Service in the Whittier/La Mirada area was pretty good. I have family in LM and didn't notice any problems when I was visiting them, likewise, in Whittier I didn't notice any major issues with voice quality. EDGE, at least on my device, seemed to vary quite a bit in Whittier/Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs and Pico Rivera. I don't spend a lot of time in any of these areas (I actually don't spend all that much time at home) so they weren't as big a factor in my decision to return the device as service quality in Orange County, specifically the Southern part.
The "59 days to reactivate your account without penalty" is beginning to weigh heavily on me. For as convinced as I was/am that the AT&T service in the areas that I frequent most is somewhat sub par I really, really miss having/using the iPhone. Yesterday I had lunch with a former coworker whose office is now in Irvine. He had some sort of Blackberry (not sure of the model number) and he kept raving about how well it worked and how great the service was. When I asked the provider, he said, “Cingular, err, AT&T". I told him about my iPhone saga and how I had read many posts about the problems with AT&T in the area... he had no answer other than, it works great for him.
My current plan is to hold off even considering another iPhone until Apple releases the first major firmware update. If said update addressed some of the major nagging concerns (Copy/Paste, MMS support, better .Mac integration), and if I'm still within the 59 days reactivation period, and there is no 3G announcement (I'm certain that such an announcement regarding U.S. hardware will not be made but what Apple does with the European iteration of the iPhone could be quite telling of their future plans in the States) then I would consider buying another one.
Service in NYC is generally decent although drivng to NJ or LI will result in many, many dropped calls and lousy spotty service. Based on my experience, and that of friends, there is no doubt Verizon will drop fewer calls in the tri-sate area. Edge is OK too in NYC. Again, this just applies to NYC. Once outside, you arer much better off with Verizon.
FYI, I have used all 3 carriers in the past 18 months.
I go down to La Jolla almost every other weekend, and my service in San Diego has been great. At UCSD, UTC, downtown La Jolla, et cetera, I got great service every where.
I don't know why so many people are having problems in Southern California.
Thanks draggerman11,
Good to know. So there is hope for me to acquire the iPhone and be happy with the service.
I am thinking in get the iPhone for a test drive during the 14 day return period. hopefully I will not have to return.
I'm in the Northern VA/metro DC area and am planning on getting an iPhone next weekend (birthday present to myself!). I've been a VZW customer for 13 years and have had no issues at all with coverage/service/etc...Anyone in the DC area that can comment on the AT&T coverage/dropped calls?
On a given network, how much variation is there between phones in terms of reception?
Is it like WiFi, where performance can vary widely from device to device, depending on the configuration of the antennas, case design and case materials?
I'm wondering if people's varying experiences with AT&T quality in SoCal isn't at least partly an artifact of the iPhone's specific reception profile (I'm assuming that some of the people reporting good reception are using different phones).
I'm in the Northern VA/metro DC area and am planning on getting an iPhone next weekend (birthday present to myself!). I've been a VZW customer for 13 years and have had no issues at all with coverage/service/etc...Anyone in the DC area that can comment on the AT&T coverage/dropped calls?
Thanks.
It would be nice if someone would make an iPhone reception map and add up all the responses, because one of the reasons to get the phone would be for use when traveling.
Service in the Whittier/La Mirada area was pretty good. I have family in LM and didn't notice any problems when I was visiting them, likewise, in Whittier I didn't notice any major issues with voice quality. EDGE, at least on my device, seemed to vary quite a bit in Whittier/Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs and Pico Rivera. I don't spend a lot of time in any of these areas (I actually don't spend all that much time at home) so they weren't as big a factor in my decision to return the device as service quality in Orange County, specifically the Southern part.
Where, specifically? I take summer classes at Fullerton JC and service is fine down there. It is patchy going down Malvern, though.
How weird that we are so close but have had vastly different experiences.
I'm wondering if people's varying experiences with AT&T quality in SoCal isn't at least partly an artifact of the iPhone's specific reception profile
I don't think it has anything to do with iPhone, in fact it appears that the reception on the iPhone is maybe even a little better than on other handsets. The problem is mostly inside of buildings. Inside my house and inside my office - no bars, step outside and you get acceptable signal. It may have something to do with the frequency spectrum that A&T uses, but I'm no expert in that area. On the other hand Verizon has a strong signal everywhere I go.
