One of the most interesting editorial pieces we’ve ever written was our article, Hunting Down A Unicorn: The VPhone.  For us, we spent considerable time last year working to get current information about the device, only to find none.  In response to our article, certain representatives of Saygus, the company behind VPhone, started inundating us with emails and comments making various claims about our article.

Because it’s now been more than seven months since our article posted, we thought we’d do a little recap on the VPhone.

We here at PhoneCan talk a lot about phones and wireless devices.  We talk a lot about policies.  We cover several angles about the wireless business that other sites don’t bother - or can’t - cover.  Our efforts are designed to empower and educate the customer with good sense and an understanding of why things are the way they are.

One thing we’ve neglected to spend much time on, however, are the people who work for cell phone companies within the stores and call centers where real people work with real customers.

Follow with us as we help bring some insight into the life of a wireless industry employee.

From the person who just checks their email to the other who streams Pandora eight hours a day, we all have need of our data plans. �Data plans give us access to a world of information on our phones or tablets. �But just what is a byte, and why should we care? �And what’s the deal with tiered data plans?

We explore the data plan as it is today, look at what’s changed in the last couple years, and where the future may or may not end up.

This is a follow up to our article titled “The Basics: Understanding Verizon’s Upgrade Policy.”

We get a lot of searches and questions from people trying to understand Verizon Wireless’ upgrade policies and discounts.  Our Upgrade Policy article accounts for a lot of our traffic, but upon further review, we felt it might be prudent to follow up with an article explaining why discounting has changed over the years, and what it looks like today.

If you haven’t read the original upgrade article, please read it first.

And now… the fascinating world of Verizon Wireless subsidy.

“Let me speak to your supervisor!”  These are words that many of us have uttered at one point or another.   The words may conjure up images of ineffectual entry-level customer service employees who are unempowered to resolve any “real” issues.  Maybe they conjure up images of customer service employees who don’t realize just how valuable your business is when you’re asking for something.  Surely a supervisor will listen to reason.  Or will they?

Read on for an insider’s perspective on escalating and what it does (or doesn’t) accomplish.

Last week, Verizon Wireless carefully announced that they were going to eliminate one-year contracts as an option for their customers.

The truth of the matter is, one year contracts likely comprise of less than 1% of overall contracts.  We have no real data on this, but a long observation of the business tells us that the numbers are minimal.

The problem, though, is choice.

The editors, writers, and contributors of this site frequent many online forums.  We do this in conjunction with PhoneCan’s mission: to help consumers.

Our long-term goal, both as online citizens and as our own site, is to empower consumers to get the best price, the best phone, and the best experience - all by their own efforts.  We provide insight into the industry, a view of how the business works from the inside, and how to speak the language of “wireless.”  To us, education is the key to getting the best deal and the best situation for your needs.  This has been the personal mission for each of us, even long before we joined up on PhoneCan.  We’ve been a voice of compassion for the consumer, both in our personal and professional interactions, as well as on this site.

Now, we’re going to mix things up a bit.

While we aren’t changing our mission to empower and educate consumers, we’ve decided to add to that education.  We’ve decided that it’s long overdue for a wakeup call to certain parts of the consumer base.

It’s time to tell it like it is.

From time to time, the writers and editors of PhoneCan have mentioned a few “beliefs” and opinions about the phone industry.  To some, we’ve even mentioned a set of core beliefs that this site operates under, which has silently influenced how we write, what we write about, and how we approach certain subjects.

We felt it would be good to take a moment during the lull of waiting for CES 2011 updates to mention the core philosophy of PhoneCan.