Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AT&T Offers Video Update on iPhone MMS and Cellular Network Issues

Don't have an iPhone, so I probably don't have the bottled rage that a lot of folks seem to, but if it's come to this then things must be bad...

First: "Seth the Blogger Guy"? Seriously? How about "Steven the Network Architect Guy"? I'd much rather hear what that guy has to say.

Maybe I'm just getting old... Do the kids on this forum feel the blogger guy speaks to them in a way that a square professional with expertise can't?

Second: Maybe the professional with expertise could explain why doubling the data rate of a phone squares the network load? I can't figure out where the "geometric pressure" comes from. Point to point devices growing in capacity sounds like arithmetic pressure to me, but I'm not a network analyst...

Third: it's just sad to see one of the worlds largest corporations posting a You-Tube invite to their pity party. There's no reason paying customers should feel sorry that you're drowning in your own success. Each node on that network, or car on that highway, is paying an exorbitant toll and they expect traffic to flow smoothly.

Fourth: don't act like this was all a surprise. Yes, the iPhone was a run away success (see point 3), but there are plenty of worked examples of high capacity networks throughout the civilized world. Yes every market is unique, and the US poses special challenges, but you're freaking AT&T-- the mother of the telephone, one of the First Ones.
 
""We've been working for months to prepare the radio access controllers in our network to support this launch. That means calibrating base stations all over the country, and frankly, that's a very time-consuming process," he says."

Now I know why my coverage has gone from 3 bars to 1/0 bars in my house. AT$T has been out calibratin' in my neighborhood!
 
HiRez said:
I'll believe it when I see it. AT&T was sketchy when I started using them about 10 years ago, but they've gotten absolutely horrendous over the last 6-12 months. So many dropped/inaudible calls and the data speeds and coverage is very pokey compared to Verizon. We'll see, but I don't have a lot of faith in them. The iPhone is the greatest mobile device ever, but it's ruined by the AT&T experience.
Click to expand...


The AT&T you started with 10 years ago isn't the same AT&T. They are basically just SBC with a new name.
 
I'm so sick of reading these threads. You are a bunch of whiny babies. Who gives a ***** if it's a few days late? Is it the end of the world? To those of you who bitch and complain about AT&T and the fact they are so late with MMS, take your iPhone somewhere else. Would you rather have them get it right the first time or roll it out with issues? Come on people, grow up.
 
One way AT&T could make me happy is drop the monthly rate for the iPhone. Its way overpriced.

Yeah i'm asking for way too much
 
Why does AT&T suck compared to most telcos in Europe?

Most cell users in Europe enjoy near cable Internet level speeds on their cell networks. How about that, AT&T? Care to comment?
 
gibbz said:
It's actually worse than that. According to AT&T (here), they have activated 10.4 million iPhones since 2007. According to a press release (here) their customer base is 78.2 million.

So this means that iPhone customers comprise only ~13% of users, not 1/3 as you stated. So only ~13% have cause the network problems.
Click to expand...

And it's even less then 13% because those 10.4 million activations include people who upgraded from a previous iPhone. So that activation number includes a lot of duplicate iPhone customers.
 
mikecap said:
Most cell users in Europe enjoy near cable Internet level speeds on their cell networks. How about that, AT&T? Care to comment?
Click to expand...

That's true, but those networks were paid for using billions of Euros in public taxpayer's money... as in, massively subsidized, just like GSM was before it.

Do you really think that would be the case if Orange, Vodaphone and others had to pay for it with billions of their own money??

So if you're pi$$ed, write to your senator and ask him for a tax increase to cover the AT&T buildout!

:rolleyes:
 
macharborguy said:
The AT&T you started with 10 years ago isn't the same AT&T. They are basically just SBC with a new name.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. A lot of the networks that SBC/Cingular took over around the country were part of the original AT&T network.
 
mikecap said:
Most cell users in Europe enjoy near cable Internet level speeds on their cell networks. How about that, AT&T? Care to comment?
Click to expand...

Most cellular companies in Europe also
cover a MUCH smaller footprint than US carriers do. The united states is.. Uhh.. rather large.
 
Don't attack....Put your hate where it belongs.

Dear People.
I think when AT&T says more bars in more places, I think they mean that the executives and people who work on their network are going to more bars in more places!
AT&T sucks. Not the guys telling us about it. There is no need to pick on him. Name calling should be reserved for AT&T and maybe even Apple for making us use AT&T. So, this guy is not the most impressive and the message is a bit hilarious, that shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm actually surprised it does.
The iPhone is the best device ever made and maybe one day, the network it's on may not suck. (When they're smart enough to move to Verizon).
Till then, let's just keep our fingers crossed.
 
Its sure great to see the continued bickering. Fact is after the 25th everybody can **** and enjoy their MMS. Thats me included.... been dying for it. But I have to have a pinch of sympathy.... note I said a pinch.... for the assraping we iphone users have dropped on them. Granted we pay good money to bend their network over so in the end its all about making sure the reach around is on par with the bending over.

Put Verizon or any other network in the same boat and their network would be on its knees as well. Ultimately what we need is the iphone available on all carriers to spread the load.

Just my .02
 
dlewis23 said:
Well it is and it isn't.

Here in south florida, we have the best Wireless cell network in the country. We were fully 850 MHz several months ago, and consistently have 1.5 Mbps + download speed. Calls don't get dropped on the iPhone, cell coverage is not spotty at all, and I have used it a lot from Port ST. Lucie down to south miami.

Now i'm not making any excuses for AT&T because there are still problems and some places are just really bad. But its not bad everywhere. And if AT&T would model the rest of the country on what they did in South Florida there would be 90% less problems then what people have now.
Click to expand...

