Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This has been discussed to death since the iPhone 3G was released... Well, not everybody has bad reception! My reception is perfectly fine albeit some variations at times, but other than that I'm still quite satisfied!
 
We all know that AT&T sucks. Even the most hard core AT&T fan (if there even are any) would know that. Recently one in every 3 messages I send at home fails to go through. I was surprised to see that my reception from AT&T in my house has actually gotten worse (not really, it's AT&T for crying out loud). On June 29, 2010 I got 5 bars signal strength while sitting at my desk in my house. On November 20, 2010 signal strength dropped to 3 bars sitting at my desk. And today It has dropped to 2 bars, and sometimes I even lose connection. The funny thing is my house is a half a mile from a cell tower. I recently went on a road trip with my friend, and while he was screaming "I HAVE 3G!!!!!" (he has Verizon) while we were in the middle of nowhere my iPhone 4 was flashing between one bar of edge and No Service what so ever. I used to be a very satisfied customer, but as the years have rolled by AT&T has frustrated me more and more and the question why I even pay for service that is non existent has been looming over me. So my question is, is anybody satisfied with AT&T?:mad:

I am very happy with AT&T and have not had any issues with them for years. I had problems with Verizon which is why I am no longer on that network. AT&T has worked great.

As for your signal drop there are a lot of reasons. Weather can make a huge difference. Air temp chances well now the radio wave act differently so the signal at your location becomes weaker. Humidity same thing. What was once 5 bars can become no bars depending on the weather.

Could be something else changed and they had to change things on the tower. Verizon or Sprint could of put up more towers in the area so more noise which hurts your signal as it now has to punch threw more noise.
No, all the millions of AT&T subscribers are not satisfied and they all have the same bad experience as yours.:rolleyes:
You serious now?
If the reception at your local area sucks switch to a carrier that works better. Its very simple.

bingo. Choose carrier first.
 
We all know that AT&T sucks. Even the most hard core AT&T fan (if there even are any) would know that. Recently one in every 3 messages I send at home fails to go through. I was surprised to see that my reception from AT&T in my house has actually gotten worse (not really, it's AT&T for crying out loud). On June 29, 2010 I got 5 bars signal strength while sitting at my desk in my house. On November 20, 2010 signal strength dropped to 3 bars sitting at my desk. And today It has dropped to 2 bars, and sometimes I even lose connection. The funny thing is my house is a half a mile from a cell tower. I recently went on a road trip with my friend, and while he was screaming "I HAVE 3G!!!!!" (he has Verizon) while we were in the middle of nowhere my iPhone 4 was flashing between one bar of edge and No Service what so ever. I used to be a very satisfied customer, but as the years have rolled by AT&T has frustrated me more and more and the question why I even pay for service that is non existent has been looming over me. So my question is, is anybody satisfied with AT&T?:mad:

If the iPhone is so bad on AT&T in your area WHY did YOU buy them in the first place? Having the Latest and greatest gadget doesn't do you any good if the service isn't up to par. This is 100% your fault!
 
I LOVE AT&T. I've had every single carrier and AT&T is my favorite. I live in south eastern Massachusetts and my signal is amazing. I haven't had a single dropped call in 2011.
 
I had been with AT&T since 2008 when I purchased the 3G iPhone. Even though I had no major issues with their service, I switched from them to Verizon last month. The inconsistent data and ocassional dropped calls (plus, VZW's unlimited data plan) made me switch. I would never bash AT&T since their service wasn't horrible, but for me and the area I live in, VZW has better coverage and more consistent (abeit slower) data speeds.
 
My friend has AT&T and she always says she is happy with their service...maybe depends on the location.
 
Been an AT&T customer since 2004(Cingular then became AT&T). Had the iPhone since 3GS launch and have never had one issue except for when I was driving cross-nation and dropped to EDGE network.
 
AT&T is great here in NJ. Actually, I drove from Philly to DC with a signal and 3G all the way. The only dropped call I get is from my uncle with a 14 year old Sprint phone. He has rubber bands holding the battery in and is one of phones where you have to pull out the antenna. He won't get an iPhone til it comes to Sprint. AT&T is awesome where i live, but Verizon is just about the same.
 
I would but I don't want to pay the cancellation fees on 4 iPhones, plus the cost of buying four new iPhones on Verizon :/

You do know that if you call up and state that you no longer receive signal at your home address - they'll waive your ETF, right? :rolleyes:

Service quality and signal strength is completely dependent on location and is very subjective. I get great service here in the Boston area - 5 Mbps easy in parts of the city. I've never even heard of 5 Mbps on Verzion's 3G. Verizon 3G speeds are equivalent to AT&T Edge.

Take AT&T or Verizon - ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers - it's location dependent.

Stop trolling the boards Mr. '11 - do some research and searching. Biased/trolling posts like yours have been posted here probably thousands of times at this point now. If you're looking for more reading material, might I suggest the Google query of "verizon 3g iphone slow"?

Since your lazy: http://tinyurl.com/4y958hd

verizon-iphone-vs-att-iphone-speed.jpg
 
Last edited:
Step 1. Choose carrier that has best service in the area you will be using your phone the most.

Step 2. Pick your phone.

If you start with step 2, you have no right to complain about the carrier you chose.
 
I switched; sold my AT&T phone for the price of the ETF and a Verizon iPhone, and now I can actually use it.

Same here. AT&T hasn't invested any money in infrastructure upgrades in my region. I got tired of ****** service with only empty promises of network improvements, and switched to a superior network.
 
