Is this whole Apple/ATT 3G a fraud?

[ktemkin]

Several of you have said, basically, if you are unhappy with this 3G situation, return the phone.

You are missing the point.

The phone is still better than any other phone out there, even if I have to keep it on the EDGE network.

The point is that the preeminent feature of this new iPhone is its 3G capabilities. That's what Apple developed it for, that what Apple marketed it as, and that is what consumers are buying it for.

If I bought the phone and I lived in an area where there was no 3G coverage, I would have no standing to complain.

But when I live in an are that is supposed to have great 3G coverage, and I find out that it has lousy 3G coverage, I'm annoyed.

I don't want to return the phone.

I want AT&T to live up to what they are advertising and I want Apple represent the performance of the phone as it performs in the area of the store, and not artificially boosted. If they want to boost the levels inside the store to levels outside of the mall, that's fine. But the levels in the store should simulate the real world.

When the performance they artificially produce is not available ANYWHERE within 25 miles of the store (except at another Apple store), that is a problem. Even if they could show me that 10% of the time I could get five bars, that would be fine. But when I am at less than three bars 100% of the time, that is a problem.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Ever bar I've been in, my iphone has worked, and I've been in way more than five.


Maybe you should try crying less into your beer?

 

[minik]

I will be pissed in this situation as well.

Many times I walked by the AT&T store in the local mall, my T-mobile phone would show no service.

Does the single dot mean GPRS signal?

In the Seattle area, I can find places without 3G coverage. Even a mile away from the stadium, my iPhone 3G shows only EDGE network. I was pretty shocked.

 

[alexmarchuk]

I had the same problem, my phone would only work in the mall where the AT&T and Apple store are located (i'm in NJ where we have all blue coverage for 3G) and it worked fine in store but when i got out it was crappy.

Turns out my phone was defective, have you tested it next to other iPhone 3Gs?

 

[aristobrat]

With a 3G network, how is an ordinary consumer supposed to determine, before he/she purchases, if the network is usable?

The question you pose above has nothing to do with 3G. There is no easy to way tell if ANY network (GSM/EDGE, EVDO, UMTS/HSPA) will work for every person before he/she purchases.

... which is why the carriers allow you to cancel your contract (within a certain period of having signed it) if you find the service lacking.

So the balls in your court. Obviously the AT&T 3G service in your area doesn't work for you and you have no idea when/if it'll get better.

Your choices are to either live with it and hope it gets better, or to cancel your service (or roll it back to the EDGE plan and use your old iPhone).

How are you going to solve your problem?

But when I live in an are that is supposed to have great 3G coverage, and I find out that it has lousy 3G coverage, I'm annoyed.

I don't want to return the phone.

I want AT&T to live up to what they are advertising

More power to you, brother. You keep on "wanting" for those things to happen and let us know how it goes. Question: Do you return your McDonald's french fries if they're not totally straight in the carton like the advertisements?

and I want Apple represent the performance of the phone as it performs in the area of the store.

Great, so I suppose that means that Apple should slow down the Internet connection speed on their demo computers to "DSL" too.

If you're venting to make yourself feel better, that's cool, and I don't mean to be such an ass. But if you're really being serious about this issue, you really should look at your "real world" choices, not these pie-in-the-sky things you want just so you can keep the phone you love. (which, besides 3G, which does't work for you, only has GPS added to it .. so I'm not so sure why you're dead set on keeping it when 50% of the new major features don't work for you).

 

[Andrmgic]

ktemkin,

You said you were seeing a single "dot" a lot of the time?

If you're seeing a single dot and not "3G", that means your phone is using GPRS, which is even slower than EDGE.

 

[Alloye]

I wouldn't call 3G a fraud, but I would say coverage isn't on par with EDGE yet. I get 4-5 bars of EDGE at home and only 0-1 bars of 3G. In fact, my iPhone usually doesn't find 3G at all when I'm inside my apartment.

On the other hand, if I drive around the neighborhood, I can find 4-5 bars of 3G easily. I have already contacted AT&T about the issue and will continue to do so on a regular basis until the matter is resolved.

