Wirelessless

During a brief moment while I was connected to the internet this morning I read the latest rumor about Verizon coming to IPhone.

Can’t happen soon enough.

We hate AT&T. I know, hate is a strong word. But, that pretty much sums up our feelings for our wireless provider. With AT&T, we are wirelessless much of the time.

AT&T’s 3G network is a joke. We last connected to it in Idaho Falls. For the last two months we’ve been thrilled to catch The Edge, the slower than snot network. No, it’s not fast. And, it might be better than nothing. The jury is still out on that.

When we’re on “the edge”, our IPhones will usually connect. Our AT&T air card, though, is a crap shoot. And, when the air card is out the two of us use our IPhones like the little computers they are, surfing as fast as our thumbs will allow.

Such was the case last month in Forest City. With 1200 Winnies on the grounds, the rally wifi was pushed beyond its limits. And, while at Camp Winnebago, Paul and I sat outside the front door to the service center sharing the company wifi with a woman nearby who launched a video stream that disconnected Paul...while he was paying bills. She, of course, was oblivious to the whole thing. Some people will never learn that public wifi is a shared resource. But, I digress.

Needless to say, we relied on the IPhones as our primary source of data during our stay in Winnie City. While the air card has a limit, the IPhones can suck up all the data we want. With the little menu bar at the top of the screen reading three or four bars, the AT&T logo and the E for edge, we were surfing on a slow boat to Wireless Land.

Toward the end of our stay, I received an email from AT&T informing me that I had used four times the allotted “off network” data usage in a month.

Say what?

Off network? No way! I see the AT&T logo and the E! And, what allotment? Our plan has unlimited data usage!

I placed a call to see what was up.

Turns out that AT&T customers are allowed something like 24mb of off-network data usage per month. Of course, AT&T customers have no way of knowing when they are off-network because AT&T displays its network logo on screen even when a customer is off network. This helps customers believe the crap that AT&T spews out about having a network that covers 98% of all Americans. Uh huh.

Now that I have crossed the unknown 24mb line, AT&T has changed my phone and it now shows when I’m off network. I’m here to tell you, in these parts, that’s most of the time!

Yep. I’ve had my hand slapped by AT&T. (Ouch!) If I do it again, they say they’ll “restrict” my account.

We’re counting down the days until our contract expires on the air card. That’ll be a quick and easy switch to Verizon. But, you see, we love our IPhones. With eight months to go before our contract expires on those, we’re hoping there’s something to these Verizon-IPhone rumors.

Until then, we’ll remain wirelessless.