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

[DELLsFan]

Oh yes, there is much more to Vegas than just the Strip. When you get underneath the tourist trap that it is, the 2nd big thing Las Vegas is, is a college town. So you have the college jocks coming in to party all the time.

I just did a little test for you. I'm going to assume you've been to only 4 malls in Vegas; Fashion Show, Forum Shops, and whatever Planet Hollywood renamed the Desert Passage mall in the former Aladdin casino, and Town Square.

I went shopping at the other malls (Meadows, Boulevard, Galleria at Sunset, and both outlets) on my way out of town to Kingman (via Oatman) to visit the inlaws. Full bars in every mall (Meadows is on US95 & Decatur, Boulevard on Maryland Parkway, Galleria on US95 and Sunset, Las Vegas Outlets north of the Stratosphere, and Belz on Las Vegas Blvd. & Warm Springs, just south of Town Square) Full bars in all places.

After that, went down to Laughlin on US 95, crossed the river into Bullhead City, then down to Oatman. Fed the burros, watched a couple guys get killed in the daily gunfight, then drove Route 66 (which Oatman is on) straight into Kingman. I had 4 bars there (dammit). But I dare Verizon to say that they have better coverage on the southwest part of Route 66.

BL.

Thanks for the test ... but I never disputed the signal strength. I had what appeared to be a max signal in just about every location I visited. Voice calls were clear and connected great. I had indication of 3G service everywhere. However, the actual connection to the internet worked maybe 25% of my stay. It was bizarre. Something was amiss with my connection to AT&T's 3G service in Vegas. As soon as I got home, I was able to connect to the internet just fine.

 

[xDYLANx]

I'm getting an iPhone Friday, but I'm scared about having to deal with AT&T

 

[bradl]

I'm getting an iPhone Friday, but I'm scared about having to deal with AT&T

Honestly, there is nothing wrong with AT&T. Dealing with them is the same as dealing with any other US carrier. There really isn't a difference. Tell them what you want, and you're good to go. There might even be some specials for you if you qualify for them (see the FAN account threads in the iPhone forum).

Just be sure to do your homework (read: coverage in your area, plans, etc.) and you will be fine. If you don't want to deal with them, you can always head to the Apple Store and they will take care of you (except they really can't deal with FAN accounts, as that's only ATT's deal).

BL.

 

[charlituna]

Anyone going to Verizon when they get the iphone? *raises hand*

Actually no you might not. Apple is under no obligation to make phones for CDMA, which is what at the moment Version is using. so unless Verizon switches support to whatever Apple decides to use for the phones, Verizon won't be able to 'get the iphone'.

 

[andy721]

A link to this would be nice, or even some relevant search terms. I have not heard of this "trick".

I don't think I can post it on here people will get upset like always.

 

[vvebsta]

Watching that video again, I feel like its a slap in the face. making it sound like mms for iphone needs this huge restructuring, then explaining to us how a phone call works like we're 4 years old. AT&T is so far behind in the times. 4G is the next step, AT&T better get on the ball or its going to be a legacy network. Its simple if there's too much bandwidth on the network, build a better network!

 

[JoeG4]

Stolen off a tuaw comment:

AT&T : we are improving our 3G network!

Sprint: we are expanding our 4G network!

Honestly, I think Apple might've blown it going with AT&T instead of Sprint. If they had gone with Sprint, we'd be looking forward to an iPhone 4G in the next few months.

Instead, we're here listening to a bunch of psycopants get excited about MMS and expanded 3G coverage!

 

[diamond.g]

Honestly, there is nothing wrong with AT&T. Dealing with them is the same as dealing with any other US carrier. There really isn't a difference. Tell them what you want, and you're good to go. There might even be some specials for you if you qualify for them (see the FAN account threads in the iPhone forum).

Just be sure to do your homework (read: coverage in your area, plans, etc.) and you will be fine. If you don't want to deal with them, you can always head to the Apple Store and they will take care of you (except they really can't deal with FAN accounts, as that's only ATT's deal).

BL.

Apparently AT&T now charges to attach a FAN to your account...

