Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Should Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Take a Leap of Faith to the Verizon iPhone?
It’s officially, old news. Verizon Wireless will get some form of the iPhone® at some date in the 2011. Will this be the moment many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have been waiting for? I’m not sure.
I know many of you get spotty or non-existent AT&T service in your home area which makes AT&T a difficult choice for your legal nurse consulting business’s cellular service. Vickie and I live in an AT&T dead-zone. If I stand on my roof, I can see AT&T’s offices and service center but my iPhone (like its Blackberry predecessor) won’t pick up a signal strong enough to email them a complaint. It’s always been a pebble stuck in my craw that anyone with Verizon cellular service who enters our home can make perfect calls whether they’re standing in the attic, a closet or the backyard. In contrast, we can’t get a decent AT&T connection until we get at least 3 blocks from our home.
One of our neighbors is an investment banker who would (legitimately and innocently) park his car outside a nearby playground (2 blocks away) in order to get an AT&T signal and make or return business calls. After our local police (to the relief of some parents) discouraged that tactic, he purchased a 3G Microcell from AT&T to avoid further run-ins with “The Man.” This handy device plugs into his home Internet connection and creates a de facto “private” 3G wireless network that allows him to connect his Blackberry to AT&T so he can now make and receive calls and data. It also saves him the embarrassment of being known as the “playground banker.”
I recently followed his lead (to AT&T, not the playground) and purchased a 3G Microcell myself. After spending 3 frustrating weeks working with AT&T Customer Service to get our business account adjusted to allow me to register the Microcell (Yes Virginia, that’s one of the reasons people are fleeing AT&T), it finally activated and works flawlessly. The whole first day after I got it working I kept using my iPhone to call Vickie’s iPhone (and check email and surf the Internet) from every place in our home I could think of to test the Microcell’s signal strength and connectivity – the garage, the bathroom, the Jacuzzi® and even the kitchen. All I can say is that it worked better than I expected and I’m glad they offer this device. If you’re a CLNC® consultant and AT&T customer with connectivity issues, I strongly recommend a 3G Microcell for your home or office.
However, a lot of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants are Verizon customers who are coveting an iPhone and are using one of the Android-powered smart phones until they can get their hands on an iPhone. Or they are simply sweating out AT&T until they can switch over. I love the iPhone and Vickie took to hers like a nutria to water. It’s an incredibly intuitive device, very functional and easy to use. But there are a lot of horror stories about network overloading and delays on AT&T due to the number of iPhones in a particular space and the data demands put on AT&T’s networks (I’m dreading an upcoming trip to NYC for that reason).
My caveat for CLNC® Verizon users is that you may get more than what you’re wishing for – an iPhone with the same connectivity problems that AT&T users have to deal with. I’m not trying to discourage any legal nurse consultant from the joy of having an iPhone. I just want to warn you that Verizon will be running it on an untested network already populated with data-hungry smart phones. Also, the word on the street is that it won’t be a “world-capable” phone like the iPhone 4 due to the networking technology Verizon uses. That won’t be a show-stopper to all legal nurse consultants but that may make our international CLNC® consultants think twice before they switch.
If I were a CLNC® Verizon customer I wouldn’t rush out and be an early adopter. Let Verizon debug the phone and see what kind of network issues they have before you take a leap of faith. Your smart phone and the seamless ability to communicate with your attorney-clients are indispensible parts of your Certified Legal Nurse Consultant business and you don’t want to end up with connectivity issues. Otherwise, if you do take that leap and Verizon sells the 8-10,000,000 or so iPhones they’re projected to sell the first year alone and you join the 1,000,000 or so iPhone users estimated to defect from AT&T, you may find yourself standing on a crowded playground with a whole lot of attorneys, other legal nurse consultants and nannies all asking, “Can you hear me now?”
4 thoughts on “Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Should Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Take a Leap of Faith to the Verizon iPhone?”
I have an iPhone (love it) and probably won’t make the switch to Verizon when the time comes. My logic (if you can call it that) is that the AT&T network will suddenly lose a large number of customers, easing the network for the rest of us who remain with AT&T. I didn’t know about the “world” issue, and that makes me even more likely to stick with AT&T. I, too, have a weak signal at my home, but Verizon isn’t much better in my location. So I’ve opted for Line2, an app that allows me to make and receive calls over WiFi. It does involve using a different phone number, but it follows you wherever you go. In other words, it will work via a cell signal if you’re away from WiFi. Line2 is amazing, though I hear it is having some growing pains. Works for me, though.
