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

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.
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Blackberry on Verizon - I got tired of asking everyone to repeat themselves, apologizing for dropped calls, getting network busy errors, and AT&T's sluggish network. Now that RIM is launching Desktop Manager for Mac, life only gets better.

Not that Verizon isn't a huge money-sucking monster of its own accord, but at least my damn phone works, which is the point of a cell phone.
 
nehunte said:
Those speeds you complain about (400-800kbps) are the speeds that Verizon offers on their 3G network on an everyday basis.

So, if another carrier does get the iPhone, I hope you complainers leave AT&T and go wreck that carrier's network and the rest of us will be happy on AT&T.;)
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My Verizon 3G speed is not too bad.

 
All the other carriers with the iPhone around the globe had support when it was announced. They didn't need a video like this.
 
I love how nobody can give AT&T a break her at all.

1) Why didn't they support MMS from day 1? Apple didn't. How about when 3.0 dropped? Think about the millions of iPhone users that get MMS and just pounding on the network. Think you have problems now? It would cripple it. So they spent tons of dough working on the back end so that doesn't happen.

2) You think that it would be any better on any other carrier? Wait. When the iPhone goes to VZ and watch their network buckle under the strain. I guess spending the amount that AT&T has on their network over the past few years wasn't enough.

I have an idea, lets raise the price of the plans so they can get more money to spend on the network. OH NO! They are too expensive as it is. CHEAPER RATES BETTER NETWORK.

Guess what? You can't have both.

This sense of entitlement that Americans have these days sickens me sometimes.

Lets see how T-Mobile's 3G network holds up to adding 9M+ smartphone users in 2 years. OH YEAH.....
 
NoExpectations said:
EXACTLY! Stop complaining......leave! Go get a Blackberry and get over to Verizon if you think it is SO SUPERIOR. I bet if you stood at the same spot with an iPhone (ATT) and Blackberry (Verizon), your would have the same signal problems.
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Actually, I did just that. And at least where I use my phone (SF Bay Area and NYC) I can use Verizon in the exact same spots I've lost calls on AT&T (Bay Bridge, downtown SF, mid-town Manhattan, in my freaking apartment) without issues. Verizon's network and AT&T's network are not the same.
 
skellener said:
All the other carriers with the iPhone around the globe had support when it was announced. They didn't need a video like this.
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Not true....several could not support it right away as well. Also, AT&T has, by far, more iPhone users than anyone other carrier.....9 million in all (almost half). Also, AT&T (and Verizon and Sprint) have to support much larger areas (more sites, more cell towers, more equipment) than the rest of world carriers.

Yes, AT&T dropped the ball. But I suppose they could have taken the easy way out and just supported MMS right away even though the network was not ready for it. I think that they concluded that they would have received even more complaints from dropped connections, bad thruput.
 
Too little too late IMO. I'm jumping ship ASAP, I've had enough screwing over for one contract thank you very much.
 
What a joke. How dumb does he think ATT users are.....don't answer that! Gee whiz, I guess the LG's, Blackberry's etc don't use much bandwidth when they transmit MMS.

Just be honest....We take profit, and don't upgrade our infrastructure. That is called a cash cow!
 
brywalker said:
You think that it would be any better on any other carrier? Wait. When the iPhone goes to VZ and watch their network buckle under the strain. I guess spending the amount that AT&T has on their network over the past few years wasn't enough.
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Well if there wasn't an exclusivity agreement the network load would be spread out among the carriers, and Apple would sell more iPhones too. Win, Win.
 
FoxyKaye said:
Actually, I did just that. And at least where I use my phone (SF Bay Area and NYC) I can use Verizon in the exact same spots I've lost calls on AT&T (Bay Bridge, downtown SF, mid-town Manhattan, in my freaking apartment) without issues. Verizon's network and AT&T's network are not the same.
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Well, OK.....I guess it all comes down to where we live. :)
 
Here is the thing.

AT&T Bid on the iPhone and assured Apple that the infrastructure was in place for their device. if they couldn't handle it they should have opted out of the deal.

So all other phones models are able to do tethering, and MMS but iPHone users are being segmented out of this because the phone is popular.
 
brywalker said:
I love how nobody can give AT&T a break her at all.

1) Why didn't they support MMS from day 1? Apple didn't. How about when 3.0 dropped? Think about the millions of iPhone users that get MMS and just pounding on the network. Think you have problems now? It would cripple it. So they spent tons of dough working on the back end so that doesn't happen.
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The issue is that AT&T failed to prepare and upgrade their network sooner. Also, most people who will be sending MMS are currently sending this same data via email. Also, how is MMS demand on a iPhone any different then MMS traffic on a non-iphone ? I don't think iPhone users will be sending much more MMS then if they had a non-iPhone.
 
Apple to Blame Too

Apple is notorious for keeping secrets as long as they can. How much lead time did they give AT&T to upgrade their network to support Video Over MMS?

Also, given the horrendous subsidy that AT&T pays Apple (which by the way comes from you and me), that leaves less money for AT&T to support their network.

Each iPhone requires an additional $30 per month data plan. Each iPhone subsidy is around $400. Do the math.....$400 / 24 months = $16 per month. So, we give AT&T $30 each month, they give Apple $16 and are left with $14 to share with the investors (shareholders) and network upgrades. No wonder they fell behind....Apple has the loot.
 
jav6454 said:
If it takes time to prepare talk to your local county office that deals with communications as they make every carrier/cable company/electric company go through a hassle just to put an extra cable.
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AT&T was running a new fiber backhaul from the tower across the street of my office. They came out and marked the ground, but for about 2 months nothing happened. Once they started burying the cable, they got a portion of it done, then stopped for about 10 days. I asked one of the contractors there and he said it was all county/state government delays being put in because the line was never officially approved. It's in now.
 
