Whats with all the Cingular hatin?

[evanrousso]

I have an LGCU500 and a Blackberry 8700c with Cingular and I have been with them for 4 years and I have yet to have an issue. I actually left Verizone for Cingular because of the crappy phones. Sure, every now and then I will drop a call...but thats the nature of wireless service (besides it isnt like my phone is glued to my ear all day discussing nucleur launch codes with the president, if I drop a call it isnt the end of the world) I find Cingular to be way ahead of the game with devices and services. I always get the best phones with Cingular and that is really all I care about. Cellular networks are built out enough so that anyone living in a metro area will get service most places with any carrier.

Anyways, about the iPhone. I think it is a great looking and innovative device but I am with the people who are waiting for the next revision (possible UMTS, larger storage, VoIP, and all the bugs worked out). I am using a 3G phone right now (the LG CU500) and I cant imagine going back to edge.

But lets be realistic for a second....all of the people complaining about the lack of features in the iphone...ask yourself how many of those features do you actually use.

 

[Chundles]

We don't have Cingular (or pretty much any of the US networks) here.

Our infrastructure is basically common amongst carriers so coverage is pretty similar.

I've never had a dropped call in the 7 years I've had a mobile phone and I've been with a number of carriers.

We're all-GSM here, there is some CDMA (out in the bush) that is being phased out with Telstra's nextG 850MHz HSDPA 3G network that is also used for wireless broadband with download rates currently up to 1.1mbps and will be 14+mbps by the end of the year.

We've had 3G here for more than 6 years, probably closer to 10.

So, all this means that carriers go to extraordinary lengths to get popular phones onto their services, not the other way around. We pick a carrier based on price and the deals they offer, not whether they're available in the area (out in the bush they all just use satellite phones). This means carriers won't alter the phones' features or abilities in case they make them less attractive than buying the phone from another provider.

The consumer definitely has much more power than the carrier here. I think in '08 when we get the iPhone it won't have an exclusive deal with a certain carrier because they'll all be jumping through hoops to do whatever it takes to get people to buy the iPhone from them.