In the areas I go through - NY, NJ, Westchester, Connecticut - I've had excellent service from AT&T. In fact, I had to drive out all the way to Western Maryland (near the WVa, PA, MD borders) and had great service all the way; I even had EDGE coverage there and had no problem accessing the internet.
At home, I have better coverage than I had with Verizon. While driving home from work, there are a couple of spots where I had drop outs from VzW and it's 4-5 bars with AT&T. So, I'm very pleasantly surprised by AT&T's performance so far.
At home, I have better coverage than I had with Verizon. While driving home from work, there are a couple of spots where I had drop outs from VzW and it's 4-5 bars with AT&T. So, I'm very pleasantly surprised by AT&T's performance so far.
I think it is really random. I recall several months ago when in Denver, Verizon was kind of sketchy but I didn't have AT&T then to compare.
In Ann Arbor, MI I notice that I get a No Service message in my apartment from time to time and also a lot of random jumps from 0-full bars at my desk at work. The data network seems pretty slow, however, the only thing I have to compare it to is Verizons on my old Motorola Q, which was a dumbed down crap version of web pages. Unlike the full un-altered pages you get on the iPhone.
I've been all over the country, with the iphone and with other cingular/at&t phones I previously owned. I have only had a problem with the western part of the states as far as coverage goes with either the iphone or any other phone I've owned on the network. I travel from houston, tx to st. paul minneapolis and rarely lose a single bar the entire way. I've been in iowa and was the only person that did have service (others had t-mobile, sprint verizon, etc etc). so, I'm fairly pleased with the iphone. My only issue with it is the lack of ability to really customize it to fit each individuals needs.
I haven't had any problems in Connecticut except inside buildings. Call quality is good, but there have been a few dropped calls. I've always been a Cingular/AT&T customer since living in Georgia. The call quality, reception, and dropped calls are much better in Georgia (no problems at all).
There is of course the possibility that I was just unfortunate in my Norwalk/Pico Rivera/Santa Fe Springs travels. The day that I purchased and activated my iPhone a friend in Norwalk did the same. The first place outside of Whittier that I went was Norwalk Manor (Imperial and Bloomfield). On my way to her house I placed my first phone call near Metropolitan Hospital (Bloomfield between Lakeland and Imperial). The person I called sounded fine but they complained that I sounded garbled. I hung up and decided to call them back once I arrived at my destination. Unfortunately reception at my friend?s house was terrible. I can only imagine how frustrated she was by the fact that EDGE didn?t seem to work and reception fluctuated wildly.
A couple of days later I went to the Borders on Washington Blvd. in Pico Rivera (I have no idea why I was in that area). I tried using the internet (via EDGE) to check flights on Orbitz and Travelocity but after a few minutes of waiting for each page to load I gave up. Thinking that being indoors might have been the problem I tried again outside but had the same experience. I stopped at the BofA on Washington (Between Norwalk and Broadway) and everything seemed to work fine. In SFS I had trouble at Heritage Park and the surrounding area. In Brea I visited a friend that lives off of Lambert and Tamarack? voice seemed fine but EDGE was super slow (similar to my experience in Pico Rivera). In Irvine I had a lot of trouble near Jeffrey and Trabuco and Alton and Jeffrey, also reception at the Spectrum was hit or miss. In all fairness the iPhone did work just fine in a lot of other areas it?s just that in the places the iPhone didn?t work my Sprint phone did. Likewise during the two weeks that I used both phones side by side I can?t remember a single time in which my Sprint phone had ?poorer? reception than my iPhone.
For anyone unfamiliar with the area I apologize for all of the ?details?. I just feel that in order to pin down the problem specifics are necessary.
The more that I think about it the more that I?m beginning to realize that my disappointment with AT&T service had/has more to do with expectations than actual performance. Yes, there were problems, more in two weeks than I have had in the last two years with Sprint but I can remember having similar issues with Sprint 3 or 4 years back. What?s the difference? My Sprint service and phones have always been ?cheap? and because of this I?ve been willing to overlook the network and CS issues of the past. Also, at least in SoCal, Sprint has improved their network/coverage exponentially in the last 5 years. Having briefly used AT&T?s GSM service in 2003 I know that it has improved but, in my travels, it?s not up to par with Verizon or Sprint. Because of the expense of the device and the ?premium? I was/will be paying over my current service I expected a lot. The iPhone itself met and in many cases exceeded my very-high expectations but AT&T fell short. Is the service usable? Yes. Will it improve in the coming months and years? It must.
