Friday, September 24, 2010

Verizon and Windstream Have It Out For Me

I am without Internet access this morning at home.  No big deal - an outage has to happen sometime, right?  We can't have a perfect world, so I am not all that upset about not being able to read e-mail.  I have many other things to do at 5 am.
 
However, one thing I chose to do was test the new tethering capability on Android 2.2.  Would I need a driver or special software?  Android 2.2 gave devices the capability to share its Internet connection via WiFi (which was a fantastic idea, by the way), but Verizon left that part out of the 2.2 update for the Droid.  I called them cock-blocks that day for that.  A statement I read spewed some bullshit about the Droid not having the ability to do that - a hardware limitation.
 
Folks have been rooting the Droid and making it a hotspot since the damn thing hit the streets.  It obviously has the capability.
 
Anyway, it turns out that if I want to tether it with USB, all I have to do is plug it in and turn on tethering.  Windows 7 apparently works well with it.  We got a private address and everything - it looked good.  However, I did not have access to the Internet.  I tried to browse the Web with the phone and got the page from Verizon that said: "If you would like to subscribe to mobile broadband..."  I was not happy.  If I have unlimited Internet access via my handheld device, what is the difference if I use that connection with a computer?  Why do I have to pay even more just to use the same service in a different way?
 
I didn't get an iPhone because AT&T wireless sucks in rural areas, such as the one in which I live.  Sprint is the same.  Verizon has coverage nearly anywhere I go, so I stuck with them.  Now they're sticking it to me.  And I am not happy.
 
I do now believe that when I move to a respectably-sized city I will be switching carriers.  Wankers.

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