Dude, I don't get your point about SMS and the web. How do you do both on Verizon. The whole multitasking issue is blown way out of proportion. Most Apps on the Iphone open rapidly and save state when shutdown so for the average end user there are only a couple use cases which really cry for a background demon. Social networking and Navigation are at the top of my list for Apple and Voice with Data for Verizon. As far as it being non-existant that is you buying the marketing bullet. The Iphone OS multitasks. The functionality is not available to 3rd party applications.
Ok- I'm on the internet or let say the Apple Remote app. Bing- up pops a text message and to answewr it I have to back out aswer and - then relaunch whatever app i was in prior and wait for it toregister. You just can't swipe /back swipe from app to app- true multi app functionality.
AT&T has released an iPhone application that gives customers the ability to notify the carrier of their location when they experience poor service.
What's great is that it integrates with Maps and drives you around all the places that people flag as poor service. My commute has increased by 30 minutes, but AT&T ensures the integrity of its coverage along that route. Genius.
Seriously, since a walk around my house pretty much guarantees a drop or failed call (there's actually a spot that says No Service), and driving through my closest major intersection drops a call 50% of the time, I think there are definitely things AT&T need to work on. I'm in one of the wealthiest counties in the US, Apple Store is nearby, plenty of AT&T outlets, so I really can't figure out why the square mile around me is such a disaster area.
I'm definitely getting this app, and I hope something positive comes of this and it isn't just a PR band-aid.
Wow, did someone order a thread extra rare today? Because this one is red all around.
On a serious note, although I am no AT&T fanboy (I do own and use an iPhone) I think it is a step in the right direction for AT&T to take. After being mercilessly trashed by Verizon (rightly so, IMO) it certainly is heartening to see AT&T release this customer feedback app. How much will it help AT&T to improve their network? Who really knows, for sure. There is a side of me that says that AT&T shouldn't have to rely on customers to know where and how their network needs improvement. They should be on-the-ball and have the capabilities and capacity to actively improve their product. On the other hand... if you're looking to improve your service as a company, customer feedback can provide some of the most detail-oriented information you can collect.
...as an afterthought, the cynic in me does feel a bit jaded with the price of the app being "free;" at least with a price, it would make me feel as if AT&T were putting the money toward new towers and network upgrades
It could be an effort to improve the service now that Verizon has embarassed them
This is a fantastic idea!! As a network admin I can understand and appreciate the complexity of these cell networks. People like to bash but most of them don't even have a clue about the number of factors that can effect service & how hard it is to isolate those causes. Letting users report it could become a huge asset to their IT staff, would allow them to really pinpoint troubled areas & that in combination with an overview of the topography can help them see obstructions or even discover atmospheric related issues.
Anyone who wants the network to get better really should participate.
ok so I used Verizon service for years and years and years, 2001-2008 in Colorado, and before that as their Ameritech precursor in Cincinnati from 1997-2000.
What I truly don't understand is all the AT&T hatred on these boards. Verizon is just as bad in other ways.
Granted, AT&T had a bandwidth problem, owing to the far greater than anticipated adoption of the iPhone. They admitted it, and solved it. Honestly? it's not a good problem, but it's probably a better problem to be "loved to death" than abandoned en masse.
Once more for all the people who do not get it: "bandwidth" != "coverage". And most of the time, the people frustrated by "four bars 3G and can't complete a call..." THAT IS A BANDWIDTH ISSUE. AT&T has made serious strides in upgrading their network to address it. That's why they delayed MMS, if you care. Their network was already overloaded on bandwidth and the additional push of MMS would have crippled it without the upgrade.
No one anticipated the insane adoption rates of the iPhone, especially the iPhone 3G. Not Apple, not AT&T, not the user base, not the market analysts, nobody. You don't spend billions on infrastructure upgrades just because you think you might have a better mousetrap - you wait until your market's proven before you take a risk like that. So unfortunately, AT&T simply wasn't prepared for the level of bandwidth saturation that followed on. Honestly, Verizon would be well advised to take this issue under consideration if adoption of the Droid comes anywhere close to what the iPhone was in the past 18 months.
