AT&T: Our network is fine, really, can you pretty please tell your readers that?

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

• Alex

  I’m leaving AT&T on Monday when my contract is up. I’ve wanted to leave so many times but didn’t feel that I should have to pay $175 extra to leave their crap service. I’ve also been told that if I had any other phone on AT&T, I could have broken my contract without paying the early termination fee. But because I have an iPhone, I can’t. Absolutely Terrible & Tragic.

• lux

  Wow Stefan your name must be COURAGE!

• Tom

  Hmm, the network is fine. Let me just give an example to the contrary. Driving home the other day I was talking to my wife, we are both on AT&T, and we lost connection three time in less than 5 miles. I finally gave up the call after the third disconnect. A point of note, my phone displayed a reading of 5 bars and according to my wife she had 4 bars of signal strength. So, I don’t think the network is “fine”.

  I will admit that I switched from T-Mobile for the iPhone and we all love the iPhone (we now have four), but unless AT&T improves the network, we will be gone when our contract is up.

  We drop 10x the calls on AT&T than we did on T-Mobile.

• MM4

  Geez,

  where to begin. Service stinks, period.
  Fastest bla bla bla!

• Drew

  I think its BS that I have to pay full price for a data plan when the closest 3G service is 30 miles away…why not pro-rate the service for people who dont have the luxury of that “Fastest 3G Coverage”

• b00st3d

  Iphone customer in New Orleans…3G works great down here! I think we just dont have the congestion here in New Orleans that other areas have.

• Pdm777

  The only problem I have is that I can sit in a restaurant and have no bars and my daughter who has a motorolla 3g phone has full bars and my sons 3g iPhone has no bars…I think some of the problem may be with Apple and not just an Att problem…It’s the same in other location in the US.

• Bob

  Gee, do you think that the phone may have something to do with it versus the network!!!! Come on people, get a clue. Do you really think that with all of the 3rd party drive tests and the ability to claim the “fastest 3G Network” are false????? Do you relly think that AT&T can just go claim anything they want, or any Cell Phone provider for that matter??? The iPhone has the lowest return rate of any phone on the market, AT&T’s churn is only a fraction of that of Verizon, within .1%!!! Wake up people!!

• Wolfgang

  But Stefan, you DID copy and paste their marketing message into your blog…

• MattP

  I live in Dallas and have an iPhone and I am constantly dropping calls because of the 3G reception/congestion. ALL of my family members (cousins and all) have Blackberry Bolds and/or iPhones and we all experience this problem in Dallas. The dropped calls on the iPhone seem to be attributed mostly to the switch from 3G to EDGE when you loose 3G coverage, but why am I losing 3G coverage so often. Also, after the 850Mhz rollout in Dallas, my indoor reception has gotten worse. I don’t know about packets or network configuration, but something needs to be fixed. I have had all 3 generation iPhones and I seem to have had fewer problems with the original. Switch to EDGE and you will have no problems, but you shouldn’t have to for what you pay AT&T and Apple…

• Stefan Constantinescu

  They wanted me to copy and paste it into the blog post I made previously.

  I don’t think creating another blog post, copy and pasting their letter, and then shaming them in public a second time was the goal of the email.

• Sean

  Whatever. I’m cancelling U-verse this week. Wireless goes 11/6. No mo’ feeding the monster.

• ScottF

  WOW! It’s that bad south of the border? Come to Canada! Our prices and terms are horrible, but I have never had a dropped call with Rogers/Fido.

• RF9

  Externally hired or not, he is corporate communications person paid by AT&T, therefore he is AT&T.
  I’m a bit disturbed that AT&T thinks there’s nothing at all wrong with their network. If that’s what they think, then they have no intention of fixing it (because to them there’s nothing to fix.)

  All AT&T has to do is ask, and many many people will GIVE THEM A LIST OF PLACES the network is ‘broken.’

• JonCarlo

  I’m glad we are finally getting ATT to listen. I’m an ATT user and I will add that their network really sucks right now. I have the 3Gs, which is faster, and everything takes forever to do. Data, Email, Calls. Heck I get calls and they can hear me but I can’t hear them.

  C’mmon ATT, you’ve made millions off IPhone customers with your extravgant plans. So at a minimum give us a network that is worth what we pay. I personally beleive they have major issues on their network and need to get them resolved. Don’t just say that everything is OK, take a look at it and keep going over your configs till you get it right.

