far from the truth.  Historically most phone companies I’ve dealt with always want to roam on T-Mobile because they charge far less then AT&T does.

So imagine if the acquisition takes place the next time a foreigner lands in the US and gets an SMS it will be significantly higher then before the acquisition.  So companies with traveling employees coming to the US will get charged significantly more per minute and they’ll end up paying more yearly for all the roaming.  And by the way, can you imagine how much AT&T will charge per megabyte to roamers?  I imagine the trickle down effect will be to have fewer business travelers coming to the US meaning less business for the US and meaning this acquisition will hurt the US economy.

Hey AT&T hands off T-Mobile, you should have considered your 4G plans years ago and not expect little old T-Mobile USA will bail your company out.

Please keep in mind the prices here are educated guesses but still just guesses, it’s the point I want to get across.

Image credit: Ewan MacLeod

So I work with Phone.com a virtual phone system, like a PBX in the cloud, anyways one of my responsibilities is to create their newsletter.  Well I wrote out my first draft of all the content in Google Docs.  I do nearly all my work in Google Docs these days or in some sort of cloud.  Well I think Google Docs has a HUGE weakness, a reason for people to not use it.  This is a make or break issue for Google Docs and I hope they don’t break.  Their level of incorporation into the corporate world is dismal.  I sent a draft of the newsletter to the CEO as a .doc file because he’s never given me any indication that he uses Google Docs.  No fault of the CEO’s of course (I didn’t ask so really my fault) but a huge fault of Googles for not getting every business to start using Google Docs for their word processing.

Recently I was producing an event, I am an event planner as well, and the PR firm that we were using for this event was doing some work on the guest list as well as staff list and I asked them to just do all the work in Google Docs so I could see it in real time and edit it as necessary.  Well the 20 something year old woman I was working with didn’t know what Google Docs was let alone how to use it (she didn’t even have a Gmail email).  She and I had to use an Excel spread sheet for the lists and can I tell you how painful that was for me.  It was a bloody guest list, not a spread sheet with even 1 formula in it.  Just a list.  This was the perfect example of when to use Google Docs.  Plus when we had to print the list at the venue we had to plug her laptop into their network versus just logging in to Google Docs from any computer in the venues office.  I call this utter ridiculousness in 2010.

I’m writing all of this because last night my MacBook Pro crashed, which is highly unusual for it and somehow lost all the work I’d done on this newsletter for Phone.com.  I am actually a bit devistated because I put so much time into it.  Luckily, I guess it somehow kept all the changes up to last Friday but that’s almost 5 days worth of work I’ve lost.  It was totally complete except for a read through for grammer, spelling, spaces, etc.  All the content was there.  I know you will say, “but Jeb don’t you back up?” and my answer is yes but I just hadn’t plugged in my MacBook Pro into my Time Machine hard drive for about a week so in this case no it wasn’t backed up.

Anyway, I’m upset that Google Docs hasn’t been more aggressive in getting into businesses everywhere.  I take full responsibility for this mistake in not backing up but for pete sake, this should have been in the cloud Google.