Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

out of service

I think my cellphone is possessed.

For the past week, it's been randomly turning itself off and on, the the start-up chimes ringing eerily from inside my messenger bag or on my bedside table. During a call, the person I'm talking to might hear a burst of ear-piercing feedback. Last night, when the phone was plugged into the charger, the display was blinking wildly, the blue screen flashing at an almost seizure-inducing rate.

Guess I need to go phone shopping this weekend.

This isn't the first time I've had problems with this phone, a Samsung A460 from Sprint PCS. I originally bought the phone back in November to replace the hefty Sanyo SCP-3000 I'd bought three years earlier. I was thrilled with the phone -- it's flip-phone style, the nifty screen graphics, the downloadable ringtones, the wireless web access -- up until April, when the display crapped out on me. Without a working display, I had no idea who was calling me, and I couldn't dial out unless I typed in the number manually (or happened to remember the person's number in my speed-dial). I took the faulty phone into Sprint, which replaced the phone with a refurbished model, the one I have now.

What I'm really waiting for is for wireless number portability to kick in, so I can move to another service provider (and keep my phone number). I really like the service plan I'm on with Sprint PCS -- $30/month (plus an extra $5/month for Wireless Web access), with 300 "anytime" minutes and unlimited night/weekend minutes. However, I hate the way text messaging/SMS works with Sprint PCS (you have to log on to Wireless Web to read/write messages, which counts off your minutes), and I wish they'd offer more incentives to customers to upgrade their phones, rather than give all the special deals to new customers. I also dislike having to completely re-enter my phone numbers every time I get a new phone; I like how, with T-Mobile, for example, you can just move a chip from the old phone to the new phone, and everything's transferred over. I also like the notion of being able to take my phone out of the country and still be able to make calls, something I can't do with Sprint because it's incompatible with the cellphone standards in Europe.