Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I doubt it. People always talk about how the iPhone puts a strain on AT&T's data network because it uses so much bandwidth.

Ok, but does that have anything to do with how my iPhone tends to drop most of its calls when I still have 4 bars? I doubt it. Will people going to Verizon make this better? I doubt it.

And as for the "it's not bad everywhere argument," well, I'd love to know where those places are. I tend to have problems in:
Washington DC
Orlando, FL
New York, NY
Iowa City, Iowa
Dallas, TX
Norfolk, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Buffalo, NY
Frisco, NC

...just to name a few. I travel a lot and have yet to find the magical "AT&T is great" part of the country. I'll keep looking.

Iowa City here and the AT&T service is very spotty here. Has been for years. Other areas nearby are excellent. Locally Verizon has a better signal comparably and is a must for indoor use. Even in the middle of an elevator I have a "magical" signal.

I have been waiting for what seems to be forever to have Verizon to get the iPhone. Rumors are that will be after the first of the year in 2011. Is this still on?
 
Last edited:
You must be taller than me.

I have many friends with iPhones who agree with me. I've even had Verizon-friends say to me: "I hate talking to people with iPhones because I know the call will be dropped before it's over."

I didn't prompt her to say that or ask her about it, she just came up with it one day. (A DC person.) So it's certainly not just me.

The cool thing about anecdotal evidence is you have no rational basis for presenting an argument. Everyone says so. :rolleyes:
 
I doubt it. People always talk about how the iPhone puts a strain on AT&T's data network because it uses so much bandwidth.

Ok, but does that have anything to do with how my iPhone tends to drop most of its calls when I still have 4 bars? I doubt it. Will people going to Verizon make this better? I doubt it.

And as for the "it's not bad everywhere argument," well, I'd love to know where those places are. I tend to have problems in:
Washington DC
Orlando, FL
New York, NY
Iowa City, Iowa
Dallas, TX
Norfolk, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Buffalo, NY
Frisco, NC

...just to name a few. I travel a lot and have yet to find the magical "AT&T is great" part of the country. I'll keep looking.

Exactly. I don't think most of AT&Ts issues have been congestion as most people assume. I know what I've experienced has mostly been bad tower placement/tuning. The transition to WCDMA was VERY ugly. They seem to have finally made some headway at tuning the WCDMA network here.

The only time I experienced congestion issues is when I was stuck in rush-hour traffic or at a Cowboys game.

Seattle on the other hand had the slowest 3G data I've experienced to date. Not sure if that was due to congestion or just a crap network backhaul.

Think of how many iPhone users have grandfathered unlimited plans. None of them are going anywhere.

This may be what keeps me. However, Verizon still has an unlimited data plan. I'll be watching closely to see if the iPhone gets an unlimited plan.

Conversely, it doesn’t mean most people have a problem, because some do.



I don’t have issues in DC or Dallas. Who knows why my experience is different than yours.

Dallas has improved dramatically in the last 3 years, but it just depends on the part of town you are in. Certain areas still have issues.

To answer the OP, I think maybe in certain cities there will be some improvement, but it won't be noticable to most.

I have been waiting for what seems to be forever to have Verizon to get the iPhone. Rumors are that will be after the first of the year in 2011. Is this still on?

Yes, the rumor is still on. :)
 
My AT&T service in downtown DC has been terrible for the last couple of months. My data speeds are extremely low during work hours. We're talking less than 100kbps on average. Occassionally I will see pings in the thousands. I was grandfathered into the unlimited plan but with speeds this bad what the hell is the point of having unlimited 3G? I plan on using my employee discount with verizon and getting a soon to be released LTE mifi device with a 10 gig/mo plan. I don't trust verizon's 3G service either so I'll likely pass on a verizon iphone. I'll unlock my iphone and use tmobile's prepaid phone service. Even though I'll be terminating my service a year early, I just can't justify paying top dollar for crap service just for the sake of having unlimited data.

A friend who works in my building gets 2-3 Mbps consistently on his Tmobile phone. Ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
"IF" Verizon gets the iPhone, AT&T may be slacked up some. I honestly don't think some people have it as bad as they make it out to be. The reason I say this, is because if it were that bad, why would you not have already gone to VZW? I personally could not be on a network that had bad service. I love my i4 and loved the 3G I had before that, but I would leave AT&T with the quickness if I had bad service. We don't have 3G here, only EDGE, but the voice service is good, and will be fine until then.

As far as the grandfathered unlimited data plans, I am 99% certain VZW wireless will match this to get customers to make the switch. I also have no doubt they will also buy out contracts, to take customers. This will be a huge cluster for both sides. AT&T will probably get back 75% of the customers that leave to VZW, because it won't be as great as they expected.

If it goes elsewhere, such as T-Mobil or Sprint, I think those customers will have less that come back, but also less will leave to go to those 2.
 
