As I write this my wife is in the process of switching mobile cell phone carriers from AT&T, who we have both been with since 2001, to Sprint. My wife is switching from Apple’s iPhone 3GS and I am switching from an LG Shine slider. We are both getting the HTC Hero which has wifi, visual voicemail, video, a 5 megapixel camera, GPS, tethering via USB, a touchscreen, and it runs Android. It’s not an iPhone. It’s more than an iPhone. And it’s not AT&T.
Plan Pricing
Sprint offered us 2 lines with unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes (regardless of carrier), unlimited data, and unlimited texts for $130 a month. For both of us to get an iPhone on AT&T’s network it would cost us around $170 a month for the same plan. Sprint’s plan also comes with 1500 landline minutes. Sprint coverage is so much better than AT&T in our area that it was a no brainer.
Reservations
We weren’t without our reservations. Sprint, unlike Verizon and AT&T, still charges for roaming, but we wouldn’t have signed up if we didn’t live in an area with plenty of coverage. And my wife and I are avid iPhone users and fans. In fact I’m typing this article on a first generation iPhone I’m using as an iTouch (it has no phone plan). I was a little worried that my wife would hesitate to give up her iPhone, but once she found out that the HTC Hero had similar features and more she was hooked. I’ll have to post a review of the HTC Hero in the near future to let you know what I think, but because it has 3G, direct to Youtube, and WordPress app functionality, this Internet marketing business analyst entrepreneur is happy. Thank you, wife!
Comments
2 responses to “From AT&T and the iPhone to Sprint and the HTC Hero: The Journey Begins”
I have a HTC Hero from Sprint and I have never had an iPhone. I am disappointed with the Hero. It just gets slower and slower each day. Check the forums before you commit. I have taken it to the Sprint store twice for help, I have replaced the battery and I have turned out unnecessary features yet I still need to reboot the phone at least once a day, sometimes twice. I am not a heavy app user either. The memory/battery in this phone is not sufficient for the casual user and no where near sufficient for a heavy app user.
Anthony, the Sprint store I bought this from put the Advanced Task Killer app on it, because they said it was really necessary to manage the tasks on the phone. I use this app pretty frequently to manage what is open and deal with it. There really isn’t a sufficient task manager built into this version of Android, but the Advanced Task Killer will take care of it and keep your phone running smooth without rebooting. Also, I’ve noticed that the themes auto-start programs in the background like NFL and Nascar apps so rebooting might not actually close these programs for you if you have those particular auto-loading themes in use. Cheers!