AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
Summary
Topics
That happens daily when I try to converse on my first-generation iPhone in my apartment and in certain other neighborhoods. I've come to anticipate that if I can even make a call it's likely to be short-lived or poor quality.
Frustrated by the numerous interrupted calls, I decided to try to find out why my iPhone service is so poor that it's easier to have a Web video conference over AIM with my boyfriend because neither of us can use our iPhones (his is 3G) reliably inside either of our homes.
This is not a new problem. AT&T was criticized when traffic from attendees at the South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, overwhelmed the network earlier this year. And there were widespread complaints about dropped calls and spotty service after the launch of the iPhone 3G a year ago.
I wondered why, a year later, the service still seemed unreliable. I called AT&T (on my reliable landline at work) to find out. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel blamed the problem on the increasing amount of data traffic iPhone users are creating, which CNET News and others wrote about earlier this month.
"We lead the industry in smart phones," he said. "As a result, we are having to stay ahead of what is incredible and increasing demand for wireless data services."
I wanted to know specifically why my problems haven't been resolved nearly one-and-a-half years after getting my iPhone and why my voice reception would be impacted by data traffic on a different network. "Well, it wouldn't," Siegel conceded.
Initially, he had suggested that my problems were related to the fact that the first-generation iPhone uses the EDGE data network, which is slower than the 3G network. However, not only am I on a different data network than the 3G data bandwidth hogs, but there should be no connection between general data usage and my voice reception.
Other factors are at play, though, such as proximity to a cell tower, the thickness of walls in the building and amount of demand on the network at the time, according to Siegel.
Asked what AT&T is doing to address the reception problems, Siegel said the company is rolling out 850 MHz frequency, which penetrates walls better than the higher frequency 1900MHz band; adding 2,000 cell towers to increase coverage; beefing up its back-haul capacity that connects the cell towers to the Internet; spending as much as $18 billion this year to upgrade its wireless and broadband networks; and moving to the LTE, or 4G, network standard next year.
"We recognize unique challenges have been posed by all of these smart devices being increasingly used by more and more people and I think we are on the forefront of architecting our network to continue to stay ahead of the demands that those devices place on our network," he said.
Despite listing the improvements AT&T plans to make, Siegel kept insisting that there was no story here; that my concerns and the many comments on the Apple iPhone forums about reception problems and dropped calls was not newsworthy.
While I do have friends who report no problems with their iPhone reception, many of my friends have complaints. I did an informal survey of friends on Facebook and learned that people suffer from dropped calls, as well as inaccessible voice mail and delayed voice messages. Also, I am not alone in being forced to cut back on talking on the phone as a result of the reception problems. Here are some examples of the responses I got:
* "As soon as I move and do not have an ATT bundle, I am throwing the iphone, and ATT in the trash," wrote a San Francisco friend using a first-generation iPhone.
* "When i first got my iPhone (July 2007), i had fine coverage. In the past nine months or so, something changed. Now i have *horrible* reception in my neighborhood, especially in my apartment, and most especially in my bedroom. My phone virtually never rings there, and i almost never get voicemails or text messages until somewhere between 2 minutes and 2 hours after the communication went through," wrote another first-generation Bay Area iPhone user on Facebook.
* "Terrible in SF. Probably 1 out of 3 calls gets dropped," wrote a 3G iPhone user.
* "I've come to use it as a portable computer and a phone only in emergencies. I hardly talk on the phone anymore," another Bay Area friend who has a 3G iPhone told me.
* "My (3G iPhone) won't work inside my house. I'm thinking about selling my house and finding a new one. Until then, I just use the forwarding feature, but it's a pain. And yeah, it means I tend to talk on the iPhone less. It's definitely a problem with my line o' work, although I'm trying to use Google Voice to solve the problem, too," wrote a friend in Arizona.
Siegel was not amused.
"So you are actively asking folks to submit their experiences? Sorry, but you and I have a basic disagreement about why you are doing this story. What is the news here beyond what others have covered?" he wrote in an e-mail.
Maybe I should pose that question to all the iPhone users who can't make a basic phone call with their phones much of the time.
Siegel said he would look into my particular situation. I hope he does and if so, I'll let you know what I find out.
While I can't speak for other parts of the country, there do seem to be problems in San Francisco at least. This is significant given the high percentage of iPhone users in the area.
What's your experience?
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 45 Talkback(s)
-
100% here - better than Verizon
I'm on the east coast and have no issues with my iPhone. Rock solid and reliable. Better than the Verizon NOTwork.
itguy0823rd Sep 2009 -
Funny...
Im on the east coast too and live in rural america to boot (eastern shore). Verizon has the best coverage hands down.
JT8223rd Sep 2009 -
Rural here in PA - Verizon sucks.
One of my coworkers is building a house. The contractors all had Verizon. Guess who's AT&T phone they had to use? HIS.
Verizon is not the be all and end all of cell carriers.itguy0823rd Sep 2009 -
Use Android and Choose your Carrier
Problem solved
Uralbas23rd Sep 2009 -
CHECK OUT COVERAGE MAP
All you have to do is check out the COVERAGE map on AT&T and you will see why you are having the problem you are....NOT ENOUGH COVERAGE in your area. Why? Because the coverage started on the EAST coast and still hasn't reached any kind of peak on the WEST coast.
forrestcook23rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
I have been a 3G user a bit over a year. I live outside of
Philadelphia. I moved to the iPhone from a Blackberry on
Verizon.
