And so I can FINALLY use my cell phone for the first time in 10 years at my office!

And so I can FINALLY use my cell phone for the first time in 10 years at my office! I have been unable to use my cell phone since I started working there 7.5 years ago + since the company started! This is due to the construction of the building. It's solid brick and NOTHING works inside of it! It's been a CONTINUAL problem because I have a LOT of clients calling me for Toughbook stuff and I NEEEEED to be able to call them since 99% of them are out of state and don't have 800 numbers! We don't have long distance included in our LAN line because it costs too damn much!

Anyways, as some of you may know, I paid about $600 for a 1900MHz Cell repeater about 5 years ago and the ONLY thing that that has helped with has been the txting, which is all personal anyways...

I knew that they cell repeater I bought was good because EVERYONE has told me that it is that's used it! I had a feeling that it wasn't working simply because of my ignorance and lack of proper equipment to properly install it!

Anyways, a new at the time, customer of mine (Dave from Radilink) came in looking for Toughbook parts and I saw him pull up in his van with a CF-29 with 2 cell phones Velcro'd to the back of the screen and about 6 antennas on the roof! I got him his parts and then asked, so what exactly are you using your Toughbooks for? He then started his speech on his business and what he does! He's a cellular network operator! He installs cell phone antennas and towers and repeaters for a living!

I was thrilled! I then took him into our back tech room and said: "Can you fix this mess????" He spent about 40 minutes doing a site survey with his $15,000 piece of cell site survey equipment, and I explained to him that I cannot use my phone for ANYTHING inside this office. He said with confidence: "Yes, I can fix this guaranteed" I was even more thrilled!

Anyways, he came out yesterday (Saturday) and me and him spent 5 hours working together running THICK line's (the line I had was a skinny SMA line) and he said "yeah that's garbage, I'm gonna use the same line that the cell phone companies use". I just smiled and nodded, not knowing what the hell he was doing.

We ran the line from the roof that not has a HUGE antenna attached to it in and through the brick and through the ceiling tile to my repeater and out of the repeater to a dome antenna that's omnidirectional that looks like a smoke alarm and that's mounted in the ceiling and spits out enough signal to use the phone throughout the ENTIRE SHOP WITH NO PROBLEMS!

I have to thank Dave from Radilink and if you are in the Chicagoland region, and have nothing but problems with your cell phone, I would HIGHLY recommend this guy as he's smarter than God when it comes to cell phones and antennas and indoor coverage!! I had already bought the repeater and by Dave's standards it's a LOW END ONE, and the stuff he sells costs THOUSANDS OF dollars! I told him I don't wanna spend much money. I ended up only having to pay $200 in material and free labor since he knows he's gonna need things like keyboards installed in his Toughbooks in the future! I owe him 4+ hours of labor of course, but it works out WELL (mostly in the line that's a $1/foot and I got 75+ feet of it + the two new antennas). Even though I had a low end repeater, Dave still made it work!! His website is Radilink and if you contact him, just be sure to tell him that ROB from PROTON COMPUTERS recommended you! Thank GOD for people like Dave that are HONEST and work their ASSES OFF to make things do what you want them to do!

Thanks!

 

There are a few pros left. Most kids now are "what's in it for me?" punks who will likely never understand that what's in it for them is their rep and their continued livelihood. I blame the entitlement culture propagated by public schools, but I'm kinda jaded that way.

 

Rob, I was wondering if you ever tried a phone with Smart WIFI (only t-mobile) to get access cell phone access via UMA? I wonder how good that is in such locataions as you ahve.

 

* just lost respect for Rob cuz I thought HE was God of all things Electronic*...next to mnem and teo of course!!

 

HAHAHA! Good one!

 

LOL... this reminds me. Guess what AT&T just sent me in the mail? an offer for a "FREE" femtocell (tiny repeater that connects to my existing internet) if I only sign up for another 2 years with their capped data plans once my plan is up.

I sent it back to them with a post-it telling them to stick it; they had their chance to keep me as a customer 2 years ago and sh** all over me in the first 2 weeks. I haven't decided yet; I'm either gonna sell both our iPwns on eBay & get 4G Evos, or may get VeriSuck iPwns if they tickle my tender vittles with a plan I like.

Either way, I'm not gonna be AT&T's cash cow once the unlimited data goes away...

mnem
When did simple competence become too much to expect?

 

You can forget Verizon, as well:

Verizon to end unlimited data plans, too

 

They will grandfather you in. As much as I hate the general attitude of cell carriers as regards feature suppression, their treatment of rate plans has always been generous. Most allow you to change to a better rate if it becomes available and will let you keep that rate after it has been sunsetted, even if you change devices. ATT, for example, lets me keep my unlimited Blackberry data plan and that went away years ago. How anyone could browse more than a few KB on a Blackberry without hitting it with the pointy end of a hammer is beyond me, but there you have it.

 

You may want to read your AT&T bill very closely:

1.3 Can AT&T Change My Terms And Rates?

We may change any terms, conditions, rates, fees, expenses, or charges regarding your Services at any time. We will provide you with notice of material changes (other than changes to governmental fees, proportional charges for governmental mandates, roaming rates or administrative charges) either in your monthly bill or separately. You understand and agree that State and Federal Universal Service Fees and other governmentally imposed fees, whether or not assessed directly upon you, may be increased based upon the government's or our calculations.

IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUMMARY, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE'LL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR OTHERWISE), AND YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE.

If you lose your eligibility for a particular rate plan, we may change your rate plan to one for which you qualify.

 

Tell me about it. I've been fighting communications bureaucracies for decades. POTS, cell, toll free, COPT, long distance, cell based back-up devices, you name it. Yes, they can and will raise your rates, change the type of service you receive, change your plan, cancel your service, violate your backside without the benefit of a reach-around, kidnap your children and put them in a cult, call you in the middle of the night and ask for help with the rent, etc. That said, I have always been impressed with their reasonableness as regards grandfathering and allowing mid contract corrections.

EDIT: Any term service agreement has those exit clauses, unless somebody effed up.