Posted by Friday evening everything was working again and I was sorting things out. I was reminded that there are three communications providers in the U.S. (if you don’t count dinosaurs or specialties) and it is not wise to put all your eggs in one basket. For GSM the only option or addition is AT&T. T-Mobile is the same network regardless of the MVNO.
Then Saturday afternoon there was an extended power outage here in Colorado during a windstorm. 4G worked and, again, 5G did not. It was the first time ever I (tried to) watch a football game on a cellphone. By Saturday evening and the game that I really wanted to watch was on, everything worked again.
I learned that MVNOs have little say or voice with the network carriers; I already know that the carriers themselves are no better. Further, they all, collectively, have little say in terms of the customer–loyalty, history, and dollars spent make no difference. It creates in me the consumer the same kind of indifference and callousness–more calls and more information will not help. I can only look out for myself.
The goal is to find a reasonable comfort level within this milieu. Speed tests aren’t everything and you need to check several sites to get a reliable reading. Around 20Mbps works for me and I need 5G for file sharing. 4G has its benefits as well. From there it is price and a company I can get along with.
Boost Mobile is a keeper because my hotspot works and it is free with low equipment costs.
I’m disappointed in Tello. Not answering the phone and saying Tello. Wrong contact name on BBB. Wrong access setting information on website. Similar phone service as the rest but more aggressive in not helping. No refunds for two phones out for an entire week. Using “technical service department requirements” as an excuse for doing nothing. And making me want to write in incomplete sentences.
Downgrade. $20 a month for two phones and I’ll stay until I find better. That’s how I feel about Tello. While it is all about convenience, simplicity, and cost, I feel I am attuned to the warnings. Call it a comfort level.
P.S. The two memorable pieces of customer service input I received were 1) “we’re small and they don’t listen to us” from a Tello rep. and 2) “T-Mobile is performing ‘modernization'” from a Boost Mobile chat rep. My home wireless works better now. The football game I was able to watch Saturday night resulted in large, sometimes over 2gb video files, recorded with Windows. Previously, I had problems sharing videos over my home network using only cellphones or my hotspot device and now it seems to work perfectly.