The coverage is not as bad here, not as good as Verizon,
but not like what you experience in San Fran. BUT, screwy
things happen often. I can be on a call in one place in my
house and, for no apparent reason, the call drops. I was at
a stop light earlier in the week, bang - call dropped. AT&T
definitely has problems. I took my iPhone to Italy for 16
days - not one dropped call while I was there, which at
international rates, I would have been okay with a few
dropped calls. Visual Voicemail did not work right
internationally, but that was easy to work around the old
fashioned way - calling my voice mailbox.
I have three iPhones in the family and we chose not to
upgrade to 3GS phones, as we hope the iPhone for launch
in the summer of 2010 will support the Verizon network. I
am not a big MMS user, but after getting rid of my
blackberry, I lost my tether capability. I went back to
Verizon for that service as I did not want to reward AT&T
for poor performance. Hope that helps....
campjh@...23rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
I live in the Chicago area and have seen an explosion of dropped calls over the past 5 months. I can't make a call while driving in the car lasting over 5 minutes without being dropped. I am afraid to make a business call in the car.
I have complained to AT&T and they worked with me on a variety of fixes. I have downloaded new software, restored the unit, replaced the sim card, powered the unit on and off on a daily basis, had area cell tower system checks etc. None of these suggestions have helped the dropped call situation. My iPhone is useless as a phone in Chicago.
csderemo23rd Sep 2009 -
No iPhone but have AT&T in same area as you and
and reception still sucks inside my house. Considering dumping cell phones altogether.
mustangj36@...24th Sep 2009 -
Reception now horrible
I have the iPhone 3G. I'd go out to lunch from work and always would call my wife and tell her where I'd be, and to call back if she needed anything from any of the stores nearby. Several times in the last few months I'd get a voicemail from her, (that went STRAIGHT to vm, by the way) with instructions on what to pick up while on my lunch break.
We also dumped our long distance landline at home 8 months ago and we'd be using our great-reception mobile phones for long distance. The past 3 months we have both had a LOT of trouble with dropped calls, including her Moto Razr, also on ATT.
She is eligible for an upgrade, and I've wanted to get her an iPhone as well. She doesn't want it now because of ATT. I may wait for my contract to expire, and we'll both dump the sad excuse for a wireless phone system.
chuckstanley23rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
So maybe this can help you guys with your issues, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_wave you can also do more searching on Radio Theory and how it works.
The one thing I would like to point out is there is only so much traffic that can be used on one cell tower, the best reception you can get on your cell phone is travleing none stop about 55 to 75 MPH, this will allow your phone to Push Someone off the tower you want to connect to (dropped calls) this will allow you to stay connected, All Cell towers are set up this way. Explaning below.
Is just like when your on a CB Radio and you hear someone talking you can grab the Mic anfd start talking over them and nobody else will be hearing anyone but you. Same way in Cell phone Radios. its only two ways, if there is someone on a call and there traveling they will get the connection to the Tower in Priority.
If you have any futher questions you can e-mail me at mark@pcmedicalist.com ill be happy to explain in more details if you would like.
I do not work for a cell company and have never worked there. The guys you would prefer to speak to would be the actual workers that maintain the cell sites. they know more about how the system is ran then any Company that is not in IT department.
PC Medicalist23rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
I am an iPhone 3G user in Phoenix, AZ. Love the phone but I get calls dropped daily. These do occur while driving so I expect the cause to be cell transitions.. I have learned to expect and deal with. Voicemails appearing when I didn't get the call (not on history) happen fairly often too. I do have reception issues occasionally but not like the author.
I previously had another smart phone model on another *huge* carrier and the only good thing about it was NO dropped calls. So I know this should be fixable.
robdg23rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
Saddened by substandard iPhone service...one month into
being an iPhone user I have learned that the folks at
Apple have outstanding customer service and that AT&T bit
off way more Apple than they can chew. Dropped calls,
locked up texts, delayed messages. Smooth move AT&T.
worms0923rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
I took my iphone overseas earlier this month and despite the best efforts to keep data roaming to a minimum, I was hit with a $714 bill! After calling them to complain, they deleted about $500 of it. Everyone I've talked with who had this same problem told me that they were able to resolve this with one phone call. Which leads me to believe that the whole overseas data roaming charges are one huge SCAM, and that their only hope is that some fools will actually pay the bills in full.
novatom@...23rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
I love love my iPhone 3g that I've had for a year come this December. However, I moved with in my city, and no longer have barely any service @ all. I live off of my phone for e-mail, text, and business calls. This spotty service is not going to work. Why are we paying all this money for the phone & then the monthly charges for this kind of service? AT&T better watch out, I have friends that have gotten their iPhones unlocked & gone to T Mobile w/ no problems yet! Plus their monthly charges are cheaper! Thank you for the iPhone Apple, but AT&T you suck
deej0323rd Sep 2009 -
RE: AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone
As soon as Verizon get's the iPhone I'm out. AT&T's network (and arrogance) is sad. Thank you for publishing this article. It is a story even if they don't want it to be one.
The iPhone is great but AT&T's network is garbage.
jaydea23rd Sep 2009
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Facebook Activity
