Bike and Beyond...

Friday, December 11, 2009

Apple and AT&T. Again.

I've posted about the issues with the iPhone and AT&T before, and if you've been following it at all. An AT&T executive (Ralph de la Vega) recently said this:

“We’re going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites,” said de la Vega according to a transcript of the conference. “And you’ll see us address that more in detail.”
“What’s driving usage on the network and driving these high usage situations are things like video, or audio that keeps playing around the clock,” he said, according to the transcript provided by AT&T. “And so we’ve got to get to those customers and have them recognize that they need to change their pattern, or there will be other things that they are going to have to do to reduce their usage.”

He's also said this:
"3 percent of AT&T users generate 40 percent of the traffic on the network"

This pissed off me and almost every other iPhone user. I'm paying (my work is now, yay!) AT&T $100 a month for service that sucks. Part of that is $30 for UNLIMITED data usage. I have the right to stream video all day everyday 24/7 365 as long as I'm paying $30. So NO I'm not going to go along with any "incentives" and I'm definitely not going to "curb my data usage." AT&T needs to keep expanding their network until it can handle all the traffic. Once they clear up THEIR problems, MORE people will get iPhones and pay $100 a month for them. Considering the #1 reason people aren't getting iPhones is because of the network, AT&T should see this a a priority.

Anyway, there is this blogger who pretends he's Steve Jobs. He blogs as if he IS Steve himself. He has a great sense of humor and really captures Steve's image or at least the image I imagine him to be. He recently wrote a long (but worth reading) post about a "conversation" he had with an AT&T's Randall Stephenson about the recent quote by Ralph de la Vega. It's very, very funny and even though it's meant to be humorous "Steve Jobs" makes some really good points.

Click HERE to read it, and leave me comments as to what you think.

Labels: Apple, ATT, iPhone

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Thursday, October 08, 2009

I Dare you AT&T ...

PC World's Mark Sullivan wrote an article HERE and it's a little scary. Basically, it seem's like he is saying because iPhone users use most of the networks data, that AT&T might consider placing data caps on iPhone users. I quote AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega, "We have to manage the network to make sure that the few cannot crowd out the many." Sounds like that means we'll have to manage the iPhone users so our other customers have bandwidth left.

AT&T I assume you realized that when YOU decided to sell the iPhone exclusively, read I have no other option, you also knew iPhones would use a lot of data. Hence the MANDATORY $30 a month UNLIMITED data plan that you force upon every iPhone user. The only phone on your network, until recently, that has such a mandatory requirement. And I suspect the recent change is to get everyone to help pay for your problem.

So NO don't even think about limiting my $30 a month UNLIMITED data. I'd love to see the outrage if they even try it. Hopefully the PR department steps in before that can happen...

UPDATE: A great follow up article HERE from Gizmodo.com about the FCC and wireless carriers.

Labels: ATT, Cell phones, iPhone

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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

FCC Please Help!

THIS is the kind of stuff that really annoys me, especially when I'm paying $80 a month for a iPhone. I understand that creating a cell network that blankets the entire US is expensive, but I don't like that there is an extra $16 million a year left over to lobby my government so I keep paying more!

"Later this month, the Federal Communications Commission plans to begin a broad inquiry into competition in the wireless industry. It will also review rules designed to prevent carriers from tacking junk fees onto phone bills." -WSJ

Yes, good, great! I also don't like the fact that even when paying $60 a month for a voice plan you can get charged $0.20 per text message unless you get a $15 a month text plan. When in fact, a text message costs the carriers next to nothing to transmit. It goes over the same system that the higher bandwidth voice data travels!

"As part of its review, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski reordered the agency to launch an inquiry into whether Apple Inc. nixed Google Inc.'s voice software from its iPhone App Store because it might compete with AT&T's services." -WSJ

And really good to this! I love Apple, but they shouldn't be allowing AT&T to dictate what apps go on the phone. An iPhone owner HAS to pay the high iPhone rate, so who cares how they use up THEIR minutes. Cell phones should follow in the footsteps of computers. You can get service (read internet) from whom ever you want. You're allowed to run ANY program or application you want on your computer. ie. You buy your phone from any manufacturer and can use it with any service provider.

And don't get me started on the crappy service AT&T members are getting for what they pay. If AT&T can't handle all the iPhones and all the data they in turn use, then they should be giving refunds/discounts until they can! That's the number one reason Apple needs to get out of the AT&T iPhone deal. I love the iPhone but AT&T sucks, so I should be able to take my iPhone to Verizon or Sprint, peace AT&T! Here is another blogger who RANTS about similar issues.

Hopefully the FCC is going to get a little more involved with open access in regards to the internet and cell phones. I don't feel like they have been very on top of everything in the last 8 years. I guess we'll have to wait and see what unfolds...

Labels: Apple, ATT, FCC, iPhone

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Honda Fit and my MPG

If anyone is looking for a new or used car, I recommend the Honda Fit. I know I've already talked about this here, but I wanted to go over it again because of the recent events with the auto industry.

Ever since I purchased my iPhone I've been using a great free app called Gas Chubby It keeps detailed track of many different stats, but most importantly my gas millage. I love stats, especially when they are from something I do everyday, like drive my car.

Since Nov 26, 2008 I've been keeping very close track of my gas and service costs with this application. The coolest feature I found was the graphs. Most of you may or may not know that the way you drive can drastically effect your gas millage. And you can clearly see by the MPG graph that it's true. The dip in the MPG was from a tank of gas in which I drove on the highway going 80 not 70 and thats the only change I made in my driving. I am pretty sure that if I drive conservatively enough I can get my MPG up to 40! I'll let you know if I hit it.

It's interesting to see how the price of gas in San Diego has crept up slowly but steadily after the recent decline. But we are still better off then drivers in Europe who pay around $8.50 a gallon!

I feel like all of this reinforces what has happened recently to the US auto industry. They missed the bandwagon on small fuel efficient cars like the Honda Fit. When such a model was available from a US manufacturer the public usually considered them low quality. And I must admit, when I was researching cars I test drove all the subcompact models, including US companies. So why did I go with the Honda? The number one reason was I knew it would last. I also felt like it was the only one solidly built, had the most features and power, on top of having great gas millage.