[geeks] Opinions on T-Mobile and Verizon

[hike]

On 12/11/07, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> >From: Patrick Giagnocavo <patrick at zill.net>
> >Date: 2007/12/10 Mon PM 04:50:14 CST
> >To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> >Subject: Re: [geeks] Opinions on T-Mobile and Verizon
>
> >On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:26 PM, Nadine Miller wrote:
> >>>
> >>> "In April, 2006, GM notified approximately 500,000 of their OnStar
> >>> customers who have analog service that their service would be
> >>> terminated
> >>> effective December 31, 2007, because starting February 18, 2008
> >>> the FCC
> >>> will no longer require US cell phone systems to operate in analog
> >>> mode. If
> >>> the vehicle is from the 2003, 2004, or 2005 model year, an adapter
> >>> costing
> >>> approximately $200 (includes a One year subscription)can be
> >>> installed at
> >>> the customer's expense. If it is older, it will simply no longer be
> >>> usable."
> >>
> >> That's pretty lame, actually.  I have never considered OnStar, so
> >> didn't
> >> know much about it.  Glad I never bothered.
> >>
> >> =Nadine=
> >
> >Consider this (from the article):
> >
> >"In a given month OnStar receives 900 automatic airbag notifications,
> >helps with 500 stolen vehicles, connects 15,000 emergency calls,
> >provides 44,000 remote door unlocks, takes 25,000 roadside assistance
> >calls, receives 5,500 good Samaritan calls, offers 32,000 remote
> >diagnostics and facilitates 12.6 million hands-free calls."
> >
> >So you are paying $200 per year, for what exactly?
> >
> >Out of 4 million subscribers, the serious safety events (that I can
> >see some benefit to) are:
> >
> >10,800 airbag deployments (1 in 370 chance of it being you)
> >6,000 stolen vehicles (1 in 667 chance of it being you)
> >180,000 emergency calls (1 in 22.2 chance of it being you)
>
> OK, would it be better if the folks that bought OnStar drove like a-holes
> and smashed into everything on the road (to get their monies worth from
> their OnStar fees?
>
> >Better to throw away $200 on horse racing - odds are you would get
> >$160 of it back.
>
> That $160 won't help if your car is stolen or involved in an accident...
>
> >You would think, given the profit margins on this, that GM would be
> >offering a free retrofit for anyone and everyone.
>
> I bet that rather than using a conventional cell phone (meaning an
> off-the-shelf model) they have some odd circuit-board OEM contraption that
> is expensive to get (due to low numbers in comparison to say, a Trac Phone).
>
> At $200 they ARE giving the hardware away for free, an annual contract is
> $200 and the upgrade includes one.
>
> On a related note, for $299 you can get 1,000 minutes that are good for
> the year and use the in-car phone...[0]
>
> Lionel
>
> [0] http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/plans/hands_free.jsp
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks
>



onstar came with our new saturn.
it came with a year of onstar and 30 minuties included
we bought another 100 minutes for $17 (bigger savings for more minutes)
NOW, my car has its own phone number.
(almost as good as being on the grid.)
it does voice recognition fairly well.
it even knows that "o" (oh) and "zero" as the number 0.  (most that i use
don't.)
the radio volume controls the phone volume so i can crank it up so that i
can hear it--better than a cell phone's volume.  (i'm hearing impaired.)
they also give us a monthly readout on the cars status (same as computer
reads that the dealer does).
we are happy with it.
you can also run the phone through verizon.  (we have verizon so you can
probably do the same with other cell carriers.)
how cool, a car with its own phone number!