Verizon Cell Phone Management

Well, they finally stuck it to me. Now on top of my other regular duties, I now manage the 50(?) or so company wireless devices, PDAs, Wireless Cards and Cell phones. Technically, I don't mind managing and maintaining PDAs and Wireless cards since they actually use PCs to operate--however I am not to fond of managing Cell phones. "Oh stop whining!" Some of you may say that, however have you ever managed 50 cell phones? In reality it really *is* a pain in the butt! The actual hardware itself is the easy part! The hard part of managing these cells is keeping track of ESN numbers, warranties, technical support calls with Verizon, voicemail passwords, resets, updates and programming.

Also, if your cell or PDA comes with a "data package" it makes things that much more difficult! When we recieved our XV6700 Pocket PCs they all came with an unlimited Data Package (Internet Access.) We figured out later that not all of them needed it since they dont need to get online, only me and another guy. So we removed it from the others--and later after removing it we find that in order for them to recieve pictures or videos, THEY NEED INTERNET ACCESS. WTF?! Talk about scam.

"uh....it should work."

We also have a Treo 650 that is able to recieve pictures and video fine over standard phone service JUST like a cell phone. I called Verizon to get some answers, "why do I need internet access on my Pocket PC and not on the Treo to get pictures?" All they could say was, "uh....it should work." So I said, "yeah I KNOW it should work! :..." So then they said, "well..uh....the Pocket PC is different from the Treo." And I said, "YES I KNOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT!" So they replied, "well so I *guess* the Pocket PC needs to access the internet to download pix." I said, "Gay."

So anyway, I get moved to their "Level2 Support." I figured their English would have at least gotten better :-O. Anyway, after "walking" me through a series of steps to "diagnos" to see what the problem was (after I had already told him what the problem was) he "determines" the Phone is not operating--rather, "functioning properly." Gee--you think?

So he has me delete all settings pertaining to internet connections on the PDA. He guides me to re-create one. Ok, I hit connect. And I get a call on the phone, and Im like "wtf?" So I said, hold on, someone is calling me, let me hit ignore. So I do. Then the connection fails. So I think to myself, "self, well I guess the call interrupted the connection, lets try again."

I hit connect again, a fwe seconds into the connection I get another call. This happens like 5 times in a row and I am pulling my hair out because people "are calling me while I am trying to connect!"

After spending about 2 hrs with support I finally say, "forget it, I will call you another time, just give me a CASE #." After I got off the phone I played with it for a while, and I figured out that for SOME REASON the "new" "re-created" internet connection was calling my phone. :-\....yeah...I dont know, thats a new one on me. Its been about 3 weeks since I talked to support, I dread calling them again--I will keep you updated on this issue....yeah so we can get charged PER KILOBYTE for PIX downloads.

[/rant]

Verizon Wireless Internet

Yeah, I remember last year when we could not get online wireless without it being a butt-load of cash or very slow. One way we did implement wireless internet from a laptop was by hooking up a cell phone to it. Then it would work like a dial-up access, only with no wires. It was cool, but expensive and slow, 14.4KB.

Now, for about $60.00 a month, you can have a device called "Verizon Wireless PC 5740". There are a few variations of them, they all do the same though. Anyway, it offers Broadband access to the internet, wow! Just one year later and it is kick-ass now! We have two of these now, mainly for our VPN users that work remotely or that travel a lot with a laptop. We love it, its fast and cheap. I will admit, I did not like the idea at first, but now I see how it has given us benifets in a few areas, pretty much, lowering costs and ease of use. It is not DSL, but its way better than Dial-UP. This really helps for those admins that are looking for a solution that will keep their users connected at acceptable speeds. Where as before I used to worry about users being able to open up an Excel document because of slow internet speeds now that has been remedied because of the fast connection this device provides. Also, wi-fi came out where it allowed users to find a "hot-spot" where they were at and it would allow them to connect to the internet from there, though there are a few draw backs I see with that solution:

1. First you have to find a hot-spot
2. Using one, either means you are using someone else's internet or a public internet, which can lead to catching a virus or getting hacked. Note, I said "could."
3. It is hard to find them at times

The Verizon wireless PC card though allows you to connect anywhere with your own connection, no more searching for "hot-spots." There is one drawback though. It will pretty much work in areas it is currently supported in. Since it is a new network, it is still expanding, meaning in some locations you may not be able to connect to the network because of range. That should be cured in time though, making this device a must have for remote workers.