So I saw a commercial for AT&T last night stating that they now cover 99% of all Americans, and had a coverage map that looked strangely different from usual. It was almost completely filled, and usually theirs is pretty spotty. Has anyone else heard this?
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Carrier AT&T now covering 99% of people??
- Thread starter John9721
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I rarely trust any commercial claiming coverage. They always seem to skew the data with buzzwords that make their network look the best (not just AT&T, but the others too!).
If I were to guess, this could mean 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE coverage networks covers 99% of the States?!?
I think they mean that they cover 99% of the US' population with some sort of service, such as EDGE/HSPA/LTE, etc.
Notice how they don't say "Nationwide 4G" like T-Mobile?
http://about.att.com/newsroom/att_4g_lte_covers_more_than_270_million_people_jan.html
Honestly, it's all a bunch of crap. VZW says their LTE build out is 99% complete. But if you look at the coverage map, it's not.
Notice how they don't say "Nationwide 4G" like T-Mobile?
http://about.att.com/newsroom/att_4g_lte_covers_more_than_270_million_people_jan.html
Honestly, it's all a bunch of crap. VZW says their LTE build out is 99% complete. But if you look at the coverage map, it's not.
My guess is they are including all thier LTE/4G/3G/EDGE coverage in that now. The previous maps were only referring to 4G. Plus, if you look closely in the fine print of this new map, it looks like they are also including areas where they don't have coverage themselves, but have roaming agreements with other providers.
Typical marketing hype. Stretch the truth, so that they are technically not lying...
Typical marketing hype. Stretch the truth, so that they are technically not lying...
There are huge portions of the USA that nobody lives in, or less than 1% of the population lives in. There are deserts where you can go for miles with nothing but dirt, there are mountain ranges where nobody lives. These are the areas where there are weak or no coverage at all.
All of 4 them stretch the truth with claims of how great their coverage is. Case in point, Verizon claims excellent signal with LTE all over my area but when I had them I got 1-2 bars fluctuating between LTE, 3G, and 1X. Barely usable.
Wasn't there a state in the North East somewhere that didn't have AT&T at all until a couple of years ago? I want to say Connecticut or Vermont. That might explain "all roaming".
I think you are thinking about Vermont. AT&T had a very basic network covering major areas up until a few years ago. After the VZW-Rural Cell Corp (Unicel) merger, AT&T took over Unicel's Vermont network, which practically blanketed the state.
AT&T is using that same network to deploy LTE right now.
Connecticut has always been a strong market for AT&T. It was the first state that went 100% HSPA. It was one of the earliest with LTE also. Now CT is pretty much 100% covered with LTE.
EDIT: not alltel, Unicel
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Yeah I guess it was Vermont, I knew I read about people not having iPhones in one state a few years back. Found this Article.
It's funny I can drive the Bennington Vermont in about 25 to 30 minutes, and know quite a few people from VT yet I only knew about this by skimming through some articles a few years back about people trying to get iPhones there.
Yeah. I didn't know about it until a family friend (from Burlington, VT) drove all the way down to Boston to buy an iPhone a few years back. I remember thinking he was crazy. The lengths people went through to buy an iPhone back in the day
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AT&T agrees to buy AWS spectrum from Aloha
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?p...eid=37376&mapcode=financial|att-business-news
With VZW deploying B4 AWS across the nation, it only seems realistic that AT&T start doing the same to keep traffic off the 700B/C bands.
Now I am curious as to where you are located. I-75 from from northern MI to Southern Florida. I have been to places all over the border states, including several rural areas. Been all over the east coast, much of all over the south east from Alexandria, Louisiana to Florida, then up the east coast. On and off the highways, and the only time I ever lose service is when I am in the mountains in the Northeast. Usually just in some parts of the Adirondack mountains.
You are paying too much attention to any1 advertising.
Are you a large AT&T shareholder or something?
Everybody is claiming one thing or the other everyday.
you can tell who has an agenda by looking at what they post....consistently seeing negative posts about one company (say T-Mobile) all positive about another (say AT&T) leads one believe they are either employed by one company or a shareholder....
Yea, this is the thing I don't understand about Verizon's LTE vs AT&T LTE. They both cover 500+ markets but Verizon's LTE map shows it covering most of the US and they show AT&T's as being very minimal on their website comparison map. Does Verizon really have strong LTE everywhere or are they stretching the LTE coverage to include even 1 bar?
In SE KY where I live I have to have a microcell to get service at my house. There are mountains here and quite a bit away from I-75. AT&T are suppose to be putting up another tower somewhere in my area but I don't believe it....been told that for years lol.
About the only places I know of where AT&T doesn't cover people are a couple of my aunts and uncles. Both of them live on a lake. One is blocked from the nearby AT&T tower by a mountain, and I guess the one on the other side isn't close enough. The other is just more in the middle of nowhere. You lose signal about five minutes or so from their place.
Verizon covers the second, but not the first quite as well. They have Verizon phones but also have whatever Verizon calls a Microcell. But then at my sister's home, you get AT&T coverage but Verizon drops out a mile or so away, again pretty far from most of civilization.
I have a brother in law who works for AT&T, and the reason I didn't go with Aio is he mentioned something about roaming agreements. Basically I think you pay more for AT&T because it backs you up with more service in places where it's not technically an AT&T network. He wasn't sure whether Aio, which AT&T owns, would do that. That, the lack of free WiFi hotspot, and then realizing that I could group with my parents on a shared plan led me to what I do now.
Verizon covers the second, but not the first quite as well. They have Verizon phones but also have whatever Verizon calls a Microcell. But then at my sister's home, you get AT&T coverage but Verizon drops out a mile or so away, again pretty far from most of civilization.
I have a brother in law who works for AT&T, and the reason I didn't go with Aio is he mentioned something about roaming agreements. Basically I think you pay more for AT&T because it backs you up with more service in places where it's not technically an AT&T network. He wasn't sure whether Aio, which AT&T owns, would do that. That, the lack of free WiFi hotspot, and then realizing that I could group with my parents on a shared plan led me to what I do now.
In SE KY where I live I have to have a microcell to get service at my house. There are mountains here and quite a bit away from I-75. AT&T are suppose to be putting up another tower somewhere in my area but I don't believe it....been told that for years lol.
It sucks when that happens, I have a friend who has had AT&T for years, but service was terrible in his house and other carriers weren't any better. He heard the same thing, that AT&T was supposed to be putting up another tower for a few years. Suddenly one day he had perfect service in his house. Come to find out, it had something to do with the local government and some zoning issues. It was hard to get the approval to erect the cell tower. I don't know the reasoning, I guess it could be many things. I wouldn't be surprised if other carriers lobby local politicians, or maybe someone complaining about it being an eyesore.
If you overlay all cellular technology maps AT&T has, then yes. It is quite possible they have 99% coverage. Where as in a single technology they might not.