Filed under: Bad Apple, iPhone
Just how bad is AT&T?
The well-known tech blogger Om Malik has broken up with his iPhone. It seems that despite loving the iPhone itself, AT&T's shoddy service in San Francisco just wasn't cutting it. A couple of dropped calls during a phone interview was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back and Om traded his iPhone for a iPod touch plus a couple of phones from other carriers.That got me wondering. Just how much of a drag on the iPhone is the AT&T network? My service has generally been reliable here in the Twin Cities, but I have suffered problems when traveling. So how about it? How many of you have actually had to dump an iPhone because of the carrier?
[via jkOnTheRun]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 14)
Ryan said 9:39AM on 2-13-2009
Funny... I love the Iphone, but I have been thinking of this very issue myself and going back to verizon and the blackberry.... Not sure yet, but it has been on my mind.
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nosidam said 10:04AM on 2-13-2009
I carry a BlackBerry on VZW for work, and I find that most of the time I'm forwarding my iPhone number to my BB and using the iPhone as just an iPod and connected data device.
Dan S. said 10:42AM on 2-13-2009
Josh, thanks for the NSFW avatar picture.
I really appreciate the opportunity for my interns to notice a bare breast on my screen.
Josh said 10:45AM on 2-13-2009
I agree. I have contemplated switching back to VZW...I don't think i ever had bad service in NE and now with my iPhone i find its ok, but certainly not worth the money...
oliver hart said 5:25PM on 2-13-2009
that avatar is HILARIOUS! i had to look at it for like a minute before i realized what it was! i thought it was a belly button.
@ dan s.-I'm looking at that tiny avatar pic on a 27 inch tv monitor and i can barely tell its a nipple. are your interns 9 year old children? and if they are i suggest you worry less about the nipple and more about the government investigating why you have toddlers filling out your tps reports. : ^ P
balls said 1:59PM on 2-15-2009
@Dan: How about not reading TUAW at work?
ChrismUSAF said 9:36AM on 2-13-2009
Not to stick up for the Death Star or anything, but I haven't really had the problems that most people talk about. In fact, I'm actually noticing a lot "more 3G in more places." You can see all of their upgrades taking effect. Last year I couldn't get a signal at inside my home or work, and now it's five bars everywhere.
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badjoke said 2:42PM on 2-13-2009
I've noticed the same. A year ago, my building at Microsoft had barely any signal. Now I have 5 bars even in the parking garage.
Vince said 2:50PM on 2-13-2009
Fail.
-5.7641
Marc said 12:06AM on 2-15-2009
My iPhone 3G has 5 bars always in philly area.very rare that I drop a call but that is because of tree blockage. My wifes blackberry has shoddy service. So i guess It all depends on the device and what network(edge, 3G) your rollin on.
Brady J. Frey said 1:45PM on 2-16-2009
I live (SOMA) and work (Union Square) in the heart of downtown San Francisco, and I never have any real problems. I get the occasional oddity, but it fixes quick... so, not sure if Om lives further out, more Daly City/South San Francisco than really San Francisco?
greggsymington said 9:38AM on 2-13-2009
No problems in Southern New England. Actually, 3G coverage is great. It's hard to believe that such a large city like San Francisco could have bad service.
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KenN said 10:51AM on 2-13-2009
It's a very hilly city with bad line of site. But...ATT GET IT TOGETHER!
Alex said 9:40AM on 2-13-2009
Blah blah....Sensationist journalism at it's best right here...
You guys bored today?
I have AT&T and a first-gen iPhone and I have NEVER had a dropped call...
Maybe you should make an article now called "Just how AWESOME is AT&T"
Seriously, this article is a joke...
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Channer said 9:56AM on 2-13-2009
That's the thing. EDGE works well. But we're paying more for 3G and it's WORSE than EDGE. Thry an iPhone 3G on EDGE and then try it on 3G. The 3G is completely unreliable.
To all the folks that are not having problems, I bet many of you spend a good amount of time on EDGE.
DistortedLoop said 10:28AM on 2-13-2009
NEVER dropped a call? NEVER? Really? REALLY?
Sorry dude, I find that hard to believe. NEVER say NEVER. ;-)
Seriously, I have had dropped calls on every cell phone I have ever had, either from work or personal, and on every network I have been on over the last 15 years. Granted, not fair to compare analog service 15 years ago to today's overcrowded and underbuilt digital networks, but the culprits have been Airtouch, LA Cellular, PacBell, Sprint, Nextel, Sprint/Nextel, Verizon, the old AT&T, Cingular, AT&T/Cingular, and the new AT&T. Every single one of them has had some area in the Los Angeles metro area that service was weak.
Phone models include a couple of big Nokia and Samsung BRICKS, StarTacs (best analog phone ever), some Samsung clamshell StarTac clone, a Treo or two, Razrs, both versions of the iPhone.
I''ll drop a call on AT&T once or twice a week, but it's random, unlike a year or two ago when I could count on going through certain intersections meaning a dropped call.
KenN said 11:59AM on 2-13-2009
Seriously, you're a joke. I live in SF. Calls are dropped EVERY day. And of course, sometimes several times a day.
Tom said 10:59AM on 2-13-2009
Alex, YOU are a joke. Your response was like that of a child. TONS of people complain about how bad ATT is, and I have experienced first hand just how annoying their network can be. Just because you haven't experienced problems on their network, doesn't mean the article is a joke.
jsterry said 11:55AM on 2-13-2009
I'm with Channer on this one. I have the iPhone 3G, but I turned off the 3G only a few weeks after getting it because AT&T's 3G network is terrible. Dropped calls, terrible call quality, failure in "call setup". A few weeks after switching 3G off I turned it on temporarily to do some internet browsing when I got a call from my wife. Two minutes into the conversation she says, "Did you turn on 3G? Because I can barely hear you." If that's not a testament to the quality of the 3G network, I don't know what is. By the way, I'm in Atlanta.
cristiana said 12:38PM on 2-13-2009
jsterry:
You do realize that the 3G part has nothing to do with voice, it is only the data part of the phone, so turning on of off 3G will do nothing to prevent or cause dropped calls, or bad voice quality.