rant: tmobile's lack of decent data networks, txt messaging fee increase

well.. i'm a phone geek or was a phone geek.  i've had a MDA, K800i, Z710, K750i, and play with Treo's/BBs/Qs at work.  however, my obsession for phones has faded dramatically. mainly due to the fact that the newer cool, european phones will not work w/Tmobiles upcoming UMTS/3G data networks (if they ever get rolled out) or they are only triband (900mhz not the 850mhz band we use here in the USA).

so after getting a bit disgusted w/Tmobile's lack of a vision or timeframe for upgrading to 3G networks, i decided to see when my contract would expire.  it seems i'm locked in till next Feb 2008 but really want to get to a month-to-month contract and have emailed their CS about this and of course have not been able to.

however, recently Tmobile is increasing the cost for txt messaging and also decreasing the cost of mms messages.  what does this mean? in actuality it means that you may be able to get out of your contract early since Tmobile in turn really has violated their Terms and Conditions of service. If you go to tmobile's website and to the "Terms and Conditions" section, under item #3, this rate increase does indeed constitute as a material change to the terms and thus allows a user (if they make a request within 14 days) to cancel their service w/o any ETF (early termination fees).

so i called tmobile's customer service, 4 times now.  each time i received a different reason on why I CANNOT do this.  one rep stated that i would have to wait till i received the changes to my service/terms and then call to cancel/change my contract to a month-to-month; however i emailed their customer support also and they said that i missed my opportunity back in Jan when they sent out the terms/change.  however, i did not receive this document and also this change does not take effect until June of this year and the actual paperwork will be sent to users this month (found on a website the actual message).  i resent an email to them to see what may happen. 

nonetheless this leads me to a very obvious rant; why the hell does the USA have two non-compatible cellular network types?? why can't we have GSM and that only??    i understand that competition for the most part is good for the consumer, but at times it really isn't.  if we had a single network type, all handhelds we buy in the USA would work with any carrier (yes, the carriers may lose money and prob the reason why there are two types  and w/CDMA you can't just popout your SIM card and use a second phone).

ok.. i'll step down now.. i'll post an update on what happens; i wonder if they knew that i worked for a law firm if that may help at all? hehe..

peace