From: td-posts@telecomdigest.net   
      
   On Wed, May 10, 2023 at 04:23:45PM -0400, Michael Trew wrote:   
   > On 5/10/2023 12:54, The Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:   
   > > The TCL 40 XE 5G is now available at a super-low price point.   
   > >   
   > > **********************************************************************   
   > > *                          Moderator's Note   
   > > *   
   > > * When Verizon sent me a letter that said the "4G" phone my wife had   
   > > * been using wasn't "4G" enough for their network, they offered to   
   > > * sell me a new, improved, and more sexy instrument that was   
   > > * guaranteed to solve the problem - for about $240 dollars. The fact   
   > > * that the "new" instrument was *ALSO* "4G" was, AFAICT, supposed to   
   > > * serve as a lesson to junior executives-in-traning that the lower   
   > > * classes will believe anything: a party favor they could joke about   
   > > * while swilling their "Stirred but not Shaken" martinis and laughing   
   > > * themselves to sleep every night for a few months.   
   >   
   > I understand what you are saying, and feeling, but I'd have to believe that   
   > your wife's former 4G phone was 4G capable in cellular data only. There are   
   > a number of 4G phones which are not VoLTE (Voice over LTE/4G) compatible --   
   > as in, the voice/text aspect of the phone will only work over the old CDMA   
   > 2/3G networks -- which Verizon is shutting down.   
      
   On one hand, that makes sense: the phone wasn't "4g" in the sense that   
   it didn't have "5G" audio transmission capability. But, on the other   
   hand, Verizontal conducted a heavy-handed, brazen, fear-based   
   marketing campaing that ignored their customers' previous investments,   
   the brand loyalty they could have been building, and the added expense   
   that I and other customers suffered to buy "range extenders" while   
   Verizontal took its time figuring out how to extract millions of   
   dollars in profit from us by dictating a change to a more delicate and   
   less reliable technology.   
      
   Why, I ask, wasn't my wife's phone allowed to continue working through   
   the "range extender" which I paid them for? Even if only useful as an   
   in-house phone, it would have taken some of the sting out of the switch.   
      
   Why, I ask, wasn't there any explanation of the reason for the order   
   that I spend hundreds of dollars to replace a useful instrument?   
   Beyond saying that something called "VOLTE" was involved, Verizontal's   
   explanation boiled down to saying "You have to buy a new phone."   
      
   When, I ask, was Verizontal aware of the number of users that   
   possessed "CDMA-only" phones, and why didn't it act more quickly to   
   allow it's customers to prepare for the change? Was the company   
   betting on a second term for the now Ex-president Trump? Did they hope   
   to avoid any political interference on behalf of the unions that it is   
   so afraid of?   
      
   That the change to "5G-or else" service was handled in a crude,   
   arrogant, and dictatorial way is obvious. That Verizontal hopes to   
   break all the unions and turn their former members into fearful and   
   maleable task-trained menials is equally obvious.   
      
   But, what gals me more than all those things is the way that the best   
   Congress money can buy went along and allowed it to happen - neither   
   overseeing the FCC's performance nor intervening to stop such a   
   vicious and transparent con game.   
      
   Bill Horne   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)