Do they take classes as CEOs to really be this dumb? I mean do they have to work at it or is it a trait they are hired for? Your servers are crashing everywhere and you are trying to tell people all is well? People bash your service from one coast to the other, but all is well? Come on ATT you can do better. I'd rather you just come out and say, we are not giving the level of service people are asking for and we are working on improving it. Still maybe a lie, but at least you aren't looking like you are completely out of touch. All the money we spend on service with you, yet we see no improvement in service. This hopefully is the last iPhone exclusively with ATT. Next one, has to force them into a change. (should have been the last one was the one that did it, but we keep giving ATT extra chances because.....why do we?)
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AT&T CEO on Enterprise iPad Adoption and Wireless Voice Quality Improvements
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Actually, it's "people bash your service on one coast and the other." Many of us in between seem to fare quite well with AT&T service.
(Hate their pricing though.)
I am not sure of where all the gripe comes from. I have had ATT back to when it was Cingular and have never had any real issues with them, I have a drop call every other month or so if even that much. There are areas Im sure where it is worse that others. But would you love your smartphone (iPhone) as much if you were not able to talk and run the internet, or if every month your bill was screwed up (verizion, I had them for fios, internet and home phone). Also how good do you think any carrier would be if they had to deal with as much data usage as ATT does everyday? So take the good with the bad cause that is life, if you dont like it then stop complaing and leave ATT and maybe they will see that there is a problem. Oh yeah, I had no problems pre-ordering my iPhone4 today. I had both sites (APPLE/ATT) up and went thru steps on both incase I had an issue with one i could go to the other and both went thru.
No company has ever failed for being too popular.
People thinking that their network and computers being bogged down with people jumping all over them to buy new phones is nothing but good publicity.
AT&T sucks a$$ period! Their crap network, contracts that rape us, without Vaseline, and over all incompetence had made they one of the crappiest carriers around.
I don't know why anyone even pays attention to this kind of BS. It's all profit-motive driven, there will never be anything that comes out of his mouth that is said for any reason other than to drive profits.
The consumer should never sympathize, never side with, and never accept these companies as equals. We should always look at them critically as opponents who's profit motive always puts them in conflict with our goals, which should be to have better products and services in the marketplace.
ATT- your servers suck, your network sucks, and you do nothing about it but suck up profits.
There will be a massive PR and marketing move when the iPhone goes multi-carrier. New pricing, new plan structuring, etc. in an attempt to keep or win back their customers. And the funny thing is, they will of course spin it as some sort of epiphany, technology breakthrough, or some other BS thing as the reason behind it. "Oh no- we had this planned for about a year- nothing to do with losing iPhone exclusivity," they will say.
Large corporations are not inherently bad or evil. They just will never have their interests aligned with the common good. So they should be treated like that. They aren't our friends, they are not our family, they are not our neighbors. They are companies that make money. Period.
If there is one anti-trust related happening I would like to see rectified in this whole thing, is that carrier exclusivity for devices must come to an end. If it were not for exclusivity, we would not have to deal with this crap.
The consumer should never sympathize, never side with, and never accept these companies as equals. We should always look at them critically as opponents who's profit motive always puts them in conflict with our goals, which should be to have better products and services in the marketplace.
ATT- your servers suck, your network sucks, and you do nothing about it but suck up profits.
There will be a massive PR and marketing move when the iPhone goes multi-carrier. New pricing, new plan structuring, etc. in an attempt to keep or win back their customers. And the funny thing is, they will of course spin it as some sort of epiphany, technology breakthrough, or some other BS thing as the reason behind it. "Oh no- we had this planned for about a year- nothing to do with losing iPhone exclusivity," they will say.
Large corporations are not inherently bad or evil. They just will never have their interests aligned with the common good. So they should be treated like that. They aren't our friends, they are not our family, they are not our neighbors. They are companies that make money. Period.