 

[dl13]

Well here's the thing with AT&T and their coverage maps: just because they show they cover that area doesn't mean that area gets a full 5 bars. Take their voice coverage for example. If you type in my aunt's address it'll show that it gets good coverage in the area. In reality it doesn't, I'm lucky to get 2 bars for more than a minute, and this is just voice, imagine data. It's not just her neighborhood, but the whole surrounding area, and she doesn't live in the middle of no where. If you look at AT&T's data coverage map, it breaks down into two things: EDGE and 3G coverage. Unlike the voice coverage (where they show you 5 levels in different shades), the data coverage only tells you if you'd be able to use said service without telling you how strong the signal would be. AT&T claims there's 3G coverage in your area, which there is from what you're saying, but it's not as strong as you'd like it to be. From personal experience, 2 bars of 3G is still faster than EDGE, so I'd say suck it up and live with it or complain to AT&T until they fix it.

 

[protekt0r]

What gives here?

I disagree that it's a fraud. First off, you walk into any mall and you're almost guaranteed reduced (or no) reception. If Apple has to install a repeater to demonstrate 3G in their mall store, how is that a fraud? Would it be a fraud if AT&T installed a tower right behind the mall? Or a small one inside the mall? The whole sales experience wouldn't exactly go over well with anyone if they didn't have any signal in their store now would it?

Second, repeaters can be had by anyone for less than $200. Better ones go for $300.

Buildings and large objects reduce signal. Period. AT&T can't install a billion towers in the same geographical location so that every single user in that 4 square mile area has 5 bars. Get real.

 

[2002cbr600f4i]

Bzzt. Try again... I'm sitting here with 5 bars on 3G right now...

 

[jmpmntwnty3]

No problems here in Greenville, SC. I always get full bars with 3G. I go to school in Clemson, and I get full 3G bars there too. I was just in Spartanburg today, and I always got full 3G bars. Not sure what's going on where you live at...

 

[pcorrado]

the best thing for all of us to do in these big markets with piss poor coverage to do is to call at&t and inform them of the areas that are getting weak signals...maybe if we all complain enough something will get done, until then however I am enojoying my phone...using 3G when I can and hopefully in the next few months coverage will continue to get better

 

[afireintonto]

I'm in Tulsa, OK. and I have 5 full bars on 3G. That's inside my condo, I'll attach a pic...

im in oklahoma right now - and you guys here seem to have wonderful 3g everywhere. Ive never had less than 4 bars on edge and ive been to tulsa and oklahoma city. Go OK lol. You guys really are quite lucky.

 

[themagicman00]

The question remains, AT&T should give you the option of the data plan, since You are not able to take advantage of the 3G service. You can easy turn off the 3G settings on your phone and use Edge. I don't mind doing that, but AT&T is way too greedy and Apple appears to take the Marketing Hit on this issue. I heard lots of people in NJ area that are complaining about coverage, although the maps shows complete coverage.....the service is below par, tons of drop calls and slow 3G speeds.
If you are mandating a data plan on customers, you have to make sure, you provide the service they advertise. I will be drafting a letter to the BBB and give them a piece of my mind. Don't give me wrong, the day GEOHOTZ and the crew find a unlock solution, I will drop AT&T and move to an alternate company that offers better service.

 

[ElecEagle]

Several of you have said, basically, if you are unhappy with this 3G situation, return the phone.

You are missing the point.

I don't want to return the phone.

For all intents and purposes that matter, as long as you are un-willing to voice your dissatisfaction of their policies and coverage by choosing not to pay for them, AT&T considers you a satisfied, happy account holder.

 

[ktemkin]

I disagree that it's a fraud. First off, you walk into any mall and you're almost guaranteed reduced (or no) reception. If Apple has to install a repeater to demonstrate 3G in their mall store, how is that a fraud? Would it be a fraud if AT&T installed a tower right behind the mall? Or a small one inside the mall? The whole sales experience wouldn't exactly go over well with anyone if they didn't have any signal in their store now would it?

Second, repeaters can be had by anyone for less than $200. Better ones go for $300.

Buildings and large objects reduce signal. Period. AT&T can't install a billion towers in the same geographical location so that every single user in that 4 square mile area has 5 bars. Get real.

You miss the point.

If the same signal that is available in the store was available ANYWHERE AT ALL within 20 miles of the store, I would say everything is okay. So, my criteria is just ANYWHERE. Just one place. Show me just one place.

But I am telling you that except for another Apple store, there is NOWHERE in what might be considered the sales area of the store (20 miles) where the 3G signal is anywhere near what it is in the store.

NOWHERE. Period !

If Apple were to tell me that some areas were good and some areas were bad, that would be one thing. But I am telling you, in the northern suburbs of Chicago, I have yet to find a single place in two weeks of using 3G, where I have seen more than two bars.

