Apple becomes SNL punchline over iPhone network coverage - Page 2

Maybe it is a 3G issue. I have used my 1st gen since it came out and I honestly cannot remember dropping a call or even not having a signal for that matter. AT&T has always been helpful and polite as far as the customer service is concerned as well.

I understand that many users have a lot of issues with AT&T, I chalk it up to a hypochondriasis type disorder, someone else has issues with their service then suddenly they do to.

Guess Ill find out when I upgrade this summer!

I also used T-mobile, Verizon, and Sprint, and I could be GUARANTEED to have at least 1 dropped phone call every 15-30 minutes during prime hours with those companies, but I haven't had a single dropped call at any time on AT&T. Pretty straightforward metrics if you ask me.

Plus, you never hear about people complaining about AT&T's network: people are always complaining about Tmo/Sprint/VZW.

so now the cheap free phones have better voice capability than a $300 iphone?

I'm going to have to cry foul on this blatant misinformation. Those complaints were made about the stock infineon chips, not the custom ones made for the iPhone. The fixes in the firmware and OS were coincidental and had nothing to do with the hardware in the iPhone.

I have a family plan with 4 iphones.
2 are 2g and 2 are 3 g.
ALL of us get dropped calls for the last 2 years and it is getting worse .
we live on top of a hill 400 ft from a cell tower .
4 LTE hopefully will improve it but I want verizon .

ok, so that's 3 networks you have compared to att, now tell me about the more than 1500 networks worldwide that you compared att to.
you did say "in the world" and since your other remarks are so credible, i have no reason to doubt that you've been methodical in comparing att to 1500 networks.
it must have take you so much time.

I guess all the people that reported to consumer reports must be telling lies. Just because you have never had an issue does not mean others have not. Look around the forums. My failed call percentage is at least %75 on my iPhone. It is so bad I am afraid to make a call longer then 5 mins. I wish Verizon was paying me but they are not AT$T sucks, they know it, everyone knows it and once iPhone goes to another carrier, AT$T will suffer for it and I can not wait until the day that happens.

I disagree. I think most people find skit comedy to get less funny years or decades later but I think its the same hit-or-miss show its always been. On one hand you saw it was you were 15-20 years young and on the other hand youre only recalling the funny stuff, while forgetting the bad skits from 2 decades ago.

Fabricating lies????? You need to pull your head out of Steve Jobs a$$ and wake up. AT$T sucks, iPhone is stuck on that network for the time being so therefore the iPhone is sucking because of it. They are TELLING THE TRUTH!

No. ATTs orignal network has much better reliability then the poorly designed 3g.

before the iphone my wife had 3 phones on VZW. one had reception problems the entire 2 years she had it. the first and third always worked. there was even a thread on howard forums about how you had to take it to a VZW store for a firmware update.

it's not only the network that can result in poor reception

Instead of flapping your gums for AT$T provide proof!

They are both lucky to know how to turn a smart phone on much less know how to use one. They both need to go back to prepaid service

I guess you are blind. Just pick up a Consumer Reports, seems quite a few complaining there. AT$T, DEAD LAST! Did you read that, DEAD LAST! Its clowns like you that refuse to except that something you bought may possibly have issues.

Don't get me wrong, I hated cell phones until the iphone came out. I've bought all 3. I'm not sure where you live but there are huge problems in NYC. My record is trying a call 49 times in a row before getting through. I have a problem with over 50% of my calls. There are huge problems with ATT. That said, I had Verizon before and could not get a signal in my new apt in the middle of Manhattan.

My iPhone dropped a high percentage of calls when it was on AT&T. I would recommend unlocking your iPhones and using them with other carriers. The one I'm on now never drops calls.

This right here leads me to believe you are embellishing the truth. I live in a suburb outside of Indianapolis...about 30 minutes. I rarely have a dropped call here with the 3G. I visited family in Manhattan and experienced the WORST cell phone service wherever we went in the city. Using the 3G network was near impossible. I dropped calls countless times. Sending/receiving text messages took upwards of 2-3 hours. I heard and read about the poor iPhone performance from a lot of people in NYC. It's interesting that you're the first person to have a positive experience in NYC. Interesting, yet fishy.

And Apple isn't providing this so-called "ceaselessly reliable service". AT&T is. Apple provides the means to utilize the service.

when i worked in Queens my iphone performance was a lot better, it's manhattan. to be fair it's a lot harder to build a reliable cell network in Manhattan than almost anywhere on earth.

