When I was driving south of Why, AZ I received a text message from AT&T; to my phone explaining to me that I was about to go into an international region and that data roaming is not covered by my present plan. I turned off auto-roaming when seeing that.
However I checked my email when I was in Mexico just once. Today I got the bill and was interested to see what the cost was:
62Kb for $1.21
I need to change my plan, I am currently paying for more text messages than I use. It is odd that flat rates make planning the budget easier, but often means we end up over-paying for services. Human psychology vs market economics.
I was waiting at line in Starbucks, as is my normal morning routine, and decided to use the local AT&T; Wifi network for a change. It asked me to log in with my phone number, then sent me a text which had a URL I was supposed to click on so I got internet access. Too much hassle. And the service was only for twenty four hours. It wasn't worth it, so I exited, but ... I was stuck. I was attached to the wifi without a connection. I tried deleting it in the settings, but no luck. I had to reboot and get out of range.
Massive fail.
It should have just picked up I was an iPhone customer - it is a monopoly in the US and iPhone users must be AT&T; customers - and hence AT&T; user, so just given it to me for free, or sign in once, and then have it at all Starbucks without having to sign in again. I won't be attaching to the local network other than my own in future. It isn't worth it.
My current iPhone plan includes 450 minutes during the week, 5,000 during the weekend plus all manner of permutations of rollover minutes, crazy minutes, mobile to mobile minutes, etc. I also pay for unlimited data and 1500 text messages.
I used:
- 100 minutes (67 in prime time)
- 148.97 Mb
- 123 txts
My iPhone is mainly for email and browsing the web. My conversations are short when I do call, and I only do the occasional txt when I can't get someone by email. I guess I wanted a portable computer that has some phone functionality, rather than a phone with some internet capability.
The upshot is that AT&T;'s iPhone bills don't support my usage. I am over paying for voice and texts (the latter my fault though, I did used to text a lot but that has since changed).
I replaced my
broken iphone that night. I took the same number, it all went pretty smoothly, however, ATT a bill arrived in the mail today; $18 for an upgrade fee.
The breakdown on the bill of "other charges" reads:
18.00 - one time charge for upgrade fee
0.20 - 911 Service charge
1.25 - regulatory cost recovery charge
4.47 - AZ state sales surcharge
1.32 - City sales surcharge
0.57 - County sales surcharge
1.42 - Universal Federal sales surcharge
Which came to $27.23 in total added to the bill.
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
