One of the excuses I like to trot out for failing as a fine artist is that I am a geek. Instead of drawing for an hour a day like a real artist, I will read about smartphones or computers.<\/p>\n
I’m always trying to get the best phone for the cheapest price. For a decade I argued with Verizon and AT&T about their plans. I wanted them to let me pay for what I used, instead of a two year contract at a high rate just because I had a smartphone.<\/p>\n
For the last two years I’ve had a Republic Wireless Moto-X. It costs $13 a month. I can upgrade to 3G\u00a0data for another $13. So it’s nice and cheap. My wife and my sister’s family all have Republic and they are a fine company. They were one of the first to challenge the big wireless providers. They are a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), meaning they don’t own any cell towers.\u00a0Out where I live they piggyback on the Sprint towers, with a fall back to Verizon. Service is great.<\/p>\n
Because it\u00a0looks like I may have a full time gig again next quarter, I decided to reward myself with a new iPhone. I’ve had 3 Android phones but\u00a0have always wondered\u00a0what an iPhone would be like. Plus, as a web developer it’s helpful to have an easy way to test on both operating systems. My wife has Android.<\/p>\n
So I walked into the Apple store in Tacoma and bought a brand new unlocked iPhone. Republic doesn’t allow anything but their custom built Androids. With a new unlocked iPhone I could take it to any wireless provider because it has\u00a0all the modern antennas…meaning GSM and CDMA.<\/p>\n
For $9.00 Ting<\/a> sent me a GSM\u00a0sim card and my problems started. My brand new iPhone wouldn’t work at the house. The GSM\u00a0network out here relies on T-Mobile and we live in a dead zone.<\/p>\n I measured my signal strength using an app<\/a> and it was -140 dbm which equals\u00a0a dead phone. On an iPhone,\u00a0\u00a0dial *3001#12345#* to check signal strength. I called the guys at weboost<\/a>\u00a0and he said I was out of luck.\u00a0Their $400 cell phone signal boosters top out at -108 dbm. He said that right under a cell tower you would\u00a0get a signal of \u00a0-70 dbm.<\/p>\n I thought, no problem, I’ll do wifi calling since the GSM (T-Mobile) network was fine in town. This phone and that network doesn’t allow it. Next I tried\u00a0google voice, since I still have a number dating back to my wifi phone days with an iTouch. Oops, VOIP calling is blocked. Finally I tried Skype, and that worked, but it costs money to call my wife because she doesn’t have data for a free Skype call. Or, she would have data if she would pay extra to Republic. But she insisted that my phone problems weren’t her problems, and why should she pay extra?<\/p>\n I couldn’t argue with that, and besides I thought there must be a way to get my iPhone to work cheaply, at the house. I went on a big quest to the big cell companies who have decent towers out there, seeing if they had finally lowered their rates. Verizon, \u00a0Sprint and AT&T are all still singing the same song. You have to pay a minimum of $40 a month for a smartphone…even if you bring your own unlocked phone-device (BYOD).<\/p>\n One of the reasons I went with ting is they have real people that answer the phone. Check out this video:<\/p>\n