 

[staticliner]

Over the past couple of years the service at my house with AT&T has progressively gotten worse. Things were great "back in the day" with my Nokia 6230 and even with the original iPhone. Currently I have the iPhone 3G and can barely make a phone call at my house. I don't think AT&T is going to magically build or improve service in the next 2 weeks. MMS will probably get delayed again and with the Facebook post about the new Nokia coming out and the statement "Yes it will have MMS at time of launch" has made me decide to just switch that number over to Verizon and pick up a BlackBerry Tour (will be delivered tomorrow).

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is a great phone and if the service was as great as the phone I would have no reason to switch. Enough is enough though. Also, with the sale of my 3G, it should be more than enough to pay for the early termination fee.

 

[Bjohnson33]

And AFAIK, AT&T has screwed both its customers and its own employees with the iPhone.

I spoke to many AT&T employees who were pissed off that their store only carried 20-80 iPhone 3G and 3GS at launch and were sold out for weeks at a time, while the Apple store on the other side of the mall had hundreds in stock daily.

Initially, I thought it was because Apple was holding back and wanted to sell on their own. But, upon further inspection, AT&T was the one who held back from getting any stock.

Why?

Commission.

For every iPhone sold at an AT&T store, as well as any accessories or add-ons sold, that AT&T rep would be receiving commission for that sale. There is no commission for any Apple employee for selling and activating an iPhone (or any product in their store for that matter).

AT&T knew they were going to get the customers with every activation anyway, so why give additional monies to their own employees when it can be done for them, essentially for free? I watched the AT&T reps literally lean in front of the store and their kiosks with nothing to do but watch the neverending line of iPhone buyers wrap around the Apple store just across the hall.

You just kept the money and wasted your exclusivity time, and you know it, AT&T. Watch yourself crumble when it's all over and the iPhone becomes officially available to other carriers.

This is the first time I've heard of that. If it's true, that's a pretty bad black eye on AT&T.

 

[kdarling]

You know, I never thought that anyone could come up with a worse talking head than Verizon's "can you hear me now" geek.

But apparently AT&T visualizes their iPhone customers as ugly and pretentious with wrinkled clothing.

Now, if they had actually thought about the type of person who's going to see that video (e.g. people here), then they would've realized that they should've used a cute young girl instead !!

Have her cross her legs a few times, and most of the sad sacks around here would've gladly waited an extra few months for MMS, just to see more delay videos.

 

[sziehr]

Yes this is correct, not an expert on it but that about it.

Here is a link that explains the different technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA2000

So verizon did just do an update for evdo but at the same time they decided to run fiber to large chunk of towers. This will help them a lot when they go lte they will have to learn how to tune for lte for there tower density and repeTer grid. Verizon uses a lot of bounce towers in my area to keep data routed to fiber sites. Also CDMA evdo as a strong back up when lte is not working right is a good fall back option for them. CDMA also let's the handset drive the network so a tower can be brought down not by usage but by how many options are being held by using phones of the cell site. That is the core of CDMA also what keeps verizon having lowered dropped calls cause they use CDMA 1x network which was roller out what a decade ago. AT&T on the other hand is fighting the fact that utms does not work well withthere tower spread that is why so many new cell sites are needed utms goes less distance than edge or gsm. Gsm when done correctly is just as good as CDMA as far as dropped calls. What is currently happenig is the cells are slammed on AT&T with no optional holds like CDMA so when it comes time for that hard switch that the network tells the device to do lands on a no slots issue at the new site and the call goes to no mans land. Unlike CDMA there is no back up plan. Should the first choice switch over be down the orginsting hand off site holds on and goes to back up choice quickly. Each tech has benefits and issues it is all about proper implamentation which AT&T will have to ramp up there work on. I researched all this whe. I was having horrid dropped calls on my iPhone back a few months ago when I used to never ever on verizon I was surprised at the starch diffrences in tech

 

[butterfly0fdoom]

Stolen off a tuaw comment:

AT&T : we are improving our 3G network!

Sprint: we are expanding our 4G network!

Honestly, I think Apple might've blown it going with AT&T instead of Sprint. If they had gone with Sprint, we'd be looking forward to an iPhone 4G in the next few months.

Instead, we're here listening to a bunch of psycopants get excited about MMS and expanded 3G coverage!

Apple? Sprint? Really? CDMA and WiMax, a 2G/3G and 4G technology that almost no one else uses. Great idea there, genius.

