I have a really bad service with at&t I called CSR they said is good coverage by my area I went to AT&T store they showed me the MAP it looks very good coverage but thats not true, there is another way to proof there is not good coverage?, I been complaint, even they send someone to my area to check and they said nothing is wrong with the network thay said I have to change my equipment "yeah rite" so I'm looking for somethin to proof ther is no good service thanks

So you are saying it is Apple's fault that people are using the service they pay for from AT&T? Why AT&T can't use some of the record 12.9 billion USD profit they made in 2008 to upgrade their service is beyond me. Better give them another government handout to make it worth their while. Give me a bloody break.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/35727.php

Fantastic.. a Reference from Fatty.

Sorry, when did AT&T/Cingular have a good reputation?

They don't need Apple for that. Their customer service, plans, and coverage are more than enough to make them look bad.

Name a decent national cell phone carrier out there. The sad fact is that the cell phone companies have lured us in to a new product that the majority of us are addicted to so they can pretty much charge higher and higher prices because people are willing to pay for it while providing crappy service.

We pay high prices for having the convenience of calling someone from anyplace at anytime. In this day and age, we feel the need to talk for the 30 minute drive home to ask mom how her day was instead of waiting those few minutes to get home where we can make that same call for pennies on the minute. Finally convinced my wife to wait till she gets home and it allowed me to change to a plan and save myself about 50 bucks a month.

Now only if I could get her to stop worrying about being on the same network as her friends. Verizon coverage sucks where we now live...

I've been on Verizon for close to 4 years, and I have no complaints. None. Trust me, I'm a bitter IT Admin, I'd find some if I could. This is why I refuse to get any phone off the Verizon network. And I truly pay for it with crap phones on the Verizon network, but at least the network stays up and running and I get decent speeds when I need them.

My brother refuses to use Verizon because they stole money from him back in the 80's when they were Bell Atlantic. We both joke about companies we will never do business with again. My list has Banks, his has telco companies. :)

Indy:
"Name a decent national cell phone carrier out there."

MJ:
"I've been on Verizon for close to 4 years, and I have no complaints."

Same here. Verizon, for the past 2 years I've been on the service, has been superb. I have had Boost and Sprint both and could not stand either of them. My Step-Mother has AT&T and hates it with a passion....she cannot wait for her contract to expire.

The service quality of these companies depends on where you live. Started out with Verizon back in 2001 and then when I moved to Seattle, switched to Cingular because I didn't get reception in my apartment. The only reason I switched back to Verizon was because my fiance/wife used it and it's cheaper to be on the same network for us.

I just recently moved and in the area I am now, the phone quality/coverage sucks for Verizon. Frequently lose signal and the signal quality is terrible.

No one needs to talk on the phone and try to drive.

I've been with Sprint since 2000 and haven't found a carrier to replace them, though Verizon has come a long way. Sprint takes care of the network and customer service takes care of me.

Actually it should be illegal to talk on your cell phone while driving. People are bad enough drivers without the distraction of talking on the phone. People, keep the phone for emergencies, but keep your eyes and your attention on the road. You're driving a 2 ton time bomb. If you don't care about yourself and your family, then pay attention so you don't kill or injure other people.

Nah...no need to outlaw cell-phone use in cars. Simply enforce existing laws, and increase penalties if the infractions are due to gross negligence (talking on the cell phone).

Example: If they pulled over even 20% of the people I see *not* using their turn signals, nearly every single one of them would get the increased penalty. Do this enough, and people *might* start getting the hint.

Note for those who cannot infer: Include eating, reading, etc...to the "gross negligence" penalty increase.

There have only been one or two instances I can recall where a driver did not use their turn signal and it was *not* plainly obvious that it was due to some distraction of that nature. Of course, that only pisses me off more...the driver had no distractions, every hand available, and *still* failed to let anyone know they were about to swerve wildly into another lane.

...those people I want to drag out of their cars and beat to a bloody red pulp. But I'm not bitter at all. :)

Sure, it's Apple's fault that the provider has under-developed its network.

People in Europe seem to be much more happy with the iPhone service, as 3G data networks are consistently available.

One could wonder how the relationship would have been changed if there was a CDMA/EVDO version of iPhone and it was available to all 4 major providers in the U.S.A. My guess is that AT&T wouldn't be enjoying all of the 7 million iPhone users or the network headaches.

So Tim, who in your family or circle of friends works at AT&T that your trying to appease?

There are plenty of folks who believe that AT&T's service problems are due solely to the bandwidth being sucked up by all the iPhone users. So Tim seems to be one of them. What does that have to do with "appeasing" anyone?

Glad you ask, if people believe that, they need to be educated. iPhone launched June 29, 2007.

Even prior to it's launch AT&T's network was seen as problematic.

