The Samsung S8 and S8+ are the hottest new devices available. Currently, we have the following offers available...
With Verizon, if you trade in a high-end model, you can get as much as $396 credit in the form of a $16.50 credit x 24 months. As the normal price of this device would be $31.50 x 24, this ends up being only $15 x 24 since Verizon places and offsetting credit of $16.50 per month x 24. The requirement is you must go on an unlimited plan. The have a second deal offering a $296 credit which makes the cost end up being only $20 per month x 24. Contact me to find out if your trade-in device is eligible. For those not keen on the latest and greatest, consider last year's Samsung S7. While T-Mobile still sells it for $576, Verizon has an offer for $49. Ask me for details. With T-Mobile, Starting April 28, for a limited time, new and existing customers who purchase an eligible Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ can get a FREE Samsung Gear VR with controller from Samsung. The Samsung Gear VR transforms virtual reality with a new handheld controller that seamlessly responds to organic, human movements in virtual experiences. Every move, from turning and grabbing to pointing and lifting, is naturally connected from physical to virtual, making it more intuitive and spellbinding than ever before. This device itself retails for $129.99. Last time it was offered with the S7, they were selling for $300 on e-bay as they were in short supply. We can only hope history repeats itself. To take advantage of either of these deals, or any others for that matter, please contact Dr Wireless.
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 Boy this sure feels like a Deja Vu but will definitely end much worse this time around. A little background first...
In 2013, Thomas Wheeler was given the FCC Chairman position. Wheeler had previously worked as a venture capitalist and lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, whom the FCC is now responsible for regulating. He was the CEO of The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA). He was also the former President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). Ironically, there was far more controversy and public outcry about Wheeler being installed as FCC Chairman than the recent appointment of Ajit Pai, earlier this year. Consumer watchdogs (and myself) wondered how someone who has lobbied so long and hard for the industry could possibly be a fair consumer advocate. Well, Thomas Wheeler turned out to fair, as well as a remarkable consumer advocate. In fact, he surprised the major providers who figured he was in their pocket. Things are going to get much worse and here is why you need to be concerned... As is the custom, when a new administration comes in, the President usually appoints a new FCC Chairman. Thomas Wheeler resigned his post when it became apparent that Hillary was out and Donald was in. President Trump immediately installed Ajit Pai as his new FCC Chairman. Mr Pai, obviously a Republican, has always sided with the 800lb gorilla internet providers at the public's expense. Every time I see this guy's name, it's because he is trying to rollback many of the good things Thomas Wheeler accomplished for consumers, Net Neutrality being the biggest issue. Well, if I was going to give Ajit Pai an American name, it would probably be "Ben Dover", for obvious reasons. Several days ago, Ajit Pai submitted a plan to dismantle the tough net neutrality rules the democrats fought for. He apparently doesn't like the fact that these regulations treat broadband internet providers with the same oversight as the phone companies. For those who are not sure what "Net Neutrality" means, in a nutshell, the providers must offer an unfettered flow of online content like video streaming. It also prohibits the providers from slowing speeds for some video content, or selling faster lanes for delivering content, or discriminating against legal online material. Please make sure you educate your family and friends about this because there will be a vote in about a month. We need to make sure that the politicians know that this is a serious issue that we do not want monkeyed with.  1) Battery Life and Faster Speeds.
The most common complaint I get from iPhone users is that their device's battery seems to be dying quicker. The most common reason for this is they don't realize that they may still have open applications running in the background. Certain "live" social media applications that are always updating content use lots of battery. If you don't need to have these applications running in the background, close them. Dr Wireless advices double clicking your home button every couple of hours. By doing this and then scrolling horizontally, you can see which applications are still running. Simply swipe up to close them. 2) Speak instead of Type. Obviously, if you're in a noisy environment, this may not always work. You can open applications by asking SIRI. Just say Open Calendar, or Open FaceBook. You can also easily send messages or e-mails by voice too. To get a better idea of everything you can do by voice, simply press the HOME button to engage SIRI and ask "Her", "What Can I do". Once she shows you try each one so you get in the habit. 3) Use FACETIME to make VIDEO Calls to your family and friends. One of the most overlooked iPhone features is Facetime. Instead of just talking to your family and friends, why not see them real-time too? This can be done two different ways. From your iPhone or iPad, you can launch the Facetime application and video dial directly from your contact list. Alternatively, you can also simply make a call and during the call, press the FaceTime option to covert to video. 4) Use Wifi Dialing domestically to improve reception and internationally to Roam FREE. In the old days, it was just T-Mobile who offered this feature. Today, all of the carriers do. On your iPhone, go to settings>Phone>Wifi Calling, and turn that on. Wifi dialing uses your IP (internet provider) instead of your wireless carriers network to complete the call. This can be very useful if your wireless carrier does not offer great service in your home or office. The other major benefit is with this feature, you can be called anywhere in the world at no additional cost. You can also be anywhere in the world with wifi and call back to the US for totally FREE too. 5) Use iPhone Applications to Simplify Your Life... Whenever you park your car at a sporting event, movie theatre, or large parking lot, consider taking a picture so you remember exactly what floor, what section, and the lot number, etc. Next time you are in a dark restaurant, use your iPhone Flashlight to read the menu. Simply slide your finger from the bottom to the top to open the Shortcut Menu settings. Here, you can turn on and off the flashlight, access the calculator, a timer, airplane mode, and more. Airplane mode is a wonderful feature to use to correct connection problems. By turning it on for a moment, and then off, you disconnect the cellular, bluetooth and GPS radios. Turning this back on freshly reconnects them, often correcting problems and is much faster than having to turn the entire device off and then on again. For more wireless tips, or to schedule a SmartPhone Tutorial, live or via webinar, contact Dr Wireless.  There has never been a better time to buy a Samsung S7 Smartphone and here is why...
