RANT: Phone Companies and Unlocking Devices

   So let me be the first in the entire world to say that AT&T sucks ass! haha Of course, I'm only kidding about being the first, but for the longest time, I stuck with the carrier. Since the days of Cingular Wireless. I never had a problem reception and drop call wise. They sure cover a vast amount of land, and the meager pre-2G signals were never a problem even when I was visiting in the distant lands of Puna. I never had a problem with AT&T until a year ago when I bought a Samsung Captivate. The Captivate was a very nice Android device and was my first investment in the smartphone craze that has hit the US markets for quite some time. It was clear, the AMOLED was comparable to Apples Retina Display (and was actually brighter).

 Samsung Captivate.

Sadly, I don't exactly know what I did, by the antenna and the SIM reader broke, so I needed another phone. When I went to the AT&T store at Sears, they started their "4G" advertising campaign, and they were selling the HTC Inspire 4G and Motorola Atrix 4G and it's docking laptop station. Since I was still under my insurance plan for the Captivate, I was entitled a replace Captivate or a phone equivilant to the price that I paid at contract. The Inspire was the only phone being sold at the price that I paid to get the Captivate on contract. Of course, the employee's job was to convince me to buy their much more expensive Atrix, but they soon found out that I wasn't going to budge. They gave me the Inspire for free and I thought that the HSPA+ network in place here would be a much welcomed boost in network speed.

HTC Inspire w/ Doom Live Wallpaper

4G IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Not to jump from story to story, but you need to understand the history of the "4G" debacle. Everyone seems to get this confused to the max. 4G is NOT a determination of the Phone companies. It is a cellular standard created by the International Telecommunication Union. Until recently, whatever standard they set is law (and I will elaborate on "until recently"). The 4G standard requires the service to have a data rate of up to 1Gbit/s peak download, and 500Mbit/s upload. And that is at low mobility. The standard for mobiles is 100Mbit/s d/l and 50Mbit/s u/l. The only service who has ever achieved those rates was DoCoMo Japan when they conducted a testbed of the technology. Let me be clear when I say this: NO US CELLULAR CARRIER HAS EVER REACHED THOSE SPEEDS ON  THEIR PHONES! None! 4G is a ploy and a joke over here in the states. Even Verizon, who uses the LTE excuse is still under a 3G system. They use the LTE name to tout their "true" 4G signals and devices. The truth behind that is that the LTE Verizon has been using is the 3GPP LTE. It doesn't comply with either the ITU's standard or the upcoming LTE Advanced (which is a true 4G standard). Verizon is trying to hook consumers with the idea that the 3GPP LTE and LTE Advanced is one in the same when it's not. Sprints WiMax also does not comply and of course, T-Mobile and AT&Ts HSPA+ is at the bottom of the barrel. All of these standards are furiously advertised as 4G networks. The only thing that holds any truth to the ploy is the fact that they are faster than the last generation of phones....yet Apple and their iPhone 4 is a 3G system and can have speeds that rival most 4G phones and coming 2nd to Verizons HTC Thunderbolt LTE (I will get as to why that is when I review the rooted Inspire). 

Now, the reason why I brought this up is because this whole data rate standard, current speed ratio, and corporate hostility are one of the reason why I dislike AT&T. On the flipside, they're not the only one. All other major cell carriers are guilty of this. In fact, it was the cell carriers who demanded that the ITU lower the 4G standard as a result of the many inquiries regarding their use of 4G... while they didn't lower the standard, they did make the current speeds that phones are producing as part of the 4G. Still, 4G is meant to be a major jump and developers here are trying to achieve the original standards. We (the consumer) will just have to play ball.

WHY ROOT/JAILBREAK?

The other reason why I dislike the phone industry is because of their attempts to keep full control of your device away from the consumer. Many of the capabilities of the phones are held back because they see them as something they can charge you with, or lead you to believe that  you need additional products (such as batteries). With this realization in mind, bright minds found ways to free their phones completely from the carrier. In the Android community it is called Rooting. Essentially, rooting the phone unlocks Admin rights, and it sets the user up with the means to load a new OS, and give more control over settings that have been previously been locked. On the Apple side of devices, we know this act as Jailbreaking. Unlike most android devices, iOS products have several countermeasures to prevent Jailbreaking or overall functionality should someone jailbreak their device. The other purpose of Jailbreaking is to allow certain apps and utilities to be installed. 

Rooting an Android device serves the same purpose to an extent. One must understand that the Android OS is an Open-Source system and can be altered to how a user wants it to be (considering they have the knowledge of UNIX terminal commands). Having knowing the circumstances, the phone companies ensured that functions such as downloading apps not from Android Market (or carrier specific market) were disabled as well as other functions like tethering. Like Jailbreaking, Rooting lifts those restrictions and allows the user to install their custom made version of the Android OS. Rooting applies to all Android devices, and it is only limited to the type of hardware. There are many modded OS's to choose from, but if you're skilled enough, you can tailor the OS to do exactly what you want it to do. 

RISK?

Are you afraid of risk? That's what you'll have when you attempt to unlock your devices. You chance "bricking" your phone (not breaking..bricking..the meaning is rather obvious). Don't think for a second that you're safe from that outcome. Doing it is just a matter of how much risk you want to take?

IS IT WORTH IT?
Hell yeah it is! Rooting brings out the investment you made and makes it more worth it. It brings a new lease of life if you're a heavily reliant on your smartphones capabilities. On the flipside, if you don't use the phone like I do, or it's features, you should think twice before committing to such a task....or if you want to feel like a hipster and do it because your friend with fake black rimmed glasses has done it, find someone who has done it in the past or a specialist to do it for you....just don't be a cheap ass, because unlike the iPhone, it's not "one size fits all." There are multiple methods of rooting your phone and it depends on what phone you're doing it to. If you can get passed that point, be patient about it, and READ THE EFFIN' MANUAL, you would be quite surprised of the end result, and I will go more in depth when I review my very recently rooted HTC Inspire.