[geeks] T-Mobile: giving them a try

[Shannon Hendrix]

Today I got tired of looking at phones and plans, and got signed up  
with a new phone and service.

I drove down to T-Mobile and walked over to the phone shelf.

I didn't like most of the phones, but the MotoKRZR K1 seemed to feel  
better than the others, and when fully opened it reached from mouth to  
ear pretty comfortably.  It's not perfect, but seemed to work well and  
was easy to use.  Plus, I was really tired of looking at phones.   
Really tired.

I then walked to the counter and said I wanted to leave Sprint.  The  
girl laughed and said, "We can get rid of them in about a half hour."

I picked just the basic $40 plan for now, since I don't yet know what  
my usage will be, and they canceled my Sprint service and ported my  
number in about 30 minutes.  It worked almost immediately.

I told her I used a Mac, and she disappeared for about fifteen minutes  
and came back with instructions for configuring iSync to work with the  
new phone.

iSync hasn't been updated for the new phone released this fall, and so  
she gave me instructions on adding support myself, including a custom  
icon file for the phone, which took about five minutes.

So... I have 14 days to decide if I like the company and the phone.

They were far more competent than any Sprint people I've worked with,  
which was a good initial impression.

Also nice is that at home I had horrible reception, "one bar", with  
Sprint.  At home I get full bars with T-Mobile, even though T-Mobile's  
coverage map said my street would only get three bars.

Anyway, I hope this works out, because I really don't like any of the  
cell phone companies, and I couldn't stand to do any more research on  
it.

T-Mobile plans actually cost a little more.  Alltel and Verizon offer  
500 and 434 minutes versus T-Mobile's 300.  However, T-Mobile let's me  
assign five numbers which are always free, and you can change them  
every 30 days.

I'll probably use them mostly for 2-3 business contacts I need to call  
a lot.

-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com