Apart from the fact that coverage != bandwidth, so Verizon is (at best) using a strawman argument and at worst, misleading the customer, the current schpeil from Verizon about "coverage limitations" is also based upon (now) four months' old obsolete information. Since late September 2009, my coverage rates on the Front Range (Colorado) have tripled/quadrupled. They are now BETTER than Verizon service. I've heard from other iPhone users that the same holds true for other dense markets as well.
Add to that, the only thing I see most Verizon users here in this region doing with their phones is making calls, period. I used to subscribe to that model when I had a Verizon phone because voice was the only thing that ever worked properly. Trying to get anything else to work through their HORRIBLE proprietary web interface was full of FAIL and LAME. So hey, if all you do with your mobile is make calls and maybe send an email or two? Get a Blackberry or better yet a cheap mobile, stick with Verizon, don't bother hogging bandwidth with a smartphone you won't use most of the features on, and EVERYONE WINS.
With AT&T I make maybe 1 or 2 voice calls on my iPhone per week, if that. The rest of the time I use it for what it's intended to do: as a handheld computer. I have full 3G coverage in every area where I live and work, and even the few small dead areas that existed last summer are now filled in.
Verizon's data service cost add-on structure, their business model of crippling hardware with their horrible proprietary bloatware, coupled with their endless tacked on user fee structure (my coverage with AT&T is only $5 more per month for a full smartphone than Verizon's was with voice + craptastic "email" service that didn't work, like, ever) and finally, add to that Verizon's Vogon-poetry-bad customer service? No thanks, I'm happier with AT&T.
I really don't know what you people are talking about, I mean unless this forum is held hostage by a bunch of paid Verizon trolls. Bottom line: I dropped as many or more calls with Verizon as I have with AT&T, not that I make many calls these days anyhow. And I get much, much more out of AT&T data service for what I pay for.
I think this app is merely AT&T's way of letting their user base speak to where existing coverage issues lie. How is this a bad thing again? And are you really saying that you want an AT&T engineer following you around inside your house / place of business / daily commute to address this stuff? For better or worse, they're using a modern "wiki" approach to addressing coverage failure - they're harnessing the power of their user base to show them where the real problems lie.
your mileage may vary. And we all know where arguing on the Internet gets us, right?
Cellphone connections from moving people suddenly dropping only to be reconnected later.
AT&T has that information.
They just failed to act on it so far.
To me this app is much more a marketing gag than anything else.
Motto: 'see my dear (eager to leave) customers we are proactively sorting this mess'.
BS
You're quite wrong about AT&T knowing exactly where its calls are dropping. AT&T certainly know which towers are dropping calls, but tower triangulation is imprecise--nowhere near as precise as GPS--and too slow for determining where the handset is located. Triangulation doesn't work at all if only one tower is in range. Even if users are error-prone or noisy in their reports, the combined statistics should be far more accurate and will provide data from the most savvy of AT&T's customers about areas of coverage that matter most to them.
What I truly don't understand is all the AT&T hatred on these boards.
Consider that the iPhone has hurt Verizon hugely and put a black eye on Verizon's management for having declined to support it. Consider that the iPhone experience is so good, it has placed an enormous burden on AT&T's network. Verizon is "lucky" they don't have to service such demand and that they don't have so many millions of customers of broad-ranging technological sophistication demanding perfection from an otherwise glorious device.
Oh, and by the way, I have found AT&T's coverage to be quite good and far better than Verizon's coverage in some important, "out-of-the-way" (major tourist destination) places.
Dude- do you know how many people actually use that data/voice BS that has suddenly become the only lame comeback to counter Verizon ? I would venture next to none. Who cares? I've never had any desire to interrupt a call and browse the web and I doubt most people do as well. Besides that and playing music in the background( a nice feature but hardly a real app ) why can't I browse the web and answer my text messages simulaneously. Why? Where the real multi app functionality? We'll probably get it in June to combat Plam , google, etc. but for now it's virtually non-existent. Your pom pom chearleading is what's really juvenile not my stating what should be included on my device. And where is tethering for that matter?
