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Seth Weintraub

Apple versus Google

Tech journalists lash out at AT&T service failures

5 comments

TAGS:3G, AT&T, fail, iPhone
IT TOPICS:Macintosh & Apple, Mobile & Wireless, Personal Technology

MG Siegler who often covers Apple for TechCrunch is having a bad AT&T week. Welcome to the club. You'll see why I say that in a minute.

He contends that AT&T's ability to stream visual voice messages stopped working two weeks ago for some people (was this because of a tethering/MMS hack?). Instead of informing people, AT&T just tried to bury the news. Obviously a lot of people missed important meetings and information because messages went unheard.

They say customers can always check their messages the old fashioned way, by calling their AT&T voicemail. Yes, very helpful AT&T. The problem (and this has killed me while travelling in Europe) is that AT&T sends the visual voicemails as files to the iPhone over the 3G network. However, it won't send these voicemail files over Wifi (to get more roaming data revenue or force the user to call using roaming).

In this case, the 3G data path apparently shut down. If AT&T delivered the voicemails over any data stream like email, everyone would have their voicemail.

Siegler is just the latest in the series of technology bloggers and journalists complaining about AT&T. For the record, I've been hating on AT&T longer than anyone. As Siegler points out, Om Malik, who runs the GigaOM network, gave up his iPhone just a few months ago, not because he didn't love the iPhone, but because AT&T's network wasn't good enough to use.

AT&T’s network just wasn’t cutting it for me. I even tried using a BlackBerry, but the network issues never quite went away. Then over the past few days, my iPhone was spending ungodly stretches of time “searching” for the network, the download speeds of web pages slowed down, and email — well that’s a whole other story. The static, the dropped calls and above all the shoddy call quality were enough to raise my blood pressure. And given my medical history, that’s not a good thing. The only feature that worked flawlessly: SMS.

I love my iPhone — but AT&T’s network has failed me. Apparently I’m not alone. If you follow me on Twitter, then you know how often I complain about it; my complaints always result in me receiving similar messages of frustration from other iPhone users. A status update on my Facebook page on the topic unleashed a flood of messages from people expressing abhorrence of AT&T’s service.

But Siegler and Malik aren't alone. The editor of Gizmodo, Brian Lam, Tweets about his AT&T experiences:

He offers a solution:

Rob Beschizza of BoingBoing Gadgets says:

AT&T seems simply unable to deal with the iPhone on its network: its 3G is slower in real-world tests than Sprint and Verizon's "2.75G" Evdo Rev. A network, and that's when 3G works at all. For consumers, it's an inconvenience; for business, it's a big red banner over the iPhone saying "Do Not Buy This."

Brian X. Chen from Wired has nothing but bad things to say about AT&T and their repeated mishandling of iPhone activations on launch (for the third consecutive year).

As if the aforementioned hiccups weren’t enough, some new iPhone 3GS owners were left phoneless over the weekend due to the network’s failure to activate their phones. Apple apologized to affected customers in an e-mail and issued $30 iTunes credit.

Dan "Fake Steve Jobs" Lyons chimes in:

How many things in your life work as well as your Macintosh, or your iPod, or your iPhone? (Allowing for the fact that AT&T's cell network stinks.)

Engadget' editor, Joshua Topolsky, has many unkind words for AT&T's service as well in his iPhone 3GS review:

AT&T, on the other hand, isn't exactly acting like the top-tier carrier it's supposed to be, and its service can sometimes be maddeningly poor.

He also goes on to rip on AT&T for not having services that the iPhone's other carriers already have running Things like tethering, MMS, 7.2Mbts 3G. AT&T is supposedly working on these issues and will have fixes available "soon".

The problems with AT&T seem to be focused around the tech-heavy and densely-populated San Francisco and New York City areas. It is also where many bloggers and journalists call home, so this might be a perfect storm for AT&T's bad press.

Regardless, people in big cities should expect to get similar mobile service to those who live in less populated areas.

It isn't just AT&T's customers who don't seem to like the firm. AT&T's employees give it one of the lowest approval ratings in the technology sector, for both the company and its CEO, Randall L. Stephenson.

For the record, I've recently moved from New York City to a nearby suburb. I used to get dropped calls around 50% of the time in the city. At my new home, I can't even pick up a signal. It isn't just my home, though. The whole town is a dead zone for AT&T customers. This is a suburb of New York, 30 minutes outside of the city, not Area 51. AT&T is supposed to have "moderate" coverage here. The map below is a big fat lie.

So the question really is: How bad can AT&T get before Apple does something about it? Is there another US network out there that can step up if Apple wants to move or are they all pretty poor? This AT&T customer is hoping something is already in the works.

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AT&T

Submitted by Nancy Lea on January 25, 2010 - 9:37 A.M.

Having "fired" ATT recently as the provider of my home telephone and ISP services in favour of Charter I am only counting the days until Apple comes to their collective senses and ditches them as sole provider for iPhone.
Quite briefly, they stink! I have consistently gotten bills for FAR over what I contracted to pay monthly and their bills are made so deliberately (IMO) confusing that it is nearly impossible to figure out WHAT the charges are for. I had the same issues with them when they had my home phone. Customer service people are fine, even outstanding, WHEN YOU CAN GET THEM! ATT has an odd concept of service on a corporate level..."Sorry, call back during working hours" is the usual. Charter, by contrast, is there at 2 am on a Sunday morning if my service goes out (which is rare). On the iPhone, calls constantly drop, interference is a frequent issue and, then, there is getting customer service on the phone.

