If you haven’t been paying attention, a service called Carrier IQ has cause a bit of a stir lately. The premise is pretty simple. Manufacturers or carriers install the software on your phone. The software then monitors pretty much everything you do, and then reports back to the installing party. Clearly this causes some issues with users; no one wants someone spying on their actions. In the past few days carriers and manufacturers have spoken up regarding their relationships with Carrier IQ. The latest is Sprint, which admitted that it uses Carrier IQ. Does this make you feel less easy about using a Sprint Android phone?
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Unlimited data is a thing of the past. AT&T started it, capping their services at 2GB in 2010. Verizon and T-Mobile followed about a year later, though both added higher-tier options for heavy data consumers. But the point remains: gone are the days where you could browse, download, and stream with abandon. That is, unless you’re on Sprint. Throughout this ordeal they’ve not only retained their unlimited data plans, but they’ve continually reassured customers that they will, indeed, stay unlimited. The latest comes from CTO Stephen Bye (via CNET). He stated the challenges of maintaining unlimited plans, but also said that Sprint is willing to face that challenge.
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T-Mobile customers might be able to keep their rate plans even if AT&T acquires the company, but even a new clause doesn’t make the reality much better. Soon after AT&T announced its bid to buy T-Mobile, it eased T-Mobile customer concerns by saying they could keep their current rate plans. Of course, that all figured to change once a customer’s contract expired. Earlier this week TmoNews.com reported that T-Mobile employees got an update on that front. Not only will T-Mobile customers keep their current rate plans, but they can keep them “even when their term ends and the service continues on a month-to-month basis.” (Emphasis mine.)That’s all fine and good, but it doesn’t help people who intend to upgrade.
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Does customer service play into your decision of which phone carrier to choose? That can make an important difference in an otherwise obvious decision. Take for instance, Virgin Mobile. On Friday we discussed Virgin Mobile and the Motorola Triumph as an excellent combination for a prepaid Android user. But if customer service plays a role in your decision, you might think twice, or thrice, about going with Virgin. They ranked quite poorly in the most recent J.D. Power and Associates survey, which measured customer care in the prepaid wireless industry. What’s most surprising is that Boost Mobile won the award by no small measure. That’s not surprising because of Boost itself, but rather because both Boost and Virgin are owned by Sprint.
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A year ago AT&T changed the cell phone industry by moving away from the standard of unlimited data plans to a system of tiered ones. Verizon and T-Mobile have since followed, leaving Sprint as the only major national carrier to still offer data without limits. Yet AT&T did throw its then-current subscribers a bone by allowing them to stay on their unlimited data plans. Grandfather clauses last only so long, though, and it appears that the time has come for AT&T to shuffle all those data hogs off their unlimited plans. They don’t plan to do this by direct force, but rather, by making the unlimited plans as obnoxious as possible. Sure, you can still use as much data as you want, but don’t dare fall into the top five percent of users. That will slow your data connection to a crawl.
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For reasons I’m not quite sure of, it’s easier to hate on AT&T than any other network. Maybe it’s the spotty coverage in some areas, which they seemingly refuse to correct. Maybe it’s because they had the iPhone, and after a while we all got sick of hearing about it. Maybe it’s because they were the first major carrier to implement data tiers, and now all others are following. Whatever the case, I’ve always had that urge to bash AT&T. Today they get a reprieve. Via Mobile Burn, we get some great news: AT&T is promising Gingerbread upgrades to all of its Android models released in 2011. I can only hope other carriers will follow in kind.
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This seems a bit curious, and there might actually be something behind it. I read a few places on Monday that Verizon was raising its regulatory charge by 3 cents on July 1. Most outlets covering speculated that you could perhaps terminate your Verizon contract pursuant to this new rate. That’s always interesting. No one likes being contractually bound to a cellular carrier, and so the ability to clip your contract and free yourself can feel liberating. But this does seem a bit odd. Terminating your contract over a 3 cent rate raise? Something’s up.
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There was no possible reaction other than outrage to the news about Verizon’s tiered data pricing. We knew it was coming, but given its fierce competition with AT&T, we — or at least I — also figured that the pricing scheme would work out a bit better. But when word leaked that the plans would only limit use and impose more costs on users, well, I lost a lot of faith in the company. We’ve gotten plenty more details since then, though, and some of them mitigate the issue. It’s still a raw deal, and I expect that they might adjust along the way. But in general terms, if you’re not a Verizon customer before July 7th, I don’t see the point in becoming one.
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The email alert shocked me, to say the least. “AT&T to Buy T-Mobile USA in $39 Billion Deal,” the headline read. Well [expletive], I said. I was reading the alert on a T-Mobile phone, which I’ve been using for about a year now. While I knew that no changes would come for many months, since this deal will probably take some time to satisfy regulators, it still represents a disappointment of sorts. I’ve been quite a fan of T-Mobile since becoming a customer. A move to AT&T will not be pleasing. Android is certainly losing a quality partner in T-Mobile.
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