Slow (EDGE) - "But otherwise, you have to use AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow. The New York Times’s home page takes 55 seconds to appear; Amazon.com, 100 seconds; Yahoo. two minutes. You almost ache for a dial-up modem."

Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2...l?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Unreliable (GSM) - "I get no reception about 50% of the time and the other 50% of the time my calls get dropped."

Reference: http://www.consumeraffai...s/att_wireless_gsm.html

There are of course several cases more of these, just picking random ones. Google for pre-iPhone launch AT&T wireless. That being said, I just feel Tim can't possibly be oblivious to all of this considering his line of work.

No, what we have here is typical reluctance on AT&T's part to upgrade as the path to ROI isn't immediately clear. Now things are reaching a tipping point and they are in "oh sh*t" mode.

I am not really sure what this would solve either. I should hope iPhone isn't the one and only phone that will continue to push the limits. What about Android phones, will they not grow in power? I think the mobile stuff that's going on is great, would love to see it continue to grow, not get stifled early on. Slamming the phone because it's becoming more demanding and versatile is ridiculous.

I also seriously doubt (outside of fanboys) that everyone sees this as an AT&T only problem. Both companies, hell the whole industry is still young. They do some things right, they do some things wrong. AT&T definently doesn't need a free pass on this one. They need to upgrade ASAP.
Apple needs to loosen it's grip on the AppStore or improve the process or something.

Last thing I'll say on the topic is look at the headline of this article and tell me that doesn't sound the least bit like sensational click bait. One could turn the table and sound just as accurate.

See the problem with your argument is its only the Iphone that is causing these problems, other phones on the network are fine...

Now if all the phones on the network were experiencing the same problems then you would have a point. The articles you reference are ancient and all cellular companies have made significant upgrades since then.

You also don't account with all the new customers that exploded on the network when iphone made its debut.

The complaints you listed are from 2003 which is 6 years ago - A LOT has changed since then, we have a new president too!

Its like this, say you have Time Warner and speeds seems to be fine but then they run a new deal and a bunch of people show up, one of these people is running a server for a gaming platform and another is using the service to provide internet to others as a way to make a profit. What do you think is going to happen to the existing customers on that node?

This is basically what is happening at At&t the service wasn't designed for the above. At&t's service wasn't designed for someone to be using their phone like a pc all day which is the problem.

In less populated areas where they is a smaller market for Iphones the service runs great, in more populated areas such as NY, there are definitely problems.

First EDGE is plenty fast. I've had the same blackberry handheld for 4 years and the only time I have problems with the data network is when I'm in a tunnel.

As for ROI, can you blame them, or any cell provider, that doesn't want to spend money to improve their networks if they aren't going to get any benefits from it? With GVoice, Skype, wide spread WIFI availability, and more and more ways to use your cell phone and not pay the cell phone company, who can blame them.

What this country needs are strong laws forcing these companies to help improve society rather than paying billions of dollars in bonuses. How about providing cell service to the entire country? African countries have companies that deliver service in the middle of now where, hundreds of miles from the closest building or town. I can't get coverage in my apartment smack in the middle of a city of 7 million people. How about providing free cell phones to all emergency service responders and to those who can't afford them so they have something to use in case of emergency.

Call is socialism, call it being moral, call it good business because of the respect they would get, call if whatever you want. But taking care of people benefits everyone except the richest 1% of this country.

Fair enough, in that amount of time there certainly should have been some changes. I just feel I wanted to point out that it's not like AT&T was great up until iPhone and then it went to trash. There were certainly complaints before it. Now the complaints are greatly exasperated. That's really all I wanted to point out there.

"This is basically what is happening at At&t the service wasn't designed for the above. At&t's service wasn't designed for someone to be using their phone like a pc all day which is the problem."

This is precisely what I hope changes with time to come. I still contend, they need to upgrade.

I can't blame them but I can blame law makers on account of service contracts and exclusivity deals being allowed to continue so unabated. These contract periods need to be much shorter or abolished. I find the likelihood of them being abolished highly unlikely, so shorter then? :)

I couldn't agree more. Government is there to protect and serve it's citizens not the corporations. But this won't change until the money is taken out of elections and serving the public is no longer a career (term limits.)

Campaigns should be funded by government with a set amount of money. Television stations should be required to give every candidate en equal amount of free commercial time and campaigns and organizations on their behalf should be forbidden from advertising beyond the free allocated time. (The FCC regulates these services, so there is nothing stopping them, other than the bribes they receive.) Whether you're Mike Bloomberg, Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, Ron Pohl, Al Fraken, Ralph Nader, Barak Obama, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, or the hot dog vendor, you should have the same ability to serve. Government is "for the people, by the people" not 'for the rich, by the corporations.'

Lawmakers shouldn't have anything to say about which businesses want to do business together or partner together.