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AT&T Dropped Call Rate of 30% Considered Normal in New York City

AT&T has a problem. I've been a customer for many years. Most of my family are AT&T customers. We all live in different parts of the country and we all experience the same problems. Very frequent, way too frequent, dropped calls. I know the naysayers and apologists here say to give AT&T a break. They are experiencing growing pains. Here's what I have to say.

First of all, my iPhone is a Phone! I expect the phone part of the iPhone to work above all else. It's nice to have the apps but I expect the phone to work 100% of the time. That's what I'm paying for. If AT&T needs to figure out a way to throttle down the data then that's what they need to do during peak usage. Phone calls should be the priority for a phone! I still have a Gen 1 iPhone and will not upgrade until AT&T resolves their problems. When I get tired of waiting for that to happen and my iPhone dies, I'll switch phones and networks.
 
I can understand not being able to send videos or download content quickly, but to not perform the most basic function of a PHONE is pretty crappy for a PHONE service provider ... even in a densely populated area ... I mean for that cost, what exactly is the consumer paying for? Only AT&T and meteorologists get away with being so crappy on a regular basis
 
Sadly, as long as the Apple fanboys continue to flock to the iPhone unconditionally AT&T will have little to no reason to upgrade the quality of their service.
 
BS and unacceptable. That being said, I'm doing fine in the metro-west area of Boston/Worcester. Very rare to have a dropped call. I think this is just a case of a single carrier being unable to handle the volume of iPhone users. It's time to open it up to multiple carriers to spread the love and the cell tower load.
 
Maybe I should forget to pay my bill 30% of the time.

My wife had VZ and hated them. I doubt that there is actually any network out there that has acceptable quality. The iPhone is essentially a phone straight out of the future. It's like trying to run a RAZR on a network in the late 80's. It's too much data.
 
i just forwarded this link to att in the long string of customer service emails ive had with them over the last 3 months when they started screwing up my bill. Ive consistently been getting charged for extra text messages that simply do not exist in my phone history.. the other day i got a text message from 24 hours previous. Its awful. And that isnt even beginning to get into their coverage issues. I was in a bar in the east village last weekend and had 2 bars edge.. so did my friend with a 1st gen iphone. I am going to sprint next month because of all this and plan on arguing my early termination fee to the death.
 
bondsbw said:
You have a point, but Apple didn't necessarily want an exclusive carrier. That does nothing for Apple's business. AT&T obviously paid for Apple's exclusivity.
Click to expand...


Um.... I am pretty sure that Apple gets a higher subsidy from having an exclusive carrier agreement, lowering the cost to their customers, yet still keeping margins on the device high.

Someone to correct me if I am wrong.
 
which AT&T representative said that this is normal?
Oh, I see, it was a technician writing a repair report.

so it is normal. this does not mean that anyone, technician or CEO, said it is acceptable. the technicians notes, imho, seem to merely state that the phone works as expected, normally, regardless of the networks issues.

maybe i have a problem because i do not live in NYC or SF, drop very few calls. Forgive me for being sympathetic. Albeit premature, I haven't yet had my hissy fit that I blame on the world not being the one I invented in my workshop.
 
It's interesting how cell service works. Here's a simplistic summary:

Only a certain number of users can use a tower at any given time. There is only a certain range of frequencies that can be used. All towers use these same frequencies. This means that each tower must not overlap the others in terms of coverage area and frequenceis. To ensure this, companies actually use different frequency ranges on adjacent towers. Further limiting how many users can use each tower.

The solution to this is to create smaller cell sites that cover a smaller area (and therefore will have fewer users at any given time). The problem with this is that each new cell site requires a new tower. With all the opposition to new tower construction it can take months or years to get approval to build one.

With the massive growth in cell usage companies are having to create smaller and smaller cell sites. Because of the way the system works putting up one new tower requires the reconfiguration of all the adjacent towers. Their signal area must be changed, their frequencies must be changed and it all must be integrated together.

When you get a dropped call, it's usually because you are moving into another cell site (serviced by a new tower). Your call must be handed off to the new tower. If this new tower is at capacity or overloaded, failures happen.

This is why it sucks for very high density areas.

Luckily in Minneapolis we have very good AT&T coverage. I get very fast 3G speeds and <1% dropped calls everywhere I go. Thank you urban sprawl for spreading everyone out.. When I was in NYC I noticed by data speeds were much slower. I didn't make enough calls to have any problems with that though.
 
upekkharich said:
so it is normal. this does not mean that anyone, technician or CEO, said it is acceptable. the technicians notes, imho, seem to merely state that the phone works as expected, normally, regardless of the networks issues.
Click to expand...

Thanks for saying it before I had to. Normal does not mean acceptable. Just like it's normal to be overweight in the U.S., this does not make it acceptable (although many seem to think so and take pride in it).
 
The headline for this story is misleading based on the data provided.

All we have is ONE Apple engineer's case notes mentioning
Proposed Resolution: this is a basic trouble shooting case so that the customer may report back to ATT to show that the phone is fully functional and the problem is consistent with the service provided by ATT
Click to expand...

