Verizon Wireless Stops Working For You
In a previous report about my telephony adventures I was still debating what to pick for my wireless carrier. Since I’ve already tried (and left) T-Mobile, Cingular and AT&T Wireless, this time around, I ended up going with Verizon Wireless.
Their Family Plan with shared minutes between multiple phones looked to be a perfect fit. It was within our budget and had just the right features. Nancy transferred her Cingular account over and got a brandy-new freebie LG phone in the bargain. I wasn’t quite able to afford a Crackberry just yet (which my cousin raves about) but I did settle on another wireless icon, a Motorola RAZR v3m (software revision NEWC_01.05.0A).
My favorite application, hands down, is VZ Navigator. It’s easy to use and makes excellent use of screen real estate with the phone opened or closed. Of course, with the $9 US monthly fee, before long, it may be worth getting something from Garmin for the car instead … but I digress.
From time to time I found myself snapping a few pix with the v3m’s built-in camera. Only this morning did I offer myself a free moment to connect the dots … and realize I should be transferring all these photos to my Mac! Good thing the v3m features Bluetooth and Object Exchange (OBEX) support for effortless file transfers.
Correction: Had OBEX support. It turns out with the Sprint-issued v3m (and other carriers) there is no such limitation. Verizon, on the other hand, apparently decided to disable/remove OBEX from their V3 series phones!
All I want to do is use something the v3m natively supports: OBEX over Bluetooth or USB. Preferably Bluetooth. Why make it harder on purpose? (The answer may have to do with Verizon wanting to force use of over-the-air transfers, which of course means an additional fee. Grrrr.)
When I confronted Verizon support with proof of the v3m’s native support of OBEX, regardless of the phone network, the response came well-rehearsed: “File transfer doesn’t work from the computer. You have to transfer files between your computer and Verizon’s network to get them on and off the v3m.”
(Pause. Huh??)
They continued: “Oh … and, uh, also, we had a group tech support meeting about this recently, about file transfers on the v3m phones. It’s a function of our network, and our network doesn’t support file transfers over Bluetooth.”
(‘nuther pause. Whaaaaaaat?!?!)
I protested. Bluetooth should just transfer directly to and from the phone. Verizon’s network should have nothing to do with it! Since when was Bluetooth developed with Verizon’s wireless network in mind? No matter, the rep wasn’t buying it. To him, Bluetooth might as well have been the same word as V-Cast.
After more long-winded banter with Verizon Wireless support and failing to get a hold of their Bluetooth experts-in-residence, I was put on hold a few times with no warning (thus it felt more like a customer conditioning “time out”), then conferenced with Motorola’s “Verizon department” … which, in the US, is 1-800-657-8909.
Motorola’s response was a surprise: You can use OBEX. You just can’t use the Bluetooth profiles on your PC or Mac. The solution? Simple. Just purchase a separate piece of hardware from Motorola: The PC850 Bluetooth USB Adapter!
(Longer pause. Whaaaaaaat?!?!)
According to the Motorola/Verizon rep, this PC850 dongle thingy supports Bluetooth Class 1 Version 1.2 and will automagically permit OBEX (and more) on Verizon v3m phones. The rep went on to say he tried the PC850 on Verizon’s network and was duly impressed. “It’s excellent. It allows a lot of protocols and things you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Definitely get it, this will solve your problem.”
All the while the Verizon rep was on the phone listening to this li’l bombshell. As I thanked the Motorola rep and opined that Verizon would find this info useful for other frustrated customers, the rep asked “um, what - what’s that model number again?” and then said he’d take the info back to his tech support team for further review. (So long as they don’t go and issue a v3m update that manages to neuter the PC850’s OBEX support.)
Regardless, if what Motorola claims about the PC850 is true, if their dongle can automagically allow OBEX over Bluetooth without any changes to my v3m, then why pray tell can’t a Mac or PC have its profiles changed and obtain the same exact functionality?
Or are both support reps full of hot air?
3 January 2007: Ken Krista kindly passes along these handy Verizon “Bluetooth Functionality” charts (PDF):
I wonder how much of this is askew from each device’s native, out-of-the-box behavior?
Not surprising: I got the first Verizon phone with Bluetooth a few years back: the Motorola V710, and it was so crippled that Verizon was sued for advertising features that they turned off.
I chalk it up to Verizon’s greed. They see Bluetooth (and Wi-Fi) as competition, rather than as enticements.
Posted by: Vincent J. Murphy | 22 November 2006 at 22:38