Saving Companies Thousands. Be One!

I was reading an article on one of my favorite tech blogs Gizmodo and they were taking a poll on whether you love, hate, or do not care about push e-mail. For those of you who do not know what push e-mail is, it is basically your phone retrieving e-mails from the server for you. The results are what I thought; 40% love (whether they use it a lot or not), about 20% feel they need to stay on top of things, 20% do not need, and about 20% hate.

When it comes to push e-mail Blackberry is still the king. They did a side by side comparison with the iphone and it takes the iphone approximately 5 times longer to receive their e-mails. Now I am currently on an Exchange Server hosted by Rackspace, and I only get my work e-mails on my Blackberry. It can be very annoying if you have G-Mail or Yahoo Mail, because the push e-mail may deliver 30 spam messages at 4 in the morning ( I know because it happened to me and my wife was not happy).

Many small and medium businesses out there thrive because they can stay on top of their customers needs. Push e-mail really helps that. If you have another device it can be very draining on the battery life since it is constantly trying to retrieve the info. The Blackberry servers deliver the info to your phone. If you have not tried a Blackberry try one out. If you are a business owner take The Smartphone Challenge and see what an extra hour of productivity a day can do for you!

I recently read on Crackberry that mobile users pay an average of 15.9% tax on their cell phone bills. This is a super huge amount. As a retailer we want to take care of our customers and give them a close approximation for their bill, but with mobile taxes rising so much it is hard to do. We know every penny counts now and we would like to help you save money.

Sometimes we get started on a plan that is not the best for us and we stay with it for years because we do not know of any better options. It is so hard to go to your carriers website and wade through the pages and pages of information you do not need to find what you need. Not only that, but there are other things that can save you money based on your mobile habits. Let us take a look at your bill, tell us your habits and let us show you an immediate savings! If you call 411, save your money and call 1-800-GOOG-411. There are so many ways to save out there its crazy.

We save companies thousands, that is what we pride ourselves in. We also pride ourselves in taking care of our customers like nobody else and saving our customers money. If you have any questions contact us, or if you are in the area visit one of our stores and let us help you out.

We try to stay ahead of the game when it comes to cell phone technology. Of course there is a ton of exciting software that comes out, and really cool hardware as well. Who is really trying to be innovative and do something different though? LG  makes great products, but I think they usually try to push the lines and show us what we want without us having to ask for it.

They have recently come out with the Chocolate which has been a great phone for Verizon, their Fusic and Muziq for Sprint (which have an FM transmitter), and now they have the LG Decoy. What makes the Decoy different is that it has a bluetooth built in. It is not a bluetooth that comes in the same box, it is attached to the back of the phone. What makes it so cool is its simplicity. The phone is a great looking slider and the Bluetooth is a very simple looking nice Bluetooth.

So carriers are helping us with all in one solutions. Many carriers are giving us more memory for our phones with SD cards. Some companies give bundle packs to include a case and a charger. LG is doing something great by giving us a solution for a bluetooth and a phone. With state laws changing in many states requiring a hands free device, LG put together an awesome piece of equipment as an answer to that.

I grew up in El Paso, so naturally many of my friends and acquaintances live there. Well like many other people have done, I finally left the nest. I was so concerned to not lose my phone numbers I gave my wife the task of writing down all the numbers I had in my phone and her phone onto one big list. There has to be an easier way right? The good news is there is.

Depending on what phone and carrier you have you have a few options. Some of you that read this know I have a Blackberry with Exchange provided by Rackspace. Even though all my contacts stay in my Outlook, I like to back my data up using Desktop Mananger. This will keep all my contacts, games, ringers, and so on in a safe place. I also have Sprint which offers a wireless contact backup. When you enter a new contact into your phone it will synchronize with an online account you could retrieve later if needed. Verizon offers a version of it called Backup Assistant. ATT also offers their own flavor of the product.

So, I think doing this saves a lot of headaches and a lot of time. Not only that, but you have the peace of mind knowing your numbers will be there when you need them. It does not matter if you are a CEO of a huge business or my grandma this are useful services. So check it out and as always if you have any questions let us know.

