Comments on: Op/Ed: 3G Coverage, Lawsuits, and You

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:26:09 +0000

I also agree with the author. I live outside Washington DC and travel mostly up into south central PA, NY/NJ, and Mass. Over the past year, I can't remember the last time I didn't have a 3g connection. The one time I did notice I had switched over onto an Edge connection, in the mountains of WV, I still got my e-mail and was still able to look up directions to where I was going. For me, it just works.

By: joetomasone

joetomasone — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:49:04 +0000

In reply to wgary. I will actually level that as my biggest complaint against AT&T - I miss 24 hour customer support from Sprint. I almost fell over the first time I called AT&T and found out that they keep the cellular equivalent of banker's hours.

By: wgary

wgary — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:26:29 +0000

I agree with the author's experience — I virtually always have 3G coverage wherever I go. I live in the hinterlands of Alabama and have AT&T 3G throughout the immediate area. In the past few weeks I have traveled to to Boston, Nashville, Oxford (Miss.), Atlanta, Birmingham (AL), Greensboro (NC), Las Vegas, and Washington, DC. 3G service was always there and connect speeds were not an issue at any time. I saw the "E" only a few times during this entire period. Maybe things are really bad in some regions, but I just haven't experienced that at all. (I do find their customer "support" laughable, but that's another issue!)

By: joetomasone

joetomasone — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:43:53 +0000

In reply to Brian Bothwell. I had a different experience. I was a Sprint customer for 10 years, on PalmOS Treos for the latter years. I had nothing but good experiences with Sprint's Customer Service, and would have gladly stayed with them, had I not been seduced by the iPhone. Ultimately, PalmOS cost Sprint a customer, I'd really had it with the Treo and was happy to consider, then purchase the iPhone.

By: joetomasone

joetomasone — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:40:08 +0000

In reply to Guest. Nothing yet, but I'm open to negotiations. :D

By: FrankCatalano

FrankCatalano — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:22:19 +0000

Yes, like most people here my service is terrible. I live in New Milford, CT & I only get an EDGE connection. Thank God for WiFi b/c I would prob. be on Verizon if it was not for AT&T having the exclusive agreement with Apple. For what I pay every month to AT&T I should be getting a freaking 3G connection. All I have to say is AT&T is sooooo lucky they have the iPhone!

By: Brian Bothwell

Brian Bothwell — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:13:14 +0000

Read through the comments on that Wired article. I’m not defending AT&T at all. I hate that I’m paying so much money for sub-par service, but I’d be comfortable stating that NO test has been done that accurately shows who is fastest. Living in the US, we are screwed. No matter what. ALL the carriers are terrible and they ALL are twisting numbers around to make themselves look better. It doesn’t matter which carrier you end up using, there are major problems with them all. I haven’t used Verizon myself yet, but I was a LONG time user of Sprint. AT&T has better coverage some places than Sprint did, but overall call quality is much lower. However, Sprints customer service is absolutely terrible and because of that, they will never see another penny from me. So far I have not had any negative customer service experiences with AT&T, but I have no doubt someday that day will come. Then I’ll give another carrier a try. It may sound petty, but in my opinion there is much more to a service than the numbers that are shown on paper and in ads. In MOST places I ever am, I get extremely good 3G speeds with AT&T (1.5 or higher). There are multiple carriers for a reason. Everybody wants different things and what they get is very different depending on their location and their lifestyle. Blanket statements such as AT&T sucks, or Verizon is faster, or Sprint has the worst customer service without any limiting factors to such statements are inherently false and simply a waste of time. Everybody has different experiences and makes decisions based on those experiences. A nationwide test with no real limiting factors in regards to ANY of the above mentioned aspects of service is, in my opinion, completely worthless.

I personally feel the real problem is not with the various networks, but with the contracts. We should be free to try a service, find out it does not fit our particular needs, and switch. Unfortunately, I completely understand the carriers position on this. People, in general, suck. They would abuse such freedom and constantly swap carriers to take advantage of promotional deals, phone subsidies, and many other factors that the carriers are more or less forced into providing in order to remain competitive. It is truly a chicken-and-egg situation where currently the carriers lose either way.

By: joetomasone

joetomasone — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:45:34 +0000

Actually, when I visited San Francisco last year, it was my Verizon aircard that gave me all kinds of trouble. The iPhone was flawless.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:35:13 +0000

How much did ATT pay you to write this piece?

By: CraigK

CraigK — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:01:44 +0000

AT&T network is crap. I live in the bay area and I'm lucky to get a data signal than to complain about 3G speeds. If you want to get technical wired.com did a test several months ago with 12,000 data sets. They tested 3G networks of Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile & Sprint. The so called "Fastest 3G Network" came in last and Verizon was first.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/3g-speed-t…