A RIMarkable reader sent me a profanity laden email that I won’t post here, however, they did ask me a valid question.

Why do I seem to be so hard on RIM when they have network outages but seem to be willing to put up with all of “Verizon’s crap” when it comes to them being more expensive, locking down their devices, and a year behind everyone else when it comes to the release of new devices?

Rant Alert…
It’s very simple actually. I get exactly what I expect and pay for from Verizon. Superior call quality and network coverage just about everywhere. I am not going to debate whether this is true or not for the masses. It’s true for me and quite honestly that is all that really matters.

I have a Verizon BlackBerry and an iPhone running on AT&T on me at almost all times. I freely admit that AT&T’s network coverage is much better than I thought it was, but, the coverage simply is not as good as Verizon’s.

At the end of the day I don’t really care which network I use and if AT&T or T-Mobile allowed me to do my job, I would switch to them in a heartbeat. The simple truth, however, is they don’t, so, I choose to go with a carrier who does.

As for RIM. What I expect from them from them is for my email to work all the time. Are there going to be outages. Yes. Should there have been three major ones in less than 6 months. No.
I am not getting what I pay for from RIM. Reliable email that works all the time.

Granted, I’ve written about BlackBerries almost daily for the last three years. I am not, however, a fanboy. If RIM is messing up I will call them on it in a heartbeat. If they keep messing up I will keep calling them on it.