 

[IDKPLZKTHX]

Just weird how every other network has been doing what they are doing for years. I guess thats what happens when you keep building on 15 year old technology

 

[hiimamac]

As I've said here or AI, AT&T is probably saying this as new features are coming that we won't have. Again, can't believe we pay for the data plan, especially text. Again, GOOGLE HOW TEXT messaging uses the packets that cost AT&T nothing but yet they continue to screw us.

Because if the high priced, over priced Tom Tom, after one yearvof using the iPhone, I jail broke it. Maybe I will get it but the gps is still off a second or two. I also have backgrounder which allows me to run apps in the background plus activity monitor, get it now, version 1.1 as apple is telling all developers to turn off memory freeing parts of the app. With it, I ac install themes and then free up memory, have five rows of icons, MLB at bat, Ns a while lot of other things. Once GV mobile starts working, I will report my iPhone doing something dump the data and text programs and get freevcalls and texting. Otherwise, will pay termination feevans gonto another provider one that offers fast speeds and data plan. AT&T is Brip off and will be until apple releases on another provider. Oh and did I mention. Have free teethering.

Also activity monitor , $2.99 at app store although I probable could have found it free at binaries. smartphones, jail broken and the newest jail break program allows you to double click an app that you haven't purchased in order to try it, but anyway, get activity monitor for sure if you have the 3G non 3GS, as it allows you to set your apps to free memory for apps after they quit. Very nice indeed and jail breaken is easy these days thanks to developers and you can really learn a lot about your iPhone.

Lasty, my favorite free app? Can remember what it's called but email me if you want to know a buzzlo11@yahoo.com as you know when you are reading a forum and can rap tip of page to go to top? Well this app, after three(3), taps, allows you go to the bottom or anywhere on the page very easy. Very very cool stuff as I use the iPhone all the time for forums and it helps tremendously.
Peace.

LOL, what a bunch of hogwash...

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!!!

Also the vast majority of iPhones out there are the original iPhone, which will have no MMS capability at all and the iPhone 3G, with only picture MMS and not video... PICTURE ONLY, and I'd bet my left nut that the pictures sent over MMS will be reduced in resolution, just like they are when sent by E-Mail.

I'm glad I'm not an AT&T user, thankfully Rogers handles the iPhone in Canada and MMS/Tethering has been supported from day 1 of iPhone OS 3.0 release with at no extra cost.

 

[mikejfrd]

blah blah blah....

Some people will never be pleased!!! If you think Verizon is so wonderful go to Verizon!!! I've had Verizon, Nextel then Sprint, and now ATT and I can say that I've had issues with all of them. There isn't a perfect cell phone provider and I'm sure if Verizon was bogged down with millions of iphones they would have the same issues as well.

By reading this forum you would think that iphone and ATT suck. The majority of these threads are people complaining about a loose button or a dropped call, and how they were so deceived about the release of MMS. Some of you geniuses think its some conspiracy or something??? lol!!! If you think you can find a better phone on a better network, THEN GO!!!

I'm not an Apple or ATT fan boy, but dear god some of you people are ridiculous!!!

 

[sziehr]

blah blah blah....

Some people will never be pleased!!! If you think Verizon is so wonderful go to Verizon!!! I've had Verizon, Nextel then Sprint, and now ATT and I can say that I've had issues with all of them. There isn't a perfect cell phone provider and I'm sure if Verizon was bogged down with millions of iphones they would have the same issues as well.

By reading this forum you would think that iphone and ATT suck. The majority of these threads are people complaining about a loose button or a dropped call, and how they were so deceived about the release of MMS. Some of you geniuses think its some conspiracy or something??? lol!!! If you think you can find a better phone on a better network, THEN GO!!!

I'm not an Apple or ATT fan boy, but dear god some of you people are ridiculous!!!

I will leave as soon as verizon gets a decent smart phone. It is about a company saying i will have coverage and then not delivering or the worst having bars but no bandwidth to back it up. I am sure you have had your issues with all providers listed but in my area verizon is king. I however would not use the services offered on there devices is why i own an iphone. The rather saddening fact is att could really do better but they CHOSE not to. Verizon has bent there customers over a barrel more times than i can count i look at my mothers bill and i am just mortified but they sadly do have the service to back up the charge. this is all regional the bits that are annoying is when you travel like i did today for 10 hours of that 6 was nothing but edge. That is if i could get edge to stay working for long enough to get the weather of the accident report. That is what is so frustrating to people the love the device so much that they come to rely on it more than they did say there nokia flip phone. I my self could not dream of going back to a day with out a smart phone in my pocket. I the Iphone has set the standard for device excellence now att needs to set the bar a touch higher than on the floor. For the record least in my area Verizon rolled out EVDO very slowly due to tower upgrades and fiber infrastructure. They did not drop a 3g network on a 2g cell site bad ATT bad now go sit in the corner lol. I mean at the end of the day it is a phone it does what you want and more it is just a scream the 2nd rate network got the top rate phone.