If there is one anti-trust related happening I would like to see rectified in this whole thing, is that carrier exclusivity for devices must come to an end. If it were not for exclusivity, we would not have to deal with this crap.
Really? Well, I'm not a plant... ATT SUCKS! And I'm just SO happy for them cause they pile all that money in New York and San Fran. Unfortunately it doesn't help me one dang bit. I drop a lot of calls. I sometimes can't even get web pages to load. Seems to me there is a big media presence in those big cities and ATT is just saving face. And thats the REAL conspiracy.
I'm sorry, but the gov't should be investigating ATT's claims and should be forcing them to pay me back a bunch of that 100 bucks a month I am paying them.
Just look what the iPhone and it's customers have done to ATT Wireless. They were nothing before it (at least in my area). Now they are RAKING it in... and what have they really done to improve things for everyone? Nothing. And that HSPA their beating their chests over? I call bulls**t. I think it's great they want to have 'some' markets have that. But how about increasing their darn 3G coverage to more people first? Huh? Am I just being stupid here? ATT needs to pay us back. If not in dollars, then by getting off their arses and actually doing something about their coverage. Or how about NOT SELLING CONTRACTS IN AREAS WITH BAD RECEPTION?!?!? Oh, but they aren't gonna have their boys turning away customers, are they.
They need to fully admit that they screwed us and start dumping money EVERYWHERE. Not just where the media critics live.
I want service. Not snake oil. Listen up Apple! I love ya and your phone. But enough is enough. An awesome phone is just not worth the crappy service.
Oh please stop acting like a 12 year old chick and come back to reality!! If you're so unhappy, switch to Verizon and see what you can get out of their network for 30 bucks. I personally don't think it's reasonable to pay 30 dollars a month to get unlimited data with tethering. For 30.00 I think its reasonable to get unlimited mobile data, but from a business and network standard I agree with charging more for tethering.
Apple doesn't have to maintain a network, they just design the devise. I pay 45.00 for my road runner alone, thats a freakin rip at your standards. If I could tether with my strong 3g signal at the house, I most likely would cancel road runner. How is that reasonable to expect ATT to not only provide a network for your mobile device, but a full time network for home as well. Networks have limitations and believe it or not Verizons does too.... I know it's hard to believe, but they do!
And ATT is no more criminal or full of **** as any other mobile provider. Last time I checked Verizon wasnt a non for profit organization.
65 miles upstate from NYC, still on Edge network, which doesn 't let one receive S@$%
No discount either for that subpar solution (almost 2 years) while all the others around me have 3G.
In speaking to somebody in the communications field all carriers suck equally and could provide unlimited DATA if they wanted to.
They all now claim that the iphone and other smart phones are killing the capacities of the DATA networks, which impacts voice etc.etc.
According to him this excuse is used to cap the UNLIMITED transfers and charge by usage.
We are seeing that already> I guess he is right:-(
Really?
I still think the problems are with a vocal minority, but in some large key cities. I'm not crazy about AT&T but me service is great. Buying an iPhone4 today really stank, but I have no reason to believe that VRZN would have been any better. Sprint and VRZN handles more data than AT&T? I really doubt that. iPhones have changed everything. Who would have predicted the growth and change just a few years ago?
I still think the problems are with a vocal minority, but in some large key cities. I'm not crazy about AT&T but me service is great. Buying an iPhone4 today really stank, but I have no reason to believe that VRZN would have been any better. Sprint and VRZN handles more data than AT&T? I really doubt that. iPhones have changed everything. Who would have predicted the growth and change just a few years ago?
You also described most of mid-America on AT$T. Still on EDGE despite the promise that 3G will be "coming soon" for nearly 3 years now!
