[Macworld]

Post your comments for Plagued by lousy AT&T service here

[fletc3her]

I get tired reading all this "news" about how cell phone coverage is terrible. It's terrible! We know. We all have cell phones. We all have terrible coverage.
AT&T in my experience in Seattle is much, much better than T-Mobile. But I'm sure in other cities AT&T is going to be worse. I haven't had any particular complaints in the traveling I've done since switching to AT&T a couple years ago.

[RavyNWolf]

No kidding, you mean one area's coverage isn't as good as it is elsewhere?! Welcome to cell phones. This article should have little to do specifically with the iPhone than it does with one AT&T's service in his area than Verizon's.
I've been with AT&T since before they were Cingular and then AT&T again and in my area I've never had a problem with any phone getting reception!

[Peter Cohen]

RavyNWolf said:

This article should have little to do specifically with the iPhone than it does with one AT&T's service in his area than Verizon's.

Well, no kidding. That's the whole point of the article now, isn't it? But as an iPhone user, I have no choice but to suffer with AT&T's service, even though it's mediocre compared to Verizon, thanks to their exclusive arrangement with Apple.

[concentric]

You're not alone, Peter. My wife and I joke about suing AT&T over their "More bars in more places" claim, which is laughable in the Phoenix area anyway. And rarely do we have half our bars--it's usually all or none. We miss our Alltell service, where we never had gaps in coverage or dropped calls. I'm surprised that Apple is extending its arrangement with AT&T given the mammoth number of iPhones they'd likely sell if they worked on other carriers.

[rjwill246]

Folks-- the 3G can ONLY work on ATT, so there is NO point going on about it. Apple is highly unlikely to make phones for CDMA!
In Orange County, CA, the reception difficulties occur going through the hills to Laguna and in odd but consistent spots in the area. And, these are identical trouble spots for 2.5 as well as 3G. I had a Razr before on ATT and the trouble spots were the same for that phone too. My colleagues with Verizon seem to have similar spotty reception but on comparing notes, we find that they have different drop-out locations.
Overall, the reception with clear, ungarbled voice reception, through Santa Ana, Irvine and Newport Beach to Laguna I would estimate is just shy of 95% reliable. I have been on the phone for hours traveling through these areas (hands free of course).
Not perfect but not hideous. One has to assume that ATT is pursuing better coverage all over the country, because the fallout for Apple and ATT will not be good as more iPhones penetrate the market.
Meanwhile, the other carriers' reception issues will likely not be covered by the media types who love to bash Apple and ATT.
Verizon- T-Mobile -- take a big sigh!

[Lisamacnewton]

In my area AT&T is preferable to Alltel and Verizon. It's not to say that AT&T is superior, but the coverage drops LESS than the others. In my small town in Michigan, it all depends on which square of the sidewalk you're standing on. The bars deviate wildly in a matter of feet. The terrain is flat, the buildings are low. Some of the supermarkets and larger stores are like black holes of signal! 3G being still in its infancy, I think EVENTUALLY thinks will turn around (I hope).....

[WarrenS]

When i am in locations, i use my brothers phone, when we go other places in the same 50 mile area, he uses mine.
guess what i have ATT he has Version. No news here. It is the cell towers stupid aught to be the mantra of the day.

[zulusafari]

I went to an AT&T store with my original iPhone having 2.0 installed on it complaining about dropped calls and many calls that simply are not getting through for some reason. AT&T said it wasn't a problem on their side and that I should visit with Apple about the phone (hardware) issue. So I went to an Apple store. He checked it, said it seemed to be okay. They ran some kind of diagnostic and found that I had 8% dropped calls. He sounded as if that was no big deal (I thought that was quite high, to have nearly 1 out of 10 of calls dropped!) but they would replace my phone.
I just read last week that AT&T has an average of 1% dropped calls, hence their huge marketing campaign for this issue.
So my iPhone is 8x the normal drop rate. THAT'S HUGE! I'll be returning to the AT&T store soon to inquire about this again. I'm still not happy, still not receiving many calls.

[awlabrador]

I've been with AT&T since they were AT&T Wireless, then Cingular, then AT&T again. I've had no problems with cell phone coverage at home, at work, or during my out-of-town travel, and I don't have complaints with calls with my iPhone (1st gen). I have had no problems with AT&T customer service either, though this experience has been to add or remove service from my cellular package -- I have not called customer service for problems with coverage.

In contrast, my wife is with Verizon Wireless through her work. Coverage for her is poor our local area. Plus, she complains about poor Verizon customer service -- though she's an engineer and may have higher standards for service than regular consumers.

[zulusafari]

Oh, PS. I have been an AT&T customer for a long time, came from a Blackberry Pearl most recently, and have had little to no issues so far. So it seems likely that this issue has to do with the new phone or the service to the new phone. Possibly coupled with the new software that came out.

[leicaman]

"...a singularly better experience with Verizon Wireless than it is with AT&T."
Pun intended?

[TheBum]

I'm with RavyNWolf. I've never had a single problem with Southwestern Bell/Cingular/AT&T in all the time I've been with them. I think it all depends on who the incumbent carrier was when the other carriers expanded into the area. North Texas has always been AT&T territory, in its various forms.

[ibeetle]

Here is what I do not understand. If the AT&T service is so poor that we are now getting hourly reports on how bad it is why hasn't this been reported before.

Doing a Google News search on iPhone 3G reception I found over 2,000 stories this month alone. Doing a Google search on AT&T reception prior to the 3G iPhones release I found 6 stories.

Either the iPhone has poor reception, or everybody has decided to find every conceivable problem with Apple, or people have much higher expectations with the iPhone. Perhaps they do not understand that 3G has nothing to do with call reception, or they think that somehow they are magically going to get 5 bars from an iPhone when AT&T service coverage map shows no matter what phone they have 3 bars is about all they are going to get. 3G or not poor service coverage is poor service coverage.

I for one have been quite happy, compared to my previous cell phone service provider in both data and call service. However, I know from having lived in another part of the country that if I ever moved that service might change. Whenever I hear people say I only get X bars with my iPhone. My first question is always did you get more with your old phone? The answer is usually, well come to think about it no. No phone is going to make any carriers network better. No matter who makes the phone, how much it cost, or what the end users expectations are.