This past weekend I almost gave in. Actually I did give in but the AT&T gods were conspiring against me yet again. Around 7 PM on Saturday night I decided that I would make the drive to The Grove to purchase my second iPhone. The Brea Mall Apple Store is much closer but they had already closed for the evening and, as these things go, I wanted instant gratification. Prior to leaving my apartment I called The Grove store to make sure they had 8 GB iPhones in stock and then called AT&T to reactivate my service. To my dismay their customer service department (at least the group that I needed to talk to) was already closed. To add insult to injury they aren?t even open on Sunday. A sign? Anyway I decided not to make the drive to LA proper since I couldn?t do anything with my iPhone until Monday at the earliest. I plan on calling AT&T today and seeing what steps I need to take to reactivate service. The Brea Mall Apple Store is a 5 minute drive from my office so if all goes according to plan I will be activating my second iPhone today at lunch. I don?t really expect this experience with AT&T to be much better than the last but even with all of the ?problems? I find myself missing the iPhone.
I called AT&T this afternoon to reactivate my service. When I cancelled my account I was told that if I wanted to reactivate my account I could just ?give them a call back?. I confirmed that cancellations would be the department to talk to; at least that?s what I was told.
After a couple minutes on hold I was connected with a cancellations rep that, after a brief explanation of the situation, informed me that I would need to speak to activations. She also told me that I would need to have my account reactivated before trying to activate the iPhone? which makes sense. I was put on hold and transferred.
After a couple more minutes on hold I was connected with an activations rep. I was asked for my agent ID and when I told her that I didn?t have one she informed me that I had called (was transferred to) a dealer/agent only line. She said she would transfer to the ?right? department after which I was disconnected. I called back was routed through the normal system and eventually ended up with another rep. I told him my story, after which he said, ?cancellations could have done this for you?. Thanks. The rep was apologetic but almost each sentence contradicted the previous. I asked him if there would be an additional activation fee, he said no, but there would be a $36 fee to re-start service. WTF? I asked about porting a number at a later date he said that it would be free, save for a $36 porting fee? Again WTF? How can something that costs $36 be free? I let the first one slide but I called him out on the second $36 he. He paused for a second and said? we can probably waive the fee for porting your number over at a later date.
So, I told him I wanted to get things setup so I could activate another iPhone. ?Oh, an iPhone, that?s different? he said. He said I would need to buy and activate the iPhone prior to reactivating my account. At this point things were getting comical. I asked how I could activate an iPhone on an inactive account. His response, ?through iTunes.? I asked if I would have the same number and he said no my number had been reassigned. So, how would I activate the iPhone if I had an inactive account with no phone number assigned to it? He had a response, ?call us back.? I?m giving AT&T the benefit of the doubt on this one and attributing this experience to a lazy cancellations rep and a slightly confused ?regular? rep. The first cancellations rep (the person that cancelled my service) had also said that if I wanted to I could just create a new line of service (essentially creating an entirely new account) if I wanted too. Can anyone think of what problems this might pose? He (the original cancellations rep I spoke to a couple weeks ago) said the only difference was the credit check. I would need to go through another credit check if I started a new line of service instead of reactivating my account.
Comments
Service in the Whittier/La Mirada area was pretty good. I have family in LM and didn't notice any problems when I was visiting them, likewise, in Whittier I didn't notice any major issues with voice quality. EDGE, at least on my device, seemed to vary quite a bit in Whittier/Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs and Pico Rivera. I don't spend a lot of time in any of these areas (I actually don't spend all that much time at home) so they weren't as big a factor in my decision to return the device as service quality in Orange County, specifically the Southern part.
The "59 days to reactivate your account without penalty" is beginning to weigh heavily on me. For as convinced as I was/am that the AT&T service in the areas that I frequent most is somewhat sub par I really, really miss having/using the iPhone. Yesterday I had lunch with a former coworker whose office is now in Irvine. He had some sort of Blackberry (not sure of the model number) and he kept raving about how well it worked and how great the service was. When I asked the provider, he said, “Cingular, err, AT&T". I told him about my iPhone saga and how I had read many posts about the problems with AT&T in the area... he had no answer other than, it works great for him.
