UPS left me a mysterious notice last week: two packages, each weighing 1.3 pounds, were coming to me from Minnesota. What could they be? No theory seemed plausible. Turns out they were new mobile phones, a “generous” gift of AT&T wireless.

The story is that AT&T is changing their GSM network from 1900 MHz to 850/1900 MHz (or maybe just 850 MHz, depending on how closely your tin-foil hat is fitted), and the phone I’ve been living with for the past year or so, a Sony Ericsson T68i named “topato”, is now deprecated. So AT&T sent me two new phones (one for each of my lines, which I share with the ladyfriend) — two free “upgrades”. The catch: these phones aren’t really upgrades. There’s been some chatter about this on the blogs, but not on blogs I read. (I guess the DNC hasn’t released a statement on this situation yet).

Anyway, this was the last straw with me and AT&T. So we took our two T68i, our two “NEW! FREE! UPGRADE!” phones, and went to a wireless dealer recommended by a friend. Okay, we went to Hot Doug’s first, and then I got a haircut. But we got new phones, switched to T-Mobile (sorry, Joan, but she’s hotter), and now I have one of those futurephones Warren Ellis is always nattering on about. (This one is named Téodor.) Watch for two T68i and one T226, coming soon to Ebay!