A while back, I decided I wanted to upgrade to a BlackBerry.\u00c2\u00a0 I prefer to communicate in writing rather than on the ‘phone, but find that I don’t communicate as much as I should because I can’t be arsed to get off the sofa and walk upstairs to my study and log on to my PC every time I need to fire off an e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 I reasoned that if I could check\/send emails from the comfort of my armchair there was more chance of me doing it. Plus, I now get proofreading work assignments via email and I like to know about them as soon as they arrive.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, I have my Sony Ericsson K790i checking my proofreading assignments every 30 minutes via IMAP4, but replying to emails – even just a one-line “I accept this job” – is still a pain (even with T9).\u00c2\u00a0 So an upgrade seemed in order.<\/p>\n
I drew up a list of requirements I wanted from a ‘smartphone’: Push email, GPS, Wi-Fi, Web browser, and a camera.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus the ability to synch to Outlook (as synching between my HP iPaq, my phone and my PC is killing me – not to mention drowning me in duplicates).\u00c2\u00a0 A BlackBerry seemed the obvious choice, but there wasn’t a single model that provided all of my requirements in a single device, so I decided to bide my time (I’m not desperate<\/em>…).\u00c2\u00a0 Lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, BlackBerry announced the Bold (a.k.a BlackBerry 9000).\u00c2\u00a0 This had everything on my wishlist plus more, and the initial reviews raved<\/em> about it. So that was that.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided I wanted a Bold.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I decide on something I absolutely must<\/span> have it.\u00c2\u00a0 Now.\u00c2\u00a0 (Obsessive\/Compulsive?\u00c2\u00a0 Me??)<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this is where things unravelled.\u00c2\u00a0 The Bold was initially given a vague release date of “Summer 2008”.\u00c2\u00a0 This was back in May or June, so I reasoned I could wait.\u00c2\u00a0 But Summer came and went without the Bold appearing. A release date of August was rumored, but then this slipped to September; in September a ‘probable’ date of October was given, and now, in mid-October, there are rumors of a further delay until December!\u00c2\u00a0 In the meantime I’ve been hopping from one leg to another like a toddler in need of a pee, devouring reviews of how cool the Blackberry Bold is, but being entirely unable to get my hands on one.\u00c2\u00a0 In the meantime, the iPhone has come and gone, and RIM (manufacturers of the BlackBerry) have a whole slew of other Blackberry models (Storm, Javelin, Pearl Flip, …) lined up for imminent release.\u00c2\u00a0 So what’s going on?<\/p>\n It turns out that the Bold has<\/span> been released – and to generally widespread acclaim – just not in the United States.\u00c2\u00a0 Canada has it (no surprise, as RIM is a Canadian company), England, Belgium, France, Germany and most of the rest of Europe have it, too.\u00c2\u00a0 Ditto South America.\u00c2\u00a0 Even Jamaica, Malaysia and India have it, for goodness sake, and they’re barely out of the third world!\u00c2\u00a0 So how come we<\/em> don’t have it??\u00c2\u00a0 The answer is simple: AT&T.<\/p>\n AT&T have an ‘exclusive’ agreement to carry the Bold in the United States.\u00c2\u00a0 Rumor has it that it was actually AT&T who specifically asked RIM to make a 3G Blackberry especially for them (up to that point BlackBerry devices worked on the GPRS\/EDGE\/UMTS\/CMDA networks, but not 3G).\u00c2\u00a0 AT&T think that their new(ish) 3G network is a better alternative [even though the Canadians are already embarking on a 4G network…], and wanted to offer a Blackberry that works on this.\u00c2\u00a0 Coincidentally, the new iPhone also uses the 3G network.\u00c2\u00a0 The iPhone is also (initially) exclusively available (in the US) on AT&T.\u00c2\u00a0 When the iPhone was launched, AT&T’s 3G network was revealed for the piece of crap it is.\u00c2\u00a0 The network was unable to cope with the sudden influx of several million iPhone customers (the majority of whom are probably teenage girls trying to download the latest Justin Timberlake video, rather than the more serious\/business-oriented BB user base [to which I aspire] who just want to send e-mails and make phone calls), resulting in dropped calls and poor performance all round. (Although AT&T, with their bloody-minded, belligerent self-belief, have yet to admit that there was a problem at all…)<\/p>\n Given these problems, it’s no surprise that AT&T don’t want to suddenly unleash another couple of hundred thousand devices on their already burgeoning network.