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AT&T Confirms Nationwide 3G Outages

F

flynnst0ne

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 14, 2008
184
7
I've been one of the many iphone4 customers who has had horrendous 3G speeds on my iphone4. The first few days of ownership, the phone functioned fantastic. I am at the point where i'm unable to make any phone calls due to lack of service, while 3G is enabled. With 3G turned off, and edge network turned on, the phone is able to make and receive calls. I've also had the phone replaced once by Apple, and the same issues continue.

I just placed a call into AT&T, and was told that a service bulletin has been issued, and a major outage is currently being experienced nationwide. According to the rep, the problems with the network started on 6/29 and there is currently no estimated fix date in place.

At least that helps clear up some of the concern surrounding the 3G speeds, or lack there of, that many users are experiencing. What's still somewhat concerning to me is that my girlfriend is able to use her 3GS on the 3G network with minimal data delay.

:apple:
 
i don't have 3g at work (where i'm at now) but noticed it, for the first time, in my town a couple of days ago. had great speed. "had" i guess, being the key word then. :(
 
Yeah, that would be a great answer, except for the fact that numerous people have posted that they had a friend next to them with a 3GS iPhone and their data worked perfectly fine.
 
I'd love to see this posted on Endgadget or BGR so I'd feel better about the whole thing.
 
I've wondered why my 3G speeds have been abysmal the last few days. I'm on Wifi most of the time, but when I'm out the phone's been insanely slow to load data from the internet. I was beginning to think my phone was messed up, but it sounds like no... it's just AT&T being crap again.
 
My signal was terrible yesterday. It's actually doing quite well so far today ::fingers crossed::
 
Yeah if it was all phones having the issue I would *shrug* and figure AT&T will fix it eventually..

However today with 5bars of service I took my coworkers Iphone3gs and my iphone 4..

Put them side by side typed in forums.macrumors.com and clicked go at the same time. The result: My iphone 4 timed out once and hers loaded in about 5 seconds..

Second test mine loaded in about 30seconds but never completely and hers loaded fully in 8 seconds.

I then kept her on 3g and put my iphone 4 on edge did the same test. Hers loaded in 8 seconds mine loaded in 9seconds.. So atleast edge is pretty quick (but this is all texts not pictures I am sure with pictures the difference would have been much larger)..

So I guess now we wait and hope they fix this or we return our phones. Honestly I want to return mine but the thought of going back to my annoying windows mobile phone makes me cry and it makes no sense to purchase a 3GS.

Whats also odd is at work (Allentown, PA) I get 3G speeds sometimes but most of the time its unusable. But then at home or on the way home (Northampton PA - about 12Miles North of Allentown) I can pull about 3Mbps - 4 Mbps on 3G pretty consistantly. So could this be a hardware issue :confused:

I would love if someone has done this in a slow area for a Iphone 4 compared it to a 3g / 3gs with the new firmware update. See if it still stays faster?

Also if anyone who has had this speed issue swapped the phone out with apple, did it solve the issue or are your speeds still bad?

I am wondering if AT&T didn't somehow dump all the new iphone 4 users into a low bandwidth bucket or something.
 
Ogrillion said:
Yeah if it was all phones having the issue I would *shrug* and figure AT&T will fix it eventually..

However today with 5bars of service I took my coworkers Iphone3gs and my iphone 4..

Put them side by side typed in forums.macrumors.com and clicked go at the same time. The result: My iphone 4 timed out once and hers loaded in about 5 seconds..

Second test mine loaded in about 30seconds but never completely and hers loaded fully in 8 seconds.

I then kept her on 3g and put my iphone 4 on edge did the same test. Hers loaded in 8 seconds mine loaded in 9seconds.. So atleast edge is pretty quick (but this is all texts not pictures I am sure with pictures the difference would have been much larger)..
Click to expand...


You got that right I did the same test today with an employee's phone (3GS) same results with full service.... Something is not right....

See this thread all... 3G issues with IP4
 
Hmm, that might explain my horrible (0.6 Mbps) download speed. But then again it might just be my location.
 
I'm not having any problems with my 3G service here in North East Florida.
 
flynnst0ne said:
1) I've had horrendous 3G speeds on my iphone4.

2) The first few days of ownership, the phone functioned fantastic.
Click to expand...
Which is it? Number one, or number two?

I've had my phone since the day before Apple did the roll out and my 3G speeds are fast and consistent, no outages.
flynnst0ne said:
3) I am at the point where i'm unable to make any phone calls due to lack of service, while 3G is enabled.
Click to expand...
The real reason for your problem is the same as mine, it's that silver band around the outside of the phone that Apple calls the antenna. Even with a bumper mine is still marginal at best.

Where is your source link that proves you didn't make up the title of your thread?

I have not experienced any outages, nor has anyone else I know in CA.

I am not advocating for AT&T, however I do advocate for the facts!
 
This nationwide outage seems to be isolated for all left handed iPhone 4 owners. Strange. lol
 
Well, it should hardly be a surprise they are somewhat bogged down seeing as there is a spike of 1,700,000 new iphones suddenly flooding the network all this week as everyone is playing with their new toy.

On top of that I wonder how many of those 1.7 million are new to the iphone (such as myself) and are using cellphone internet bandwidth for the first time.

It will subside when the newness wears off and everyone goes back to using their phones in a normal manner.

If you've ever kept track of your internet speeds through dsl or cable, you know full well how your speed declines at certain times of the day, esp in the afternoon when kids are home from school and businesses are uploading reports at the end of the work day. My cable internet speed has been as high as 37Mbps during the day and as low as 3Mbps in the afternoon the same day.
 
Funny...my iPhone 4 has been having data issues for the past 2 or 3 days...but my roommates 3GS continues working fine. Nice try though, OP.
 
I just got off teh phone with ATT CS they did not mention this at all. Told me it was a hardware issue and I had to return my phone to apple.
 
flynnst0ne said:
I've been one of the many iphone4 customers who has had horrendous 3G speeds on my iphone4. The first few days of ownership, the phone functioned fantastic. I am at the point where i'm unable to make any phone calls due to lack of service, while 3G is enabled. With 3G turned off, and edge network turned on, the phone is able to make and receive calls. I've also had the phone replaced once by Apple, and the same issues continue.

I just placed a call into AT&T, and was told that a service bulletin has been issued, and a major outage is currently being experienced nationwide. According to the rep, the problems with the network started on 6/29 and there is currently no estimated fix date in place.

At least that helps clear up some of the concern surrounding the 3G speeds, or lack there of, that many users are experiencing. What's still somewhat concerning to me is that my girlfriend is able to use her 3GS on the 3G network with minimal data delay.

:apple:
Click to expand...
I noticed this on the 29th in the evening. I was wondering what was going on. It seems to be kind of spotty for me throughout the day and the area I'm in (Ann Arbor, MI) usually always has great service. Thanks for the info.
 
Mine SUCKS today. I can't get anything through 3G on speed test. The other day I was hitting 2.9 mbps.
 
I'm soooo close to returning this thing and getting a cheaper 3Gs. The wait to pre-order, ending up in pre-order hell w/ ATT, getting the phone and finding the antennas sucked in a big way instead of being groovy, and now my data speeds blow chunks ...

Not a happy camper.

Oh, and case selection/availability is abysmal.
 
Littleton, CO. FCC test app to Denver, CO

DL: 0.47mbps (avg)
Up: 0.74mbps (avg)
Latency: 300 (ALOT BETTER. usually in the 2000-3000 range)

Things seem normal. Slow as usual. Sigh.
 
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