Sprint inks another three years’ worth of iDEN infrastructure support with Motorola, ‘several’ new phones coming in Q1
Even as Sprint starts to dream up ways to sunset its aging (but still popular) iDEN network , reclaim the spectrum, and migrate its push-to-talk customer base to something CDMA-based, there's still a network to maintain in the short term -- and to that end, the company has re-upped its contract with Motorola to keep the system in tip-top shape for at least another three years. Amazingly, this will mean that the network is some twenty years old by the time the agreement is up in 2013, after which they'll either need to be ready with their CDMA replacement (bearing in mind that QChat already failed) -- or we imagine they'll need another contract renewal. Oh, and this won't just be a run-out-the-clock situation, either: there'll be at least some new hardware, with Sprint saying that "several" handsets are on tap for the first quarter of 2011 including the i886 ("stylish," rugged, and landscape QWERTY) and the i686, an update of the i680 with improved waterproofing
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: cdma, contract, customer, entry, i886, landscape, mobile, quarter, qwerty, result
T-Mobile prepaid account management on the fritz for the past week, Web DayPasses hard to buy
A quick gander at T-Mobile's official support forums suggests that the carrier's prepaid customers have been in a world of hurt for the past few days -- or the ones that use data, at least.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: account, customer, daypass, entry, forums, forums-suggests, holiday, mobile, problem-seems, result, web daypass
RIM’s Jim Balsillie hits back at the Steve Jobs rant, Apple’s ‘distortion field’
You had to know that Steve wouldn't get away with putting his five minute, competition-slamming manifesto out into the ether without some snap back from the competition. We've already heard responses from TweetDeck and Andy Rubin , and now RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie has issued a statement in response to Jobs.
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: assertion, blackberryplaybook, competition, customer, distortion, ecosystem, flash, jimbalsillie, majority, overwhelming, smartphones, sooner-or-later, story, web-sites
Sprint’s new Airave shipping to customers who ‘qualify’
FierceWireless got the lowdown on the new Airvana-built Airave femtocell that Sprint is shipping, and it turns out there's a good reason why stores we called hadn't heard of it: the carrier's only shipping it to people who pass the test. What test, you ask
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: airave, airvana, customer, engadget, femtocell, good-reason, lowdown, mobile, result, situation, sprint
Google halting Nexus One sales through official store after current inventory depleted
We knew this was eventually coming , and here it is: Google is giving everyone the heads-up that it just got a fresh batch of Nexus Ones in stock, and once they've been sold through, they'll no longer be offered directly through the company's online store. For what it's worth, the customer service lines will stay open even after that happens -- and you'll still be able to buy a phone through KT in South Korea, Vodafone in Europe, and "possibly other [retailers] based on local market conditions" -- but by and large, your average American is going to have a hard time getting one pretty shortly. If you're a registered Android developer, though, Google's looking at continuing to offer the device through some sort of sales partner -- a wise move considering it'll be just about the only thing you can buy unlocked running a clean-slate latest build
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, nexus one, Other Tags: breaking-news, clean, customer, engadget, entry, europe, giving-everyone, lines, official-store, online, slate, south, south-korea, stock, store
AT&T apologizes to customer warned off emailing the CEO: ‘This is not the way we want to treat customers’
AT&T's Executive Response Team certainly caused a little controversy yesterday after it warned reader Giorgio Galante that sending another email to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson would result in a cease and desist letter , but apparently it was all just a mistake -- Giorgio tells us that he's received a sincere apology from an AT&T senior VP, who took responsibility for the mixup.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: cease-and-desist, customer, entry, facebook, giorgio galante, giorgiogalante, internal-policy, pricing-schemes, questions, sincere-apology, treat-customers
Reports of webOS 1.4.1 update now coming in
It doesn't appear to do anything groundbreaking like overclock your Pre, but it looks like the webOS 1.4.1 update is now starting to trickle out to at least a few lucky users.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: customer, european, euros-on-paid, palm, palmpre, pixi, result, update, update-does, vietnam, webos
Sprint Free Guarantee eliminates all traces of buyer’s remorse within 30 day trial
Sprint must be feeling pretty good about its chances against the big guys right now, because it's on the cusp of deploying the most comprehensive money-back guarantee policy in the industry -- a policy that erases every red cent you've spent to pick up service with them in the event you change your mind. Starting tomorrow, new customers will have 30 days to check out their Hero , Pre , Pixi , or whatever other device they happen to choose (no EVO 4G yet, sadly), and if they're not happy, a return to the store will trigger a refund for everything, up to and including the service plan charges, taxes, and fees you've incurred so far. AT&T and Verizon come close to Sprint's policy, but they stop short of refunding the plan itself and charge an activation fee if you take more than 3 days to return your goods, and T-Mobile -- long regarded the customer service king in this biz -- only gives you 20 days and won't even pretend to refund your activation fee.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: customer, industry, mind, moneybackguarantee, result, sprint
Deactivating a PS3 that Sony has…..
Several months ago my 60 gig launch system died and I sent it in and got a refurb...and it has been great.....After losing all my data that was on my HD (5 movies from the PSN) and not being able to recover them I vowed never to download movies again and I haven't. However, there was a free movie up on the PSN a while back and I thought "what the hell.." and tried to download it. I got a message saying that I needed to first deactivate the other PS3 that was used with my account to download movies before I can activate my new one. Any help with this? Anyone else run into this before? Other than this minor gripe everything else is as sweet as ever....the system is amazing. Haven't bothered trying to wade through the customer service line, just wondering if there was a quick way to do it? --pretty sure I am gonna have to call ....Uuuggggghh :(
Categories: PS2 Tags: account, bothered-trying, customer, everything-else, gig, launch, message, message-saying, ps3, psn, refurb, service-line, wade-through
"Thank you for continuing to hold"
"one of our advisors will be with you shortly" Really Sony, really? For four days I have been trying to get through to Sony UK customer services and all I've heard in this mesaage relayed again and again, I wonder if the phone is actually ringing? More likely that they are racking up the phone bill so by the time I do actually get through I will have paid a mini fortune Very shoddy treatment in my opinion and very disappointing Rant over
Categories: PS2 Tags: customer, days, get-through, mesaage, mini-fortune, opinion, our-advisors, phone, really-sony, services, time, treatment