I’ve been a very happy customer with T-Mobile for over four years now. Ever since the beginning, I have been using various smartphones with their T-Zones service. T-Zones was originally intended to be a walled garden internet service where you pay $4.99 (when I signed up) each month for the privilege of being able to view T-Mobile’s WAP store. However, a salesperson clued me in that smartphones generally have the ability to change their network settings and with a couple of minor tweaks, you get full internet access at a much better rate than the $19.99 data plan they sell.
All this changed a couple of weeks ago. At first I thought it was just my phone, but after a while of not being able to access my maps and email, I called T-Mo up and found the real reason:
T-Mobile has disabled the hole that once allowed T-Zones users to access the full internet.
As an interesting aside, T-Mobile knows all about my hacked iPhone. In fact, they have people who are trained to deal with it on a limited basis. That means that they can also tell just how many hacked iPhone users there are out there with T-Zones. Perhaps some exec saw these very figures and assumed that at least one in four would stand to have their internet access prices quadrupled. However, I won’t be one of them.
I’m currently paying just under $60/mo all taxes and fees included for 1500 anytime minutes, 400 text messages, and (previously) unlimited internet access. If I bend to their new rules, that price will jump to nearly $80/mo. At that price, I might as well transfer over to AT&T and finally go legit.
By finally switching to AT&T, I get all of the following:
- No more jailbreaking
- Visual voicemail
- A warranty for my expensive phone
- Access to the latest hardware
- A more legit tax write off since I have a business license to develop software for the iPhone
But at what cost?
- Ending a four-year run with a carrier that I really like who generally respects long-term customers
- Opening a two-year contract with a carrier who sees long-term customers as a threat, so they milk every dollar they can out of long-term contracts
- Losing the warm fuzzy feeling of saying “screw you” to the man and using my phone on a different network
So what now?
Tomorrow is Apple’s press event. Due to the fact that Best Buy just started selling iPhones yesterday, I doubt there will be an iPhone update, but there is no sense in rushing out today to buy one. Also, I’m about to take a two week trip to Europe and I’ve found that aside from being generally more expensive domestically, AT&T is also $0.30 more per minute for international roaming calls where I will be.
So for now I sit tight. As soon as I return from my trip, I’ll be reluctantly terminating my account and shackling myself into a terrible contract with a terrible company–that is, if my beloved T-Mobile hasn’t changed their mind.
This morning, I completed the final step to activate my iPhone Developer Program membership. The last news I heard about this program indicated that it was (I assume it continues to be) a fairly exclusive program and they are only allowing small numbers of people to join at this time.
Due to the popularity of