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Saturday, February 10 2007, 6:26 PM

My current cellphone contract with Nextel is up on the 20th, so I decided it was time to decide whether I wanted to stay with Nextel or get a new phone with another provider. My phone usage has changed in the past few months, and I've really been taking a hit with text messages. I decided that I wanted a phone that had something better than the small numeric keypad so typing in text messages wouldn't be such a pain, and I also wanted a plan that would accomidate text messages in bulk.

A few coworkers have some pretty neat PDA/SmartPhones, so I asked around for their experiences with the phones and carriers. After a few 'interviews', I decided that I wanted to grab a PPC6700/XV6700 (same phone, but different model number depending on the provider). It's a Windows Mobile Smartphone, which kinda goes against my anti-Microsoft/Windows mentality, but my coworker that has this phone is quite happy with it, and recommended it highly. It has both WiFi and cellular internet capability, bluetooth, and a slideout QWERTY keyboard. A cool piece of gear all in all.

Both Sprint/Nextel and Verizon carry this phone. I was initally planning on just upgrading my Nextel service to Sprint with this phone, but the Sprint/Nextel website wouldn't seem to allow it. It was like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. However, unlike the real books that give you paths through the story that are both "good" and "bad", I never found one path through the upgrade process that let me out alive. I gave their customer service a call, and was told that they could upgrade me, but that they didn't have that phone in stock currently, and that I should check around at local Sprint stores. Honestly, I don't know if the sales rep completely understood what I wanted to do. It's my guess that he was a Spanish-language representative, because his english was pretty bad, and had a thick Spanish accent.

After that failure, I considered looking around a bit more. Verizon had the same phone for $100 less on the website, so I decided giving them a shot. I was sure that I was going to go into a Verizon store and buy the phone, but I didn't know how Nextel would interpret me taking my current number and allocating it to another plan with another carrier. I gave them a call to get the firm date on when my plan ended and to see how that action would be taken, and whether it would be considered a breach of my contract. The sales rep seemed attentive to the situation and asked wether there was some reason I was inquiring about those details. I explained the situation, and how I found the same phone with another carrier for $100 less, and was planning on switching for that reason. She put me in contact with another rep in a different department. She offered to match the Verizon price, and apply $100 in manufacturers rebates at the same time. The price instantly dropped from $399 to $199 - $100 better than Verizon's price.

That was plenty enough to get me to stay. It also turns out that the Sprint plans are a bit less expensive as well. The base-rate Verizon plan that includes the unlimited data service is $79/month, which also counts the phone service. My base phone plan with Nextel was $49/month, and Sprint will match that with the new phone. The data plan is only an additional $15/month, and I added a text messaging plan for $5/month. So, my plan will weigh in at around $70/month.

Did I need a new phone? No, not really. But anyone that knows me knows how much I like cool gadgets. This certainly is one. I've already done some checking around, and there are a few good instant messenger clients for this phone which support all the large chat networks (AIM/MSN/Yahoo) along with Jabber. There's also a stripped down version of PuTTY available, which will allow me to use SSH on the phone as well. The fun will never end.

cellphone nextel ppc6700 sprint verizon

Sunday, February 27 2005, 9:59 PM

Yup, I've become "that guy." Well, not really. I've made a pledge not to become "that guy." You know the kind - the guy who's always beeping on his Nextel wherever he's at, no matter what the environment... restaraunt, movie theater, grocery store - you name it, he's beeping. Not me. I'm going to be responsible with my Nextel.

Since there's such a stigma about it, you're probably wondering why I got a Nextel in the first place? Joe Doss. He talked me into it. That and the fact that my Cingular service up here wasn't that great. Cingular never treated me bad, and I would give them a good recommendation in the Metro Detroit area, but their Lansing coverage just wasn't that great. Nextel has lots of coverage around here, and most other places I'm likely to go, so I jumped on the bandwagon.

The phone I got also has some nifty features besides the little walkie talkie thing as well. It's got a built in GPS receiver that will provide a position if I wait long enough, plus it will send telemetry data to a computer through the data cable I bought. It's got a camera in it too, which isn't much more than a novelty since I have a full fledged digital camera. It takes pictures that approach decent when the resolution is turned up to it's highest setting, but they're nothing spectacular. It also does the nifty contact-based ringtone thing, so I can have a seperate ringer for everyone on my list if I so choose. I would imagine that a lot of phones have that nowadays, but the fossil I was using before didn't, so it's neat and cool.

So far, I like the phone, although I haven't used it much, since nobody calls me. I think I sent the new number to most everyone that would ever call me, but if I forgot you, let me know and I'll make sure you know the new number.

In closing, here's the only picture I've taken so far with the phone that's actually turned out well...

ace cellphone

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