I love all your tech tips! Some are pertinent to my business and some aren’t, but I always check them out! I have been a Verizon customer forever, with no plans of changing. Yes, I now have the Droid, which I truly enjoy, however, I often have problems with the email because EVERYTHING has to go through a Google account. I have 4 different email addresses that I use, and they all are through AOL, so this sometime presents a problem. Anyway, I would LOVE to have an iPhone, but because of your tips, I am definitely going to wait it out and let Verizon work all the bugs out before diving in. Thanks again for your words of wisdom.
Hi, I have just purchased the IPhone4, and I love it. I have AT&T as my carrier, and not yet had a problem in the Boston MA area. Where I live, Verizon has dead spots, not AT&T! So, I guess I am good to go.
Thanks for all your tech tips…..I have found them more than just helpful/informative. I am learning every time I read the next one! Keep ’em coming, please.
I am a loyal AT&T customer & would never switch (unless a $1million check came with the new contract). I am vowed to them mainly because I travel a lot and work concurrently and have never experienced a problem with coverage, and that includes being deep in the hills of West Virginia! My last company, which shall remain nameless but begins with an “S” could not provide such coverage although I too could see their tower from where I resided. I’m sorry Tom & Vickie, you must have been the people AT&T’s competitors were talking about in their older commercials.
All hail to the iPhone! I am a tech junkie and owned one before I was a cool CLNC® and LOVED it so it was an easy conversion for my business. I’ve reviewed contracts on it while traveling and was able to increase my business as a result. I would highly recommended waiting out your contract if possible and moving to AT&T or upgrading your phone as a current customer. In my opinion they have the history to support success!
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The National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®) is the largest and oldest association of legal nurse consultants.
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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
Keep on techin’,
I have an iPhone (love it) and probably won’t make the switch to Verizon when the time comes. My logic (if you can call it that) is that the AT&T network will suddenly lose a large number of customers, easing the network for the rest of us who remain with AT&T. I didn’t know about the “world” issue, and that makes me even more likely to stick with AT&T. I, too, have a weak signal at my home, but Verizon isn’t much better in my location. So I’ve opted for Line2, an app that allows me to make and receive calls over WiFi. It does involve using a different phone number, but it follows you wherever you go. In other words, it will work via a cell signal if you’re away from WiFi. Line2 is amazing, though I hear it is having some growing pains. Works for me, though.
Hi Tom,
I love all your tech tips! Some are pertinent to my business and some aren’t, but I always check them out! I have been a Verizon customer forever, with no plans of changing. Yes, I now have the Droid, which I truly enjoy, however, I often have problems with the email because EVERYTHING has to go through a Google account. I have 4 different email addresses that I use, and they all are through AOL, so this sometime presents a problem. Anyway, I would LOVE to have an iPhone, but because of your tips, I am definitely going to wait it out and let Verizon work all the bugs out before diving in. Thanks again for your words of wisdom.
Hi, I have just purchased the IPhone4, and I love it. I have AT&T as my carrier, and not yet had a problem in the Boston MA area. Where I live, Verizon has dead spots, not AT&T! So, I guess I am good to go.
Thanks for all your tech tips…..I have found them more than just helpful/informative. I am learning every time I read the next one! Keep ’em coming, please.
I am a loyal AT&T customer & would never switch (unless a $1million check came with the new contract). I am vowed to them mainly because I travel a lot and work concurrently and have never experienced a problem with coverage, and that includes being deep in the hills of West Virginia! My last company, which shall remain nameless but begins with an “S” could not provide such coverage although I too could see their tower from where I resided. I’m sorry Tom & Vickie, you must have been the people AT&T’s competitors were talking about in their older commercials.
All hail to the iPhone! I am a tech junkie and owned one before I was a cool CLNC® and LOVED it so it was an easy conversion for my business. I’ve reviewed contracts on it while traveling and was able to increase my business as a result. I would highly recommended waiting out your contract if possible and moving to AT&T or upgrading your phone as a current customer. In my opinion they have the history to support success!