\u00c2\u00a0 Officially, there has been no announcement of a ‘delay’ (how could there be when there has been no official announcement of a release date!), but unofficially both RIM and AT&T have been pointing fingers at each other.\u00c2\u00a0 AT&T are claiming problems with the device, but every other network in every other country in which the Bold has been released have managed to support the Bold – even in India, where the underlying infrastructure is probably still based on tin cans and waxed string – so one can only assume that the problem is with the network and not the device.\u00c2\u00a0 Supporting this theory, AT&T’s\u00c2\u00a0vans have been seen out and about, frantically upgrading their 3G network in preparation for the Bold’s release.\u00c2\u00a0 AT&T were actually in the throes of upgrading their 3G network anyway, but stopped when they took over Cingular and needed the money to integrate Cingular into AT&T (something they have failed to do convincingly – the “new AT&T” is about as integrated as a cat duct-taped to a dog; something as simple as combined billing still necessitates talking to both billing departments separately [and you<\/span> have to do it because they<\/span> don’t talk to each other…]).<\/p>\n An alternative theory that has been bandied about the forums (fora?) for the Bold’s delay is that AT&T are deliberately<\/em> delaying the Bold so that the iPhone enjoys a longer honeymoon period, and they can milk that exclusivity as much as they can before switching to milking the Bold exclusivity.\u00c2\u00a0 I certainly wouldn’t put it past them. When RIM release a new device, they pass it to the carrier for testing, which usually takes a couple of weeks, before the device is given the carrier’s blessing and released to the public.\u00c2\u00a0 With the Bold, AT&T have been ‘testing’ it for several months.\u00c2\u00a0 RIM tweak the OS to make it work better with AT&T’s network, AT&T reject it for some spurious reason or other, and this cycle repeats ad infinitum.\u00c2\u00a0 Again, the device<\/span> is sound – it works on other provider’s networks in other countries – it’s the network<\/span> that’s the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, I’m happy to wait a while to get a device that works 100% of the time, and as efficiently as possible, but damn<\/em>!\u00c2\u00a0 If AT&T knew their current network couldn’t accommodate the Bold (and they should have known this from the iPhone debacle) then they shouldn’t have agreed to carry it.\u00c2\u00a0 Period.<\/p>\n RIM should have given it to another carrier, and I’m sure they’re now thinking the same thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Recently (and, tellingly, since AT&T started delaying the Bold) RIM have announced that they are giving the Blackberry Storm – the first touch-screen BlackBerry – to Verizon, and are giving both the Javelin (8900) and the Kickstart\/Pearl Flip (8220) to T-Mobile.\u00c2\u00a0 Even perennial bridesmaid Sprint is getting a bite of the cherry with the new BlackBerry Curve 8350i!\u00c2\u00a0 All of these devices were announced after the Bold, but in all likelihood they will all beat the Bold to market.\u00c2\u00a0 If it wasn’t the fact that none of these devices completely meets my requirements I’d switch provider just to get one. In fact, if any<\/span> other carrier in the U.S. gets the Bold before AT&T I’ll be beating a path to their door the day it comes out, and taking my home phone and family plan with me.\u00c2\u00a0 If it wasn’t for my pigheaded insistence on having a Bold, I’d have probably jumped already.\u00c2\u00a0 Truth is, I just don’t trust AT&T any more.\u00c2\u00a0 They talk up their 3G network but can’t deliver.\u00c2\u00a0 They announce the Bold but don’t make it available.\u00c2\u00a0 They advertise the capabilities of their UVerse offering, but it’s shit<\/a>. AT&T: All Talk and no Trousers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A while back, I decided I wanted to upgrade to a BlackBerry.\u00c2\u00a0 I prefer to communicate in writing rather than on the ‘phone, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[55,39,54,23],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-att","tag-blackberry","tag-phone","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}