Naturally you change the subject about your constant whining....because when someone calls you on it, you pretend like no one addressed it...selective amnesia i suppose
And once again you uniformed opinion is wrong, I personally use the simultaneous voice/data several times a day. I usually am asked a question or two while away from a computer whilst talking on my phone...so hyperbolic rhetoric is once again wrong as usual....
because none is wrong, I can say positively that YOU ARE WRONG. and what they hell. answer text messages and browse the web? right...that sounds like an impossible act unless you had two devices...while TALKING ON THE PHONE AND SURFING FOR DIRECTIONS TO GIVE SOMEONE WHILE talking is far more appropriate.
Naturally you change the subject about your constant whining....because when someone calls you on it, you pretend like no one addressed it...selective amnesia i suppose
And once again you uniformed opinion is wrong, I personally use the simultaneous voice/data several times a day. I usually am asked a question or two while away from a computer whilst talking on my phone...so hyperbolic rhetoric is once again wrong as usual....
because none is wrong, I can say positively that YOU ARE WRONG. and what they hell. answer text messages and browse the web? right...that sounds like an impossible act unless you had two devices...while TALKING ON THE PHONE AND SURFING FOR DIRECTIONS TO GIVE SOMEONE WHILE talking is far more appropriate.
So just because you use means everyone uses it. Like how often does that scenario ever occur unless you work in a toll booth? DUde - give it up!
But, for the sake of information, because I needed a travel data connection, I purchased both an AT&T data card and a Sprint USB card and tried them out as I traveled. (taking advantage of the 30 day return window)
The sprint card worked perfect. Most places were plenty fast, sometimes I would need to sit at the lounge across from the gate to get a better signal.
The AT&T card crashed my mac several time (grey screen of death I guess I would call it), and the data connection was just not there most of the time.
So based on this, I never pursued the tether option. I suspect that from the phone, it would be much more stable, but probably not as fast as I have now.
You're quite wrong about AT&T knowing exactly where its calls are dropping. AT&T certainly know which towers are dropping calls, but tower triangulation is imprecise--nowhere near as precise as GPS--and too slow for determining where the handset is located.
I understand what you're saying.
Yet:
1.) I'm talking about moving customers that experience call drops or service degradations.
The movement data in itself will provide enough additional information to greatly help triangulation.
And with the phone's ID AT&T knows exactly which customer moved from where to where.
If AT&T sees statistically a lot of calls dropped and regained by people moving from very specific A to B areas, it should be easy enough for their technicians to follow this up pinpointing the exact issue.
It can be done from the data AT&T has had available for years.
2.) While it is certainly nice to be able to provide feedback to AT&T, it is still up to AT&T to provide the service in the first place.
Sure, 100% coverage is impossible, but I'd say 99% coverage should be expected within major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles or New York. But I am not seeing that. Not even close.
3.) People also seem to forget too quickly that AT&T in 2008 alone made 10+ billion in profits.
How about not milking the customers and paying huge dividends to the share holders - and for once invest this money in a better coverage and bandwidth infrastructure?
AT&T had the time and the money.
Yet this whole huge profits on one side vs. not great service on the other smells too much like 'let's see with what we can get away with...' than actual proactive customer service.
Even though AT&T had complaints about poor coverage and bandwidth for years, and even though they made billions in profitr, it never occurred to them to create a coverage feedback app...
Now suddenly they do?
It really took Verizon to get AT&T moving.
And whatever AT&T will say, for years they had enough money and time to prove their worth. They didn't.
They'd rather tried to get away with as much as possible.
Shame on you AT&T!
But you''re not fooling anyone now.
Can't wait for the day the iPhone becomes available on other carriers!
Gee the comments on this article showed many people have no clue how the iphone works, to think just because you do not have a cell signal the phone no longer works or can determine and store its present location.... come on people...
