GITweekly

As a bit of a follow up to my ongoing drama with Australia’s premium mobile communications provider, Telstra, I’ve done a couple of tests.

I’d said that we’d moved from another carrier to Telstra to fix the issues that we’d had with poor coverage – but alas the issues have continued – only this time we’re paying a premium for it. At this point I may be acting like a dog with a bone but the solutions offered have been both less than appealing as well as seriously insulting. Read the rest of this entry →

Buy Zee Phone

Oh God, here he goes again. Ranting. Exclaiming. Off on a tirade of expletive filled, self-referential, self-important drivel. But really all I want to do is stop the little voice gnawing away in my head. “Get a new mobile, get the latest, the greatest, your phone is old, outdated. Think of all of the ace things you’ll be able to do with your new one”.

“Stop it!”

You know we all do it. Suckered by the shininess, the speed, the touchy feely. This upgrading of mobile phones has become such a part of our lives. The thing I’d love to know is why? Read the rest of this entry →

Call me cynical if you will, but by my reckoning the new fandango iPhone 4S from that mob at Apple strikes me as a fearful and cynical beastie. Why?

Here’s the thing. It’s safe. But disappointingly so. Perhaps it was the waiting. The months of conjecture. The “holding out”.

But at the end of the day it’s no Samsung Galaxy S2 which upped the ante. Bumped up screen real estate. Got skinny. Changed the game.

Where the iPhone 4 appeared to smash you in the face with amazing graphics, a beautiful camera, speed, design to drool over – instead the latest iteration is just that. An iteration. The same, just bumped up a notch.

Let us know what you think.

iOS 5 on the other hand…

Look I know. It’s been such a long time. How have you been?

Great. Knee not playing up?

Great. Me?

Yeah, I’ve been cheating on you with My Green Australia. Sorry. I like them. A lot. See, here’s a link of us together. Oh yeah, there’s this other thing. iFieldtests. It’s really a love hate thing though.

Sorry – let’s focus.

iFieldtests is a Tumblr page or Tumblog, if you like, of my experiences with the Vodafone network in Australia. True, it’s pretty niche as it only covers the places that I frequent. Makes sense though – if I’m having issues with my coverage in the areas that I live in there’s trouble to be had. And unfortunately there is.

So pop on over and have a peek at the pics I’ve posted. If you’ve had a good experience with Vodafone we’d love to hear it, along with the bad. Don’t hesitate to send us your screen captures (on the iPhone press the home button and the power button at the same time) and we’ll pop them up on the page – include your location and any other relevant details.

So what’s prompted me to create the iFieldtests page?

Well it’s a saga that’s been going on for about six months and began on the 3 mobile network. We began experiencing dropouts and call fails at our home and at several other places that we hang around. After a load of chatter between 3 and us we, stupidly, agreed to move to the Vodafone network to see if the coverage would improve. The answer was yes and no.

Since the swap to Vodafone we’ve seen an improved coverage, for calls, around our home. On the other hand we can’t go down to the family holiday home due to no coverage at the house and at the RSL next door. Due to the nature of my “day job” I have to be contactable at all times – with Vodafone I’m off the air. At least with 3 we roamed.

We’ve also seen that since the change from 3 to Vodafone the data reliability has been awful. Low speeds and frequent timeouts. Again we didn’t experience these issues as much with 3. With 3 I could even stream audio from the internet – now – no hope. As you’ll see, if you find it, compared to the 2008 average 3G data speeds of 759kbps I should be using my iPhone to its full capabilities. I can’t.

So that’s what I’ve been mulling over for the last wee while. Vodafone now tells us that for them to do anything they need to do a network check. They also say that this could take a month. A month! They could tell me that we live 2 streets away from a known black spot. These delays is what causes me to get so angry.

What do I want?

I want out. Out of the contract that I made with 3 – the same contract that sees me pay for 2 mobiles in our household that are so unreliable. Not once have we been offered recompense. Not once have we seen our service truly improve despite us changing carriers for them and changing sims for them.

Just do the right thing Vodafone. We want out.