Apple Genius says dropped AT&T calls in NYC 'consistent'
A man who took his iPhone 3G in to a New York City Apple Store because of a large number of dropped calls was allegedly told that a 30 percent failure rate is average for a local AT&T customer.
In a diagnosis issued by the Genius Bar, the proposed resolution for the issue was for the customer to contact AT&T, because "the problem is consistent with the service provided" by the wireless carrier. Not included in the report, however, is what a Gizmodo reader claimed he was told by the Apple Store Genius: That a 30 percent dropped call rate is average for the New York area.
The man took his iPhone 3G to the Apple Store in SoHo, located at 103 Prince Street in New York City, to see if his dropped calls were as a result of the hardware. The man said that roughly a third of his calls disconnected.
The Genius plugged the phone in for a "behavior scan," where logs showed that over 22 percent of calls were dropped. The customer told the employee that the failure percentage is likely higher, because he often manually disconnects once a call begins to fail.
Purchased in July 2008, the phone was found to be "fully functional" by the Genius, with no liquid damage or major cosmetic blemishes. The Genius told the customer that AT&T would need to address his problem.
Image credit Gizmodo
The iPhone has placed a significant strain on AT&T's network, particularly in large cities such as New York. The issue has been so serious that the company, in recent months, has admitted its shortcomings since the launch of the iPhone 3GS, and vowed to make improvements and do better.
This summer, the wireless carrier announced it strengthened its 3G signal in the populous Tri-State region. The 850MHz spectrum was deployed across portions of New York City, Long Island and New Jersey, in an effort to bring better reception and speed.
In the future, some of AT&T's network woes could be addressed by the new 3G MicroCell, which offers unlimited calling via home Internet access with new hardware. The technology is currently in testing in North Carolina, and AT&T officials have not yet announced plans to further expand it.
In a diagnosis issued by the Genius Bar, the proposed resolution for the issue was for the customer to contact AT&T, because "the problem is consistent with the service provided" by the wireless carrier. Not included in the report, however, is what a Gizmodo reader claimed he was told by the Apple Store Genius: That a 30 percent dropped call rate is average for the New York area.
The man took his iPhone 3G to the Apple Store in SoHo, located at 103 Prince Street in New York City, to see if his dropped calls were as a result of the hardware. The man said that roughly a third of his calls disconnected.
The Genius plugged the phone in for a "behavior scan," where logs showed that over 22 percent of calls were dropped. The customer told the employee that the failure percentage is likely higher, because he often manually disconnects once a call begins to fail.
Purchased in July 2008, the phone was found to be "fully functional" by the Genius, with no liquid damage or major cosmetic blemishes. The Genius told the customer that AT&T would need to address his problem.
Image credit Gizmodo
The iPhone has placed a significant strain on AT&T's network, particularly in large cities such as New York. The issue has been so serious that the company, in recent months, has admitted its shortcomings since the launch of the iPhone 3GS, and vowed to make improvements and do better.
This summer, the wireless carrier announced it strengthened its 3G signal in the populous Tri-State region. The 850MHz spectrum was deployed across portions of New York City, Long Island and New Jersey, in an effort to bring better reception and speed.
In the future, some of AT&T's network woes could be addressed by the new 3G MicroCell, which offers unlimited calling via home Internet access with new hardware. The technology is currently in testing in North Carolina, and AT&T officials have not yet announced plans to further expand it.
Comments
OK, even I admit: I feel bad for teckstud. This is unacceptable.
haha- good one.
However this quote from AI (not you) I have issues with:
The iPhone has placed a significant strain on AT&T's network, particularly in large cities such as New York.
AT&T is creating their own strain by relentlessly advertising new 3g phones all the time here in NYC both on TV and in print. Just yesterday the NYTimes had a full page AT&T ad advertising some new Acer netbook with a 3G AT&T plan. Yet they are trying to defer blame from themselves to the iPhone. They need to stop this BS PR propagande they are perpetuating on Apple especially for what they charge us iPhone users.
OK, even I admit: I feel bad for teckstud. This is unacceptable.
I feel bad for the guy in the article and other people who have this problem in select areas of select cities, but not for Teckstud. He was well aware that AT&T had issues in his particular area but decided to sign up with AT&T anyway. I was weary about going back to Cingular as the new AT&T back in 2007 but I had 30 days to test it out and everything was within reason. If it sucked during that first 30 days and I hadn?t canceled my contract with them then I have no right to complain about service.
I don't know about New York, but here in northern VA AT&T is on par with like TMobile in terms of signal strength, but Verizon just seems to have strong signal EVERYWHERE.
I'm glad I don't live in NY: my friends there had such a terrible dropped call rate with Sprint that it scared me off of cell phones! Sounds like AT&T is just as bad or worse. You'd think a major city would be a top priority for quality infrastructure, yet my medium-sized city seems to fare much better.