All the tech is saying is "the iPhone is fully functional", or in other words: there is no evidence of a hardware issue on this customer's iPhone.

Nowhere does it say anything about what AT&T considers "normal". This engineer does not even work for AT&T. She's simply saying that she confirmed that this particular unit seems to be OK on a hardware level and referred the customer to AT&T for resolution.

Move along...
 
That is unacceptable. But I'll also say that the problems experienced by people in NYC and SF have created a negative perception of AT&T that isn't accurate for most of the country. I've taken my iphone to a lot of places (to name a few: Orlando, DC, Indianapolis, New Hampshire, Maine, Houston) and had very good service (by which I mean as good as what my gf has had on her verizon phone) everywhere. I live in Boston, and the 3G speeds could be faster, but I do always have 3G and have very few dropped calls.

None of this is to suggest 30% dropped calls in a major city is Ok - it's clearly not, and if I lived in NYC or SF, I probably wouldn't have an iphone. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend AT&T to people who lived in most other places.
 
It's really unbelievable that you see so many iPhones in NYC, I was there recently for three days and received only a couple calls, most of them went to voicemail, also data service was out for hours at a time.

This poor service really stands out when you live in a small market with 3G service where the phone works acceptably well.


jcrMBP said:
AT&T has a problem. I've been a customer for many years. Most of my family are AT&T customers. We all live in different parts of the country and we all experience the same problems. Very frequent, way too frequent, dropped calls. I know the naysayers and apologists here say to give AT&T a break. They are experiencing growing pains. Here's what I have to say.

First of all, my iPhone is a Phone! I expect the phone part of the iPhone to work above all else. It's nice to have the apps but I expect the phone to work 100% of the time. That's what I'm paying for. If AT&T needs to figure out a way to throttle down the data then that's what they need to do during peak usage. Phone calls should be the priority for a phone! I still have a Gen 1 iPhone and will not upgrade until AT&T resolves their problems. When I get tired of waiting for that to happen and my iPhone dies, I'll switch phones and networks.
Click to expand...
 
15inchbrick said:
Um.... I am pretty sure that Apple gets a higher subsidy from having an exclusive carrier agreement, lowering the cost to their customers, yet still keeping margins on the device high.

Someone to correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...

Small White Car said:
So you're saying that AT&T gives Apple money...but that does nothing for Apple's business?
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: Wow, both of you missed it entirely. My point is the same as yours.

The poster I replied to suggested that Apple could have split their contract so that both AT&T and Verizon would have the iPhone (meaning better overall service today). But in the end, that would mean less profit for Apple.

I was explaining that Apple would not have made an exclusive agreement had there been no extra money involved. That's my point.
 
Okay, this guy must live in a "garden" apartment or something. I live in NYC and the only place I drop calls 100% of the time is near the Verizon building by the Brooklyn Bridge. Irony of ironies.

But my dropped call percentage is less that 5%.
 
NeroAZ said:
Here in Phoenix I have not had too many issues. i get full strength signal most of the time and almost always 3g. however there are a few places i have that and still cannot get data, luckily its not often, and usually its in the evening which is probably heavy usage times.
Click to expand...

East side of the Phoenix and the outlying areas are terrible. This thing is a brick often! I actually keep old reliable verizon around in case of emergency. Still, the iPhone rocks and I'll just keep it till they open it up to Verizon too!

AT&T sucks!
 
bondsbw said:
:rolleyes: Wow, both of you missed it entirely. My point is the same as yours.

The poster I replied to suggested that Apple could have split their contract so that both AT&T and Verizon would have the iPhone (meaning better overall service today). But in the end, that would mean less profit for Apple.

I was explaining that Apple would not have made an exclusive agreement had there been no extra money involved. That's my point.
Click to expand...

Exactly!!! Could not have said it better! Cannot see the forest for the trees!!!!!!!!
 
Not just the iPhone

Both mine and my partner's regular EDGE/3G cellphones (Nokias) on AT&T drop calls at a horrific rate. When calls do connect, I've heard static, other people's conversations, and a constant background hiss well beyond what other cell networks have. I borrowed a friend's Sprint phone the other day because my battery ran out, and I was amazed at how clear the call was - and her cell was Sprints giveaway texting phone. This is in East Bay, CA.

Goodbye AT&T - I'll never use you as a carrier again, which also means every business I work for that has cell plans for its employees will also never use you as a carrier again.
 
33scottie33 said:
I get about the same drop rate or worse in the DC Metro area. I also have friends on AT&T that have their text messages go to the wrong person. Thinking seriously of getting a Verizon BB and an iPod Touch to replace my iPhone. :(:(:( Sorry :apple:
Click to expand...

Sorry? You'd be buying another Apple device ...
 
touchtone561 said:
In 2005 AT&T was passing out 3G SIMS like raffle tickets in phones that weren't 3G -I need some internal wireless guru to tell if that extra hand-off doesn't make a difference.
Click to expand...

That makes no difference whatsoever.

A 2G phone simply ignores the 3G features of the USIM.

As far as the 2G phone is concerned, 3G doesn't exist. It has no impact on any network (2G or 3G).
 
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