This new mobile world is great, as long as stuff actually works

Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch highlights a key fundamental that we often forget at the bleeding edge of the mobile world: The basic stuff has to actually work.

For all the talk about 4G and LTE and genius amazing whiz-bang gizmos, the basic reality is that when I hit ‘dial’, I expect my call to be connected. I am intolerant of any exception.

In Michael’s example, he explains how the utterly brilliant black-cab taxi service Uber, highly popular in San Francisco and New York, failed to meet his needs — because AT&T couldn’t connect a call:

Yesterday I requested a car and even though the app showed the car as arrived and on top of me on the map, it was nowhere to be found. I called the driver (a handy feature in the app), but our connection was so bad that we couldn’t communicate. So I hit “cancel” (a $10 charge to me) and walked to my destination instead.

via Uber To Dump Hundreds of AT&T iPhones, Switch To Verizon.

The CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanik reckons that they may well make a total switch from iPhones running AT&T to iPhones running on Verizon. Just to get proper connectivity when their drivers need it.

Ridiculous.

I understand Kalanik’s perspective, but goodness me, when things get that bad with AT&T, it really does demonstrate that no amount of 4G marketing magic can hide the continued failure to deliver basic connectivity in these geographies. Whenever I’m in NY or San Francisco, I definitely, definitely do not even think of using AT&T. It’s Verizon or Sprint all the way for data (through a MiFi or dongle) and T-Mobile to enable my GSM calls for my European devices.

Recently Published

Question: When is the only time a traffic jam is good news in the UK?

Answer: When you're sitting in the back of an Uber and you need reliable mobile signal. Boom! Sad, isn't it, dear reader? Travel all around...

Ah yes, an S23 with a BlackBerry Bold Keyboard: Exactly what I (think) I need

I was playing with Midjourney, the AI/photo generation service and I asked it to show me what a Samsung S23 would look like with...

It’s ok, your moon photos aren’t fake, they are just enhanced – quite a bit

Have you taken a photo of the moon recently? I almost did, the other day, when I spotted a fabulous moment here in Dubai....

Don’t move! You’ll jinx it! This looks like a tiny bit of innovation in the mobile world

It has been quite a while since I’ve seen anything in the mobile industry that’s caused me to want to write much. Just look...

The new BlackBerry movie trailer is here

Were you a BlackBerry fan? Of course you were. At some point, almost everyone was. I still remember the days and the joy that...

Airalo: The easy way to roam globally with a data eSIM

Shortly before I began my FinTech & Banking Tour around the GCC, I popped into the Apple AppStore and searched ‘eSim’. I wondered if...