I doubt it. People always talk about how the iPhone puts a strain on AT&T's data network because it uses so much bandwidth.

Ok, but does that have anything to do with how my iPhone tends to drop most of its calls when I still have 4 bars? I doubt it. Will people going to Verizon make this better? I doubt it.

And as for the "it's not bad everywhere argument," well, I'd love to know where those places are. I tend to have problems in:
Washington DC
Orlando, FL
New York, NY
Iowa City, Iowa
Dallas, TX
Norfolk, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Buffalo, NY
Frisco, NC

...just to name a few. I travel a lot and have yet to find the magical "AT&T is great" part of the country. I'll keep looking.

nothing wrong with
Houston, TX
New Orleans, LA
San Diego, CA
Oakland, CA
Dallas, TX (fine for me)
St. Louis, MO
Baton Rouge, LA

in fact the entire Gulf South is Solid, based off The Cingular Network
Atlanta, GA
 
I highly doubt Verizon will buy out anyones contracts to get customers.
No wireless company pays off customers ETF's from other carrriers.
And they dont need to do that, they are Verizon.

Agreed, this only happens in the case of large corporate account transitions.
 
At least this forum will get a lot better. The Verizon wannabes can move on to their Nirvana .... :D
 
Right if att wasn't good in my area I'd be with Verizon however they are both good in Philly.

Why would anyone pick a carrier that isn't good in their area just to get the device? Doesn't make sense to me.
 
Haven't been to DC, but AT&T works fine for me in Dallas. Sure, I get a couple of dead data spots here and there on the Central Expressway, but I've been able to talk in those same spots too.
As the saying goes, ymmv.

Personally, I don't think Verizon will get the iphone. I think those rumored CDMA phones are headed towards Asia.
I don’t have issues in DC or Dallas. Who knows why my experience is different than yours.
 
nothing wrong with
Houston, TX
New Orleans, LA
San Diego, CA
Oakland, CA
Dallas, TX (fine for me)
St. Louis, MO
Baton Rouge, LA

in fact the entire Gulf South is Solid, based off The Cingular Network
Atlanta, GA

Houston, TX is good for me too, so is far North East of Houston, I have 3G service in a town of 1300 people. I went to both Lufkin and San Antonio recently and had 3G most of the way to both, and 3G in both. I have been an ATT customer since the Cingular days, and a smart phone user since before the iPhone came out (again Cingular days) and sure the 3G used to be spotty (I'm talking like 5 years ago), but Houston is damn good with ATT coverage.

Shoot even after Hurricane Ike, I had cell coverage 90 percent of the time in my tiny little town...

Is ATT perfect? No. Are they good in some areas and bad in others? Sure. Does anyone REALLY think that Verizon will be perfect all the time too? Get real.

Chef Jay
 
I was a T-Mobile subscriber for more than 11 years before finally getting an iPhone 4 last month and shifting to AT&T. The only reason I switched was an early Xmas gift from my kids and their families of the iPhone. Because I am a longtime Apple nerd, they thought I would enjoy an iPhone and they were right.

My first month's use of AT&T's services was just fine. Although AT&T's 3G signal at my house produces only 2 bars out of 5, I haven't had any dropped calls or other glitches. That's no surprise, though. These days, one wireless carrier's services are about as good as another's, or so it seems to me. That's why threads like this leave me shaking my head. You may ask, then, why I posted here despite my low opinion of the issue? Your guess is as good as mine.:)
 
+1

I think you'll notice more of a negative effect on Verizon than a positive one on AT&T.

Doubtful for many reasons:

1) When AT&T got the iPhone, their network wasn't in great shape. They were fairly far behind Verizon in the build-out.
2) When AT&T launched the 3G iPhone, they were still in the middle of transitioning their network to WCDMA. There were some major issues during this time (for one, existing tower loations were not optimized for WCDMA since it had a slightly shorter reach) and it took AT&T quite some time to smooth it out.
3) Verizon's network was already more built out than AT&T's back in 2008. Imagine how much more stable it is today over what it was in 2008.
4) Verizon has the advantage of seeing what AT&T went through. Only a complete idiot wouldn't look at that situation and not realize there needs to be lots of testing and preparations
5) Verizon has a reputation of doing just that, testing almost to the level of having a negative impact (phone rollouts were slower than the rest of the industry)
6) Verizon has carried high data usage users in the form of laptop users. Based on this they have already have a mature data network to build on. In 2008 AT&T didn't really have this advantage.

I can't see how Verizon would possibly have many issues. Like I said, only an idiot would walk into this situation unprepared. Based on Verizon's history, they'll be fine.

The only possible issue I could see?....rolling out an LTE iPhone on a brand new LTE network. This is why I think we won't see LTE for a bit.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.