Tag Archives: Verizon

Most iPhone users love AT&T

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An article that appeared the other day on CNN money made me laugh. The link to the article is here: http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/23/technology/iphone_4_att/

Anyway, the article seems to be the typical attention grabbing headline regarding the iPhone.  I assume that CNN gets ALOT of traffic (and add dollars) when they have iPhone articles.  I know I do – when I post something about the iPhone on this blog, the number of hits rises DRAMATICALLY!!  I will update this post if the hits actually do rise in a significant fashion.

So, the article is saying that most people like the AT&T service, even though the media makes it sound like AT&T is just terrible.  Whether AT&T is terrible or not, is not what I am writing this post about, but rather the photo at the top of the article.  The happy iPhone user in this image is not using AT&T.  He is using Softbank.  It is very clear from the credits and from the image itself that the user is not using AT&T and is located in Japan.  Softbank is the sole service provider of the iPhone in Japan — just like AT&T is in the USA.  As I have traveled to Japan many times, and I have rented a Softbank sim card for my iphone 3G, I can attest that Softbank does indeed offer better service in Japan than I am used to in New York City.

I find it odd that CNN couldn’t find an image of an American user with the AT&T logo to use in such an article.  What’t up with that?  It really doesn’t support the gist of the article at all – for reference, I am linking to the image here:

He is happy because its Softbank, not AT&T

Verizon FIOS in Brooklyn

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I was out walking around in Park Slope the other day and I noticed a huge group of people loitering on the sidewalk handing out flyers.  Generally, I try to avoid these things as I get annoyed very quickly with people wasting my time.  These people were dressed as the Verizon network people, wearing white coveralls and hard hats.  I went over towards them, and they promptly handed me a flyer explaining the benefits of FIOS over Cable.

I agree with these things.  I would get FIOS right now — IF IT WAS AVAILABLE!!!  Verizon has been advertising for over a year now that FIOS is available in New York City.  From what I can tell, its available in a very very limited amount of areas.

So, why is this group of 100-150 people being paid to advertise a service in a neighborhood that it doesn’t exist?  Wouldn’t it make much more sense to pay the technicians to install the hardware to make FIOS work in Park Slope?

This was a bit annoying to me, and really makes me question the logic of marketing.  I do call once a month and ask when I can get FIOS, and generally I am told the same, “Soon, we are working on it” canned statement.

Annoyances aside, I still will get FIOS the day it is available — but for a different reason than you might think.  Of course I am interested in the fast internet speeds, but it is the TV service that I am more interested in.  For one, I am anxiously awaiting the ability to watch NFL network again.  When I lived in Canada this channel was included in basic cable, and it was watched by my girlfriend and my self MOST of the time in football season.  I caught her watching it all by herself a few times actually — even when I was not home.  Secondly, because the Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC is such a piece of junk (crashes at minimum one per week) I looked into what box Verizon uses.  It seems that it uses the Motorola box, which has proven much more stable in my experiences.

Regardless, I will not be holding my breath for the service to be available any time soon.