I switched; sold my AT&T phone for the price of the ETF and a Verizon iPhone, and now I can actually use it.

Same. My iPhone sold for $450, which covered the $200 ETF and $250 (including tax, stupid California) new Verizon iPhone.
 
Step 1. Choose carrier that has best service in the area you will be using your phone the most.

Step 2. Pick your phone.

If you start with step 2, you have no right to complain about the carrier you chose.

Sounds as if he did pick a good carrier (RE: cell tower 1/2 mile away) but the network quality degraded. Read the original post. In that case, he has a very good right to complain.
 
You do know that if you call up and state that you no longer receive signal at your home address - they'll waive your ETF, right? :rolleyes:

Service quality and signal strength is completely dependent on location and is very subjective. I get great service here in the Boston area - 5 Mbps easy in parts of the city. I've never even heard of 5 Mbps on Verzion's 3G. Verizon 3G speeds are equivalent to AT&T Edge.

Take AT&T or Verizon - ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers - it's location dependent.

Stop trolling the boards Mr. '11 - do some research and searching. Biased/trolling posts like yours have been posted here probably thousands of times at this point now. If you're looking for more reading material, might I suggest the Google query of "verizon 3g iphone slow"?

Since your lazy: http://tinyurl.com/4y958hd

Image

that is a VERY accurate speedtest of how my AT&T phone performed vs my new Verizon phone. I have been with AT&T for 8yrs but over the last year there service has gone to crap for some reason. The speeds i get were just as good as yours, but it seems like 3-4 times an hour it would just go to a crawl this was happening every single day, day or night. I finally got fed up with it over the last couple weeks and got my verizon iphone last week.

The speeds are yet again just like what you posted in your speed test. The ONLY difference i have noticed is in downloading apps when on 3g. AT&T is much faster. But even with Verizons slower speed there ping times average 80-120ms for me while AT&T's were 120-300ms on average so they load webpages much quicker along with stuff like twittter and facebook apps.

Also in my experience so far with the slower Verizon speeds i am getting BETTER streaming from youtube and pandora which is very odd.

So far so good
 
You do know that if you call up and state that you no longer receive signal at your home address - they'll waive your ETF, right? :rolleyes:

No, they won't. They will say, "There's a cell right near your house. There must be a problem with your phone. We do not waive ETF, ever." That is precisely what I was told. I even bumped it up to the Twitter support people and they said there's nothing they can do.
 
Er, I know service depends on your area, but I thought this text from my brother was funny, and it's relevant to this thread. We live outside of Boston in the city, so it's not like he was in a rural area.


 
No, they won't. They will say, "There's a cell right near your house. There must be a problem with your phone. We do not waive ETF, ever." That is precisely what I was told. I even bumped it up to the Twitter support people and they said there's nothing they can do.

Ouch. I know several people in other states who have done this - not to mention reading about it countless times here on the forums. Stating that you moved also seems to work - though if you have a pesky agent on the phone, they might ask for proof.

A friend of mine called 4 times in a row and on the 4th try got the ETF waived no questions asked. :D
 
Ouch. I know several people in other states who have done this - not to mention reading about it countless times here on the forums. Stating that you moved also seems to work - though if you have a pesky agent on the phone, they might ask for proof.

A friend of mine called 4 times in a row and on the 4th try got the ETF waived no questions asked. :D

I actually AM moving, which is why I needed to switch. I was told that the contract I sign specifically says that they are not responsible for lack of coverage, even if you move.
 
You do know that if you call up and state that you no longer receive signal at your home address - they'll waive your ETF, right? :rolleyes:

Service quality and signal strength is completely dependent on location and is very subjective. I get great service here in the Boston area - 5 Mbps easy in parts of the city. I've never even heard of 5 Mbps on Verzion's 3G. Verizon 3G speeds are equivalent to AT&T Edge.

Take AT&T or Verizon - ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers - it's location dependent.

Stop trolling the boards Mr. '11 - do some research and searching. Biased/trolling posts like yours have been posted here probably thousands of times at this point now. If you're looking for more reading material, might I suggest the Google query of "verizon 3g iphone slow"?

Since your lazy: http://tinyurl.com/4y958hd

Image

Er, this was bothering me. Due to the fact that regular websites will open fast with a .5 mbps download, it pretty much all comes down to ping. That Verizon iPhone would be just as fast, if not faster than the AT&T iPhone due to the pings being significantly lower. Don't tell someone to do research if you don't know the fully story to networking. Not to mention, AT&T is spotty like crazy

 
Er, this was bothering me. Due to the fact that regular websites will open fast with a .5 mbps download, it pretty much all comes down to ping. That Verizon iPhone would be just as fast, if not faster than the AT&T iPhone due to the pings being significantly lower. Don't tell someone to do research if you don't know the fully story to networking. Not to mention, AT&T is spotty like crazy

[url=http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4099/screenshot20110720at639.png]Image[/URL]

^^ He's right, Verizon generally has lower ping.
It depends what you are comparing though. Web pages and email will load faster on Verizon, but streaming video and music will be faster on AT&T.

Not to mention, AT&T is spotty like crazy

It depends on your location. Coverage varies with everyone.
 
I hate both. How's that?

AT&T has great service until I go into these new steal buildings around town. Two new grocery stores and other steal buildings.

Verizon's data is slower here than AT&T's and they can't hold a phone call while a read an email back to anyone. I can't do the whole talk and no data thing.

I can't wait until the T-Mobile and AT&T merger goes through. I was hoping, wishfully, that part of the i5's delay was making sure the two networks had the two companies frequencies.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.