AT&T Admits New York City iPhone Service Sucks 144
RevWaldo notes a post up at The Gothamist on AT&T's admission of its poor cell service in New York. "AT&T has realized that the first step towards recovery is admitting it has a problem. The phone giant has confessed that its New York City iPhone service is not up to par, according to a presentation slide published on Tom's Guide noting that the company's 3G Voice Composite Quality in the New York metro area — particularly in Manhattan — is below its performance objective. ... The slide does contain some good news for AT&T subscribers. Apparently, AT&T has had '[t]hree consecutive months of improvement'..."
Real Improvement? (Score:5, Interesting)
Chicago isn't any better (Score:4, Interesting)
I rarely get 3G data service during the week. Usually it's EDGE and not very fast EDGE at that.
Weekends are much better.
Anyone thinking of getting an iPad should really think about the real value of the 3G option - will it be worth anything in your area?
As an ATT customer in manhattan.... (Score:4, Interesting)
- You need a new sim card
- Your phone might be damaged
- We don't see any problems in the area
So when is ATT going to give me my money back for diminished service?
Re:Chicago isn't any better (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good -- maybe they will start to improve (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Real Improvement? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, they're not accurate. Neither is being particularly truthful, but Verizon is outright lying. They're comparing apples to oranges.
Verizon's 3g is more like AT&T's 2g (EDGE). AT&T's 3g (really HSDPA) is wicked fast (I've gotten a real-world 4.5mbps with 100ms latency). I don't think Verizon has anything that even comes close to that. So AT&T's HSDPA service is pretty limited, sure, but they have 2g (which is Verizon's 3g) over their *entire* service area.
There's a lot of things AT&T needs to improve on, but I don't think their coverage or technology is one of them. They just need to deliver what they're capable of more frequently.
Re:Stop bashing AT&T for this! (Score:1, Interesting)
Verizon has grown FASTER than AT&T since the iPhone was introduced. They sell roughly as many of the Data-heavy smart phones supposedly causing this.
And yet, their network is doing just fine.
Why should I be patient and understanding with AT&T when somebody else is around, with similar pricing, and a vastly better network? As soon as my iPhone contract was up, I ditched AT&T, and I haven't regretted it for a second.
Works great up in the Boston area (Score:4, Interesting)
I hear NYC and SanFran AT&T horror stories all the time, and then people jump on the bandwagon and say it sucks everywhere else too.
Well, works beautifully in Boston. Recent reports show that its faster and more reliable in Boston than Verizon as well. Believe me, I was a 12 year Verizon veteran and shied away from AT&T because of the 'stories' I heard. One day, work gave me an AT&T serviced BlackBerry and I swapped the sim card into an iPhone off EBay and was astounded that I got better and faster service than my Verizon account gave me.
Dropped Verizon and went AT&T within a week. Nary a problem since.
Re:Real Improvement? (Score:3, Interesting)
It isn't an improvement from customers switching away. AT&T added more customers than Verizon last quarter and had a similar churn rate of 1.4%. So, no, AT&T has more customers than ever and customers are staying with AT&T at the same rate as Verizon and more customers are signing up for AT&T than Verizon.
It's a real improvement.
So when will they admit this about Los Angeles? (Score:2, Interesting)
Very few days go by when I don't have a call dropped on my iPhone, just sitting here in my home office. And forget about when driving. Everyone I know in LA who has an iPhone complains about the very same thing. If you want to listen to a funny conversation, eavesdrop on a conversation between two iPhones. "Yeah, it's me again. The iPhone dropped the call again. Yeah, well.... hello? Hello?"
So far their answer? "Mark The Spot", an iPhone app that they want you to switch to and register a complaint about dropped calls instead of trying to call back the person whose call just dropped off. Why don't they look at their records and see the number of times I redialed a number within 30 seconds that I was just connected to?
I've been an Apple guy since the II, and make my living on the Mac platform. But another couple of months to shake out the Nexus and I'm moving. I like Apple but not willing to continue being punked by this Apple/AT&T alliance.