1) Samsung has been under the magnifying glass since their Exploding NOTE 7 debacle. 2) The Samsung S7 looks much like the iPhone 8 will look, but is here now, proven & half the cost. 3) The Samsung S7 has been out long enough for all the bugs and kinks to get worked out. 4) The Samsung S8 arrives this week, forcing the carriers to drop the pricing of the S7 "Bigly". 5) Both T-Mobile and Verizon have smoking deals on the Samsung S7 Obviously, I'll be happy to sell you the latest Samsung S8 model which for a limited time, also includes a FREE Virtual Reality Headset and Oculus VR content. That being said, I'm even thinking about grabbing an S7 for backup. Here are the deals... T-Mobile Starting on April 21 and for a limited time, customers who purchase a Samsung Galaxy S7 on EIP (zero interest financing) with T-Mobile ONE can get $200 off via prepaid MasterCard! There’s no line limit, and this offer is stackable with TM's other promotions in market now. The GS7 is a super-powerful smartphone – perfect for business customers who might not need the very latest and greatest, but still want a flagship device experience on America’s fastest and most advanced LTE network. And with $200 back via prepaid Mastercard, we’re bringing the cost of a GS7 down to an unbelievable $376.00. Verizon Verizon subscribers can get the Samsung S7 for only $49 with new activations and upgrades. They also have a great deal on the Samsung Galaxy S8. Get up to a $396 Trade-in credit and a $50 MasterCard debit card when trading in an iPhone 6 or higher, or a number of high-end Android models. The lower end models are eligible for an $276 credit. For those who go large and want the S8+, simply trade in your current model and get as much as $480 credit. Contact Dr Wireless with your model for the exact credit.  Nobody can ever dispute that of the three models above, the Cloud model is by far, the most robust, most scalable, the most easy to maintain, and the most cost effective. The issue has always been security. Well, RingCentral has finally come up with a solution that is secure enough to earn HIPAA/HTRUST compliance. Dr Wireless has teamed up with RingCentral's Enterprise team and is fully certified to sell and support these Virtual PBX Cloud systems. Healthcare organizations are under intense pressure to deliver the highest quality patient care while complying with state and federal regulations and reducing clinical operation costs. As a result, they require a communications solution that enables better staff collaboration and response times—all while offering security and cost efficiency. This also means delivering communications across channels that patients and providers use today—including voice, email, SMS text, and the web. The RingCentral Office cloud phone system enhances interaction with colleagues and patients and improves care coordination across the entire organization. Unlike traditional PBX phone systems, it enables staff working on mobile devices in different locations to use the same powerful phone system. It also provides the flexibility to adapt to staffing changes and growth by providing the ability to easily support new locations, add new phone service, and make moves/adds/changes almost instantly.  Key benefits of RingCentral Office for healthcare organizations Security and HIPAA compliance From day-to-day business operations to interactions with patients and insurers, healthcare organizations must ensure that their communications support their HIPAA requirements. RingCentral offers a highly secure infrastructure and comprehensive solution that allows HIPAA-regulated customers to use the RingCentral service without impacting their HIPAA compliance. Enhanced collaboration Many healthcare professionals want to communicate and share information quickly, securely, and easily. For example, general practitioners must collaborate, often urgently, with specialists. With primary care and specialty physicians practicing in multiple locations, moving between hospitals, offices, and clinics, doctor/ nurse collaboration is increasingly important as doctors, time and attention is divided across more patients and facilities. The RingCentral platform allows staff to join conference calls and collaborate at a moment’s notice. RingCentral Meetings with HD videoconferencing makes it possible to connect face-to-face online with anyone—doctor to specialist, doctor to patient, and doctor to nurse—for real-time information sharing and consultation. For example, physicians can interact face-to-face with colleagues from their home or office, sharing charts and medical images such as x-rays or pathology slides. And with the growing importance of mobility in clinical settings including home care, healthcare organizations appreciate the way the RingCentral mobile app supports collaboration on mobile devices. SMS texting SMS text messaging and notifications keeps doctors, nurses, staff, and patients informed and updated. The shortened response times provided by SMS texting allows providers to instantly consult with colleagues or fulfill requests. RingCentral