AT&T says network needs more work to support iPhone tethering

[AppleInsider]

AT&T made a surprising announcement this week when it declared voice over IP applications could run on its 3G data network. However, the wireless carrier still is not prepared to offer iPhone data tethering.

In an unexpected reversal, AT&T revealed this week that VoIP services, like Skype, would be allowed on its wireless data network. Previously, such applications were only allowed on the iPhone via Wi-Fi.

AT&T had an agreement in place with Apple to prevent such applications from being allowed on its network for bandwidth concerns -- the same reason multimedia messaging and tethering for the iPhone were delayed.

After the launch of MMS for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in September, AT&T officials said that tethering would come at a later, unspecified date. Originally, both services were due to launch over the summer.

"By its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect," AT&T said when MMS debuted.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that AT&T still has not provided any further details on tethering, despite its acceptance of VoIP on its 3G network, as well as the launch of MMS.

"A spokesman for the wireless carrier, however, said that tethering remains unavailable," the report said, "and stuck with the company's prior statement: 'Whenever we offer new features, we want to offer the best possible customer experience. For tethering, we need to do some additional fine tuning to our systems and networks so that we do deliver a great experience.'"

The report noted that Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T's wireless unit, previously said that the service is expected to launch sometime in 2009. However, officials have not since repeated that information.

[gmcalpin]

Reader's Digest version:

AT&T says, "Our network kinda sucks."

World says, "No shit."

[teckstud]

And here you go- this backs up all my posts on the prior thread.
Incompetent bast*rds!

[StLBluesFan]

Verizon is thanking their lucky stars that they didn't get the original exclusivity agreement for the iPhone or they would be the one hearing "your network is crap" ad naseum.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

Verizon is thanking their lucky stars that they didn't get the original exclusivity agreement for the iPhone or they would be the one hearing "your network is crap" ad naseum.

Their new TV ad is highly effective going after the whole iPhone experience here in the states.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

Verizon is thanking their lucky stars that they didn't get the original exclusivity agreement for the iPhone or they would be the one hearing "your network is crap" ad naseum.

AT&T had a crap reputation long before the iPhone. Verizon has always been at the top in it's connectivity reputation. Let's keep it real now- I'm tired of all these speculative posts- or excuses if you will.

[StLBluesFan]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Their new TV ad is highly effective going after the whole iPhone experience here in the states.

By what measure?

I've seen the coverage of the ad but I have yet to see one "live" and I watch a fair amount of TV (unfortunately). I'm in the midwest.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

By what measure?

I've seen the coverage of the ad but I have yet to see one "live" and I watch a fair amount of TV (unfortunately). I'm in the midwest.

By being a direct mockery of Apple's app ads. I've only seen it once but its very memorable in who its attacking especially after Apple has force "there's an App for that " ads down are throat relentlessly for 1 year.

[Aquatic]

Originally Posted by teckstud

AT&T had a crap reputation long before the iPhone. Verizon has always been at the top for connectivity reputation. Let's keep it real now- I'm tired of all these speculative posts- or excuses if you will.

Yeah in the east at least VZ beats AT&T in my experience, so I'd bet at least on the east they would have held up a little bit better with iPhone than AT&T. Although I'm sure it would have been rough. Now the whole AT&T dropped calls thing, that's crazy. Like I've said, I've had that happen once or twice in 9 years on VZ. And that was in a building near mountains.

One thing I'm waiting for to get an iPhone is tethering. Waiting on you, AT&T. That'd probably push me over the edge. That will help me justify in my mind the steep monthly price tag. It will certainly be useful. I take my laptop around a lot.

[StLBluesFan]

Originally Posted by teckstud

AT&T had a crap reputation long before the iPhone. Verizon has always been at the top in it's connectivity reputation. Let's keep it real now- I'm tired of all these speculative posts- or excuses if you will.

