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3G in Northern Virginia

Knowlege Bomb

Knowlege Bomb

macrumors G4
Original poster
Feb 14, 2008
10,356
9,139
US
Hey all.

I was just browsing the At&t site and noticed that I'm eligible for an upgrade after only 10 months of my original iPhone contract (been with at&t for four or five years).

I was thinking of going to the 3G but was curious as to whether anybody has had any stand out experiences in my area. I looked at the coverage maps and it looks solid in my general area but from what I've heard they're not always completely reliable.

I spend most of my time in Vienna, Merrifield, Annandale, Fairfax, Burke, etc. Anybody with good experiences here? (Vienna being the important one cuz it's where I work and need to kill the most time)
 
So that's actually good news and bad news at the same time.

Now I have to decide if the extra $10/mo is worth having good service at work and a little more sleekness on my phone...
 
But I'm still seeing threads concerning light leaks and uneven screens and other hardware defects that I don't think I could handle.

I don't wanna be one of those guys that's talking about going to the Apple store for his fourth replacement 3G...
 
Yupp, sorry about that I was downstairs watching Friends. (Great show) lol.

Way to go out and buy a new iPhone in less than 3 hours :p
 
Its not like it was a spur of the moment thing. I've been wanting one for a while. Just so happened there was an AT&T store on my way to dinner and I was eligible for an upgrade.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied. Lowest I've seen for coverage is 4 bars of 3G. And I got a really suave Incipio case along with it. You can barely tell there's a case on it and it came with a anti-glare screen protector.
 
You lucky bugger. My town probably won't have 3G before the end of the decade. >_>
 
Guess it helps that the nation's capital is less than 20 miles away...

3G Maps are freaking awesome. I'm impressed.
 
Update 2:

I am extremely happy to report a steady four to five bars of 3G service here at work where I had a sketchy 1 dot of edge.

Seems I made the right decision!
 
lostprophet894 said:
Update 2:

I am extremely happy to report a steady four to five bars of 3G service here at work where I had a sketchy 1 dot of edge.

Seems I made the right decision!
Click to expand...

AT&T has greatly improved their 3G coverage and reception on the iPhone is much better now in Northern VA than at launch. I am right in Lorton, used to barely get a 3G signal indoors at home or work, now I get 3-5 bars.
 
haddman said:
AT&T has greatly improved their 3G coverage and reception on the iPhone is much better now in Northern VA than at launch. I am right in Lorton, used to barely get a 3G signal indoors at home or work, now I get 3-5 bars.
Click to expand...

Yup. In Springfield, for me.

When I bought the phone last July I would get 1 bar of 3G in my bedroom and only EDGE on the main level and the kitchen.

These days I get 5 bars upstairs and 4 bars everywhere else in the house.

They've improved the network a LOT in the last 6 months.
 
Small White Car said:
Yup. In Springfield, for me.

When I bought the phone last July I would get 1 bar of 3G in my bedroom and only EDGE on the main level and the kitchen.

These days I get 5 bars upstairs and 4 bars everywhere else in the house.

They've improved the network a LOT in the last 6 months.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I spend much of my time in my basement when I'm home as that's where the big TV is, at launch getting a call down there was hit or miss...usually miss, now 4-5 bars. ATT tried to blame it on the phone but now I'm convinced it was there crappy coverage.
 
3G coverage in NoVa is fairly good. There's a few dead spots of Edge-only during my daily journey into DC via the Toll Road, but overall it's pretty good. AT&T has been expanding coverage recently as well by converting some Edge towers into 3G. Purcellville in Loudoun County is a good example.

Congrats on the new phone. Now you must download some apps. If you are a commuter, the NBC4 Live Traffic Cameras is a good DC-local app.
 
Small White Car said:
Yup. In Springfield, for me.

When I bought the phone last July I would get 1 bar of 3G in my bedroom and only EDGE on the main level and the kitchen.

These days I get 5 bars upstairs and 4 bars everywhere else in the house.

They've improved the network a LOT in the last 6 months.
Click to expand...

Here in Burke on the GSM network 5 bars (Have a first generation iPhone). Coverage is pretty good around here, with only a few dead spots (one of which is near the end of the Franconia-Springfield Parkway).
 
compuguy1088 said:
Here in Burke on the GSM network 5 bars (Have a first generation iPhone). Coverage is pretty good around here, with only a few dead spots (one of which is near the end of the Franconia-Springfield Parkway).
Click to expand...

The dead-spots are rare, but where they exist, they're very strange.

This spot, for example, is totally, 100% dead. There's nothing for the 1/4 mile each direction on that road from that spot. Everywhere else around there? Perfect!
 
doodads said:
Does your phone have any light leaks, cracks, etc?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. The At&t guy put the screen protector and case on for me and I haven't taken it off yet. Kinda scared to be honest.

FearlessFreep said:
3G coverage in NoVa is fairly good. There's a few dead spots of Edge-only during my daily journey into DC via the Toll Road, but overall it's pretty good. AT&T has been expanding coverage recently as well by converting some Edge towers into 3G. Purcellville in Loudoun County is a good example.

Congrats on the new phone. Now you must download some apps. If you are a commuter, the NBC4 Live Traffic Cameras is a good DC-local app.
Click to expand...

All of the apps from my first gen are now on the 3G. And I added Pandora.
 
haddman said:
AT&T has greatly improved their 3G coverage and reception on the iPhone is much better now in Northern VA than at launch. I am right in Lorton, used to barely get a 3G signal indoors at home or work, now I get 3-5 bars.
Click to expand...

I'm in Lorton to. South CountySS
 
So it seems everything I've read about the battery horror stories are true. I'm a little disappointed in the outcome of my first full day. I leave for work at 0615 and get home around 1530 and my phone was about three quarters dead with minimal usage.

Location services, Wifi, and push were all off. 3G was on cuz I don't get Edge service at work. I'm optimistic because my original iPhone had fairly poor battery life when it was new and I was pretty happy with it when I did the switch. Can anybody vouch for an improvement in battery life after being used for a while??

What confuses me the most is that it took forever for me to kill it last night. I wanted to charge it all the way up from completely drained to calibrate it and it was about three quarters full when I left the AT&T store. I was trying to get in bed and after the 20% warning it took me almost a half hour of YouTube videos played on full brightness to get it to die. Hopefully that's how it'll always be...
 
lostprophet894 said:
So it seems everything I've read about the battery horror stories are true. I'm a little disappointed in the outcome of my first full day. I leave for work at 0615 and get home around 1530 and my phone was about three quarters dead with minimal usage.
Click to expand...

But it wasn't dead? What's the complaint, then? I usually have to plug it in about 2 hours before I leave work. You at least got home!

lostprophet894 said:
Location services, Wifi, and push were all off.
Click to expand...

Despite the hysterics you hear around here, go ahead and leave Location Services and Push turned on. In all the tests I've done, leaving both of these off only gets me another 15-25 minutes of power for the day. Whoo! That's not enough to keep me from having to re-charge at work, so all it does is make turning them on and off annoying for no real benefit.

I do turn wi-fi off because, hey, there's no wi-fi around until I get home. So that one makes more sense to leave off.

Is your screen brightness at 15% - 20%? I find this makes the biggest difference.
 
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