!The quest for basic telephony
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agk's diary
28 December 2022 @ 03:02 UTC
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written on GPD Win 1 via PuTTY
while Evy's out with friends after work
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The last few days' weather was caused by a "bomb
cyclone." Sudden polar cold descended across the
continent. The first day I bundled first daughter
against my body and we walked in -18C outdoors
across snowy golf-course steppes where frigid wind
gusted loud and dramatic, down to the frozen creek.
Second day she walked partway, tromping in snow up
to her knees in her rubber boots. She fell and dug
in snow. We skated on the creek. Third day we went
again, with Evy. Today the temperature rose above
freezing. Evy at work, daughter and I ventured out
to do commerce.
One persistent problem in my life is my stubborn
quest for a simple, inexpensive, durable phone and
plan to call and text my family. Last year due to
sunsetting 2G and 3G cellular networks, I had to
replace my tiny 12-year-old Nokia with a new one,
poorly made but which supports 4G.
T-Mobile supported my new $50 phone, which was why
I bought it, but after the merger with Sprint, they
without warning or explanation stopped supporting
it for voice-over-LTE. No one in the T-Mobile store
knew what happened, or even knew how to operate my
non-touchscreen, non-android phone. For months
phone calls have not worked. I've only been able to
text and slowly puzzle out what happened.
AT&T has a whitelist of phones it supports. My
little Nokia is on their and only their list. I
couldn't find a text & voice only (no data) plan
on their confusing website, so after grocer & hard-
ware store, first daughter and I went to the AT&T
store to ask.
We arrived at the same time as a woman who wanted
to exhange her brand-new iPhone 14S or whatever for
an iPhone something Pro. The salesman who sold it
to her hadn't known the product line. She takes a
lot of pictures. There'd be a $50 restocking fee,
etc.
For an hour and 15 minutes, my toddler and I quiet-
ly played peekaboo, spun on chairs, clicked ball-
point pens, pushed buttons, took iPhone cases off
the rack, stacked them, put them back, spun a coin,
etc. She had a brief tantrum about an hour in.
The sales associate was skilled. The woman's re-
quest to exchange new widget for nearly identical
widget wasn't unreasonable. As toddler & I waited
through the widget exchange process, I remembered I
plan to spend in five years of $20/mo phone bills
what she'll spend today on her widget. She's the
big sale, let the guy make the big sale.
While we waited a man came in to contest his surp-
rise $800 phone bill. After waiting 45 minutes he
left. When the woman's exchange was complete the
sales associate thanked me for waiting. I asked if
AT&T sells a no-data plan. They do not. Understand-
ably. With demise of circuit-switched cellular net-
works, it's all data. Phone calls are essentially
Zoom meetings, second-class citizens on a network
built for Tiktok and Youtube.
I asked the least expensive plan. $35/mo before
taxes & fees (For years I've paid T-mobile exactly
$20/mo; MVNO plans on AT&T network are even less).
I thanked him. He walked me to the door. "Anything
else I can help you with, ma'am?" he asked.
Thinking how I have to move heaven and earth for
something ordinary in 1998, 2008, & 2018, I said
sadly, "No, I don't think so. I just want an in-
expensive way to call my family if I'll be home
late, not all this..." I waved at the displays,
completed the sentence in thought, "...garbage."
Porch steps were frozen over. I salted them, put
first daughter to bed. Evy came home. We talked
about our days. She went to bed. I can only call
out on my SDF line, which is our home phone though
it won't accept incoming calls. Next I have to
learn which MVNOs in my area lease access to AT&T
towers. But not tonight.
