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AT&T Customers Continuing to Experience Excessive Dropped Calls
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The two are not the same. But I can't remember which one is the phone and which is the network. I just remember the tech saying the terms mean different things when I took my phone in to be checked
Do you really believe a tech from ATT?
It is not the phone.
It happens with all 3 phones.
I hate to be "that guy", but this is not an objective statistic. Furthermore, with all of the media hype around AT&T, there is a good chance people will be biased to believe it's worse than it is. Just saying it's possible. I, personally, have night and day improvement over sprint. Unlike some, I never experienced "40% dropped calls". BUT on that rare (less than 2%, once every couple of months), occasion, I do find myself cursing AT&T, forgetting how HORRIBLE sprint was (that was, of course, when I could actually get a signal, in one corner of the house with the phone in a certain direction, or in some major populated area I got a signal, but dropped every call). Because, despite my good experiences (besides god-awful customer support and outrageous pricing), I keep hear about how bad AT&T is so it must be true! Except, I only hear about how bad AT&T is from verizon, sprint and t-mobile customers ha!
Funny story, actually. I was at a relatives house, all sprint folks. The one has a WP7 phone, another an android phone. The android phone got like 3 bars of EDGE servicem while the WP7 phone was struggling to call out, same network, in their discussion they say, "at least were not as bad as John, not only is it AT&T but it's also a phone with a defective antenna!". "guys I have a full 3G signal..."
Neither if them have ever had AT&T or an iPhone, but if you read anything from anyone whose anyone, I MUST NEVER be able to make a phone call on my broken iPhone on the worlds worst network.
$0.02
Funny story, actually. I was at a relatives house, all sprint folks. The one has a WP7 phone, another an android phone. The android phone got like 3 bars of EDGE servicem while the WP7 phone was struggling to call out, same network, in their discussion they say, "at least were not as bad as John, not only is it AT&T but it's also a phone with a defective antenna!". "guys I have a full 3G signal..."
Neither if them have ever had AT&T or an iPhone, but if you read anything from anyone whose anyone, I MUST NEVER be able to make a phone call on my broken iPhone on the worlds worst network.
$0.02
Dropped/failed calls with AT&T
I dearly love my iPhone but I am about to the point of saying I'd rather have any Verison phone that worked rather than an AT&T iPhone that works really well as long as you don't try to use it for a phone. I live in the Houston TX area and get a failed or dropped call with 2 out of ever 3 calls I make.
Today I went 3 for 3 trying to contact Apple tech support about another matter. So I am particularly frustrated.
I dearly love my iPhone but I am about to the point of saying I'd rather have any Verison phone that worked rather than an AT&T iPhone that works really well as long as you don't try to use it for a phone. I live in the Houston TX area and get a failed or dropped call with 2 out of ever 3 calls I make.
Today I went 3 for 3 trying to contact Apple tech support about another matter. So I am particularly frustrated.
On the data front. Detroit has been out of data service for 4 weeks now. I get .03 mps down and 0.00 up. Winner!!!
Pissed beyond compare. 3 iPhone 4's all with **** service.
Pissed beyond compare. 3 iPhone 4's all with **** service.
I'm in Southfield,mi service has been fine here work in Dearborn I haven't noticed any issues except a few dropped/failed calls.
It's odd how even people in the same areas can have different experiences. I live in Houston (and work inside the loop) and though I have had some dropped/failed calls, I've gone months without any. I always thought the service here was pretty good. In most places, I have 4-5 bars (I know that's not an exact measurement of signal). The worst place is in my home where I have anywhere between 1 and 3 bars, but I rarely drop a call. And the last couple of months I've had an aluminum case on my phone which makes the signal even worse. But it really hasn't been that much of an issue.
But I can also say that the least action my phone gets is as an actual phone. If you use your phone a ton more than I do, that may account for the difference.
No problems yet
I'm a 4th month customer of ATT.
I've yet to have a dropped call or a data problem.
Their customer service has been excellent on the calls I have made.
Coming from MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile, ATT is great!
I really hope as many people jump to Verizon as anticipated. Verizon screwed me really bad in the late 90's. I've never considered them since. The grass always looks greener on the other side to those who are never satisfied.
The way I look at it, the more people that jump ship, the more bandwidth for me!
This Iphone and the service continues to impress me every day.
Sean
I'm a 4th month customer of ATT.
I've yet to have a dropped call or a data problem.
Their customer service has been excellent on the calls I have made.
Coming from MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile, ATT is great!
I really hope as many people jump to Verizon as anticipated. Verizon screwed me really bad in the late 90's. I've never considered them since. The grass always looks greener on the other side to those who are never satisfied.
The way I look at it, the more people that jump ship, the more bandwidth for me!
This Iphone and the service continues to impress me every day.
Sean
No dropped call problem here. ATT customer since 2007.
Actually had more dropped calls with the 3G, and hardly any with the 4.
Great service, as far as I am concerned. I am a former Sprint refugee.
Actually had more dropped calls with the 3G, and hardly any with the 4.
Great service, as far as I am concerned. I am a former Sprint refugee.
I've been on AT&T going on my second year now. What everyone here has to understand is that networks are set up to provide the most coverage to the most people in an area. I work in this field, and was responsible for helping Tmobile launch 3G in Miami, and optimizations in Miami, Salt Lake City, Detroit, Louisville KY, and Nashville. I can safely say that the excellent service I had in Miami was subpar in Lubbock. This happens because not every region has the ideal terrain, let alone population to support the exact number of towers.
