Let me preface by saying I am a happy AT&T customer. I've been with AT&T through Cingular and back, from my first bag phone back in the 90s (most kids nowadays wouldn't know what those looked like!) when I moved to the States from Canada, to my current Blackberry Torch.
Nextel, Sprint, it didn't matter which cell phone giant sponsored the series I call my favorite sport, I was and am happy with my AT&T service. I cheered like a crazy person when Jeff Burton drove that orange 31 car out on pit lane at Richmond a few years back, AT&T logo blazing beautifully on the hood of the car. It had been a long battle for AT&T to win the right to finish out the contract with Richard Childress Racing that Cingular had started, but they did. At that time, that was like David landing a blow on Goliath. YAY for the (at that time) little guy!!
Those of you who have read my race weekend stories over the years know that I've attended a lot of races. And I've done so with my AT&T cell phone faithfully at my side, first with a Hawaii number, then a North Carolina number, followed by the Massachusetts number that has worked for me for a long time.
So I had no reason to be concerned by changing over to an AT&T Tennessee cell phone number when we chose to move to Tennessee this past year. In July, we both got new Tennessee numbers.
I had no worries about a cell phone in the same state as the race track working at the track.
Until I got to Bristol Motor Speedway last Saturday and was unable to upload a photo of the track to Facebook to let my friends know I'd made it.
Now I'm not one of those people with her Blackberry welded to her hand, constantly texting or Facebooking or Tweeting, freaking out because she couldn't get her phone to access the 'net...nope, at the race it is purely for communicating, and the occasional photo upload to Facebook for my friends who are not so lucky as to be attending the race. Most of the time, it's in my hip pocket, set on vibrate, in case a friend calls or texts.
And being a seasoned race goer, I am quite used to sluggish service at the track. Heck, 100 000 + people in close proximity to each other often simultaneously using their cell phones? Yeah, things are bound to be a bit slow...it's why I generally stick to texting at the track to get together with friends, etc.
Not this weekend. Nope. Something was different.
For both my boyfriend and I, from the moment we arrived at the track, our AT&T phones showed 5 bars, full service available...and we weren't able to get so much as a text out.
Now, the black helicopters in this area of race attendance have long hovered in the background of my subconscious, ever since Sprint took over primary sponsorship of NASCAR's premier series. Got a little louder as we watched Sprint push first Alltel, then finally AT&T out of the series, so as to be the exclusive cell phone provider for NASCAR.
And I resisted going to Sprint as a service provider, because I had no problem with AT&T's service; it's always been comparable to the other major providers in price and service. And I've lived on both coasts and in Hawaii with it and never had a problem.
But I attend a NASCAR race in the mountains of east Tennessee, 2 hours from my home base and the zip code my phone is based out of, a race I had attended several months previously and had no problems with my old AT&T cell number, other than the standard slowness....and I can't text my friends to arrange to meet up with them. Neither can my boyfriend, on the same plan. What gives???
AT&T is not perfect, but listening to my friends who have cell phone provider-hopped over the years, none of them really are....but if this is a problem with the service in East Tennessee, then I AM going to have a problem with them. Because I AM a regular NASCAR Sprint Cup race-goer, and intend to continue in this practice.
And if that problem is isolated to Bristol Motor Speedway, like it sure seemed when suddenly our phones both came to life with a flood of texts and voice mails when we left after the race and got a few miles away from the track, then BMS has a problem.
If it's a problem isolated to NASCAR Sprint Cup race weekends, then someone needs to deflate Sprint's ego, because they are NOT the be-all and end all of cell phone providers...if those black helicopters aren't just a figment of my imagination and Sprint is somehow directly responsible for blocking AT&T signals at that track, and possibly others, then shame on Sprint. And it should not be allowed.
Because a phone that works all across the country, on islands in the middle of the Pacific ocean, and in Canada without problem should NEVER just not work when there's no natural disaster going on. 5 bars means full service. Something is fishy.
Don't mess with me...I just might give you an enema. ;)
