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American People: Whats Your 3g iPhone Coverage Like?

wrkactjob

wrkactjob

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 29, 2008
1,357
0
London
In the UK the providers lie and state there is 98% coverage. In actual fact it is closer to 55%. Even in London there are areas with no 3G coverage. As I type I am 'enjoying' Edge coverage only.

But how big is America? It's huge! There must be great swathes of the country with no coverage at all?

How is it where you live?
 
It's pretty bad in some places (our only choice is the rather subpar AT&T) although I don't have *too* much of a problem getting okay 3G signal wherever I am in the Los Angeles area.
 
So if you lived on some remote farm in the middle of Idaho I guess you would be struggling?
 
Yeah, in rural areas its pretty terrible.

I live in the Dakotas, AT&T doesn't even sell service here, so I'm unlocked on a MVNO. Sometimes I get EDGE coverage, but a lot of the time(at least half) I'm on GPRS. Seriously considering moving to another carrier.
 
I've used mine in Texas, Pennsylvania, and mostly in California (northern and southern) and I honestly can't say that I have had too many problems getting a reliable 3G signal. There are some dead spots when driving from southern to northern California, but they don't last too long.
 
In Portland, OR, it varies wildly.
Downtown, I get 83Kbps downloads.
NorthEast of downtown near the Columbia River, I've seen 2800Kbps downloads.
 
AT&T states in their latest series of TV ads that they cover 97% of all Americans...

But it's a trap! They didn't say they cover 97% of America.

That said, my friends and roommates who have it haven't had coverage problems, but we live in Washington, DC and don't often venture outside of the more densely populated areas here.

They do have a coverage map on their website...maybe you could try checking the coverage in U.S. cities that you're planning on visiting?
 
Where I live (Massachusetts) the data coverage is pretty good. I travel up to New Hampshire and that's where things go sour as I get further north. I like to vacation/camp up by Mount Washington and I not only lose 3G coverage but all connectivity, voice and data.

With Verizon, I didn't run into that.
 
I have the 3G and live in one of the suburbs of the Kansas City, MO metro area. AT&T's coverage is above average here in the metro, but when I get anywhere out of this area AND off the main highways, the coverage is below average - can be very spotty. I will say that this seems to be the same for Verizon and Sprint as I have had their services in the past here in this area.
 
JTTech said:
AT&T states in their latest series of TV ads that they cover 97% of all Americans...

But it's a trap! They didn't say they cover 97% of America.
Click to expand...

How is that a trap? People use phones, not landscapes or wildlife. What would be the point of covering isolated areas like the Great Basin Desert in NV? Maybe in case the Geico Gecko needs to contact his agent?
 
NYC and it works very nice. maxed out at 3200 or so download speed during non-peak hours. it was pretty bad last year, but 2010 it's a lot better. and Slacker radio now supports caching so there is no need to stream over 3G. cache over wifi at home and listen on the go
 
There is a home development on my way to and from work, i'll say roughly 3000 people live there, maybe 5 miles before and a few miles after you drive by it on the freeway you're lucky to get 1 or 2 Edge bars.. Absolute crap, impossible to carry on a conversation and difficult to send a text.

They have forums for the community and everyone there hates AT&T because they have 0 coverage in their houses, total joke, I wish AT&T would get with the effing program because I know I have used their coverage reporting tool to indicate there is NO service!
 
It's very hit or miss. It may work fantastic in some cities or not at all in others. Also, the 3G map is a huge lie. It's more of a "3G capable" map than a "3G coverage" map. If you look at a city map and it's completely covered by 3G, it's actually not in reality. There will be many holes (like Swiss cheese) in the coverage throughout the area. The only way to test if you have reliable 3G is to do a field test. That said, I'm sure there are people on here who never get a dropped call and always have full 3G coverage where they live.
 
alent1234 said:
NYC and it works very nice. maxed out at 3200 or so download speed during non-peak hours. it was pretty bad last year, but 2010 it's a lot better. and Slacker radio now supports caching so there is no need to stream over 3G. cache over wifi at home and listen on the go
Click to expand...


gotta disagree with you vehemently. NYC is pretty bad. I work in times square and the signal outside is okay, but indoors, it's hit or miss. I also have an AT&T blackberry for work and that always has a signal even when the iphone 3g signal is dead. On really nice days when all the tourists are out, the 3g signal outside is even worse. There are days when the signal is just crap. It's not just me, i have quite a few coworkers with similar experiences. In fact, I do believe at one point it was so bad that i heard they stopped selling iphone 3gs in nyc.

honestly, I have not seen any improvement in the service yet and this coming from someone who's had the iphone from day 1 of iphon 2g. With that said, I hardly talk on my mobile, so my primary use is for the apps and such but sure would be nice to have a decent connection or A connection when one is needed.
 
I'm in Miami and AT&T is great all over Florida. Sometimes I lose signal on I-75 if I am going towards Naples but that only lasts like 20min then I get my 3G signal back.
 
I live in upstate New York and I've never had any problems with data or voice.

I travel between Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse a lot and I always have 3G even when I'm on the road. This is one of the reasons I never understood all the hate towards AT&T... They have better coverage than Verizon in my opinion.
 
I live in North Texas. Near Dallas/Fort Worth in Arlington. 3G coverage here is GREAT. I have it everywhere. Coverage is great pretty much everywhere here in north texas. We also have CLEAR 4G internet all across DFW
 
Florida Cities are Good

I live in Florida and 3G coverage is good in the cities. But once you get into smaller towns or close to the beach in the panhandle areas you back to edge.
 
It really depends...
In Birmingham, Al I get great coverage.

Whenever I travel from B'ham to Atlanta there's an area where I completly drop 3g, E, and cell service for a few miles.
Whenever I travel to Mobile, Al or the beach (Panama City has fairly good 3g) I have the same issue...for a few miles I loose service completely.
Many smaller towns don't have 3g at all, like when I visit my parents an hour south of Birmingham...

When I travel north (Alabama to Pennsylvania)...only larger city's near large metropolitan areas have 3g.
We almost "expect" to be "out of the loop" for most of the trip...but try to stop in bigger areas for 3g or wireless.

I'm trying to remember the last time we drove to Texas...I'm pretty sure it was spotty, but there's good 3g in Houston and San Antonio...I can't remember if Tyler, Tx had 3g or not

But for the most part, I would rate my 3g experience as good to great...
 
New Orleans

I also spend a lot of time in New Orleans and it's pretty spotty there. During large events like Jazz Fest the ATT network can not handle the crowds and your best to turn off 3g just to ensure you can make phone calls.
 
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