I love my Wisconsin-based mobile phone provider, AirFire Mobile, formerly Einstein PCS.
- I can get through quickly to a Wisconsin-based employee when I have a question.
- $35/mo for unlimited calling plus unlimited low-speed (64kbps) Internet access
- They help you set up any phone you bought on E-bay just as eagerly as they help you with something they sold.
I have been having a problem using their service, though, when I’m in a certain area of Madison. The phone signal indicator goes up and down as if it’s trying to link to several towers. This drains the battery over several hours. I cannot make a phone call from this area unless I move to higher ground, where apparently I gain line-of-sight to a tower that my phone can use.
The people at AirFire are still trying to work out why this is happening. Yesterday I was on the phone with them about this issue, and I got disconnected.
Me: I got dropped while someone was helping me with an issue.
AirFire: Did you get his name?
Me: No, I don’t think he said it.
AirFire: Hmmm… Do you want to go over your problem again with me?
Me: He had faint accent. I think he was from California.
AirFire: That’d be Charlie. Let me get him.
She found the correct person and put him on the phone.
Borrowing Thomas Friedman’s metaphor, AirFire Mobile is much more Olive Tree than Lexus.
I hope they can solve my problem because I think it’s something idiosyncratic, not necessarily a flaw in AirFire’s system.