Big Jelly said:
AT&T Bid on the iPhone and assured Apple that the infrastructure was in place for their device. if they couldn't handle it they should have opted out of the deal.

So all other phones models are able to do tethering, and MMS but iPHone users are being segmented out of this because the phone is popular.
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Not entirely true...Apple was the one who dictated exclusivity. AT&T agreed to sell it.
 
wlh99 said:
I was able to afford a cell phone as a high school student in 1992. That was 18 years ago. Nearly 2 decades is a lifetime in technology speak.
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You could afford a cell phone. Not the majority of the population like it is today. The cell phone business boomed at the same time as the dotcom bubble (a little more than a decade). Cell technology was one of the contributors to the bubble. An yes, two decades is a lifetime in technology, but not building infrastructure (which consists of much manual labor). Two decades is more like two years.

Most of the people I hear complaining about AT&T is not about customer service and billing error, rather cellular services, including lack of MMS on the iPhone and dropped calls.
 
ski1ski1 said:
The issue is that AT&T failed to prepare and upgrade their network sooner. Also, most people who will be sending MMS are currently sending this same data via email. Also, how is MMS demand on a iPhone any different then MMS traffic on a non-iphone ? I don't think iPhone users will be sending much more MMS then if they had a non-iPhone.
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Sooner? It's not like they can just take a truckload of money and drop it in a magic machine and service is upgraded. Think. Every tower. Running fiber to them. Upgrading them for different frequencies. Upgrading the switching stations. The engineers work every day. They aren't magicians.

Also, how many users do you think knows how to send an email to a standard phone so they get an MMS. I can assure you, not very many. The first few days of MMS are going to be a *****torm.
 
I'll bet you a cask of amontillado he has a point.

The test will be when Verizon gets the iPhone with significant subscription numbers. If it doesn't create problems for them, then we'll know AT&T's planning was deficient. My bet is Verizon will have some growing pains. The investment numbers AT&T is putting up are not insignificant. That was a lot of zeros the Edgar Allan Poe lookalike was talking about.
 
brywalker said:
Sooner? It's not like they can just take a truckload of money and drop it in a magic machine and service is upgraded. Think. Every tower. Running fiber to them. Upgrading them for different frequencies. Upgrading the switching stations. The engineers work every day. They aren't magicians.

Also, how many users do you think knows how to send an email to a standard phone so they get an MMS. I can assure you, not very many. The first few days of MMS are going to be a *****torm.
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You failed to address my point. How will iPhone users be more demanding MMS users then non-Iphone users ?

Second. When I mentioned iPhone customers are currently sending MMS type traffic via email, I meant they are sending it to actual email addresses. Not the sudo email address of a cell phone.

Third. I'm not saying it takes time to upgrade towers. But I think they failed to do it sooner. And because they failed to do it sooner (whatever the excuse), they will lose customers next year if the iPhone is offered on another carrier.
 
ski1ski1 said:
The data traffic the article is referring to comes from Internet traffic. That is the main difference between iPhone customers and non-iPhone customers. iPhone customers surf the Internet a great deal more then non-Iphone customers. Where does it say iPhone customers send more SMS or MMS ? This is the issue.
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MMS is data. You fail horribly at communications. Go read up, then come back and brag.
 
HiVolt said:
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!!!
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Dude read the industry news on growth in wireless data usage since the introduction of iPhone. Look at current iphone market share in flickr photos being uploaded and YouTube video access. There was a recent article on this right here on MacRumors. It is mind boggling. No wonder the network is overloaded in the big metros. Before the iPhone people barely bothered to access the internet on their crappy handsets with crappy browsers. I have owned all kinds of handsets in the last several years both on Verizon and AT&T and even though I paid for the data plan I barely ever used it because it was just unusable. The iPhone is a whole different story. My personal PC usage has dropped by at least 90% (for browsing and e-mail) ever since I got the iPhone. I have instant access to my e-mail and I can browse any site on the net with ease. Why bother sitting in front of my PC? And I am not alone in this. You can look at polls of iPhone users. Carrying data is not cheap for AT&T or Verizon or any carrier. Would customers have been happy if they had MMS a year ago but it didn't work right and it messed up the data experience altogether? People here bitch and moan no matter what. People want absolutely flawless 5Mpbs up/down service on their phone for FREE! They will probably still bitch and moan about something if they get that.

I live in the suburbs of NYC and I am extremely happy with my iPhone and the service. I have never used a phone before like I use my iPhone. Steve Jobs was right when he pointed out at the WWDC that people had all sorts of features on their handsets before but never used it. I have no complaints. It is a fact that AT&T has spent nearly $40 Billion on their network. Nothing is free in this world. Everything costs money. Things should only get better. AT&T is smart enough to know that they can't keep customers happy unless service is improved in certain areas.
 
HiVolt said:
Heh, Re-calibrate the towers? Please tell me you don't actually believe that marketing fluff...
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As I said earlier:

ShaneMahsa said:
Im not saying that they are right or that this isn't a load of BS...
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So no I don't believe marketing fluff and concede that AT&T made mistakes in estimating demand. And I completely agree that the lack of 850 is stupid. I was just pointing out a flaw in your otherwise valid argument. Sorry, wasn't trying to be a smartass, just couldn't resist.
 
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