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Many AT&T iPhone Users Unable to Download Apps and Stream Music Over LTE

I don't download much from the app store when I'm out and about but I have been having huge problems with Apple Music for, at the very least, the last couple of weeks in Orlando, FL.

Tracks start playing for 2-4 seconds and then they stop for several minutes or don't ever resume. Switch to a different track, and it will often do the same thing.

I'm still on the unlimited plan, haven't reached the throttling limit (old or new).
 
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The video in the original post is marked as PRIVATE when I attempt to view it. I suggest removing it form the original post.
 
malexandria said:
Not sure why people would waste their data caps this way when they can download the stuff at home. I've never tried downloading anything on ATT. With that said ATT LTE service is HORRIBLE. But at least they get my bill right and have decent CS. Sad, that this is a "plus" for me.
Click to expand...

AT&T LTE in the Southeastern U.S. is pretty good around me:

IMG_0020.jpg
 
David R said:
I don't download much from the app store when I'm out and about but I have been having huge problems with Apple Music for, at the very least, the last couple of weeks in Orlando, FL.

Tracks start playing for 2-4 seconds and then they stop for several minutes or don't ever resume. Switch to a different track, and it will often do the same thing.

I'm still on the unlimited plan, haven't reached the throttling limit (old or new).
Click to expand...

Literally every aspect of this applies to me as well... Orlando, grandfathered unlimited data, having this problem for 2-3 weeks. I've also had it on multiple handsets, from the public beta on an iPhone 6 to 9.0.1 on a 6S. I've talked to Apple Care about it and they pushed it up to senior engineers, who haven't gotten back to me in any meaningful way. The first gentleman I spoke to was completely flummoxed and hadn't heard any similar complaints himself. The supervisor almost immediately passed me up to the mysterious engineering team. What was oddest to me was that live streaming (Beats 1, NPR, ESPN, BBC) all worked fine 100% of the time, while any cultivated playlists or playlists of my own worked around 10% of the time. (Generally I'd get a few seconds of music and then it'd hang up, and eventually skip to the next song and the next and the next, skipping past 10-12 songs in succession before finding one it liked and playing that one either for a short amount of time or completely without error.)

Anyways, Apple Music worked with absolutely no problems yesterday, for the first time in weeks. I'm hoping it stays that way, but apps are still having trouble, so who knows.
 
My wife's 6S has been having the same problem with App Store updates going awful slow and/or aborting. I thought she was exaggerating until I tried it last night and saw my 6 Plus (8.4) finish the same app update in seconds vs ~4 minutes on the 6S (9.0.2). She's also had slowness sending iMessages with Live Photos just failing to send over LTE as well. :(
 
uhaas said:
I also believe it's a CDN thing, because when I have the issue, if I cancel and restart the download, after 2-5 tries of that it downloads immediately on LTE. I suspect that each cancel/restart gives it a chance to select a different server to download from, eventually getting to one that works.
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After reading all the posts, I'm sticking to CDN/DNS being the issue. Most companies will run a production backend (servers), with a pre-production backend offing new features (iOS 9) as pre-production having beta users on that. Some people said a week before iOS 9 came out, the issues started. Note that some people are having issues on 8.4.1 and iPhone 4S.

I'm guessing that's when Apple switched the pre-production Content Distribution Network (CDN) over to production. We reach those services through DNS. When you try to download from the App Store, stream music or use other Apple-based iCloud services, Apple's CDN will try to optimize your download by picking a server that's close to you, or not overloaded, or just round-robin it, depending on a number of configuration factors.

It seems to me, that AT&T, the Australia telecom mentioned and a few other providers DNS servers or not responding correctly to Apple's DNS Servers responses, and returning bad or cached DNS entries to unoptimized servers (far away or overloaded) and thus it's taking forever to load. The Apple CDN servers could reside within AT&T's infrastructure (CDN networks may be built that way) and that server is behaving badly (bad load, server issue, or running beyond capacity).

It's not just downloads, but starting the download, the circle spinner, also takes a while before the download begins.

Remember when MR stated Apple was building a CDN a year or so ago, I assume this is just CDN roll out pains. There are a number of networking and server engineering efforts that go into building out a robust, stable CDN. The fact that it's localized to just a few carriers points to CDN issues and not completely AT&T's fault, since the rest of the data flowing over LTE seems unfettered.

That doesn't mean it isn't an AT&T issue. AT&T could be hosting the server or their DNS infrastructure could be to blame.
 
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Wise87 said:
It clearly shows he's connected to LTE on the top. Comcast was just his host, not his actual connection.
Click to expand...


ok. But I don't travel to Georgia, so I don't much care. But glad to know ATT LTE is working in some places. Doesn't work well between DC and NYC, nor the west cost, nor Vegas, hell it rarely works in Orlando Fl.
 
mariusignorello said:
Surprised that wasn't brought up.
Click to expand...

