Greetings from the future

In an industry beset with hype and promise, sometimes nothing is more telling than personal experience.

About six months ago I launched my own field trial to test the feasibility of wireline replacement. I cut the cord, as they say, chucking my landline existence to taste what life would be like in a world without wires.

I chose PrimeCo Personal Communications as my experimental group. I had little choice, figuring I needed the battery capacity and voice quality of digital. PrimeCo is the only PCS player to have blown into the Windy City, and I've heard negative reviews of the other digital cellular system in Chicago. I was also sold by PrimeCo's offer of 500 minutes for $40 a month.

I put the PrimeCo system through its paces. I used my phone everywhere: from the backseats of cars to the back rooms of bars, from Printer's Row to Evanston, from Lake Shore Drive to the Kennedy, from Midway to O'Hare and beyond. I made calls on elevators, elevated trains, basements, beaches and boats. I traveled to Milwaukee, making calls en route and within that city.

My hypothesis was flawed. I anticipated spotty coverage but excellent voice quality, powerful features and good customer service. I found decent coverage but spotty voice quality, inconsistent features and mediocre customer service. My experience was marked by an inexcusable number of network outages, voice mail system crashes and customer service overloads.

Nothing is quite as aggravating as the "Call Failed" tone my handset emits, except perhaps the PrimeCo customer service recording that says, "We are experiencing higher-than-usual call volumes."

Apparently, I am not alone. Other PrimeCo customers - mere mobility users - have shared tales of dropped calls, poor quality, lengthy hold times and ill-informed customer service representatives. And judging from the apology letters that PrimeCo has churned out - which allude to an unexpected success rate that has maxed out the network - the voice of complaint is rising.

My plan hinged on reliability, and I have never been assured of that. While I do believe digital beats analog for quality, my experience left me far from convinced that any digital wireless service can even approximate the features and consistency of wireline.

The future is not ready for me. I'm moving back to live among the wired.