My current plan is to hold off even considering another iPhone until Apple releases the first major firmware update. If said update addressed some of the major nagging concerns (Copy/Paste, MMS support, better .Mac integration), and if I'm still within the 59 days reactivation period, and there is no 3G announcement (I'm certain that such an announcement regarding U.S. hardware will not be made but what Apple does with the European iteration of the iPhone could be quite telling of their future plans in the States) then I would consider buying another one.
FYI, I have used all 3 carriers in the past 18 months.
Gugy,
I go down to La Jolla almost every other weekend, and my service in San Diego has been great. At UCSD, UTC, downtown La Jolla, et cetera, I got great service every where.
I don't know why so many people are having problems in Southern California.
Thanks draggerman11,
Good to know. So there is hope for me to acquire the iPhone and be happy with the service.
I am thinking in get the iPhone for a test drive during the 14 day return period. hopefully I will not have to return.
Cheers
Thanks.
Is it like WiFi, where performance can vary widely from device to device, depending on the configuration of the antennas, case design and case materials?
I'm wondering if people's varying experiences with AT&T quality in SoCal isn't at least partly an artifact of the iPhone's specific reception profile (I'm assuming that some of the people reporting good reception are using different phones).
I'm in the Northern VA/metro DC area and am planning on getting an iPhone next weekend (birthday present to myself!). I've been a VZW customer for 13 years and have had no issues at all with coverage/service/etc...Anyone in the DC area that can comment on the AT&T coverage/dropped calls?
Thanks.
It would be nice if someone would make an iPhone reception map and add up all the responses, because one of the reasons to get the phone would be for use when traveling.
Hi Dragger,
Service in the Whittier/La Mirada area was pretty good. I have family in LM and didn't notice any problems when I was visiting them, likewise, in Whittier I didn't notice any major issues with voice quality. EDGE, at least on my device, seemed to vary quite a bit in Whittier/Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs and Pico Rivera. I don't spend a lot of time in any of these areas (I actually don't spend all that much time at home) so they weren't as big a factor in my decision to return the device as service quality in Orange County, specifically the Southern part.
Where, specifically? I take summer classes at Fullerton JC and service is fine down there. It is patchy going down Malvern, though.
How weird that we are so close but have had vastly different experiences.
I'm wondering if people's varying experiences with AT&T quality in SoCal isn't at least partly an artifact of the iPhone's specific reception profile
I don't think it has anything to do with iPhone, in fact it appears that the reception on the iPhone is maybe even a little better than on other handsets. The problem is mostly inside of buildings. Inside my house and inside my office - no bars, step outside and you get acceptable signal. It may have something to do with the frequency spectrum that A&T uses, but I'm no expert in that area. On the other hand Verizon has a strong signal everywhere I go.
At home, I have better coverage than I had with Verizon. While driving home from work, there are a couple of spots where I had drop outs from VzW and it's 4-5 bars with AT&T. So, I'm very pleasantly surprised by AT&T's performance so far.
--DotComCTO
At home, I have better coverage than I had with Verizon. While driving home from work, there are a couple of spots where I had drop outs from VzW and it's 4-5 bars with AT&T. So, I'm very pleasantly surprised by AT&T's performance so far.
I think it is really random. I recall several months ago when in Denver, Verizon was kind of sketchy but I didn't have AT&T then to compare.
m
There is of course the possibility that I was just unfortunate in my Norwalk/Pico Rivera/Santa Fe Springs travels. The day that I purchased and activated my iPhone a friend in Norwalk did the same. The first place outside of Whittier that I went was Norwalk Manor (Imperial and Bloomfield). On my way to her house I placed my first phone call near Metropolitan Hospital (Bloomfield between Lakeland and Imperial). The person I called sounded fine but they complained that I sounded garbled. I hung up and decided to call them back once I arrived at my destination. Unfortunately reception at my friend?s house was terrible. I can only imagine how frustrated she was by the fact that EDGE didn?t seem to work and reception fluctuated wildly.
A couple of days later I went to the Borders on Washington Blvd. in Pico Rivera (I have no idea why I was in that area). I tried using the internet (via EDGE) to check flights on Orbitz and Travelocity but after a few minutes of waiting for each page to load I gave up. Thinking that being indoors might have been the problem I tried again outside but had the same experience. I stopped at the BofA on Washington (Between Norwalk and Broadway) and everything seemed to work fine. In SFS I had trouble at Heritage Park and the surrounding area. In Brea I visited a friend that lives off of Lambert and Tamarack? voice seemed fine but EDGE was super slow (similar to my experience in Pico Rivera). In Irvine I had a lot of trouble near Jeffrey and Trabuco and Alton and Jeffrey, also reception at the Spectrum was hit or miss. In all fairness the iPhone did work just fine in a lot of other areas it?s just that in the places the iPhone didn?t work my Sprint phone did. Likewise during the two weeks that I used both phones side by side I can?t remember a single time in which my Sprint phone had ?poorer? reception than my iPhone.