Next for those who do not think the cell phone company do not test their next work... They do, the problem is VZ and A&T no longer own most of the cell sites, most of the towers are owned by private companies and VZ and AT&T rent time and space on those towers. The cell town owners are responsible for the maintenance and up keep of those towers many time.
Also, before a tower is put in they have simulation software that looks at the surround terrain and makes predictions on where the best location is for the town. on top of the highest hill is not always best since the next hill over can cause a shadow. However, tower placement is not always at the best location for various reason, mostly because the property owner will not allow it or local zoning forces them to be put at another location.
When those towers are built there is a bunch of engineers who in fact drive around the town location and map the signal strength and then report this back to AT&T and VZ. The problem is as someone pointed out, if certain things in the area change they do not go out and map it all again. The best signal maps I have seen was on T-Mobile, they use to show the signal strength at various locations, and for the most part if was right on.
A very good friend of mine owns a business who works with cell towers owners and AT&T and VZ to decide on best placement and then goes out and maps signal strength once installation is done.
This is great idea form AT&T since they can get real feedback form consumers on poor service location and then they can go out to owners of those towers and force them to make the necessary adjustments or if need be put in extra equipment.
Seems like this app would be welcomed by the complainers... You guys can cry to AT&T instead of AI from now on. And hopefully AT&T won't put you on ignore like I have.
Umm... Am I the only one who noticed that in the example of a customer report given, the map shows the problem happening in the middle of a highway, with the report made for "current location". Also clearly shown is a warning NOT to report problems while driving. But ... looks like that's exactly what this customer did. LOL
Both my girlfriend and I have iPhones. Only one of us can be driving the car at a time!
Seems like this app would be welcomed by the complainers... You guys can cry to AT&T instead of AI from now on. And hopefully AT&T won't put you on ignore like I have.
The problem with Teckstud is that constructive criticism or productive efforts mean nothing to him. He just wants to complain about everything. Even if AT&T’s network was perfect tomorrow in every possible way I am sure the best we’d hear from him is, “it’s a little too late” and “took them long enough”. I guess some people just like to be miserable.
Comments
Dude, I don't get your point about SMS and the web. How do you do both on Verizon. The whole multitasking issue is blown way out of proportion. Most Apps on the Iphone open rapidly and save state when shutdown so for the average end user there are only a couple use cases which really cry for a background demon. Social networking and Navigation are at the top of my list for Apple and Voice with Data for Verizon. As far as it being non-existant that is you buying the marketing bullet. The Iphone OS multitasks. The functionality is not available to 3rd party applications.
Ok- I'm on the internet or let say the Apple Remote app. Bing- up pops a text message and to answewr it I have to back out aswer and - then relaunch whatever app i was in prior and wait for it toregister. You just can't swipe /back swipe from app to app- true multi app functionality.
AT&T has released an iPhone application that gives customers the ability to notify the carrier of their location when they experience poor service.
What's great is that it integrates with Maps and drives you around all the places that people flag as poor service. My commute has increased by 30 minutes, but AT&T ensures the integrity of its coverage along that route. Genius.
Seriously, since a walk around my house pretty much guarantees a drop or failed call (there's actually a spot that says No Service), and driving through my closest major intersection drops a call 50% of the time, I think there are definitely things AT&T need to work on. I'm in one of the wealthiest counties in the US, Apple Store is nearby, plenty of AT&T outlets, so I really can't figure out why the square mile around me is such a disaster area.
I'm definitely getting this app, and I hope something positive comes of this and it isn't just a PR band-aid.
But then how are they going to get the location that is lacking in coverage?
GPS Maybe?
On a serious note, although I am no AT&T fanboy (I do own and use an iPhone) I think it is a step in the right direction for AT&T to take. After being mercilessly trashed by Verizon (rightly so, IMO) it certainly is heartening to see AT&T release this customer feedback app. How much will it help AT&T to improve their network? Who really knows, for sure. There is a side of me that says that AT&T shouldn't have to rely on customers to know where and how their network needs improvement. They should be on-the-ball and have the capabilities and capacity to actively improve their product. On the other hand... if you're looking to improve your service as a company, customer feedback can provide some of the most detail-oriented information you can collect.