I am going to go out tomorrow and take a picture of the cellphone tower near the local AT&T store and I will report the number of bars that I have. The store has assured me that that tower is a 3G tower. No trees or buildings in the way. I can practically count the nuts and bolts mounting the atenna to the tower. So, what kind of crap is it that I can stand next to a 3G tower and not get more than two bars of 3G on my iPhone3G ! ! !

The AT&T network in the northern Chicago suburbs is garbage.

 

[gcmexico]

Poor baby, please, send ME your iPhone! I live in a ****** little middle-eastern backwater that has one telephone company and has no plans to offer/sell the iPhone. Be happy you are even able to buy one and use it.

*
LOL...I read a post a week back that said the slow 3G is caused by all the people that have bought the iphone...I can say that my iphone has gotten faster as the weeks pass...maybe AT&T has started to catch up with all the new customers?

 

[ashjamben]

might be a stupid question, but when 3g is enabled on your iphone and all the bars go, will it then resort to using 2g coverage?

just found this interesting, as i'm in the uk and thought i'd check o2's 3g coverage map and my village where i live isn't covered (i live in a very rural village though). now this doesn't bother me considering the net, as i've got wifi, but i'd get really pee'd off having to remember everytime i come home to turn it back onto 2g just to receive calls.

please correct me if i'm wrong on any of this, as i don't know whether the 3g signal is actually used for voice calls, etc

 

[ktemkin]

might be a stupid question, but when 3g is enabled on your iphone and all the bars go, will it then resort to using 2g coverage?

just found this interesting, as i'm in the uk and thought i'd check o2's 3g coverage map and my village where i live isn't covered (i live in a very rural village though). now this doesn't bother me considering the net, as i've got wifi, but i'd get really pee'd off having to remember everytime i come home to turn it back onto 2g just to receive calls.

please correct me if i'm wrong on any of this, as i don't know whether the 3g signal is actually used for voice calls, etc

Yes, the little 3G emblem will switch to a letter 'E' for EDGE, which is the 2G network. If you are in an area where there is no reception for either, it will display 'NO SERVICE'.

 

[aristobrat]

The question remains, AT&T should give you the option of the data plan, since You are not able to take advantage of the 3G service.

The speed doesn't matter to AT&T.

They lose ~$325 every time a customer buys an iPhone 3G.

The required data plan helps them recoup that loss.

Have you noticed that AT&T still sells PDA/smartphones that aren't 3G capable? Know what their data plan rate is? $30/month. For a phone that will never do 3G since it wasn't built with it.

IMO, AT&T's marketing mistake was creating a special data plan ($20) that only existed for the original iPhone. AFAIK, no other EDGE PDA/smartphone was given a special, reduced price plan.

Don't give me wrong, the day GEOHOTZ and the crew find a unlock solution, I will drop AT&T and move to an alternate company that offers better service.

FWIW, the only other company that the iPhone is compatible with in the US is T-Mobile, and it will only work on their EDGE network because T-Mobile's 3G network mainly uses frequencies that the iPhone 3G doesn't support.

 

[View]

You have a 30-day return policy if you are not satisfied with their service.
ATT 3G coverage has a huge room for improvements.

 

[sortingitout]

NYC Here

In Manhattan I seem to have 5 bars most times when I am outside but then suddenly I will have one bar in 3g (also more dropped calls). When I go into a bar or building 3G goes to 1 or no bars unless I am right by the window. I usually switch to Edge and the signal jumps to 4 or 5 bars. It kinda sucks since I upgraded. I now just keep it on Edge all the time. So the extra $15 I pay per month for the 3G plan goes to waste. Maybe 3g is more easily blocked by structures. I see from the other posting that the less metropolitan responses have better coverage than the folks in the big cities (ones with tall buildings) Ny Chicago etc....

 

[Sky Blue]

All around Boston and greater Boston I get 5 bars.

 

[chic]

Nyc

I'm in NYC and I don't get full bars all the time. Quite frankly, at times when I get all full bars, I'm not sure if it's all that better than when I have two.

I find it annoying that the phone has a terrible lag time. I was out using safari and map today and safari, at one point, said it couldn't find page because there's no connection. Map takes forever to reload a page when i scroll. I keep tapping on the pins on the map and the wrong ones show up or they don't show up at all. The phone, instead, asks me to connect wifi. Why would I connect wifi out in the streets when I pay $30 for data?!

Does this have anything to do with the poor 3G?

 

[Mikey B]

well, sitting out side @ Michigan and Congress in downtown Chi I'm getting 5 bars.