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Sunrocket’s demise affects me

16 Jul, 2007  9 Comments

So Sunrocket is going down in flames.  The dslreports forums and GigaOM are reporting that the company is shutting it’s doors.

Great, just fricking great!  This is really bad for two reasons.  First and foremost, I have my number with them and I’m actively trying to port it away from Sunrocket to a new VoIP provider I just signed up with.

Secondly this brings down the WAF (wife acceptance factor) in VoIP.  I had to market VoIP to my wife, and now this shows the volatility in her trusting me on this.  We signed up for a $199 per year with a free extra year deal.  We had to front the 200 bucks for the luxury of having super cheap phone service.  Also, the wife didn’t want to do this, and now I’ve got egg on my face.

I have loved VoIP thus far and I hope my new provider will be good.  I feel really bad for those who were laid off from Sunrocket and I with all them the best.  I have some friends and family members who I have to go and hopefully get their numbers saved from Sunrocket’s demise.

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Astounding: Canceling iPhone service will cost $175

22 Jun, 2007  6 Comments

I seriously don’t understand this. According to this article in the Boston Globe, Cingular (now AT&T, again) is going to charge an early termination fee of $175 if you cancel your service agreement before the 2 years are up. Um WHAT?!

See in the United States, we pay nearly nothing for most cell phones. This is because they are ’subsidized’ by the telcos such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and the like. The early termination fee is charged if you leave before your contract is up to cushion the telco from losing money on the subsidy to you. But since AT&T is NOT subsidizing the cost of the iPhone (hence the $499 and $599 price tags) - they HAVE NO RIGHT to charge an early termination fee.

So I guess the moral of the story is - if you chose to buy an iPhone, you better know you’re going to like it!!!

PS As I’ve said before, I wish we had the European model of cell phone usage. They purchase their phones at full price (even if it means paying $200-400 per device) and get pre-paid SIM cards for GSM phones. When I get released from my service contract with verizon, I’m going this route. I’ll find some cool phone I like and just go pre-paid. Service Agreements suck

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