What excuse? And "keeping it real," by what measure do you contend that Verizon's network was any more ready for the iPhone than AT&T? Dropped calls and coverage is irrelevant, we're talking the ability to handle the unprecendented increased volume of data that the iPhone created.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by Aquatic

Yeah in the east at least VZ beats AT&T in my experience, so I'd bet at least on the east they would have held up a little bit better with iPhone than AT&T. Although I'm sure it would have been rough. Now the whole AT&T dropped calls thing, that's crazy. Like I've said, I've had that happen once or twice in 9 years on VZ. And that was in a building near mountains.

One thing I'm waiting for to get an iPhone is tethering. Waiting on you, AT&T. That'd probably push me over the edge. That will help me justify in my mind the steep monthly price tag. It will certainly be useful. I take my laptop around a lot.

I switched from Verizon in July and for the most part- not too bad. However, there are times in certain parts of Manhattan - especially the West Side where I only get the dreaded "E" symbol- and then you can forget data retrieval.

[efithian@mac.com]

3.0.1

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

What excuse? And "keeping it real," by what measure do you contend that Verizon's network was any more ready for the iPhone than AT&T? Dropped calls and coverage is irrelevant, we're talking the ability to handle the unprecendented increased volume of data that the iPhone created.

Because AT&T was crap to begin with- comprendez?
You really expected crap to improve with more volume?

[StLBluesFan]

Originally Posted by teckstud

By being a direct mockery of Apple's app ads. I've only seen it once but its very memorable in who its attacking especially after Apple has force "there's an App for that " ads down are throat relentlessly for 1 year.

The way you describe it I'd agree it is memorable, but how effective it is would depend on changes in subscriber numbers, and it's certainly too early for that data. Isn't that the reason Verizon is running them, to increase subscriber numbers, especially via defections from AT&T?

Or were you just speculating? Which is fair to do, despite your apparent distaste for that.

[StLBluesFan]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Because AT&T was crap to begin with- comprendez?
You really expected crap to improve with more volume?

I expected a more coherent reply to what I wrote. My mistake, won't make it again.

[StLBluesFan]

Originally Posted by Aquatic

Yeah in the east at least VZ beats AT&T in my experience, so I'd bet at least on the east they would have held up a little bit better with iPhone than AT&T. Although I'm sure it would have been rough. Now the whole AT&T dropped calls thing, that's crazy. Like I've said, I've had that happen once or twice in 9 years on VZ. And that was in a building near mountains.

One thing I'm waiting for to get an iPhone is tethering. Waiting on you, AT&T. That'd probably push me over the edge. That will help me justify in my mind the steep monthly price tag. It will certainly be useful. I take my laptop around a lot.

I agree. Tethering is the big deal for me as well.

[mrkenn]

What dumba$$ exec decided VoIP was more important than tethering?!! Let me see- I have a phone that works perfectly well to say, I don;t know, TALK ON, WTH do I need VoIP? My laptop still doesn't work without it (well it does because I jailbroke it AND use the profile and haven't went to 3.1 yet, but you get the picture).

Hugely dumb move. Can't wait until Verizon finally gets it. Or maybe I'll start playing with Android.

[BuzDots]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

... I watch a fair amount of TV (unfortunately). I'm in the midwest.

I love it!

[nimbusthegreat]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

"By its nature, this function could exponentially increase traffic on the network, and we need to ensure that some of our current upgrades are in place before we can deliver the expanded functionality with the excellent performance that customers expect."

ummm....i'm not sure what planet this guy is from....SH&T should know that their customers don't expect excellent performance from them. they have lowered our expectations so much in the last few years that we actually expect them to fail at everything they do. good job SH&T!

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

I expected a more coherent reply to what I wrote. My mistake, won't make it again.

Well I expected a more logical question especially after I spoon fed the reasons why AT&T sucked long before the iPhone ever existed.

[teckstud]

Do Androids, Pres, and Crackberries get thethering?

[PatsFan83]

Do people want somewhat reliable service and data, or do you want tethering with the possibility of unreliable voice and data (like NYC has been suffering)? It's a pretty easy decision.

Everyone should cut ATT some slack and let them get it right. If it's that big a deal then get rid of your iPhone.

Outside of NYC, ATT service has been very good for me from DC to Boston.

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Do Androids, Pres, and Crackberries get thethering?

