My Cell Phone Nemesis

I remember getting my first cell phone in 1997. It was a decent phone, made by Motorola. But more importantly, the cell service was from a fledgling company called Nextel. They really wanted business so when I called for a phone, the immediately sent a salesperson to my house to show me the phones, teach me how to us it, and set up my account. I liked that.

I took that phone on the road with me for a few years, until I noticed everyone else on tour had smaller Nokia phones from AT&T. So I checked them out at an AT&T store in some mall, some where in the U.S.. The phone plans were much better than my Nextel plan, no long distance or roaming charges. What really impressed me, I could get a new phone, turned on today, in an area code of my choosing. So somewhere, in the middle of America, I got my current cell phone number, with the area code for Los Angeles/Hollywood, the 323.

And there I remained, happily, for many years, buying many different cell phones from many different AT&T stores across the U.S.. Until... AT&T merged with Cingular. At first, it wasn't bad, I had a working cell phone that I liked. But when that phone slowly made it's way into oblivion, I went to AT&T/Cingular to once again, get a new phone. I walked into the store, chose my new phone and started the process of turning it on. At that point I was informed that because of the merger with Cingular, my current cell phone plan was no longer accepted. It was "grandfathered" as long as I had my current phone, but the moment I got a new phone, I had to get a new plan, and a new contract. The new plans they offered couldn't hold a candle to my old plan, and they were more expensive.

I was not happy.

So I went out in search of a new cell phone company and found my new current home of T-Mobile. To this day, I've been very happy with T-Mobile. Granted, they don't really have the coverage area that Cingular (now back to AT&T), and Verizon have in the U.S.. But what they do have is friendly, helpful, customer service. That's important to me. I vowed, never to use AT&T again.

When the new Apple iPhone came out, tied to AT&T, I was adamant about not getting one. I wasn't going to jump on the bandwagon with probably the best cell phone on the market today. I hate AT&T that much that I won't get an iPhone, even though it is truly the easiest phone to interface with my Macintosh computer (imagine that).

Until I dropped my Palm smart phone one too many times. It was finally time to invest in a new phone. I went round and round with my disgust of AT&T and the desire to own the iPhone. Do I give in? Bite the bullet and get the phone I want with the service I hate?

Thankfully, T-Mobile swooped in again and saved the day, by putting out the myTouch phone. It's like an iPhone except made my HTC. It's currently locked to the T-Mobile network, but if I call that friendly customer service, I can have it unlocked so I can put in a different SIM card if I ever go to Europe again. Once again saving me money. Try doing that with an iPhone. I smell international charges.

So today, I have a phone I'm happy with, and a service, that I'm very happy with.

And one last thing that is wrong with AT&T, they don't sponsor a cycling team. My first phone, made by Motorola, sponsored a cycling team. T-Mobile sponsored a very powerful cycling team, and now HTC, sponsors a cycling team.

Take that AT&T.

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