Frosting on a Crap Cake: AT&T 3G MicroCell by Cisco
So, I have this iPhone. I love it so much that I recently changed by signature for emails sent via the device to:
Sent from an iPhone that wishes it were an iPad so it wouldn’t have to worry about dropping calls.
I do love it (in a domestic violence/beat me/bring me flowers kind of way). I would love it more if the damned PHONE part of the iPhone actually worked and I didn’t have what I refer to as “AT&T moments” where it takes me 4 calls to complete one call. It makes me look like a tool when I’m on client calls, advocating technology and the crap I buy doesn’t even work. I recently reactivated my land line.
But Erin over at TimeforCake sent me a link on Twitter yesterday, poking my sore spot and asking me if this faboo new device from Cisco would ease my woes.
It LOOKS sleek. The review SAYS it works. But here’s my argument:
Why do I have to buy frosting to put on a crap cake?
AT&T should be giving one of these away for free with every iPhone purchase.
Not so long ago, I got into a heated discussion with an AT&T service rep who explained to me that, per my contract, my phone service on my iPhone may “not always be available.” I explained the following: if I subscribe to cable TV, they prorate my bill when the service is “unavailable.” The gas, water and electric companies charge me for the resources I consume. My land line phone provider doesn’t charge me for days where phone lines are down.
Why the everliving fuckadoolah do I have to pay for phone service on a phone that doesn’t complete calls? And if you know there’s a problem with your phone service, why not address the issue up front and offer me a snazzy little Cisco 3G Microcell? If you have the advertising budget to put up billboards all across the planet saying how you connect over 90% of all Americans, I think you have the budget to send me a $150 signal booster for your highly mediocre 3G network. Especially in light of the fact that Sprint is purported to be launching 4G this year and Verizon has the world’s largest 3G network, AT&T is drastically behind.
I wanted cake when I got my iPhone. Sweet, melt-in-my-mouth technology that I could loving stroke with my fingers. I have that. And I would have been better off buying an iPod Touch or the new iPad and getting an old school flip phone to use as a phone. It’s sad that there’s really a market for a $150 “add on” for the iPhone to make the phone function actually WORK. It’s frosting on a crap cake. A huge fail in the AT&T arena and one that doesn’t seem to interest Apple in the slightest.
She says as she counts down the days until her two-year contract is up…