Everyone bitches about AT&T service in New York, for instance. New York has a very high population and all of those buildings make it very hard to accurately set up towers, and adjust tilts properly. Plus, to add a new site requires a lot of work, including planning, leasing, building the tower, drive testing, adjusting the tilts, drive testing, and making sure that E911 works. This all takes 6 months to a year for a site to go from plan to on air.
For those people that have THAT many dropped calls, I would recommend this. The next time you have a dropped call, call 611 and talk to a support rep. Tell them you had a dropped call at such and such location and such and such time. Try to give them as much detail as you can. If you're having that many problems, it's better to let AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or Tmobile know about it so that they can have a drive tester or a field tech or even an engineer to go out and check it out. Trust me people, they are concerned about it and want to help you.
As far as customer support goes, I could not be happier with AT&T. Every time I've called, they've been helpful, gave me their full name, and were generally pretty helpful.
Please don't take the examples of New York or Los Angeles as the prime examples of AT&T network coverage. They're a good network (not the best, not the worst).
Everyone bitches about AT&T service in New York, for instance. New York has a very high population and all of those buildings make it very hard to accurately set up towers, and adjust tilts properly. Plus, to add a new site requires a lot of work, including planning, leasing, building the tower, drive testing, adjusting the tilts, drive testing, and making sure that E911 works. This all takes 6 months to a year for a site to go from plan to on air.
For those people that have THAT many dropped calls, I would recommend this. The next time you have a dropped call, call 611 and talk to a support rep. Tell them you had a dropped call at such and such location and such and such time. Try to give them as much detail as you can. If you're having that many problems, it's better to let AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or Tmobile know about it so that they can have a drive tester or a field tech or even an engineer to go out and check it out. Trust me people, they are concerned about it and want to help you.
As far as customer support goes, I could not be happier with AT&T. Every time I've called, they've been helpful, gave me their full name, and were generally pretty helpful.
Please don't take the examples of New York or Los Angeles as the prime examples of AT&T network coverage. They're a good network (not the best, not the worst).
North Houston
I live in the Woodlands. Maybe that is the difference. Before "iPhone" I had Verison and the service was near perfect.
I live in the Woodlands. Maybe that is the difference. Before "iPhone" I had Verison and the service was near perfect.
You say that you work in the field of telecommunications and that AT&T is not the worst.................
OK so Verizon is to AT&T in network's , technology and such, tech's talk to tech's so I'm sure you've bumped into a Verizon tech.
Verizon's sales force is not bad, there puppets and do what corporate tells them to do and SAY.
Though I don't live too far away...near spring, right off 45. And my home is where I have the worst signal. But you're right, the signal in the Woodlands is crap. I once lost my signal completely in a parking garage at market street. I had an aluminum case on the phone so that is to blame as well, but it's not exactly the boonies. I guess it's all the trees.
I dont get drop calls, it must be the area where I live perhaps at&t has excellent reception and 3G signal, (South Florida - Miami-Dade County) otherwise I be I would be complaining about my reception with at&t.
at&t, Verizon and Sprint all have great reception in S. Florida from what I hear except tmobile.
at&t, Verizon and Sprint all have great reception in S. Florida from what I hear except tmobile.
I had 2 3G phones on Tmobile along with 2 3Gs a bit later. I would get a few dropped calls here and there in SoCal. However, I've noticed that I do get more dropped calls on AT&T since I've switched in October. I get both the call drops and the call failed messages. These occur when I have low and high signal strength, for short and long calls....there is no true pattern.
Prior to the original iPhone, I had the trusty old Razor on AT&T. Never had an issue with dropped calls. Once I made the early leap to the iPhone, I did find that I now get occasional dropped calls (although they are not frequent).
Never could determine if the reason for the drops were the iPhone or AT&T network impacted by the launch of the iPhone.
Fast forward to the present and several of my friends have now bought the iPhone on Verizon. Now they too are experiencing dropped calls. Not all the time, but considerably more than they experienced with their prior phones.
What is funny is the same question exists now on both networks. Is it the iPhone causing the increase in dropped calls or is it the impact of the iPhone on the networks? I'm leaning towards the former, as the Verizon iPhone launch wasn't near large enough to be causing problems already.
Never could determine if the reason for the drops were the iPhone or AT&T network impacted by the launch of the iPhone.
Fast forward to the present and several of my friends have now bought the iPhone on Verizon. Now they too are experiencing dropped calls. Not all the time, but considerably more than they experienced with their prior phones.
What is funny is the same question exists now on both networks. Is it the iPhone causing the increase in dropped calls or is it the impact of the iPhone on the networks? I'm leaning towards the former, as the Verizon iPhone launch wasn't near large enough to be causing problems already.
After reading all the posts, I decided not to pursue the Microcell offer from AT&T. The only reason I got the iPhone4 was the ease of use for making phones calls and conference calls. I rarely use it for Internet, so I really should drop the 2GB data plan.
probably more the latter. Especially in the later launches.
So you know exactly how large the launch was. Sure the lines weren't around the block at all stores but that could be merely because folks ordered online.
Plus we don't know how much other smart phones are impacting Verizon's network.
But one thing we can say, if it was all about the iphone there would be call issues everywhere not just with small percents of folks only in the US. We'd see them all over the world by the thousands. And we haven't. Just like we didn't see thousands of folks reporting the infamous 'death grip'. So while the iphone might be a factor, so might the networks (or even unlocking and/or jailbreaking screwing with the software which is an iphone issue but not an Apple one)