Wow I am so glad someone posted exactly what I was thinking. Ha. I just moved to South Florida (Naples) from Utah, and I haven't dropped one call or suffered from ANY internet slowdown at all. I honest to god don't understand the hate for the iPhone when it comes to service. Sure AT&T sucks as far as price, but as far as coverage goes, it is 2nd to none in my opinion. Even in Utah I had amazing signal strength and 3g coverage.

I'm using my iPhone for internet tethering right now (it can be done just look around) and thought I was going to get Comcast. Whats funny is my iPhone is giving me an AMAZING connection. I swear to god, its almost as fast as a Cable connection. I've downloaded tv show torrents in 15 minutes!!

So for those that have a crappy connection with their iPhone, i'm sorry because its not like that everywhere. Trust me, I wouldn't wanna go with anyone else.

Oh and BTW, if you go with T-Mobile and unlock your iPhone, you won't be able to use 3G and won't be able to receive any updates unless you wanna unlock your phone again after every single one.
 
gflogic said:
Dear People.
I think when AT&T says more bars in more places, I think they mean that the executives and people who work on their network are going to more bars in more places!
AT&T sucks. Not the guys telling us about it. There is no need to pick on him. Name calling should be reserved for AT&T and maybe even Apple for making us use AT&T. So, this guy is not the most impressive and the message is a bit hilarious, that shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm actually surprised it does.
The iPhone is the best device ever made and maybe one day, the network it's on may not suck. (When they're smart enough to move to Verizon).
Till then, let's just keep our fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what i'm talking about... So you think ATT sucks because of the price of service or the quality of service? Because i'm telling you right now, if its the signal strength, then its probably because you live in an area where the signal strength would suck with ANY carrier. Trust me, Verizon isn't any better.

Look at the Blackberry Storm, that thing is god awful, and slow as well.
 
ski1ski1 said:
Then how come MMS is so popular if nobody currently uses it ?
Click to expand...
Hmm. Maybe because it up until now has been popular with users of phones with a 1.3 - 2.0 Mpixels cameras which often reduce it the resolution to 1.3 Mpixels for sending via email/MMS?

My last phone before my first iPhone (3G) was a Motorola KRZR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_KRZR

It was a GSM phone but the camera was so crappy that it might as well have been 1.3 Mpixels.

I keep on hearing about MMS being so damn popular but I have to wonder if it is actually true or an urban legend on the internet. I would not be surprise if most MMS users use the default lower res setting even on their 2Mpixel phones because of how hard it is to navigate through the settings.
 
I really only care about how they're going to handle tethering. I probably wouldn't use the feature much myself so it is unlikely i'd ever buy it. But I am still curious to see if they gouge people.
 
Europe keeps on being brought up. Guess what? They do have a better infrastructure but they also have a lower customer density as well on average and most of their nokia phones are either dumb phones or smart phones that are too damn hard to use and have crippled browsers.

There are also cultural differences. Most Europeans are probably not streaming cat videos from Youtube or twittering about the minutia of their boring little lives like Americans seem to do.
 
All I can say is you would think when they make a public statement about where they spent 38 BILLION dollars in the last 2 years it would come from someone who has at least had a shave in the last day or so and some kind of hair cut !!!... and the Sears shirt needs to be burned...
 
All this wouldn't be so much of an issue if they blanketed the country (or at least my usual areas I travel) with some free or included Wi-Fi. I'd be using Skype, SlingPlayer, and YouTube, and all the other heavy data apps over Wi-Fi and only touch their 3G when I'm in the boonies.

Trying to find a decent Wi-Fi hotspot than isn't a separate pay service is such a pain. I'm glad my Optimum Wi-Fi is available in some places, but it's still too sparse for me to be appreciated.

Whatever happened to the idea of Wi-Fi blimps over major cities?
 
I Don't Care

I LOVE my iPhone; it's the most amazing device ever. AT&T hasn't given me any problems in Las Vegas. Having a cool device cost money. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. Prices will drop eventually, even when other carriers get the phone. No matter where it goes, or how much it cost, I will pay for it...

All because I LOVE my iPhone. (And Apple, of course)
 
HiVolt said:
Do they honestly expect people to believe that iPhone MMS would cripple their network? There are far more bandwidth intensive applications for the iPhone than the occasional MMS!!!
Click to expand...

My favorite part is their ridiculous SMS pricing, making it cheaper for me to use some of my 8 billion rollover minutes and make a call than to send a text once I go over my paltry 200 message limit.

So instead of a miniscule bit of data flying through the air, I have to do it via voice. Now, which puts more burden on the system, a 2 minute voice call or a 3-word text message???
 
Haha I love how like half the comments are about the guy in the video. No but seriously at least higher a hot dude or a cute girl for this.... or at least someone who doesn't look creepy.

All they're doing is reading off of a cue card anyway.
 
aristotle said:
Hmm. Maybe because it up until now has been popular with users of phones with a 1.3 - 2.0 Mpixels cameras which often reduce it the resolution to 1.3 Mpixels for sending via email/MMS?

My last phone before my first iPhone (3G) was a Motorola KRZR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_KRZR

It was a GSM phone but the camera was so crappy that it might as well have been 1.3 Mpixels.

I keep on hearing about MMS being so damn popular but I have to wonder if it is actually true or an urban legend on the internet. I would not be surprise if most MMS users use the default lower res setting even on their 2Mpixel phones because of how hard it is to navigate through the settings.
Click to expand...

Do you realize the iPhone defaults to a resolution of only .5 Mpixel when you email pictures ? That's only 800x600 !! And I'm sure it will be the same way or worse with it's MMS. And what is your point behind your post ? How many iPhone users know how to send the full 2.0 or 3.1 Mpixel resolution...or even care ? I bet a very low percentage.

http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wo...p-how-to-send-full-resolution-photos-by-email



.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back