VZW may top AT&T in voice performance, but it has been documented that AT&T has a much better and faster network than VZW in terms of data

better is a relative term. is it better for it to be faster? yes. is it better for it to be faster but almost unusable due to packet loss? no.

personally, i have a phone for a phone first, everything else 2nd. if the phone cant meet objective 1, then it doesnt matter if it can download stuff faster than another carrier could.

Folks, it's the service, how many times do we need to hear this, before we stop blaming Apple!

Now if we choose to blame Apple, because there are a ton of iPhones out there ok, I guess.

But my Razor drops calls, more then Zach Galifianakis drops his pants in The Hangover, I don't hear or see a place to complain about that, and oh, it's on Verizon!

And might I ask, is your iPhone dropping calls, or getting disconnected from the network, while your surfing the web, answering your emails, checking your stocks, bank balance, playing a game, taking or sending photo's, checking out the times at the local movie theater, making diner reservations - OR, while you are making a simple phone call?

Skip

the razr also had documented reception issues due to its design

somehow i signed up for telecom newsletters and read the articles sometimes. it's not as simple as building more towers, each tower is limited to around 50 people using it at a time and with NYC the issue is all the tall buildings play havoc with the signal reception.

AT&T trying to get rid of the top 3% of data users is a good start

im not arguing its difficult on how to manage the users or the difficulty of placing towers, its more of the point if you cant make a phone call, whats the point of having the phone?

Hey guys all I hear about is the poor quality of the AT&T network in NYC and all I can say is I have been using my 3gs iphone for two months with hardly any dropped calls. Most of my calls are as clear as a land line!

Why are people getting all butt-hurt over a joke? Geez, I didn't realize that people had such thin skin for these kinds of things.

I mean, I have an iPhone 3GS, but I still found it funny. Lighten up people! It's not like they insulted your mom.

Good to hear!

But it's all about public perception. If that isn't on your side, all the facts and stats you can muster will be worth about as much as a pair of thermal underwear in Death Valley at high noon.

Apple's experiment with AT&T (read: exclusivity) was genius. Apple got what they wanted. Now it's time to expand.

judging by some reactions here, insulting apple is far more serious than insulting your mom

are you in manhattan? my 3GS works great outside of manhattan, it's in "the city" that's the problem

Before moving to the EDGE iPhone, I was on Verizon and simply assumed that the days of dropped calls, patchy coverage and missed data were over. Verizon's coverage was so complete that it seemed to me, that all service providers must have met that level of service-- if they hadn't, why would any user not simply switch to Verizon. I was shocked when I got my iphone at how poor AT&T service actually was.

I believe AT&T is wholly responsible for the poor signal quality and dropped calls. For me, one of the many benefits of the iPhone is never actually dealing with AT&T, other than paying a monthly bill. When my iPhone had a legitimate problem, I went to Apple. I get software updates not from AT&T, but from Apple.

However, at some point, Apple must take responsibility for AT&T. They cut a deal with the devil in AT&T and that is reflected by the phone's performance. If Apple wants to maintain a reputation of the best software and best hardware, they need to drop the network with the dropped calls and poor coverage.

Shouldn't Apple have "taken note" before it teamed up with AT&T?!?! Doesn't seem very smart of Apple. Didn't those Apple people do any testing? That's a rhetorical question folks. Didn't Steve Jobs say AT&T was the best network and with it's GSM technology, fit in Apple's international game plan? Another rhetorical question folks!

Can people out there using AT&T by means of a BlackBerry or some other phone, and this is important "PRIOR" to the iPhone (so we can throw out the congestion issue), can you BB or other smart phone people on AT&T tell me how adequate was your service? Reception? Dropped Calls? Voice Mail? Voice Quality?

Or can someone point out a BB message board that contains as many gripes about AT&T service while using their BlackBerry or other smart phone?

If the problem is solely AT&T, then there should be just as many discrepancies with other manufacturers and their smart phones, correct, logically speaking?

the way data is used on a BB and the iphone is very different and problems are more noticeable on the iphone

I have not had one dropped call on my iPhone 2.5 or my 3g, and I don't live in Boston or NY.

IMHO Weekend Update has been the funniest bit on SNL ever since Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Seth Meyers. In fact, they should cancel SNL and run a 90 minute WU! Yeah.

And this iPhone joke made me laugh, even though it isn't true for me, anyway.

