CivicActions

So I've been using the T-Mobile Hotspot @ Home service for a few months now. I should mention that I've been a T-Mobile customer for a couple of years now, and am a heavy cellphone user. My day job(s) require a lot of time talking to contractors, my boss(es), etc. not to mention, y'know, making a reservation for dinner somewhere, flirting with a lover, talkin to Mom, etc..

so the promise of H@H is "free" calls when your phone's wifi connects with a network. You have to buy one of the Phone Company's special routers (identical model to what I have at home with a firmware tweak that "optimizes" the user experience. Talk about Defective By Design.

The fact is this service is not ready for prime-time at all. My best friend (who I REFERRED TO THE SERVICE) tried it for about a month but couldn't get it to work and had an extremely frustrating time dealing with T-Mobile's customer service. I don't know if she's still a customer or not as a result.

After three months of using it, here's what I've found:
- works, I'd say about 80% of the time. which is fine, until you have an important phone call to make but can't because your phone won't connect to the network, even though my computer can.

- the promise of smooth call handoffs between your wifi and T-mobile networks has been broken so many times that I usually wait until I'm in the car and out of wifi range to start calls.

- the battery life on the phone is insanely low compared to my workhorse Nokia 3650 which worked for days. I'm lucky if the thing makes it to bedtime. And I was very conscientious about conditioning the battery.

- not to mention the call quality. Messages left on friend's voicemails are unintelligible (and not for untoward reason) and I'm saying "Huh?" a lot.

I think the T-Mobile H@H product was rushed to market not only to preempt Apple's iPhone announcement, but also because introducing H@H afterwards would have been lackluster at best by comparison, even if it were working as well as they said it would.

I think it's time for an iPhone, even if it means giving the NSA access to my calendar, phonebook, etc. They already get my email and phone calls. Why not, y'know, everything else?