But they are. They are criminals for what they do charge and their false claims. Verizon may have their problems, but their customers are happy. And it's not an iphone issue. ATT customers with all sorts of phones are equally unhappy. But they are also IN CONTRACT, so it's not just like they can walk away. And that's criminal, imho, as well. Lemon Laws should be for these huge companies just as they are for used car salesmen. And I disagree with your roadrunner comparison. For roadrunner you pay for a connection to the internet. THAT is the product. And you can use that product to hook up anything you want. The data plans are also a PRODUCT that you spend over and above your cell plan for. And you should be able to use that product as you wish. It's yours. You paid for it.
I'm not a data hog - I'm a power user
I really resent the term "data hog" by AT&T. They offered an "unlimited" data plan. If you are using a lot of data, it means you are using the product as intended and advertised. There are those like my mother, who use about 1K of data transfer a month on their iPhones, then there are average users, then there are power users.
If after data usage has gone up, I can see why AT&T may want to revisit its pricing structure for new customers, but to claim that most of their customers were 'subsidizing' the supposed 3% of "data hogs" is insulting. No - they were paying for an unlimited data plan. If you want to offer a cheaper, tiered plan for those who use very little data - then do so. The onus is on the telco, AT&T, to be the expert in the industry in which they are a part, to create a network that can support its customers.
This is like the health clubs that oversell their memberships because they suspect a certain number will stop showing up. When their guestimates are wrong and more & more people are showing up to the club to work out, they end up waiting on the machines instead of the club coughing up the bucks to expand and add more machines. This is what is going on w/ AT&T.
Let people opt for a more expensive 'unlimited' data plan instead of removing it altogether. It's stupid. Why would I want to own a device that can do all that an iPhone can do if I'm scared to use it because the bill might be higher than I anticipated? No - AT&T wants its customers to subsidize its lackluster network and poor preparation.
My theory is that they know once Apple delivers the next "one more thing," people are going to be using even more data than ever. I'm thinking Apple talked to them about competing w/ Netflix - enabling people to stream movies from the iTunes store over 3G and they crapped themselves because they knew smoke would be billowing out of all of their cell towers, so as a pre-emptive strike, they decided to pull this number on the unlimited data plan.
Regarding coverage and dropped calls...
I lived about 50 miles north of the DFW metroplex for the first 2.5 years as an iPhone customer, commuting to Dallas and experienced the dropped call problem on a regular basis, no matter who I was talking to, all the while on major highways - mostly I35E, which according to AT&T's coverage map, is totally saturated with coverage. Since getting married 6 months ago, I now live about 60 miles SE of the metroplex and take other major highways (depending on traffic) for my commute such as 75, 635, 20, and 175 - and again, my experience is the same no matter where I am. I cannot have a phone call last for more than five minutes without dropping a call. As more iPhones join the network, the problem has gotten steadily worse. I don't recall getting dropped calls much at all when I first got the 2G iPhone in 2007 - but it took a year to sell 2 million of them. Last year, it took a month to sell 10 million of them and the problem continues the doubling affect.
AT&T has managed to bolster their network in the places Steve Jobs is most likely to travel, but the problems are aneurism-inducing in other areas.
I not only get dropped calls (as does my mother, my husband and all my colleagues at work that switched from Blackberry to iPhone) on a regular basis, I also lose data connectivity regularly... and per month, I'm only using about 1GB of data, well below their newly tiered data structure plan. I've been in spots where I got turned around and had to use Google Maps only to have to wait for the "No Service" message to go away and for the 3G to show back up... or at least Edge.
No other phone would get away with this crap. Seriously. If this was some cheap flip phone, people would be marching in the streets with axes, torches and effigies for burning.
If AT&T cannot even handle web traffic via computer to take pre-orders for the phone, what makes you think they can handle the traffic generated by all the people who will be new users with iPhone 4?
My coworkers have been complaining like crazy since they switched from their blackberries. They love the iPhone, but say they never once experienced a dropped call on the blackberry and now it's a regular occurrence.
I really resent the term "data hog" by AT&T. They offered an "unlimited" data plan. If you are using a lot of data, it means you are using the product as intended and advertised. There are those like my mother, who use about 1K of data transfer a month on their iPhones, then there are average users, then there are power users.
