"NYC ain't ready for the iPhone" - Says AT&T Update: AT&T Fixed

[venom lyrix]

Originally Posted by SnkrFrk

Seems like ATT aint ready for NY to me, Verizon having this problem?

nope! Verizon working great from my blackberry...BB & NY + Verizon > Iphone & NY & AT&T

 

[23mcpizzle23]

and thats why Verizon > AT&T

 

[los benjaminz]

Hopefully the Iphone comes to T-Mobile.

Most underrated cell phone provider out their.

Best customer service, best unlimited service plans, cheaper plan's, legit phones.

3G not the best, but they constantly expanding it and upgrading it.

 

[GTA 809]

Originally Posted by debs 168

Originally Posted by SnkrFrk

Seems like ATT aint ready for NY to me

quoted for emphasis

 

[in the line for viis]

Digital Domain
[h1]AT&T Takes the Blame, Even for the iPhone's Faults[/h1]By RANDALL STROSS
Published: December 12, 2009

I LOVE my iPhone. I just wish it were matched with Verizon Wireless, the carrier with the most envied reputation as fast, ubiquitous, reliable, nigh perfect.

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Associated Press

In its "there's a map for that" ads, Verizon Wireless contrasts its coverage area with AT&T's.

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Consumer Reports has just released its annual survey of cellphone service, and its respondents collectively agree with me about the rankings: AT&T occupies the bottom and Verizon, the top.

My sense of Verizon's superiority is confirmed every time I see a "there's a map for that" Verizon commercial, graphically showing how far more extensive Verizon's 3G network coverage is in less populated areas. And it is reinforced when AT&T executives publicly confess - as Ralph de la Vega, the chief executive and president of AT&T mobility and consumer markets, did last week at an industry conference - that the company's wireless service in New York and San Francisco was "below our standards."

When I set about looking for independent data, however, to confirm the superior performance of Verizon's network, I was astonished to discover that I had managed to get things exactly wrong. Despite the well-publicized problems in New York and San Francisco, AT&T seems to have the superior network nationwide.

And the iPhone itself may not be so great after all. Its design is contributing to performance problems.

Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the iPhone's "air interface," the electronics in the phone that connect it to the cell towers, had shortcomings that "affect both voice and data." He said that in the eyes of the consumer, "the iPhone has the nimbus of infallibility, ergo, it's AT&T's fault." AT&T does not publicly defend itself because it will not criticize Apple under any circumstances, he said. AT&T and Apple both declined to comment on Mr. Entner's assessments.

Neither AT&T nor Verizon was willing to reveal its internal data on performance. But Global Wireless Solutions, one of the third-party services that run network tests for the major carriers, shared some of its current findings. The service dispatches drivers across the country with phones and laptops equipped with data cards. They have covered more than three million miles of roads this year, while running almost two million wireless data sessions and placing more than three million voice calls, said Paul Carter, the president.

The results place AT&T's data network not just on top, but well ahead of everyone else. "AT&T's data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition, including Verizon," Mr. Carter said. AT&T is a client and Verizon is not, he added.

More evidence that AT&T's data network is head-and-shoulders above Verizon's comes from Root Wireless, a start-up in Bellevue, Wash., that is developing software for consumers to install on their smartphones to do continuous network tests. This generates empirical data for consumers who "today are buried under opinions and advertising slogans," said Paul Griff, the chief executive. Root Wireless has no business relationship with any carrier.

This year, Root Wireless ran 4.7 million tests on smartphones for each of the four major carriers, spread across seven metropolitan areas: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles/Orange County, New York, Seattle/Tacoma, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington. In every market, AT&T had faster average download speeds and had signal strength of 75 percent or better more frequently than did Verizon. (A Verizon spokesman declined to comment about these test results or those of Global Wireless Solutions.)

I asked Ron Dicklin, chief technology officer at Root Wireless, how these results, showing AT&T as the clear leader, could be reconciled with the negative appraisal of Consumer Reports' respondents. He explained that his company's tests of AT&T's data network were done with handsets other than the iPhone, which does not allow non-Apple programs like his to run in the background.

AT&T's besting of Verizon in these tests is all the more remarkable considering the sudden jump in the volume of mobile data that its network has had to handle with the introduction of the iPhone 3G in 2008: approximately 4,000 percent.

Chetan Sharma, a telecommunications consultant whose clients have included AT&T and Verizon, said that when the network and the handset were improved, customers "just used it all the more." AT&T didn't anticipate the rate of growth and didn't upgrade fast enough in some markets, he said. "Other operators have the luxury of watching and learning from AT&T," he said, "which has the most number of next-generation smartphones, with full browsers and built-in video players."

