dropped calls posts

In one of life's supreme ironies, AT&T today posted an iPhone app that allows you to report substandard service. That's right folks. Got a dropped call? No reception? AT&T Marks the Spot [iTunes link] is designed to get that info to your favorite cell company so they can act on it.

Let's see... I don't have any reception, so I pull out my new AT&T app to notify them of the problem. Doh! No reception to do that. And the app even nicely brings up a GPS map showing where I am. The GPS signal is much more reliable of course.

Look, I know AT&T means well, but the app is a tacit admission that all is not well on the AT&T network. I know you could travel to someplace with good reception, and send the data to them, but I think this app will rub salt in an already sensitive wound. [As readers point out, the app is designed to queue up the error reports and send them later when coverage is available. -Ed.]

This reminds me of when I worked at a PBS station many years ago in Ohio. We had pretty weak reception, and the Station Manager decided to do an hour long program to tell people how to adjust their antennas if they couldn't receive us. I tried, and failed, to convince him that the very people we were trying to reach couldn't see the program. My pleas fell on deaf ears, so we did the program and great hilarity ensued as the local press chewed us up for our stupidity.

AT&T says they will acknowledge the report with an SMS (and I assume not charge for it the SMS messages are listed as free) and I truly hope that they use the information they get to improve the network, because if it is just a PR stunt it is likely to backfire. There are already reports of people sending reports and not getting any acknowledgment. Oh well.

File this one under AYFKMWTS (are you freaking kidding me with this stuff?): a Gizmodo reader, aggravated with an unacceptably high rate of dropped calls on his iPhone, took it to a New York City Apple Store to have it checked for issues. The call dump statistics revealed a 22% drop rate on calls, which most of us would call "wicked awful" -- but not Apple and AT&T.

No, in this particular case the Genius told our hapless iPhone owner that he should count himself lucky, as Apple's baseline stat for dropped calls in NYC is a blistering thirty percent. Yes, almost one in three calls on an iPhone in the Big Apple will end with frustration, and that's just OK with everyone.

Well, not with us. Combined with the "five bars, no calls" dead zones and mysterious "call failed" issues, it must be said: this phone is not getting it done when it comes to the whole phone thing, at least on AT&T's network in the city that never sleeps. Or, for that matter, makes an uninterrupted cell call.

[via Engadget]

Jim Dalrymple at Macworld notes that the iPhone software update from Monday was mostly to handle issues with dropped calls on new iPhone 3G handsets. According to an Associated Press article, the update "improved communication with 3G networks," said Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock.

However, some Macworld commenters are saying the update hasn't helped with dropped calls, even in areas with a strong signal.

What's more, according to an AppleInsider rumor, another update is scheduled for September that addresses an issue where non-default applications will repeatedly crash. A tipster claims to have received a Steveogram saying the issue "is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September." (Chairman Jobs is known to occasionally respond to complaint emails with terse but sympathetic notes.)

The crashing problem has remained unresolved so far, and it has resulted in large and angry Apple support discussions about the topic. Steve's one-line explanation may at least provide a target for users for when they can start using their iPhones as intended.