USCGMoose

Somebody suggested in another thread that those of us with Verizon write them requesting they offer bluetooth enabled phones. I did just that and requested a ROUGH TIMELINE for introducing bluetooth. Here is their reply:

"We appreciate your interest in the incorporation of Bluetooth Technology with Verizon Wireless services. At this time we do not offer products to support this technology. However, our Research and Development Team has been studying the ability to incorporate Bluetooth technology with our products and services.

"If you would like to receive e-mail updates regarding new products and services, please click on "E-mail Updates" from the "Support" tab located at the top of our home page."

In otherwords, Verizon is not willing to commit to any timeline. They are "studying" the issue (PR department language for we're not doing a darn thing). I read this as an indication that we shouldn't hold our breath. Unfortunately I have a long time left on my contract with them and only Verizon's network has been able to give me flawless coverage in some of the remote locations I need to go.

What to do, what to do? Anybody decide to jump ship from Verizon for this issue?

RJC RSX

have you considered starting an online petition similiar to the t608 one for sprint?

Bartman_RENAMED

When I called Verizon customer service, they told me that they have had bluetooth phones in the past and they were not going to offer products with BT in the future due to a high frequency of problems with BT.

I'm thinking about switching, but they have the best coverage in my area.

neuronbob

I haven't decided to jump ship because Verizon has the best coverage in my home city and in most of the places to travel. Verizon is frequently behind the times on phone tech, but it generally eventually catches up.

gregory28

There is an on-line petition in this forum somewhere. I signed it 2 months ago. I'll try to find it.

marquis

I got the same speel from Veriozon CS when I called about this the other day. "No bluetooth phones, no timeline for when they might be available. But they've had lots of inquiries about it lately."

I can't really justify jumping ship from Verizon for this, because their network is so superior to what else is out there. But it really ticks me off, just not enough to offset the benefits you get with going with them in the first place.

It's similar to how you can't use picture in picture on your tvs with cable set top boxes. You're not going to dump cable for the ability to use PIP on network only reception, are you?

fuque

I did. I just left Verizon for Cingular.

The only way Verizon (or any company) is going to pay attention is if we vote with out wallets. All the complaining in the world won't motivate them to act if you just keep giving them your money anyway.

BTW, Cingular's coverage is not much worse than Verizon's in the areas I've tried. I recommend you take advantage of the 15-day trial period and try your new Bluetooth phone out in the areas you're concerned about; you might be pleasantly surprised, as I was.

michael3314

I agree with fuque. You can write all the emails you want and Verizon couldn't care less. Money talks.

I switched to T-Mobile (from Verizon) and have found the coverage to be excellent (so far). Great plans and thier customer service is excellent (so far).

Just a note here. Verizon is our local landline provider. I live 8 miles from the Capitol of the United States, in a sub-development of 250 homes, and can't get DSL. Verizon is too cheap to invest in the infrastructure to provide broadband to the masses. They may have the best coverage in cell phones, but I'd prefer not to do bussiness with them.

mitchdeerfield

As far as I know, the TL is the first car from any manufacturer with the Bluetooth feature. Dont expect Verizon to invest billions of dollars for the benefit of a few thousand TL owners.

Forget about the petitions. . .

I am still pissed off about the crappy all season Bridgestone tires we have to deal with here in Florida.

Haven't seen much snow down here in a few centuries. .

marquis

I don't think this is true....I think bluetooth is avaialble in other higher end cars as well (benz, etc). Bluetooth is more popular in europe at the moment, so I would suspect that euprpean auto makers will lead the charge here.

greenseed

I've been using AT&T for the last 9 months now. I stopped into a T-Mobile store yesterday just to see what specials they have since AT&T has been mis-billing me for the last 6 months now. Every month I have to call and argue with them for at least an hour to reduce about $300.00 of unwarented charges.

Anyhow I pretty much know that either T-Mobile or Cingular were my only options for Bluetooth. And I knew I wanted a SonyEricsson T610/T616.

To make a long story short, I decided to purchase a T610 T-Mobile Sony Ericsson phone (bluetooth capability) and their 39.99 plan. I decided to port my AT&T cell number to T-Mobile and rid myself of AT&T. I don’t even care that I have to pay 175.00 for early termination.

Anyhow I purchased a Bluetooth adapter for my PC and the Phone/PC Pair up nicely. I've already synchronized my Outlook contacts with the Phone and I'm all setup with it.

I cannot comment on Cingular or Verizon as I have never had their service. But I can say for sure that the call quality on T-Mobile seems to be quite better than AT&T.

clafournaise

Verizon is going to revamp many of their phones in June with lots of new cameras and movie capture devices. Bluetooth should be available then. But CDMA sucks so bad I'm going to Cingular/T-Mobile anyway!

michael3314

Europe is so far ahead of the US in cell phone technology it's not funny. Many models of phones that US customers would want are not availible in this country. We seem to be the behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology. Why is that?

greenseed

Well, here in the US we were way ahead of telephone technology (analog) for many years while European countries suffered with very poor phone service. Mainly because they lacked the infrastructure to support installing and maintaining a large cable deployment for analog phones.

So when cellular service came along, those countries which were "analog" poor, very easily accepted wireless technology. Thus in today’s world, where in most European countries they have what we would call "great" service. We are now lagging behind since we've always had a large cable analog cable plant install. Large vendors such as Verizon (or rather MA Bell at that time), etc were slower to adopt and present wireless to its customers so that it could keep everyone on their existing infrastructure and keep overhead costs low, while continuing to overcharge the customer (my personal opinion here).

gweempose

A lot of it has to do with the size of our population and the sheer magnitude of our infrastructure. The US is actually a pioneering country when it comes to most technologies. Unfortunately, there is a downside to being the one who invents a given technology. You end up with such a well established infrastructure that it becomes very difficult to change when a more advanced technology comes along. Take television, for example. PAL is clearly a superior system to NTSC, but we had already become so entrenched in the NTSC system that it would have been way too costly to switch. This is the same reason why HDTV is taking so long to take hold. Cell phone technology is no different. We invented analog, CDMA, TDMA, etc. In order to implement GSM, most of the existing cell networks need to be completely overhauled. Since there is very little economic incentive for the providers to do this, many of them are naturally dragging their feet.

jgrahamiii

The TL is the only car with this standard, that I know. But several others have it as an option, and there are kits. I think Verizon will need to wake up. Sprint had about 10,000 of the T608, and they sold out within about 2 weeks with no advertising, and the only way to get it to call in with existing service. I also don't think Verizon has to spend BILLIONs to adopt a blue tooth phone, in any event.