provides the industry’s first business SMS capability for texting seamlessly across smartphones and tablets. Providers can text colleagues in a clinic or patients using a business number. Recipients can reply via RingCentral Business SMS or their native SMS. With patients increasingly using mobile devices, SMS texting provides an effective way to send appointment reminders and request confirmations. A study found that 81% of mobile phone users text, and Americans under 55 text far more often than they call. People under 30, the patients who are often the hardest for physicians and hospitals to reach, text more often than they use email. Voicemail-to-email RingCentral Office can send voicemail messages and faxes as attachments to email notifications. This feature allows busy healthcare providers to “read” voicemails and act immediately on urgent messages and respond via SMS or email if necessary. One business number RingCentral Office provides a single business number for voice, SMS text, and fax. The mobile app allows physicians to protect the privacy of their personal smartphone number by returning urgent patient calls from a smartphone or tablet using a business number. Text messages and online faxes will also show recipients the same business number. Paging: Overhead paging, desk phone–to–desk phone intercom, and SMS RingCentral paging enables staff to quickly notify colleagues in any location—even across multiple clinics, offices, hospital floors, or wards—in real time—over phones, overhead announcements, or SMS broadcast texts. Users can make one-way announcements from a desk or mobile phone with no complicated installation or configuration required. Anyone without technical expertise can easily create, add, or modify paging groups anywhere from any device. To set up a demonstration of this system, contact Joel on his RingCentral system @ (310)540-6480.   In October, T-Mobile did away with their limited "bucket" plans and went all in with their UNLIMITED 4G LTE "ONE" Plan. Up until this point, only T-Mobile and Sprint offered legitimate Unlimited 4G plans. AT&T also offered an Unlimited Plan but theirs required a Direct TV, or U-Verse Home Internet Bundle to get. Interestingly, all three of these carriers drop their Resolution from High Definition (1080P) to Standard Definition (480P). With both Sprint and T-Mobile, you could pay for their "Premium" data plans to bump up the resolution to HD. AT&T sets the bandwidth as SD by default but this can be changed on their web portal to HD.
Verizon shocked the world by bringing out their own Unlimited Plan. What was shocking is that former Big Red CEO, Fran Shammo said that Verizon would never offer UNLIMITED 4G LTE because it was "unsustainable". Well I guess after T-Mobile added 2.2 million users the last quarter of 2016, Fran Shammo became unsustainable and left. Not only did Verizon decide to compete, they came to the battle with much better artillery - Verizon's superior domestic network, Unlimited High Definition Data and 10GB of mobile 4G LTE Hotspot per line. T-Mobile immediately reacted to that deal by matching Verizon, as did Sprint. Both carriers upped their resolution to HD and added 10GB of Mobile Hotspot. T-Mobile went even further and declared that they would pay all fees and taxes on their 2 Line and above Unlimited retail family plans. The following month, they dropped the 2-line Unlimited Family Plan down from $120 to $100 Out-The-Door, Tax and FEES paid by T-Mobile. For the first week of March, they even went one step further by offering an extra UNLIMITED Line of FREE service for the asking. AT&T finally reacted by dropping their ridiculous Direct TV/U-Verse bundle requirement and meeting Verizon's deal. Their new plan, which is called AT&T Unlimited Plus, will offer customers unlimited calls, texts and 22GB of high speed data for $90 a month, or $145 per month for two lines. Each additional line is an extra $20 per month. This plan also offers the 10GB tethering data per line. Now...here is the problem. That great deal in October pales in comparison to what the carriers offered from November until current. Did your carrier call you to offer you HD resolution, the extra 10GB of Mobile Hotspot, & the big discount in plan costs? Of course not! If you are dumb enough not to ask for the better deals, your carriers is smart enough to dummy up and take your money. That is what our "Robin Hood" Program is all about. We charge $200 to work your carrier of choice over and insure that you get the best deal, not just today, but for the next 24 months. We do that with account monitoring and will announce when your carrier announces a better deal. We are so sure that we will save you money that we offer an 100% Money Back Guarantee if you don't see the value in it. If you had signed up with T-Mobile for two lines in October, it was $130 and you got SD definition and no Hotspot. Several of our Robin Hood program subscribers started with this deal. Today they have HD definition, 10GB of Mobile Hotspot, and three UNLIMITED 4G LTE lines, not two, for $100 Out-the-Door. If