Posted by: wifiguy14k on 06/22/2004 18:34:48
“You like me, you really like me.”
— Sally Field, as she accepted The Oscar in 1984, finally recognized for her acting, among her peers.
I can’t stand Sally Field, but a good line is a good line.
Her words came to mind, when I took a call from T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi headquarters in Carrollton, Texas.
I should start by explaining I am back in the saddle, doing my PR gig in Texas. (The East Coast Wi-Fi Guy tour starts in July.)
On this particular day, I was picking up a C I Host banner, from CDG & Associates. My CEO, Christopher Faulkner, made a donation to “CEOs Walk The Walk,” a March of Dimes fundraiser led by Deborah Driskill of CDG. So our banner has been sitting in their closet for six weeks.
As I drove to pick up the sponsor’s banner, several things were at play that morning. The Dallas Morning News — one of the top papers in the country — ran a cool little piece on The Wi-Fi Guy. They even printed a funky/artsy photo. Very cool!
(There was also a chance meeting in store, with an executive from Seattle.)
In The Dallas Morning News article — written by Doug Bedell — I mentioned there are myriad great, free Wi-Fi hotspots around the country. But, for dependability and accessibility, it is hard to beat the T-Mobile model. That is unsolicited and true.
Guess which major Wi-Fi provider shares office space in the very same building with CDG? For those of you unfamiliar with the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, there are more than 12,000 square miles and more than five million people — that is a lot of real estate and big hair!
Uncanny!
So on this morning — a day with one of the biggest publicity hits on the trip — I was circling the parking lot of T-Mobile, trying to find a spot — not a hotspot, a parking spot. In the corporate fishbowls above, unbeknownst to me, were some of the leading Wi-Fi experts in the country. (I later learned that the “biggest fish” was in town, the T-Mobile Wi-Fi VP. More on “The Real Wi-Fi Guy” later …)
I couldn’t have orchestrated this. I am good, but I’m not that good.
I picked up the C I Host banner from the March of Dimes folks and drove away.
A few minutes later, my phone rang and it was the guys from T-Mobile. They had seen the bright orange SUV in their parking lot and ran out the door trying to catch me. But, by then the bright orange C I Host/Wi-Fi Guy mobile was kicking up dust.
So, they invited me back! I was shocked. I often wondered while on the road, if any of the corporate types were following this thing.
During the trek, I drove from Texas, to Tijuana, to Tukwila — sniffing Wi-Fi and lattes all the way. In Seattle — the home of T-Mobile — not a word from them officially.
Now, in “my own back yard” — through a strange twist — I was invited to tour T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi command center.
At C I Host, I work around servers and routers and T-1s and all that. I don’t understand all of it, but I think it is pretty cool. Imagine how I felt touring the NOC (network operations center) of T-Mobile.
This is hilarious. The guys were mocking me — in good fun — and asked me to sign an autograph on their copy of The Dallas Morning News. What a laugh! Have you ever signed a signature without first practicing it? I obliged and my Wi-Fi John Hancock looked like a third grader had just written his name in cursive for the first time. Guess I will have to work on the signature thing.
We also traded T-Mobile and C I Host trinkets, like so much wampum among tribes along the Lewis and Clark trail.
“Ugh.” Stay Tuned!