Easy question, easy answer; you should use the carrier that is best for you. Now for some people that do not live in big cities like New York and Houston, your choice may have to be based on your coverage area. You could find coverage maps for Sprint, T-Mobile, ATT, Helio, and Verizon on their websites. We want you to sign up with a carrier that provides you with the great coverage you deserve.

Now for those of us that have more than one choice it starts coming down to pricing and features that work for us. When you look at the hour evening calling starts Sprint has the best option at 7:oo P.M. with most plans and gives an option to start at 6:oo P.M. If you are looking to use a lot of data either with your phone or an aircard Sprint and Verizon are my recommendations. They have a fast and reliable broadband network. ATT/Cingular is a good choice for some customers that go to rural areas often due to their wide roaming agreement they have with smaller GSM carriers. I think T-Mobile has the best pricing. Now Helio is a really cool carrier with great applications for MySpace and Youtube built into their phones. They have really awesome phones for the younger market.

So features and pricing is one facet to look at, another is what phones does the carrier have that would be good for you? We have business customers that need their Blackberry, and we have our average customers that just need a phone to make and receive calls. Whether you prefer a touchscreen or a full QWERTY keyboard most carriers can suit your needs. As always before any purchases there are a few things to consider. I personally read a few websites when reviewing phones; they are Gizmodo, Phonescoop, and Engadget Mobile.  When we set customers up we want them to be happy, we want to know your needs and give you the carrier that matches them the closest. So let us know what you are looking for and we will take care of you. Happy shopping!

I get asked a question that seems simple enough quite often, “Why can’t I use my (current carrier’s cell phone) with my new (cell phone carrier’s) account?” The answer is fairly simple; cell phone manufacturers make certain phones for certain carriers. Now that may sound strange, but most carriers use a different signal which means they need a different internal radio to pick up that signal.

There are a few other things some carriers do to prevent this from happening. One thins some carriers do is pay manufacturers a certain amount to money to have a specific phone exclusively. There are some phones that most carriers have like the Blackberry Pearl which not only have different radios, but have different software to create different user interfaces.

There is something you can do called unlocking a phone, which basically is when you a get a Verizon phone for example and reprogam it to work with Sprint. This in theory is a good idea and works really well for some, although there are a few issues with this method. The main issue may be losing the functionality of services the phone offers like GPS, Music Store, TV, and games. The reason you may not use them is because the Verizon software is designed to work with their applications and when you start using it on a different carrier you lose compatibility. So if you are in the market for a new phone, do your research and really find what you are looking for, or you could contact us and we will make a recommendation based on your needs.

I was thinking about what new technology or application could make our lives better? There are so many things out there and we like to tell you about the latest and greatest. Today I wanted to change it up and give you some advice on porting your number.  Porting does not mean you are close to the water it is when you take your number from one carrier to another.

Having been in the wireless industry for some time I have come to realize this is not the easiest process a customer could go through. There are things that happen that delay the process from 2 hours to 2 months ( I am not exaggerating). Most carriers need the same group of information;

• Account Number
• Telephone Number
• Name and Billing Address
• Passwords
• Full SSN

All the listed information has to match with the information your current carrier has. If your name is Alex Johnson and your carrier has you as Alx Johnson make sure that is made clear to the company you are going to.  I am hesitant to give my SSN out to people, but to ensure the port process goes smoothly it will be necessarry. Also, many people do not want to leave their home phone because they want to keep their number, it is your right to keep your number. So if you need any other help let us know!

Yesterday had to be a rough day for Rackspace.  As a Rackspace customer, as well as a Select Partner, I noticed several problems with my connectivity to my Managed Exchange Server.   While most companies will never openly admit there is a problem UNTIL you spend 45 minutes on hold, you will NEVER find that at Rackspace.  Before I could even verify that I did indeed have a problem, I had an email on my BlackBerry informing me that there had been a problem, it had been isolated and I should be up and running shortly.  As the day progressed and the problem continued, it was very difficult for me to get upset because I had been informed every step of the way of what the situation was and what was being done to get it resolved.  Isn’t that what we really want?  We know that problems are going to happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if you DIDN’T have to call in to find them out?  That is Fanatical Support®!

For more information regarding Rackspace Hosting services, please contact Kevin Kemp at Kevin@thephonestoreinc.com.