Yep. And if your iPhone is on 3.0 or 3.0.1 you can too.

www.enabletethering.com

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by xwiredtva

Yep. And if your iPhone is on 3.0 or 3.0.1 you can too.

www.enabletethering.com

Just not in the USA-

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by PatsFan83

Do people want somewhat reliable service and data, or do you want tethering with the possibility of unreliable voice and data (like NYC has been suffering)? It's a pretty easy decision.

Everyone should cut ATT some slack and let them get it right. If it's that big a deal then get rid of your iPhone.

Outside of NYC, ATT service has been very good for me from DC to Boston.

It's not just NYC. AT&T has turned the power down on all antenna's across the nation. The CS Rep actually admitted they did over the phone 3 weeks ago when I called because my wifes iPhone now has ZERO service at our house... We can see their antenna from our deck where she has, yep you guess it, no service. The rep said it was because of the electrical rate increases we have been getting since De-Regulation in Feb of 09'.

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by teckstud

just not in the usa-

yes in the usa!

Visit that site on your iPhone. Follow the instructions. You'll be tethering in less than 2 mins.

EDIT: I have a copy of that profile, it's clean.

[PatsFan83]

Originally Posted by xwiredtva

It's not just NYC. AT&T has turned the power down on all antenna's across the nation. The CS Rep actually admitted they did over the phone 3 weeks ago when I called because my wifes iPhone now has ZERO service at our house... We can see their antenna from our deck where she has, yep you guess it, no service. The rep said it was because of the electrical rate increases we have been getting since De-Regulation in Feb of 09'.

Well that's unfortunate, it really is. Regardless, it's another reason they aren't ready to enable tethering. There is only so much bandwidth, and it has to be prioritized.

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by xwiredtva

yes in the usa!

Visit that site on your iPhone. Follow the instructions. You'll be tethering in less than 2 mins.

EDIT: I have a copy of that profile, it's clean.

Kewel- thank you. I'll try it tonight

[cwoloszynski]

Originally Posted by teckstud

I switched from Verizon in July and for the most part- not too bad. However, there are times in certain parts of Manhattan - especially the West Side where I only get the dreaded "E" symbol- and then you can forget data retrieval.

Sorry to ask, but isn't the "3G" from AT&T and the "3G" from Verizon very different beasts. I think VW is using EV-D0 and AT&T is using HSPDA. Don't they have different data rates, etc?

Are they really equivalent? I thought that the AT&T 3G is like twice as fast (if you have coverage)?!?!

[teckstud]

First rule in marketing- Never promise something you can't deliver on.

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by cwoloszynski

Sorry to ask, but isn't the "3G" from AT&T and the "3G" from Verizon very different beasts. I think VW is using EV-D0 and AT&T is using HSPDA. Don't they have different data rates, etc?

Are they really equivalent? I thought that the AT&T 3G is like twice as fast (if you have coverage)?!?!

When tethered I've run Speedtest.org on a PB... Results:

Edge: 96kb/s down, 36kb/s up (little over dialup)
3G: 1200kb/s down, 544 kb (About equal to T1 on down, DSL on up)

3GS should be faster with it's rated 7.5mb/s Up/Down rate but it's only available in like 10 sq/miles of the country...

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by cwoloszynski

Sorry to ask, but isn't the "3G" from AT&T and the "3G" from Verizon very different beasts. I think VW is using EV-D0 and AT&T is using HSPDA. Don't they have different data rates, etc?

Are they really equivalent? I thought that the AT&T 3G is like twice as fast (if you have coverage)?!?!

Yes. EVDO is also full duplex. Edge... Not sure but you can't EDGE data and talk at the same time, you can with EVDO.

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by teckstud

First rule in marketing- Never promise something you can't deliver on.

Like 3ghz by next summer? JK...

[xwiredtva]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Kewel- thank you. I'll try it tonight

No sweat. If you run into the issue that you can't enable tethering through "General"->"Network" power cycle the phone.

On a Mac once you connect you'll get the notice a new network connect is discovered, open Net Prefs, click Apply and your on. On windows it's plug-n-play.

