I decided to give AT&T’s turn-by-turn navigation app, AT&T Navigator, a try today while running errands here in Portland. I had several places I needed to go that were in a part of the city I wasn’t completely familiar with, so I thought it would be a great trial for this app. Boy was I […]
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AT&T Navigator app FAILS me, ends up on my app Hall-of-Shame!

Oct 3rd 2009 by

I decided to give AT&T’s turn-by-turn navigation app, AT&T Navigator, a try today while running errands here in Portland. I had several places I needed to go that were in a part of the city I wasn’t completely familiar with, so I thought it would be a great trial for this app.

Boy was I wrong about that! Even in a city with very good 3G coverage and strong GPS reception AT&T Navigator is completely unusable. It’s a good thing I had my windshield mount Garmin in the car with me to resort to.

Because the app does not download any data whatsoever to the iPhone’s memory, everthing is streamed on demand. This means your device must maintain a solid 3G signal in order for Navigator to even function.

Except, as you can see in the screen shot above, I had a solid 3G signal. But AT&T Navigator would not even stream data fast enough to keep up with me driving down a city street at 20mph. The app would just display the placeholder icon as shown above, while I drove block after block, having no idea which street to turn on.

By the time this particular location would load, I was 10 blocks past the edge of the screen. Then the app tried to relocate my position, and download the data again. But it could never keep up with me, and I wasn’t even on the freeway.

I finally just pulled over, hooked up my Garmin, and used it to complete my errands. Later, after a fresh reboot of my iPhone, I tried AT&T Navigator again, but the experience was no different. It simply couldn’t pull data fast enough.

Now before someone tries to blame this on my 3G speed, let me say this: I ran a speed test at the same time I was trying to use Navigator. I was able to download data down over 3G at 1,316kbps which is what I usually average in Portland. This is more than 1Mb per second, and should be just fine to download map data. As a comparison, the Google Maps app is able to track me just fine, and I never see that app pausing to load data.

So why the hell would a turn by turn navigation app be unable to stream the data it requires to even function, fast enough over the 3G network it is connected to? Oh the app works fine on my home wifi or Starbuck’s wifi. But I already know where those places are, I need to navigate to places that don’t have wifi.

Come on AT&T, for $9.95 per month, I expect a service THAT I CAN USE! Not just an app that looks cool; it must be functional as well, on the network that you have created. That’s $120.00 a year you’re getting from me, just for a single app. That’s more than even TomTom or Navigon’s app, both of which store the majority of the data on the device, so they still work without any 3G signal.

I’ve now deleted AT&T Navigator from my iPhone, and canceled the monthly service on my account. I was hopeful that it would offer a decent service for the $10/month, but that is not the case. I was looking forward to the included traffic reports and automatic re-routing around traffic congestion. But who knows if the app actually even does that, since I couldn’t even get it to go down the block with me.

Do I recommend AT&T Navigator? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

What’s your experience with AT&T Navigator been, if you’ve used it? Does it work for you? Did you experience similar results as I have? What did finally go to? Another turn by turn app, or a dedicated GPS device? Leave your feedback in the comments!

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