• Shimmy

  No problems with AT&T in the 3 years I’ve had them (6 months so far as an iphone user), in the midwest (mostly central IL and Chicago area). I think I can count on one hand how many dropped calls I’ve had

• Vitaliy

  I haven’t been able to make a call using my iPhone for the past one hour. It tells me that my call cannot be completed at this time and that I should try again later. I get the same message when I dial 611. I tried restarting my phone and my friend’s phone, but it didn’t solve the problem. People who are trying to call me using the land line simply hear the ring(ing) tone but my iPhone is not ringinging! My friend is experiencing the same issues with his iPhone! I also tried calling through Google Voice with no success… We are paying for the gym membership and the fact that we couldn’t get hold of each other (me and my friend) disrupted our schedule and cost us money tonight. I want my money back!

• FK

  wow ! well, technology isnt dependable all the time ! and i doubt it that any network at any given time will be able to support 100% of the customers that use a specific carrier !! regardless of the advancements that are made !

• mangopants

  Tom – I couldn’t say it any better. I just came to AT&T from T-Mobile. I’ve had more dropped calls and network issues on my crackberry in the last 2 months then I had in the last 8 years with T-Mobile combined. AND I’m paying 30% more for AT&T service then T-Mobile. At the end of the contract, I’m going back.

• LAiPhone

  I live in Los Angeles and own an iPhone. Never really had any network issues. 3G works just fine, with download speeds around 1 Mbps. Never had any dropped call and call quality is always clear.

• chris

  i have at@t in Bergen county new jersey
  everyone complains about these problems with the network and they never happen to me
  im on the phone all night talking to my girlfriend and never does the phone call drop and she has verizon

  but i do have problems with txt messages but its only from att to VERIZON
  txt messages always come in atleast 3 minutes after i send them and alot of times it will drop repeat ext…
  sometimes it takes up to 45 minutes to send
  sprint tmobile and anyother company works fine
  sprint and tmobile also have some problems with sending to verizon but there not as bad which as weird
  they have the 2 miunte delay as well

  i think the only reason at@t is so bad is because its compared to verizon

• Becca

  I lived abroad for a few years and have traveled extensively, always using a phone on a GSM network. It wasn’t until I returned to the States and obtained a SIM card from AT&T that I started having every kind of network problem in the book (including NO service in my home town for 3 months!!). The final straw was standing in front of a AT&T store in the NYC area and not having any service. I paid the early termination and switched carriers. I would love to use the iPhone, but I cannot stomach going back to AT&T. The problem isn’t the phone or the GSM platform; it is AT&T’s network. Until they are willing to acknowledge the problem and do something more than use chewing gum and duct tape to fix it, it’s not worth the iPhone.

• Mark J Laris

  I live in Denton, TX, just north of Dallas, and I have very few problems with ATT. I can’t remember the last time I had a dropped call. I also have Nokia phone, not an iPhone. However, my brother has an iPhone and tells me that his service has been great.

  Mark

• Ben

  No problems in Akron/Canton/Cleveland area.

• jj

  I support Steph I don’t like ppl that bash at&t or any network b/c they might have had a bad experience b/c of a faulty device and run and shout that the network is bad… Your opinion is not valid at all towards at&t’s network..

• Ryan

  It’s humorous that you blame the equipment – yet, the iPhone works well on networks in countries other than the US. Additionally, there are minimal complaints (if any) from the jailbroken phones on T-Mobile networks. I use over 6000 minutes a month on AT&T’s network and even broke one of my iPhones by throwing the phone in frustration of dropped and bad quality calls. Moving to a different phone hasn’t helped either (I went back to the Blackberry). Calls still suck. Network sucks. And AT&T is right – dropped calls ruin conversations but they need to add another by-line… Dropped calls ruin conversations and loses customers. Good-bye AT&T – I’m heading to Verizon.

• Brian

  Switched to AT&T from Verizon for iphone. Now all of the places that I used to have full cellular coverage with Verizon are off limits. As I drove down the interstate 5 -which is the major north/south connector between San Francisco and Los Angeles, I continuously dropped calls. In some areas there was no service. God help you if you are on AT&T and get in an accident on the road, they can’t even cover this major highway! Really terrible rural coverage in addition to spotty coverage in the cities. An F for AT&T overall. They had better stop the profit taking and focus on improving their infrastructure!