The data seem incontrovertible: AT&T, while meeting 4,000 percent growth in data use, has acquitted itself quite nicely. But the company is saddled with an awful public image as the perennial laggard.

AT&T and Apple could both gain by swapping talent.

Apple, send your marketing wizards to lend your partner a hand. It sorely needs help.

AT&T, send some engineers to redesign the iPhone to make better use of the country's fastest wireless network.

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/business/13digi.html?_r=3

 

[diego]

Will the Apple stores in NY still sell em?

I was planning on getting an upgrade to the iphone in April, what are my options at this point?

 

[duba169]

people from california are so insecure i love it. hate on nyc all you want. you guys being so desperate to post cali>nyc already proves you wrong

 

[an dee 51o]

Originally Posted by DubA169

people from california are so insecure i love it. hate on nyc all you want. you guys being so desperate to post cali>nyc already proves you wrong

You're right. It has nothing to do with NYC being the most populous city in the country and still not having adequate cell coverage.

Saaalty. (It's just a joke on a message board.)

 

[stay lurkin]

Salt Lake City > NY

 

[pharelfor3]

anyone calling ducktales on this article????

 

[duba169]

Originally Posted by an dee 51o

Originally Posted by DubA169

people from california are so insecure i love it. hate on nyc all you want. you guys being so desperate to post cali>nyc already proves you wrong

You're right. It has nothing to do with NYC being the most populous city in the country and still not having adequate cell coverage.

Saaalty. (It's just a joke on a message board.)

all of you read some article that sounds like spin from at ATT, and then ran to say cali is better than nyc. it's just funny to me

 

[an dee 51o]

Originally Posted by PharelFor3

anyone calling ducktales on this article????

Uhhh, the article from CONSUMERIST or the one from the NEW YORK TIMES?

 

[dank roofus]

Doesnt matter, any real NY'er knows t mobile runs coverage in NY anyways

 

[octobersfinest]

Originally Posted by an dee 51o

Originally Posted by DubA169

people from california are so insecure i love it. hate on nyc all you want. you guys being so desperate to post cali>nyc already proves you wrong

You're right. It has nothing to do with NYC being the most populous city in the country and still not having adequate cell coverage.

Saaalty. (It's just a joke on a message board.)

It's one cell phone carrier that isn't even based anywhere near NYC.

Originally Posted by Los Benjaminz

Most underrated cell phone provider out their.

Best customer service, best unlimited service plans, cheaper plan's, legit phones.

As for you, nice work, just a few corrections though = B-

 

[diego]

Originally Posted by Dank Roofus

Doesnt matter, any real NY'er knows t mobile runs coverage in NY anyways

 

[the minister]

FTW!

 

[letsgetit22]

Originally Posted by DubA169

people from california are so insecure i love it. hate on nyc all you want. you guys being so desperate to post cali>nyc already proves you wrong

yeah because dudes from ny never post nyc>cali when post like these are about cali

 

[dank roofus]

Originally Posted by Diego

Originally Posted by Dank Roofus

Doesnt matter, any real NY'er knows t mobile runs coverage in NY anyways

ok traitor

 

[finessesosa]

Originally Posted by Late80s

any network that would have had the iphone would have this happen to them, you must not understand the amount of data the iphone uses. its not well managed like a blackberry.

wouldnt happen on verizon.

 

[dirtylicious]

like I wrote in another thread.

ATT ranked the lowest out of the big 4 cell phone companies in the NYC area in a Consumer Reports story last month

 

[dirtylicious]

like I wrote in another thread.

ATT ranked the lowest out of the big 4 cell phone companies in the NYC area in a Consumer Reports story last month

 

[saviormoneyy]

Tmobile iPhone in Ny ftw, and cali is soft like baby socks

 

[mr718]

Originally Posted by gboy1230

cali FTW AT&T FTL

Fixed

 

[chickhien]

Originally Posted by Dirtylicious

like I wrote in another thread.

ATT ranked the lowest out of the big 4 cell phone companies in the NYC area in a Consumer Reports story last month

what did it say in the consumer reports? was it about customer satisfaction? actual coverage? i'm just curious bc ive been with at&t for almost 10years, never had any issues with drop calls. then again ive never owned an iphone (atleast for longer than a week). been a palm user for 4 years and blackberryever since

 

[rikan havok]

Originally Posted by OctobersFinest

Originally Posted by Th3RealF0lkBlu3s

Wow.

This makes me believe they will actually try that stupid idea to charge people for their amount of data usage instead of having an unlimited data plan.

Looks like I'll have to switch to Verizon.

The reason they might do that is because only a minority of people with unlimited data plans are actually using the majority of the network and clogging it up for everyone. Not sure if I worded that correctly.

This just sounded mad stupid but ok .....