If after data usage has gone up, I can see why AT&T may want to revisit its pricing structure for new customers, but to claim that most of their customers were 'subsidizing' the supposed 3% of "data hogs" is insulting. No - they were paying for an unlimited data plan. If you want to offer a cheaper, tiered plan for those who use very little data - then do so. The onus is on the telco, AT&T, to be the expert in the industry in which they are a part, to create a network that can support its customers.
This is like the health clubs that oversell their memberships because they suspect a certain number will stop showing up. When their guestimates are wrong and more & more people are showing up to the club to work out, they end up waiting on the machines instead of the club coughing up the bucks to expand and add more machines. This is what is going on w/ AT&T.
Let people opt for a more expensive 'unlimited' data plan instead of removing it altogether. It's stupid. Why would I want to own a device that can do all that an iPhone can do if I'm scared to use it because the bill might be higher than I anticipated? No - AT&T wants its customers to subsidize its lackluster network and poor preparation.
My theory is that they know once Apple delivers the next "one more thing," people are going to be using even more data than ever. I'm thinking Apple talked to them about competing w/ Netflix - enabling people to stream movies from the iTunes store over 3G and they crapped themselves because they knew smoke would be billowing out of all of their cell towers, so as a pre-emptive strike, they decided to pull this number on the unlimited data plan.
Regarding coverage and dropped calls...
I lived about 50 miles north of the DFW metroplex for the first 2.5 years as an iPhone customer, commuting to Dallas and experienced the dropped call problem on a regular basis, no matter who I was talking to, all the while on major highways - mostly I35E, which according to AT&T's coverage map, is totally saturated with coverage. Since getting married 6 months ago, I now live about 60 miles SE of the metroplex and take other major highways (depending on traffic) for my commute such as 75, 635, 20, and 175 - and again, my experience is the same no matter where I am. I cannot have a phone call last for more than five minutes without dropping a call. As more iPhones join the network, the problem has gotten steadily worse. I don't recall getting dropped calls much at all when I first got the 2G iPhone in 2007 - but it took a year to sell 2 million of them. Last year, it took a month to sell 10 million of them and the problem continues the doubling affect.
AT&T has managed to bolster their network in the places Steve Jobs is most likely to travel, but the problems are aneurism-inducing in other areas.
I not only get dropped calls (as does my mother, my husband and all my colleagues at work that switched from Blackberry to iPhone) on a regular basis, I also lose data connectivity regularly... and per month, I'm only using about 1GB of data, well below their newly tiered data structure plan. I've been in spots where I got turned around and had to use Google Maps only to have to wait for the "No Service" message to go away and for the 3G to show back up... or at least Edge.
No other phone would get away with this crap. Seriously. If this was some cheap flip phone, people would be marching in the streets with axes, torches and effigies for burning.
If AT&T cannot even handle web traffic via computer to take pre-orders for the phone, what makes you think they can handle the traffic generated by all the people who will be new users with iPhone 4?
My coworkers have been complaining like crazy since they switched from their blackberries. They love the iPhone, but say they never once experienced a dropped call on the blackberry and now it's a regular occurrence.
I don't think this is a vocal minority in the way you do. I think it has been a minority because many who have suffered from dropped calls (as I have) feel an obligation to defend their purchase of the iPhone and don't complain as often. As the problems worsen (some areas worse than others) due to so many more people on the network that just can't keep up with demand, we are getting more vocal because we are so pissed and tired of redialing, especially while driving, that we're frayed at the ends. I can't tell you how much time I've wasted in trying to reach someone after getting disconnected because they're calling back at the same time and we both hit each other's voicemail. I do love the iPhone, which is why I really didn't complain the first 2 years - but enough is enough. I am so tired of getting disconnected in the middle of a call, and sometimes up to 5 times a call, I just want to scream.