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I Miss Sprint!

Submitted by James on August 17, 2009 - 8:16 A.M.

A year ago, I could never imagine I'd say I miss Sprint -- bad customer service and all. At least by enduring the customer service on Sprint you still had a solid 3G network to use.

I'm in Chicago (like San Fran and NYC) our service is HORRIBLE on AT&T. My iPhone, while an incredible piece of hardware, is rendered useless on the AT&T network. When downtown in the Loop, my phone can't get a signal at least 50% of the time. The signal drifts in and out.

At home on the north side of the city, my signal went from good to unusable over the last few months. I can't make a call from my house.

Here in Chicago there have been various media reports of signal issues in the Wrigleyville/Lakeview area when the Cubs are playing. AT&T claimed they were solving the problems by brining in Cellular on Wheels (COWS). This hasn't really solved that problem. Friends living there can't make calls or even place SMS messages.

Other friends have unlocked their iPhone and report service on T-Mobile is considerably better in Chicago with no dropped calls.

If I didn't have to pay $175 on three lines of service, I'd drop AT&T right now. Though I love the iPhone, it's not what's holding me back -- it's the cash I'd have to pay out. I wish the FCC or BBB would step in and help customers that are stuck on AT&T's horrible network.

I'm an Apple fan. I really wish Apple would step up to AT&T and drop the exclusive arrangement. AT&T is giving Apple a black eye!!!

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AT&T has been bad for as long as they have existed

Submitted by Charles Robinson on July 21, 2009 - 7:37 A.M.

Seth, I've been hating AT&T since I took my first IT Manager job in 1998. I think I win the hate-AT&T-the-longest prize. :-)

I have worked with all the major providers in the US, as well as numerous CLEC's. AT&T is the carrier that everyone hates. Mention them as your incumbent carrier and their competitors groan and mutter under their breath. Simply mention their name to any IT manager and be prepared to see a grown man (or woman) cry.

I'm not the least bit surprised that they're having service issues, but I would be lying if I said I'm not amused that the iPhone tribe is experiencing the customer unfriendly approach first hand. Misery loves company, you know.

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Stop Buying iPhones!

Submitted by Anonymous on July 21, 2009 - 5:24 A.M.

These AT&T problems are nothing new. They have been going on for some time (years?) Yet all you bozos continue to buy these iPhones. I say, you deserve what you get. If you really are unhappy, stop buying the iPhone and/or return your iPhones, and tell Apple why.

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Some of this might be spectrum allocation

Submitted by Michael Jennings on July 20, 2009 - 3:42 A.M.

In the vast bulk of countries, 3G has been rolled out in different bands to 2G GSM. In most cases, the 900MHz and 1800Mhz bands were used for GSM and the 2100MHz band has been used for 3G. 900Mhz (or in a few cases like Australia and Japan 850MHz) is now being refarmed to give better coverage in rural areas, but that is a secondary move.

In the US, the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands have been used for GSM, but no new spectrum was initially allocated for 3G, so AT&T has had to refarm its spectrum for 3G. Specifically, when it introduces 3G it has to reduce the amount of spectrum available for 2G. This is a delicate move and a simple lack of spectrum in which to do it may be part of the cause of AT&T's poor coverage in high usage areas like New York and San Francisco. (I doubt it is the whole reason, but it might be some of the reason). However, I live in Europe, and the sorts of problems I hear described for AT&T in the US simply don't happen here. Right now I am in Belgrade, and my phone is showing 5 bars of 7.2Mbps HSDPA coverage, although the roaming charges are too high to make much use of it.

T-Mobile in the US did not have enough spectrum to even try the refarming trick, and thus waited until more spectrum was available in the 1700/2100 MHz (AWS) band before building a 3G network. It may be that their 3G network will be a good deal more robust due to their using different spectrum bands than are being used for 2G. The build-out is still not that advanced because they started later, but they have lots of spectrum and thus room to improve.

My hunch is that Apple do not want to build a CDMA iPhone and so Verizon and Sprint are out, but it would not be a big deal at all Apple to add support for T-Mobile's AWS network in the next iPhone. They are probably going to have do this at some point anyway, because the AWS bands have been allocated throughout the Americas and carriers that carry the iPhone in other countries are going to need this feature. Apple could then if it wanted to get rid of the exclusive deal and offer the iPhone with two networks. Even if both were not good, that would at least give customers the chance to see which is better in their neighbourhoods and give them some choice.

Even if Apple did not end the exclusivity with AT&T, adding support for the extra band would make them feel a bit threatened, which might encourage them to improve their service. (It would also be waving a red flag at a bull with respect to unlockers, and AT&T would hate that. I doubt Apple would care much though). There is also the minor fact that AT&T own some AWS spectrum themselves which they could use to improve their own 3G network. My hunch is they have no immediate plans to use it though.

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