The service was fine when it was only on 2G way back when i had my 8300 Curve and before i switched to VZW. A lot of data stuff is sent via BIS/BES from Canada and the data is compressed so it takes quite a bit of stress off the network its running on(this is a pretty big selling point to carriers), so data wise i am very unaffected. That being said, i hear BIS users are getting frequent outages coming from RIMs end (i suspect them not being able to handle 20+ million BIS users is the culprit) and when they go down, your phone is dead in the water except for voice/text.

I currently get a dropped call about once every couple days, if im stationary it never happens but if im driving and talking the chances skyrocket and my city is supposed to be covered completely by 3G according to AT&T. Voice Quality is excellent (i use a Blackberry Bold) but Voice Quality on BB is top notch overall on every device they make. Often before a call drops the service becomes quite scratchy and then it just dies.

Signal wise im 4/5 bars at my apartment right now, but the instant i walk into work i hit SOS mode (we have a 14 story building) and dont regain signal unless im on the roof or near a window, it makes me wish AT&T has a UMA mode like T-Mobile does for their Blackberry lineup.

On signal topic, because the phone flip-flops so much out of 3G/Edge it causes what Apple would describe as "Catastrophic battery failure", sometimes the battery will drain because its constantly seeking for 3G (and i have to change settings to keep it from doing so) even while being on EDGE.


^^^^^ This, data isnt a big problem on BB its the voice at times, especially during peak times.

Clearly, you are not a stockholder. It matters greatly to me what the perception of, performance of, and sales of iPhone and other Mac products are. And thus, if you are not a stockholder, it's not "our products" to you. We welcome tweens and adults. It's you - the elitest snob that feels Apple 'owes me something for being loyal' that we can really do WITHOUT.

Don't Forget that they also re-aired the simpsons episode sunday that made fun of apple and it's conformist, brainwashed customers who are willing to hand over their money just to look cool.

Now, start the attacks on the simpsons. Yeah, "they stopped being funny 20 years ago", right?

What a harsh weekend for crapple!
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And Apple being made fun of is something completely new? I do believe it was MadTV that made "i" name with an "iRack" skit back when the Iraq War started again (correct my timeline if I'm wrong). It was a Steve Jobs impersonation showing off Apple's latest product: an unsteady rack with random things thrown in it. True it was more of a punch to the new Iraq War than Apple itself, but still...

Not to mention that viral video a bit back that was a very nicely done showcase of the new Macbook with a single scroll wheel as the stand-in for the keyboard. That one had plenty of people going for a long time.

My point? Just roll with the punches. If you're a big name, you're going to get made fun of.

I recall complaining about the 3g service long ago, and being told to turn off 3g when I wasn't using it. My gripe with that was I waited to get the 3g iPhone for a reason: 3g. Not to get the phone and turn off the feature I was waiting for. Now that people in other places see how horrible the 3g service is, maybe they want to try turning off their 3g when it's not in use.

This was at the time when people (including myself) had problems with the 3g radio in a certain revision of the phone. My phone was replaced under AppleCare, but the problems persisted. In certain situations, I do turn the 3g off, like at places indoors where there is wifi. You'll notice the EDGE service does penetrate better than the 3g.

Recently AT&T has been getting better, though. I am eligible for my upgrade discount at this point, but I think I'm going to hold off until the next iPhone release in June/July. I'd rather spend some cash on a new MBP with a matte screen anyway, my early '08 is getting tired

i think the EDGE service is on a lower frequency which penetrates walls better due to longer wavelength. 3G and it's higher frequencies can transfer data faster, but have trouble penetrating walls due to shorter wavelength

Apple offered the iPhone to Verizon, T-Mobile and others... but they all wanted final say-so on everything, plus I would imagine none of them believed Apple would be successful. As almost everyone laughed at Apple pre-launch, now they are racing to catch-up. AT&T was the only one to agree to Apple having final word and all their demands, that's why it is only on AT&T. Steve had no choice, but to pump and support AT&T - you have to roll with who you got at the moment.

People cannot blame Apple, they went with the only girl who would say "yes" to go to the prom with them. Now, all the girls want to go and Apple now has all the "hand" as Costanza said on Seinfeld.

I've been an Apple devotee since the 80's and will continue to be one. Their greatest sin has been their unholy alliance with at&t. Apple deserves every piece of mud thrown at them for at&t's lack of coverage. at&t will always be kicking and fighting everything cutting edge. They have a corporate mentality of the 1940's. If Apple ever dropped them their days as a major player would be numbered. Oh yeah, their responses to Verizon's claim made them look to be the fool that they are. Pitiful !!!!!!!!