On the mac you can share it with Airport by ICS in the drop down. No need to jailbreak or anything like that. Been working since early summer.

[noexpectations]

...go to ATT and get a free 3G Card for your computer....and pay the same monthly service that you are going to be paying for the tethering option.

[Wiggin]

Originally Posted by StLBluesFan

What excuse? And "keeping it real," by what measure do you contend that Verizon's network was any more ready for the iPhone than AT&T? Dropped calls and coverage is irrelevant, we're talking the ability to handle the unprecendented increased volume of data that the iPhone created.

While Verizon would have likely also struggled, prior to the iPhone, and since it's release, every independent survey or evaluation (such as Consumer Reports) has consistently ranked Verizon at or near the top and ATT at or near the bottom of the rankings. Verizon has consistently had a better network. So barring Verizon getting the iPhone, this is the best evidence available, and strongly suggests that Verizon's network would have handled the load better.

That said, in the last CR results earlier this year, ATT has moved up to the middle tier in several markets, closing the gap with Verizon. So they are improving their network. What we don't know is how Verizon would have reacted if they had gotten the exclusive contract for the iPhone instead of ATT. Their network would have struggled (but probably less so that ATT's has), but would they have made the investment to keep their network in shape to handle the ever increasing load from more and more iPhones? We will never know.

As for dropped calls being irrelevant...really? How is that acceptable? You pay more for the voice portion of your contract than you do for the data portion!

Originally Posted by mrkenn

What dumba$$ exec decided VoIP was more important than tethering?!! Let me see- I have a phone that works perfectly well to say, I don;t know, TALK ON, WTH do I need VoIP? My laptop still doesn't work without it (well it does because I jailbroke it AND use the profile and haven't went to 3.1 yet, but you get the picture).

Hugely dumb move. Can't wait until Verizon finally gets it. Or maybe I'll start playing with Android.

I think the VoIP was just throwing a bone to appease us because of the tethering delay. How much bandwidth does VoIP use vs a voice call? They may be trying to free up voice bandwidth to improve call quality. I wonder what % of people would use VoIP enough to allow them to downgrade to a cheaper voice plan?

Originally Posted by teckstud

First rule in marketing- Never promise something you can't deliver on.

Second rule of marketing - Be very vague about when you are going to actually deliver it. It buys you time while causing your potential customers to wait indefinitely for you instead of buying from your competitor. (Note: This is Microsofts #1 rule.)

[bloggerblog]

AT&T blocked tethering, Slingshot, charges iPhone users for texting in their unlimited plan, and let's not forget the SMS fiasco, all because their 3G network might not handle the traffic.

Although their concern is legitimate, yet if they wanted to give less then they should charge less FGS!

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by Wiggin

While Verizon would have likely also struggled, prior to the iPhone, and since it's release, every independent survey or evaluation (such as Consumer Reports) has consistently ranked Verizon at or near the top and ATT at or near the bottom of the rankings. Verizon has consistently had a better network. So barring Verizon getting the iPhone, this is the best evidence available, and strongly suggests that Verizon's network would have handled the load better.

That said, in the last CR results earlier this year, ATT has moved up to the middle tier in several markets, closing the gap with Verizon. So they are improving their network. What we don't know is how Verizon would have reacted if they had gotten the exclusive contract for the iPhone instead of ATT. Their network would have struggled (but probably less so that ATT's has), but would they have made the investment to keep their network in shape to handle the ever increasing load from more and more iPhones? We will never know.

Thank you for that eloquent in-depth analysis that I at work can't undertake.

[razorpit]

Originally Posted by xwiredtva

yes in the usa!

Visit that site on your iPhone. Follow the instructions. You'll be tethering in less than 2 mins.

EDIT: I have a copy of that profile, it's clean.

Do you know if they ever solved the problem with visual voicemail in the tethering hack? I tried the big hack back when it first came out and lost visual voicemail and notifications that I had voicemail altogether.

--Dave

[sandau]

how long has this phone been out without tethering?

unbelievable.

well, i'm not upgrading my iphone firmware until they support it. I'm tethering with the profile hack. Not proud of it, but I need it. I will pay ATT when they support it.