Source for that? I can't believe Sprint would be handling more data since they have fewer customers. VZW is possible since they are the largest, but they also don't have the leading phone for using data services.
Depending on where you live all of the big 4 suck. When I lived in the southeast ATT and Suncom (T-Mobile now) worked great. When I moved out west I started dropping a ton of calls, but used the iPhone app whenever I dropped and I haven't dropped one in a long time.
When it comes to cost both VZW and ATT are horrible. Sprint and T-Mobile both offer decent rates on data which is why I hoping that one and or both eventually get the iPhone.
Still lousy in San Francisco
The AT&T service is still lousy in San Francisco, both voice and data, especially in the Financial District during business hours and in the Eureka Valley/Ashbury and Corona Heights areas anytime.
I've had the 3GS since introduction and haven't experienced a noticeable improvement in the past year. It is so unreliable that I'm going to wait to upgrade to the iPhone 4. If it hasn't improved by the time my contract is up, I'll go elsewhere.
When I travel, my iPhone experience is completely different. Texas? Oklahoma? Chicago? Florida? Georgia? It's acceptable to great everywhere I go, rural or urban. Except my home city :-(
The AT&T service is still lousy in San Francisco, both voice and data, especially in the Financial District during business hours and in the Eureka Valley/Ashbury and Corona Heights areas anytime.
I've had the 3GS since introduction and haven't experienced a noticeable improvement in the past year. It is so unreliable that I'm going to wait to upgrade to the iPhone 4. If it hasn't improved by the time my contract is up, I'll go elsewhere.
When I travel, my iPhone experience is completely different. Texas? Oklahoma? Chicago? Florida? Georgia? It's acceptable to great everywhere I go, rural or urban. Except my home city :-(
I live in Indiana and where I live, is finally getting 3G next week! They are actually working on it, surprisingly. It's been years of promises here as well.
Verizon Fanboys!!! really guys? they are doing nothing but cleaning up your mess and everything is improving. get over it.
Well I was with Verizon and I had a bill dispute. I was told numerous times by Verizon TO NOT PAY MY BILL until the dispute was resolved. Turns out when I applied for my home loan, Verizon hit my damn credit!!! They took it off thankfully because it was documented that they told me not to pay the bill, but nonetheless I was not a "happy" costumer.
The big three all hold you to a contract. I know people that have been "unhapppy" with all three. I myself paid the Verizon ETF to get out. To say that ATT does anything different than any other mobile provider is no accurate. ATT just happens to be in the spotlight more often because of the iPhone and all of the drama/news that follows it.
I agree with all the AT&T comments on here. It is right up there with Microsoft as one of the worst companies of all time in my book (which as a 20 year Microsoft user is saying something). God I hate AT&T with the intensity of a thousand solar masses.
This is why I will be paying full price for the new iPhone for both myself and my wife. Please, do the same if you can afford it at all. Your total cost of ownership will be less, and you will send the signal to AT&T that you could leave at any time so they need to actually provided a service level, support, and price that will keep you.
DO NOT BUY SUBSIDIZED iPHONES. YOU ARE THROWING MONEY AT AT&T.
It is actually cheeper after the first year to pay the full iPhone price and not subsidize, and you can switch as soon as Apple begins to allow new carriers, or jailbreak it even before that. Every time you buy a subsidized iPhone a kitten dies. Stop killing the kittens.
This is why I will be paying full price for the new iPhone for both myself and my wife. Please, do the same if you can afford it at all. Your total cost of ownership will be less, and you will send the signal to AT&T that you could leave at any time so they need to actually provided a service level, support, and price that will keep you.
DO NOT BUY SUBSIDIZED iPHONES. YOU ARE THROWING MONEY AT AT&T.
It is actually cheeper after the first year to pay the full iPhone price and not subsidize, and you can switch as soon as Apple begins to allow new carriers, or jailbreak it even before that. Every time you buy a subsidized iPhone a kitten dies. Stop killing the kittens.