I'd like to know the answer to this as well. I've always had issues with ATT on iPhone and have thought about switching to Android for awhile now - even though I prefer the iPhone. Or changing carriers, but honestly I'm scared to switch to someone else. My 8 yrs on Verizon was a NIGHTMARE.
 
CFreymarc said:
It could be an issue with an OTA iOS upgrade. My question is why are carriers allowing OS upgrade over their network. This should be reserved to WiFi to hardwired connected via iTunes.
Click to expand...
A 30-60 MB iOS update is not a big hog. Apps are updated bigger than this every day.
 
Definitely not an iOS 9 issue as I'm running 8.4.1 on my iPhone 6 Plus and I'm experiencing this issue. I would say it's either something on ATTs network or something due to DNS updates on Apples side that is only impacting ATT subscribers. Whatever the issue is I hope they get it fixed soon.
 
malexandria said:
I'd like to know the answer to this as well. I've always had issues with ATT on iPhone and have thought about switching to Android for awhile now - even though I prefer the iPhone. Or changing carriers, but honestly I'm scared to switch to someone else. My 8 yrs on Verizon was a NIGHTMARE.
Click to expand...
I haven't had any issues with Verizon.
 
Paradoxally said:
ATT sucks. Why people still have them as their carrier is beyond me.
Click to expand...

Perhaps because I have great service with them, great coverage and an inexpensive bill with 30GB.

But since you say they are terrible I better believe you.
 
bruinsrme said:
It's been so slow I just stopped using data
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I don't know about you, but I don't like paying for something and then not getting what I pay for. AT&T needs to address this ASAP. Work with Apple and find a solution. To be nickle and dime'd to death by AT&T, I should receive the service they advertise. I was watching Miami Hurricanes game last night and saw an AT&T commercial advertising the fastest LTE service. If I wasn't so pissed by the way Miami was playing, I'd probably have fallen off the couch laughing. Right now, I have an expensive paper weight sitting on my desk that can't do much since I have the world's slowest LTE and no wi-fi available.
 
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been having this problem for a while and figured it was apples music app. I don't have the same problem with Pandora tho.
 
mdawid said:
I don't know about you, but I don't like paying for something and then not getting what I pay for. AT&T needs to address this ASAP. Work with Apple and find a solution. To be nickle and dime'd to death by AT&T, I should receive the service they advertise. I was watching Miami Hurricanes game last night and saw an AT&T commercial advertising the fastest LTE service. If I wasn't so pissed by the way Miami was playing, I'd probably have fallen off the couch laughing. Right now, I have an expensive paper weight sitting on my desk that can't do much since I have the world's slowest LTE and no wi-fi available.
Click to expand...

ATT the fastest LTE service.

they forgot to finish the statement.

ATT, the fastest LTE service to piss off their customers.
 
I literately have a ATT / Sprint cell tower in my backyard.
This morning the service is blazing fast.
Over the past few days, it was taking 15 minutes to down load a song.
 
This is the most well thought out and logical theory I've seen on this issue so far. I hope this post gets some people over at AT&T and Apple looking into different causes of the issue and it gets fixed sooner than later.

I have 20GB of rollover and WiFi at work is complete ****, so I live on my LTE. Needless to say, I hope this gets fixed.

uhaas said:
After reading all the posts, I'm sticking to CDN/DNS being the issue. Most companies will run a production backend (servers), with a pre-production backend offing new features (iOS 9) as pre-production having beta users on that. Some people said a week before iOS 9 came out, the issues started. Note that some people are having issues on 8.4.1 and iPhone 4S.

I'm guessing that's when Apple switched the pre-production Content Distribution Network (CDN) over to production. We reach those services through DNS. When you try to download from the App Store, stream music or use other Apple-based iCloud services, Apple's CDN will try to optimize your download by picking a server that's close to you, or not overloaded, or just round-robin it, depending on a number of configuration factors.

It seems to me, that AT&T, the Australia telecom mentioned and a few other providers DNS servers or not responding correctly to Apple's DNS Servers responses, and returning bad or cached DNS entries to unoptimized servers (far away or overloaded) and thus it's taking forever to load. The Apple CDN servers could reside within AT&T's infrastructure (CDN networks may be built that way) and that server is behaving badly (bad load, server issue, or running beyond capacity).

It's not just downloads, but starting the download, the circle spinner, also takes a while before the download begins.

Remember when MR stated Apple was building a CDN a year or so ago, I assume this is just CDN roll out pains. There are a number of networking and server engineering efforts that go into building out a robust, stable CDN. The fact that it's localized to just a few carriers points to CDN issues and not completely AT&T's fault, since the rest of the data flowing over LTE seems unfettered.

That doesn't mean it isn't an AT&T issue. AT&T could be hosting the server or their DNS infrastructure could be to blame.
Click to expand...
 
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