Out of all the vendors and monthly services I pay, AT&T and Sony are the first to finally cough up some free swag. In a few weeks I’ll be receiving two free “Sony Ericsson T226 phones”:http://www.sonyericsson.com/T226 from Sony to replace my current line of T68i phones.
I was a little miffed to learn about this via SMS messages to my phone this afternoon, quite frankly I thought it was a spam message and called the AT&T Wireless customer service line to find out why in the hell they were spamming me. Turns out they are spamming me… with free phones.
AT&T upgraded their GSM network to the 850 band and the T68i phones don’t support this band. Apparently these phones are being sent to a select group of T68i owners to improve their call quality.
The “Sony Ericsson T226 upgrade web site”:http://www.sonyericssont226upgrade.com/ gives little reason to why they’re sending out free phones.
bq. Nothing says youíre valued like a gift. Thatís why weíre giving you a free upgrade to a Sony Ericsson T226 mobile phone with access to our improved AT&T Wireless network.
I’m valued? Odd. When did this happen? Could this have anything to do with their recent “Cingular merger”:http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/02/17/att.wireless/index.html? Maybe they’re afraid I’ll leave because not only does AT&T GSM have some spotty coverage but Cingular is plain terrible.
bq. Your new Sony Ericsson T226 offers new polyphonic ringtones and improved picture quality. And itís compliments of Sony Ericsson and AT&T Wireless. Thanks again for being a great customer
Ah, yes… pimp the “cool” features of the phone. Where is the “bluetooth support”:http://www.sonyericssont226upgrade.com/compare.html? See, I told you… it’s a ploy for being a “great customer”. Translated as “Please, don’t leave! We’re losing customers left and right, take this crappy phone because we need you!”
If they were offering the T616 then I may have had a different outlook. I’m happy with my T68i and since the T226 doesn’t support bluetooth I can’t see myself using it after the novelty wears off.
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5 Comments
I couldn’t agree more. While I didn’t get an SMS message on my phone, i did get a fold-over card int he mail that told me they were already shipping the new T226 to me with a box to return my T68i.
No Bluetooth! Urg. That’s why I got the T68i in the first place.
The only plus side is that the T226 is supposed to get better reception. I think that the reason that they are doin it is to “encourage” people to use the 850/900 Americas only band.
Beware! Bluetooth isn’t the only thing you miss out on. Check the comparison page:
http://www.sonyericssont226upgrade.com/compare.html
I’m keeping the T68i until I can get a T637.
The differences between the phones is a huge one, but the lack of Bluetooth basically causes those differences. What’s the use of needing SyncML if there isn’t any Bluetooth support for syncing?
No calendar, voice dialing, less memory, etc. The phone is pretty crap actually. No surprise they’re giving them away.
The one good feature I thought was downloadable games but I have a GBA for gaming, not some cheap phone.
amen brother!
pls; i want to known the price of the T226sony ericsson phone
i’m dele by my name,from nigeria.pls,can i known the price of T226 sony ericsson phone.