Monday, July 5, 2010

Cellular None- in Rezzie Land

I am the proud owner of a new-to-me Blackberry 8900.



It is TMobile branded and works with a SIM card. I was very excited in my purchase of this device and was thinking what great ways I could use this as it has a built-in keyboard. Texting and writing covert notes to my classmates came to mind! Little did I know that the signal was crap out here!

In my neck of the desert Cellular One is the owner of every cotton-pickin' cell phone tower out here!

What does this mean??? It means that they have authority over which company they will allow to piggy-back off their towers! My coverage just stinks! For those of you who aren't familiar with the Navajo reservation Cellular One seems to have been picked as the sole cellular provider out here on the reservation. My gripe is I don't want to use Cellular One. I would prefer to have variety and a choice in what cell company I can use in the comfort of my own home! I feel shady politics has a lot to do with giving this cell company such a stranglehold on the cell phone consumer out here.

I'm only keeping the Blackberry for future investment. I should have my AS degree by next May so I'm planning on going on to University in a nearby city. I know they have coverage out there so I'll be keeping it for that. What burns me up is the fact that despite living in a democracy there are no plans in our tribal future to allow more cell companies to set up antennas here. I've looked through the Cellular One website and from what I can tell they don't have any Blackberries there. I see a Nokia E75 and Samsung Jack but I don't have the funds to buy another phone... nor do I want to start a plan!

For other reservation people who may think of getting a WIFI-capable Tmobile Blackberry. There is the ability to run off a service called UMA. This will allow your phone to create an Tmobile connection with your existing WIFI router and allow you to use your phone to make calls, text, etc. That's fine and dandy until you decide to walk about 100 ft away from the router and suddenly you realize your phone has you under house arrest!!!


Come back near the router! You aren't allowed any further!!!

Needless to say I'm disappointed and will leave a message for the Tribal President and Speaker of the Tribe tomorrow regarding the lackluster cell coverage out here!

I'll be here for anyone who has questions on my sitch or is just flabbergasted on the chintzy cell phone state of affairs out here!