For anyone unfamiliar with the area I apologize for all of the ?details?. I just feel that in order to pin down the problem specifics are necessary.
The more that I think about it the more that I?m beginning to realize that my disappointment with AT&T service had/has more to do with expectations than actual performance. Yes, there were problems, more in two weeks than I have had in the last two years with Sprint but I can remember having similar issues with Sprint 3 or 4 years back. What?s the difference? My Sprint service and phones have always been ?cheap? and because of this I?ve been willing to overlook the network and CS issues of the past. Also, at least in SoCal, Sprint has improved their network/coverage exponentially in the last 5 years. Having briefly used AT&T?s GSM service in 2003 I know that it has improved but, in my travels, it?s not up to par with Verizon or Sprint. Because of the expense of the device and the ?premium? I was/will be paying over my current service I expected a lot. The iPhone itself met and in many cases exceeded my very-high expectations but AT&T fell short. Is the service usable? Yes. Will it improve in the coming months and years? It must.
This past weekend I almost gave in. Actually I did give in but the AT&T gods were conspiring against me yet again. Around 7 PM on Saturday night I decided that I would make the drive to The Grove to purchase my second iPhone. The Brea Mall Apple Store is much closer but they had already closed for the evening and, as these things go, I wanted instant gratification. Prior to leaving my apartment I called The Grove store to make sure they had 8 GB iPhones in stock and then called AT&T to reactivate my service. To my dismay their customer service department (at least the group that I needed to talk to) was already closed. To add insult to injury they aren?t even open on Sunday. A sign? Anyway I decided not to make the drive to LA proper since I couldn?t do anything with my iPhone until Monday at the earliest. I plan on calling AT&T today and seeing what steps I need to take to reactivate service. The Brea Mall Apple Store is a 5 minute drive from my office so if all goes according to plan I will be activating my second iPhone today at lunch. I don?t really expect this experience with AT&T to be much better than the last but even with all of the ?problems? I find myself missing the iPhone.
After a couple minutes on hold I was connected with a cancellations rep that, after a brief explanation of the situation, informed me that I would need to speak to activations. She also told me that I would need to have my account reactivated before trying to activate the iPhone? which makes sense. I was put on hold and transferred.
After a couple more minutes on hold I was connected with an activations rep. I was asked for my agent ID and when I told her that I didn?t have one she informed me that I had called (was transferred to) a dealer/agent only line. She said she would transfer to the ?right? department after which I was disconnected. I called back was routed through the normal system and eventually ended up with another rep. I told him my story, after which he said, ?cancellations could have done this for you?. Thanks. The rep was apologetic but almost each sentence contradicted the previous. I asked him if there would be an additional activation fee, he said no, but there would be a $36 fee to re-start service. WTF? I asked about porting a number at a later date he said that it would be free, save for a $36 porting fee? Again WTF? How can something that costs $36 be free? I let the first one slide but I called him out on the second $36 he. He paused for a second and said? we can probably waive the fee for porting your number over at a later date.
So, I told him I wanted to get things setup so I could activate another iPhone. ?Oh, an iPhone, that?s different? he said. He said I would need to buy and activate the iPhone prior to reactivating my account. At this point things were getting comical. I asked how I could activate an iPhone on an inactive account. His response, ?through iTunes.? I asked if I would have the same number and he said no my number had been reassigned. So, how would I activate the iPhone if I had an inactive account with no phone number assigned to it? He had a response, ?call us back.? I?m giving AT&T the benefit of the doubt on this one and attributing this experience to a lazy cancellations rep and a slightly confused ?regular? rep. The first cancellations rep (the person that cancelled my service) had also said that if I wanted to I could just create a new line of service (essentially creating an entirely new account) if I wanted too. Can anyone think of what problems this might pose? He (the original cancellations rep I spoke to a couple weeks ago) said the only difference was the credit check. I would need to go through another credit check if I started a new line of service instead of reactivating my account.