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How Exactly Will AT&T Remain Competitive?

Dwalls90

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
5,521
5,307
At present AT&T has some "advantages" over Verizon when it comes to the iPhone:

- 3G+
- Simultaneous Voice/Data
- "Faster" Data in some areas

But with 4G LTE, Verizon and AT&T will be on the exact same playing field. Given AT&T's horrible customer service record, how will they compete against Verizon? At present it seems that Verizon has better and faster 4G LTE coverage, and on the whole they seem to have better customer service policies.

Is it just me, or should AT&T be VERY afraid of Verizon in the coming years?
 
Verizon regular data Plan:
$30 for 2GB

ATT regular data Plan:
$30 for 3GB

Sounds like they have quite the advantage to me already ;)
 
With companies the size of AT&T and Verizon both have numerous customer service horror stories.

The main consideration that should be used to pick carriers is how they perform in your area. For me....AT&T is the clear winner and for that reason I will stay with them until Verizon gives me a reason to do otherwise.
 
Armeniandave said:
That's for Android devices only. That's there way to entice you to buy Android instead of iPhone.
Click to expand...

It's for 4G devices only. That's Verizon's way of getting more people on their LTE network. It has nothing to do with Android vs. Apple.
 
The competition starts (again) with LTE. Neither company has the LTE footpring currently to have much of an one up on the other (VZW has more, but not enough IMO). We will have to see what happens, I guess. Right now, I find the two companies about equal to one another. Each have their own advantages.
 
I have both AT&T and Verizon.

People need to stop complaining about AT&T. What people need to worry about is we may soon basically have a duopoly in this country.

Verizon and AT&T while competitors have decided to try to weed out the much smaller Sprint and Tmobile USA (which eventually be sold off in bits the pace it's going after the failed buyout).

So AT&T will remain competitive for a long time.

Oh. LTE coverage is flaky with Verizon. Ask yourself. If you lose LTE can drop down to CDMA speeds. Than ask yourself if you have AT&T LTE (we have if in orlando) and drop down to HSPA plus speeds. What's the worse drop off speeds?

AT&T/Cingular customer service has always been great to me for past 8 years. Verizon service has been great for me also.
 
It varies market to market. In a lot of markets AT&T has better service, in many others, Verizon does. AT&T has more phones (albeit many crappy ones), and a better store experience.

Most people aren't as insane as people on here or Hofo.
 
AT&T has much better discount policies. My corporate discount applies to texting and data plans for all users on the family plan, not just the primary user. Switching to verizon would cost at least $30 more per month and lose unlimited data.
 
AT&T has a lot better customer service, and their 4G is much faster as others have said, will fall back to a pretty fast HSPA+ network, rather than a 1xEV network. Though Verizon is much better for rural usage, and 1xEV is a lot better than EDGE on AT&T.
 
Will Verizon's LTE support sim cards? If no, then my vote still goes with AT&T (tmobile if they ever get the iphone).
 
unlimitedx said:
really? good to know.. thanks!
Click to expand...

Remember that LTE was the migration path for GSM, not CDMA originally. CDMA was supposed to go towards UMB (which still would have lacked SIM cards & and due to lack of support from Verizon or Sprint, Qualcomm just gave up on it.), in this case, VZW made a good decision, and went with a "GSM" Standard....though it would be wrong to call it GSM :p

In a couple more years, maybe we can have true mobile provider competition again in the US, when everyone is on the same standard, and you can just unlock your phone and take it to any carrier (or buy a phone from Europe, etc...)
 
dontwalkhand said:
In a couple more years, maybe we can have true mobile provider competition again in the US, when everyone is on the same standard, and you can just unlock your phone and take it to any carrier
Click to expand...

This is going to be a BEAUTIFUL thing if/when it happens. Wonder if the carriers though will put their LTE (and phones) on different frequencies than each other to prevent people from leaving...
 
lordofthereef said:
The competition starts (again) with LTE. Neither company has the LTE footpring currently to have much of an one up on the other (VZW has more, but not enough IMO). We will have to see what happens, I guess. Right now, I find the two companies about equal to one another. Each have their own advantages.
Click to expand...

I agree.
Its nice to have LTE but how many cities in the US do at the moment?
I know with verizon is more than AT&T has now but hope they both extend their LTE coverage.
The only thing that sounds good with staying on an unlimited AT&T iphone data plan with 4G LTE is that the throttling wont begin till after 5GB's.
Wonder if Verizon will go hardcore with throttling users or if they will let it be trully unlimited.
 
What is the point of having a supper high speed network when you can only use it for fraction of the time before you get throttled ???
Phone makers can make our phones do just about anything with just cheap parts, but phone companys to upgrade cost millions...

I just don't see the point in advertising high speed data when you can blow threw it in less than a day ?????
 
towboattrash34 said:
What is the point of having a supper high speed network when you can only use it for fraction of the time before you get throttled ???
Phone makers can make our phones do just about anything with just cheap parts, but phone companys to upgrade cost millions...

I just don't see the point in advertising high speed data when you can blow threw it in less than a day ?????
Click to expand...

It's more about doing what you do faster. I have a 5 gb plan with my 4g tablet and never use it all. I COULD but I don't.

aefc7494-cd3d-9290.jpg
 
Dwalls90 said:
At present AT&T has some "advantages" over Verizon when it comes to the iPhone:

- 3G+
- Simultaneous Voice/Data
- "Faster" Data in some areas

But with 4G LTE, Verizon and AT&T will be on the exact same playing field. Given AT&T's horrible customer service record, how will they compete against Verizon? At present it seems that Verizon has better and faster 4G LTE coverage, and on the whole they seem to have better customer service policies.

Is it just me, or should AT&T be VERY afraid of Verizon in the coming years?
Click to expand...

LOL! AT&T scared?

So you do not think AT&T knows what it is doing and it will go out of business?:p

AT&T will be just fine. SUre they might loose so high data users but in the end where will they go as ALL of the carriers charge the same or more!

Coverage is everything, pick your poison! AT&T has been good to me but then I do not abuse my bandwidth!:p

----------
towboattrash34 said:
What is the point of having a supper high speed network when you can only use it for fraction of the time before you get throttled ???
Phone makers can make our phones do just about anything with just cheap parts, but phone companys to upgrade cost millions...

I just don't see the point in advertising high speed data when you can blow threw it in less than a day ?????
Click to expand...

You can have all the data you want at high speed. Obama gave the carriers the right to chage for bandwidth and the carriers are. It is the way it will be for all the carriers.
 
I don't think it will matter once there is a Verizon LTE iPhone. Verizon has plenty of iPhone users even though there speed is slow compared to AT&T.

Some users may switch just for a speed increase but I wouldn't expect massive changes.
 
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