// August 9th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Technology, life
Yes. I’ve given up my iPhone. Don’t get me wrong. I liked my iPhone. A lot. However, from a personal and business position I had to evaluate more factors than “is it an iphone?”.
I have many friends who have no problems with their iphones or AT&T. I’m glad they don’t and I’m not here to bash the iphone or AT&T. I do want to share some factors that brought me to this decision.
First reason, OPTIONS. For a while, there were no real options for me. I was in a contract with AT&T and I dug my iphone. It was light years beyond other ‘smart’ phones. Times have changed. There are many options now including the Google Android platform… which is really cool.
Second, COVERAGE. Yes, AT&T claims to have the best coverage. And they may- however that includes their Edge network which is not data coverage for me- meaning, it’s not fast enough to be traveling and use. I travel a lot. I want 3G coverage everywhere. Our new service has lined the interstates (where I travel most) with 3G coverage. I now have fast data and phone service in the majority of places I travel.
Third, the $$$AVINGS. With our new service, we will be saving over $50 a month AND we have more features, all that I will use. This is where I can break it down and say this was a common sense move for me.
Our base plan on AT&T was the Family 1400 which was $80-
The second phone was $9.99
Data plans for both of these phones is $60
Text Messaging for each phone (basic 200) was $10
Data tethering for the iPhone $20
That total plan is $179.99 – That does not include tax and services. We hit $200 pretty easy.
The new plan with Sprint and the HTC Evo 4G is base @ $139.00 (that is for two phones. Unlimited data, unlimited texting, mobile 2 mobile calling on any network)
I added the Hotspot option for $30. This lets me turn my phone into a wireless router so that up to 8 devices can get on the internet at any time. No need to ‘tether’ one device anymore.
This brings our new phone plan to $169.00. We are saving $10! Wait, actually because of my business we were offered a corporate discount of 23%. We just saved another $40… In the end we save $50 a month AND have increased our data usage and eliminated our overages on texting… which happened a lot!
One other bonus is the 4G network that is rolling out this year. The download speeds for data will be close to cable modem speeds. Pretty fast for mobile computing!
For us, it was easy to make the decision. I’ll keep my old iPhone- it’s now an iPhone touch. :) I’m still a lover of Apple products. Always have been and always will be. My iPad will keep me happy no doubt.
