Cell Phone question, maybe not linux specific?

[Ben Scott]

On 9/22/07, Steven W. Orr <steveo at syslang.net> wrote:
> I'm on Verizon too. I *really* hope you're not suggesting I can't load
> this thing up with music.

  Oh, I'm sure you'll be able to load music.  You'll just have to pay
though the nose to do so.  That is Verizon's MO.

  At work, we recently switched a few people from our old carrier to
Verizon with BlackBerry 8830 "World Edition" phones.  Some of things
we've discovered:

  It costs an extra $5/month/phone to pool minutes across the corporate account.

  It costs an extra $15/month/phone to use it as a tethered modem for
a laptop, despite already paying an extra $40/month/phone to have an
"unlimited data plan".

  You have to pay $50/phone to get a cable to tether, despite the fact
that the 8830 has a built-in Bluetooth radio, and other carriers
support Bluetooth tethers.

  You have to pay extra to get the SIM card and associated service to
actually use the 8830 "World Edition" internationally.  Oh, and make
sure you dial *228 before leaving the country to update the roaming
list, or it likely won't work when you get there.

  The 8830's have a built-in GPS radio receiver, and come with
BlackBerry Maps mapping software.  You can also use things like Google
Maps.  Verizon has disabled application access to the GPS, because
they want to charge you $15/month/phone for the "VZ Navigator" service
instead.

  However, they haven't been able to get VZ Nav working on the 8830's
yet.  Originally it was supposed to be available in July.  Then
August.  Then September.  Then Q4 2007.  Then some time in 2008.  Now
they're saying they don't know when, and won't even say it will ever
work.

  GPS applications on 8800 series units from Sprint and Cingular are
reported to be working fine.

  When we raised these concerns with the manager of the local sales
office, his response was that we should not be trying to
nickel-and-dime them on everything, since after all, they've got the
best network in the country.  And no, I'm not making that up.  That
was their response, almost word-for-word.

  Needless to say, Verizon maintains their number one spot on my own
personal shit list.

-- Ben