Last year when Cingular announced that it was turning on it's new 3g service (UMTS) in the Chicago area, I was very excited... until I saw the map. The whole Chicago area (blue) was getting the service except the western suburbs and Naperville (orange) They couldn't have honed in any better on my specific market area if they had tried.
To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement! Here I am, a guy that revels in his geekdom... and I've been excluded from this great freedom! (I know that I could have switched to Verizon but their service is lousy here (doesn't work in my house or office)
Being a geek, I purchased a 3g modem anyway (eBay) and decided to make use of the service whenever I participate infunctions in the desirable blue area. The modem tells you by color what system you've locked into. Appropriately it turns blue when you are in a 3G area.
Cingular said that they hoped to have other areas turned on by the end of 2006, but weren't making any announcements. Meanwhile, Naperville is contracting for free WIFI and I was starting to think about that.
Afew weeks ago I was firing up the tablet pc in the local Starbucks on 75th street while enjoyng a vente coffee and chocolate chip cookie (exercising great restraint by only eating one) expecting the normal, pokey EDGE speeds... when my light turned blue. My heart started beating wildly, breath quickened (ok, maybe it was the huge coffee that caused that) and I nervously fired up the speedtest... YES! Almost 1mb per second... WooHoo! Broadband at last!
I checked the Cingular site, but the map hadn't changed...hmm... maybe they just turned it on for a test...then I though that maybe it was working at the Starbucks because there is a Cingular store in that mall. (OK, so maybe I'm a little "over the top" about this stuff)
I drove to the gym (remember the cookie?) and tried again in their parking lot (it worked!) and managed to secure a new potential client by accident while babbling about the service in the locker room. I started a mini geekfest and in a sudden rush of insight decided to mention that I'm in real estate (smooth move huh?)
Well... to make a long story longer, I've happily been using the service ever since. However, a new problem has arisen in that the EDGE speed of my Treo 650 is driving me crazy and I may have to purchase new phone... but, that's another story.
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