Anyone have T-Mobile G1 ? Need advice, please!

[seo-im-luv]

Hello,

So I just found this All-Deaf forum due to a Google search for "Deaf and G1", and was pointed here. So great here!

I realize this is an amazing forum, that I want to be part of and participate, so I joined here and also post introduction at: http://www.alldeaf.com/introduce-yourself/63666-hello-denver-new-also-co.html#post1289376

Just so you know a little more about me.

So the other day we finally got our T-Mobile G1 and it's ok so far, and some features really nice; as we used to own Sidekick LX and disappointed that G1 does not have Tmail email anymore. Anyway, so today we saw bill that has extra $40/month for a voice plan.

So just got off phone with T-Mobile and they will not removed the $40 fee every month, even though we are Deaf and cannot and do not use the voice phone parts?

My other friend, who has iPhone had to send to them a form / letter from his doctor to prove he is Deaf. Why they make us jump through those hoops? Would $40/month break them? :roll:

Anyway, calm down JW...

Did anyone else get G1 and have same problem? If so, how did you solve this? They will not accept doctor form, like my friend with iPhone could do.

Is this fair? Any solutions or advice? I'm kind of ready go back to Sidekick LX or try Sidekick 2008; however I really enjoy most of the other features of G1 like touch screen, multiple e-mail accounts, all the free apps, etc.

Just, why pay hearing fees when we don't use the hearing tools?

Anyone can shed some light on this please?

Thank you in advance!!! Would love to hear if any solutions or similar experience.

With peace always,

JW

 

[naisho]

yo! JW good to see a new face around here.

I have a couple of G1's that I recently acquired as of this month. It seems that our android kin is low on the population numbers here, as far as I know there are just one or two here that have openly announced having a G1.

I know you enjoy the sidekick more than the T1 due to ease of use and the plans that TM offers for it. The G1 is the first generation of the new batch of android phones, so I guess why there's all the hype of plans and services offered for it.

Credit where credit's due, we all owe google/HTC a big thanks for making such an impressive device that combines the novelty of the Sidekick ( 2 / 3 / LX / Gecko / 2008) with the functionality of a Blackberry and the added features of google that play apart of our daily lives.

Anyway, I don't see much you can do for the time being. Your only options as I can see are:

A) Stick with it and pull through with the fee dirt being thrown into your face. There's supposedly a cupcake OS (Operating System) update/upgrade that will boost the Android OS, giving it new features and the such, possibly new plans to reflect those particular features. Its said to be due sometime relatively soon, I was reading around march/april, or before Q1 is over.


B) Get the phone unlocked and switch your provider. I have both of my G1's unlocked ( don't bother asking me why I have two ) and use it on the AT&T service. YMMV.. Your Mileage May Vary, but what I do with my ATT plan is pay the standard charges I have going with my plan, I pay $15/mo for an unlimited data plan, in which I can go use unlimited net-related usage, most of what you'll probably be doing on the G1. I also use an additional $5 for a text messaging plan, for other various reasons.
There's a downside about all this though. See below.


Option A's mostly a wishy washy hoping game, where you cross your fingers and toes hoping they cater to your needs, really gambling.

Option B is where you take the reins of the challenge. But there's a downside. The major thing with the G1 is that it incoroporates a lot of TMobile's 3G technology.

Since the G1 is not recognized on AT&T's spectrum, we don't have a lot of what 3G has to offer, instead, we fall back on EDGE.

What's the story about Edge vs 3g?
You'll realize this when you look at the specifications of the phone in detail.
If you google around on 3G vs Edge, you can find out the whole story.

AT&T doesn't support the G1's 3G, because it's on a different band.

Ignoring the details because I'm assuming you may not be interested in it, the moral of the story is:

AT&T (and probably others) won't be incorporating G1 officially on its plans due to the Cell phone Alliance thing that google offered a few years ago. You can read that at the opening on the Android OS on wiki, here:
Android (operating system) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's about it in a nutshell.

Good luck with what you choose to do, feel free to consult me if you have other comments or questions.

 

[Foxrac]

Why does tmobile can't use same spectrum as att does for 3G?