 

[thebez]

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.

I could care less about some stupid cat video and don't even really know what twittering is. In other words - Nice stereotype jerk.

 

[thebez]

I'm not sure if any of this has been said before. If it has I apologize.

I made what turned out to be the mistake of buying a first generation iPhone in January 2008. I say mistake because my download speeds have been getting slower and slower since last fall when AT&T started switching their towers to 3G to support the rapid growth. It has hit the point where using the phone for anything data related is almost impossible away from wifi, due to constant timeouts. I thought perhaps my problems were with my actual phone, but when I did a warranty exchange that proved me wrong. I live in the suburbs halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino, Which is not exactly the middle of nowhere. In the last couple of weeks it has reached the point that Visual Voicemail doesn't work at least 50% of the time.

To add further insult to injury I find out this June that I will not -ever- be getting MMS. I no longer receive viewmymessage.com links, which means I am no longer even aware that someone sent me a message. This fact is making me really popular with my friends, who now think the iPhone is a total piece of crap. They literally laugh at me.

To recap:
- I will not be getting MMS.
- I no longer receive viewmymessage.com links.
- My data access, which used to be decently fast, is now completely unusable.

At this point I effectively have a Motorola Razr with an iPod taped to the back. Great.

You want something to throw at an AT&T executive? There's an app for that.

 

[CharBroiled20s]

You still fail to understand my point. How will iPhone users be more demanding MMS customers then non-iPhone customers ?

Link

It's a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, but the average iPhone owner can also use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user.

A recent Wall Street Journal article also reported that iPhone users download web data at a rate of two to four times that of other smartphone users

Yep, and AT&T saw that usage increase for the last two years... What have they done to accommodate it?..... NOT MUCH.

One would assume they'd scale up their network availability with the number of units they sell ESPECIALLY when you take into account the amount of data these new units consume and have consumed over the last 2+ years. AND DON'T EVEN PRETEND THEY DON'T KNOW THE USAGE STATS FOR THEIR OWN NETWORK!

Which says nothing of the fact that ALL OTHER MAJOR MANUFACTURERS are trying to play catch up with the iPhone.. AT&T is well aware that everyone is trying to emulate the iPhone browser experience! It stands to reason that other phones will begin to consume equivalent amounts of data....Soo.....

I take their excuses for what they are.... an admission of substandard service with a reactionary increase in availability (planned). Most multi-billion dollar corporations plan ahead to support the services they supposedly offer, but not AT&T! They'd rather "hear our complaints" and respond to them with a lame ass list of excuses brought to us by Seth the witless wonder who reminds me of a deer I struck with my car last year at 2 AM...

I'm soooooo done with you AT&T! When I can rock my sexy iPhone on ANYONE else's network you can auto-cancel my service..... I'M SO GONE!

 

[CharBroiled20s]

I'm not sure if any of this has been said before. If it has I apologize.

I made what turned out to be the mistake of buying a first generation iPhone in January 2008. I say mistake because my download speeds have been getting slower and slower since last fall when AT&T started switching their towers to 3G to support the rapid growth. It has hit the point where using the phone for anything data related is almost impossible away from wifi, due to constant timeouts. I thought perhaps my problems were with my actual phone, but when I did a warranty exchange that proved me wrong. I live in the suburbs halfway between Los Angeles and San Bernardino, Which is not exactly the middle of nowhere. In the last couple of weeks it has reached the point that Visual Voicemail doesn't work at least 50% of the time.

To add further insult to injury I find out this June that I will not -ever- be getting MMS. I no longer receive viewmymessage.com links, which means I am no longer even aware that someone sent me a message. This fact is making me really popular with my friends, who now think the iPhone is a total piece of crap. They literally laugh at me.