I paid a $200 ETF with Alltel just so that I could get an iPhone 3GS on launch day. This was despite hearing all the report online that AT&T's service is crappy and that 3G speeds are often horrible.
Luckily for me, here in Garner, NC (just outside the city limits or Raleigh), my 3G reception and phone service has been excellent. I've only had maybe 3 or 4 dropped calls altogether since I've had the phone, and three of those were while I was driving.
So while I'm glad my service with AT&T has been great, sucks to hear that all the rest of you are having problems
I feel bad for the guy in the article and other people who have this problem in select areas of select cities, but not for Teckstud. He was well aware that AT&T had issues in his particular area but decided to sign up with AT&T anyway. I was weary about going back to Cingular as the new AT&T back in 2007 but I had 30 days to test it out and everything was within reason. If it sucked during that first 30 days and I hadn?t canceled my contract with them then I have no right to complain about service.
I'm actually stuck with Sprint because of that 30 day thing. See, I bought my phone online, and it took a week to get to me. I tried to cancel after 25 days but they said I went over because the 30 day service evaluation period started from the date of purchase!
I was pretty livid at the time, but they hooked me up on a Touch Pro and I've been stealing internet tethering ever since
I'm glad I don't live in NY: my friends there had such a terrible dropped call rate with Sprint that it scared me off of cell phones! Sounds like AT&T is just as bad or worse. You'd think a major city would be a top priority for quality infrastructure, yet my medium-sized city seems to fare much better.
Verizon has no such problem in NYC. Must be the CDMA thing. But whatever, they work and most corps here use them. I had them for 6 years- never a problem.
... and people really think Apple is going to tough it out and extend the exclusivity agreement...
A great phone like the iphone deserves more than AT&T. Put that thing on Verizon and see how many dropped calls you get.
I don't know about New York, but here in northern VA AT&T is on par with like TMobile in terms of signal strength, but Verizon just seems to have strong signal EVERYWHERE.
I was in a major city this past weekend and had to jump to Edge to get decent data. 3G just wasn?t working. Haven?t had that problem since the first couple weeks of the 3GS launch.
For me Verizon is just not an option because getting data while on a call is very important. I?ll never go with a CDMA-based phone.
I'm actually stuck with Sprint because of that 30 day thing. See, I bought my phone online, and it took a week to get to me. I tried to cancel after 25 days but they said I went over because the 30 day service evaluation period started from the date of purchase!
I was pretty livid at the time, but they hooked me up on a Touch Pro and I've been stealing internet tethering ever since
That is a pretty shitty policy.
I feel bad for the guy in the article and other people who have this problem in select areas of select cities, but not for Teckstud. He was well aware that AT&T had issues in his particular area but decided to sign up with AT&T anyway. I was weary about going back to Cingular as the new AT&T back in 2007 but I had 30 days to test it out and everything was within reason. If it sucked during that first 30 days and I hadn’t canceled my contract with them then I have no right to complain about service.
Dude I could give a rat's *** what you feel about me. I've never complained about my iPhone's service- in fact I've mentioned that I was pleasantly surprised that it's as good as it is. We've had a major upgrade here in August- havent you heard? and I have a 3Gs not a 3G. BTW I love the new MMS feature and speed that made me wait 2 years before I purchased -unlike you and your fellow beta testers.
PS- I'm glad to see you've finally stopped defending AT&T like you had for the last 2 years especially now that it's been proven you don't know what you were talking about.
Physics is physics. Radio signals do not like to go through steel, concrete, tinted windows, passing Semi's, etc.
The two biggest complaint areas are NY and San Fran. I bet if you took any phone, on any network, and drove around town thru hills and valleys (San Fran) and steel/concrete structures (San Fran and NY), you would have the same drop rate.
Physics is physics. Radio signals do not like to go through steel, concrete, tinted windows, passing Semi's, etc.
And reality is reality. Verizon has no such problem here in NY.
The two biggest complaint areas are NY and San Fran. I bet if you took any phone, on any network, and drove around town thru hills and valleys (San Fran) and steel/concrete structures (San Fran and NY), you would have the same drop rate.
Physics is physics. Radio signals do not like to go through steel, concrete, tinted windows, passing Semi's, etc.
Perhaps, but then why aren't the competing phone boards complaining about their own issues? I am sure blackberry, palm and other 3G enabled users would be upset as well.
Perhaps, but then why aren't the competing phone boards complaining about their own issues? I am sure blackberry, palm and other 3G enabled users would be upset as well.
Well, does that mean that these issues are only on the iPhone? Do the Blackberry users, on AT&T, experience the same % of dropped calls? Not sure.