you do the math, you'll see that these subscribers saved over $1000 over the typical two year term. That's because we saved them $30 per month x 24 months which equates to $720. Add the savings of not having to pay any fees or taxes and that saves an additional $300. They also ended up with better HD resolution, mobile hotspot, and an extra line out of the deal. After our $200 FEE, they still come out saving over $800 and getting a much better plan. and peace of mind. If you are tired of getting ripped off and would like to level the playing field with your carrier, turn Dr Wireless Loose and step back and watch the carnage. If we cannot get a better deal through our dealer channel, we'll call in as our subscribers (with their permission) and get a better deal, that way! Btw...On April 7th, T-Mobile removed their FREE "One Plus" meet competition to Verizon. Their bandwidth has been dropped back down to SD and the Hotspot feature has been removed. Since everything gets grandfathered in this business, this will not effect any of our clients who signed up prior to April 7th. Of course, you can now pay $5 per month to get these features. If you were a Robin Hood Member, you would have been warned that this deal was ending and jumped aboard before the "train left the station".  Remember when everyone had a home phone? Unlimited nationwide cellular voice calling, combined with escalating landline rates caused many folks to re-evaluate whether they really needed a "Home" phone. Business owners are now experiencing a similar phenomenon. The Cloud is doing to the traditional phone companies exactly what the internet did to Brick and Mortar retailers. The future is definitely UCaaS (Unified Communications As A Service). We are already experienced with the "As A Service" model. Anyone who has internet services and/or cable TV knows how this works. If there is a problem, you call the company to fix it. They troubleshoot the problem and replace the modem, rewire or do whatever is necessary. It's not your problem, it's theirs. Face it, would you rather buy an expensive Private Branch Exchange on Premises system that requires wiring, regular maintenance, service contracts and IT experts? I prefer picking up the phone and letting someone else fix it for FREE. Some of the biggest names in on Premises Business Phone systems have filed for Bankruptcy (Avaya), or just left the business, period. In Avaya's case, they actually owned 22% of the Business PBX market in 2010, but only 17% in 2015. They began migrating to on Premise IP voIP but this was a little to little, and too late. The Cloud offers lower costs, robust collaboration features, and greater scalability. Two other very important issues that are often overlooked - Disaster Preparedness and Moving Your Business One of the first questions I usually get when pitching the virtual cloud PBX concept is, "We tried voIP years ago and can't afford to miss calls when our internet goes down". The whole benefit of having a cloud system is you don't have to worry about terrestrial issues. Even when your internet is down, your answering service is working in the Cloud. We set up our clients so if their internet goes down, they can receive all inbound calls on their SmartPhones or DeskTop SoftPhone on their laptops. Alternatively, you can even take your desktop voIP phone anywhere else there is an internet connection and plug in and make calls like you were in the office. That's why moving your business with a Virtual Cloud system is as easy as unplugging your voIP desk phone and plugging it into an internet connection at the new location. With an on premise solutions, you need to call the local exchange carrier to make appointments, and/or do major rewiring. Good, Better and Best...    Dr Wireless specializes in seamlessly moving businesses over from traditional phone systems to Virtual Cloud based systems. Contact us for a demonstration, and FREE Cost analysis. We can usually cut our clients bills in half.
 All good things come to an end and it looks like T-Mobile's latest "meet comp" offer against Verizon may be quietly going away. Remember, before Verizon jumped into the Unlimited 4G LTE Data game, T-Mobile only offered Standard Definition, not High Definition streaming. They also did not offer any additional Mobile Hotspot data. We can thank Verizon for a change for forcing TM to raise the bar.
Unofficially, I've heard that T-Mobile management will be quietly retiring these promotions and going back to the old version of these plans. That means they can sell you these upgraded features instead of offer them FREE. I would not be surprised if they also retire their retail promotion that pays all phone bill taxes and fees. If you have been thinking about moving your service to T-Mobile, do yourself a favor and do it now! |
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March 2021
CategoriesAuthorJoel Saltzman has over twenty years of wireless industry experience. He is currently CEO and Chief Wireless Analyst for Dr Wireless. |
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