To recap:
- I will not be getting MMS.
- I no longer receive viewmymessage.com links.
- My data access, which used to be decently fast, is now completely unusable.

At this point I effectively have a Motorola Razr with an iPod taped to the back. Great.

You want something to throw at an AT&T executive? There's an app for that.

Ok, if that's all totally true then it TOTALLY BLOWS!!!!!!!

Just hack it and switch to T-Mobile (if they have good service in your area)... You'll be much happier with their phone support, their EDGE network speeds AND the cheaper bill.

Once 3.1 is released it'll be a matter of months before the jailbreak community has an MMS fix for all those on other networks (if even that long).

Good luck bud, that really really really sucks

 

[M!M!C]

About Time

We finally get what everyone else has? Nice

 

[kingtj]

As a Missouri AT&T user, I totally disagree!

I live in St. Louis, MO and I've been with AT&T since I was forced to switch to them to use my original iPhone. Now I'm on an iPhone 3G and still using AT&T ... and this entire time, I can clearly state that their service *stinks* compared to U.S. Cellular, who I had previously. To a lesser extent, they stink compared to Verizon too.

With AT&T, I get so many dropped calls while driving in the car, it's honestly rare I can finish a conversation with anybody without being hung up on at least once or twice!

Up in the Baden area (near my workplace), the reception is very spotty. It seems like some recent improvements were made, but for years up here, you'd get situations where a phone would display 4 or 5 bars of signal before you placed a call, but within 10 seconds of placing the call, would suddenly plummet to 1 bar and conversations would drop out. Currently, you still get a lot of this anyplace indoors - though it'll usually work if you stand outside.

Their data network obviously has issues as well. I've had a number of times people called and left me voicemail, and my phone never even told me I had a message waiting until at least 7-8 hours later! This is totally unacceptable because I run a side business doing on-site computer service work, and people need to get my voicemail during the day while I'm at my day job, so I can see what they need and call/schedule appointments during my lunch or other breaks.

I grudgingly put up with AT&T only because the iPhone itself is such a great device ... but the first opportunity I get to switch carriers, I'll do so. (Possibly, that will even mean moving to an "Android" platform phone - if they keep progressing with improving that product line.)

See my previous posts about Verizon, especially in Nevada and California. Reliable? Hardly, especially when their phone selection has been a joke.

I've had no problems at all with AT&T in the midwest (Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana), southern midwest (Oklahoma, Texas), Rocky Mountain region (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah), and the US West Coast (Nevada, California).

All US wireless carriers suck. IMHO, AT&T, sucks less.

BL.

 

[BeyondtheTech]

I spoke to many AT&T employees who were pissed off that their store only carried 20-80 iPhone 3G and 3GS at launch and were sold out for weeks at a time, while the Apple store on the other side of the mall had hundreds in stock daily.

Initially, I thought it was because Apple was holding back and wanted to sell on their own. But, upon further inspection, AT&T was the one who held back from getting any stock.

Why?

Commission.

For every iPhone sold at an AT&T store, as well as any accessories or add-ons sold, that AT&T rep would be receiving commission for that sale. There is no commission for any Apple employee for selling and activating an iPhone (or any product in their store for that matter).

This is the first time I've heard of that. If it's true, that's a pretty bad black eye on AT&T.

Think about it. As AT&T Mobility is currently the exclusive wireless carrier for the iPhone in the United States, the best that each AT&T store was able to stock up for an entire month was on average less than 5% than what a corresponding Apple store had in a given week?

What possible excuse could AT&T have by not pre-purchasing at least a quarter or half of all the iPhones to be sold here in the US? The only logical conclusion is that they didn't want to.

If that's the attitude that AT&T has on their own employees, what do you really think they think about their customers?

Simply put, this video is a poor excuse for PR spin and a worse attempt at damage control from a company that cares more about reputation than responsibility.

 

[kb22783]

Really ATT? Really?

Come on now. Who is in charge of their business models? You choose to launch what will OBVIOUSLY be the biggest revolution to the mobile world and it never occurs to you that hmmmm....maybe we should address the infrastructure BEFORE we implement the hardware. What did you think? Everyone who owned an iPhone or BBerry was just going to make calls and use the music players? It's starting to get really annoying. AND, I just can't WAIT to see how MMS goes. If the network can't handle the data now (thanks blogger guy), then HOW will it handle MMS? Loves me dropped calls.