...as an afterthought, the cynic in me does feel a bit jaded with the price of the app being "free;" at least with a price, it would make me feel as if AT&T were putting the money toward new towers and network upgrades
Can you hear me now?
beat me to it!
It could be an effort to improve the service now that Verizon has embarassed them
This is a fantastic idea!! As a network admin I can understand and appreciate the complexity of these cell networks. People like to bash but most of them don't even have a clue about the number of factors that can effect service & how hard it is to isolate those causes. Letting users report it could become a huge asset to their IT staff, would allow them to really pinpoint troubled areas & that in combination with an overview of the topography can help them see obstructions or even discover atmospheric related issues.
Anyone who wants the network to get better really should participate.
What I truly don't understand is all the AT&T hatred on these boards. Verizon is just as bad in other ways.
Granted, AT&T had a bandwidth problem, owing to the far greater than anticipated adoption of the iPhone. They admitted it, and solved it. Honestly? it's not a good problem, but it's probably a better problem to be "loved to death" than abandoned en masse.
Once more for all the people who do not get it: "bandwidth" != "coverage". And most of the time, the people frustrated by "four bars 3G and can't complete a call..." THAT IS A BANDWIDTH ISSUE. AT&T has made serious strides in upgrading their network to address it. That's why they delayed MMS, if you care. Their network was already overloaded on bandwidth and the additional push of MMS would have crippled it without the upgrade.
No one anticipated the insane adoption rates of the iPhone, especially the iPhone 3G. Not Apple, not AT&T, not the user base, not the market analysts, nobody. You don't spend billions on infrastructure upgrades just because you think you might have a better mousetrap - you wait until your market's proven before you take a risk like that. So unfortunately, AT&T simply wasn't prepared for the level of bandwidth saturation that followed on. Honestly, Verizon would be well advised to take this issue under consideration if adoption of the Droid comes anywhere close to what the iPhone was in the past 18 months.
Apart from the fact that coverage != bandwidth, so Verizon is (at best) using a strawman argument and at worst, misleading the customer, the current schpeil from Verizon about "coverage limitations" is also based upon (now) four months' old obsolete information. Since late September 2009, my coverage rates on the Front Range (Colorado) have tripled/quadrupled. They are now BETTER than Verizon service. I've heard from other iPhone users that the same holds true for other dense markets as well.
Add to that, the only thing I see most Verizon users here in this region doing with their phones is making calls, period. I used to subscribe to that model when I had a Verizon phone because voice was the only thing that ever worked properly. Trying to get anything else to work through their HORRIBLE proprietary web interface was full of FAIL and LAME. So hey, if all you do with your mobile is make calls and maybe send an email or two? Get a Blackberry or better yet a cheap mobile, stick with Verizon, don't bother hogging bandwidth with a smartphone you won't use most of the features on, and EVERYONE WINS.
With AT&T I make maybe 1 or 2 voice calls on my iPhone per week, if that. The rest of the time I use it for what it's intended to do: as a handheld computer. I have full 3G coverage in every area where I live and work, and even the few small dead areas that existed last summer are now filled in.
Verizon's data service cost add-on structure, their business model of crippling hardware with their horrible proprietary bloatware, coupled with their endless tacked on user fee structure (my coverage with AT&T is only $5 more per month for a full smartphone than Verizon's was with voice + craptastic "email" service that didn't work, like, ever) and finally, add to that Verizon's Vogon-poetry-bad customer service? No thanks, I'm happier with AT&T.
I really don't know what you people are talking about, I mean unless this forum is held hostage by a bunch of paid Verizon trolls. Bottom line: I dropped as many or more calls with Verizon as I have with AT&T, not that I make many calls these days anyhow. And I get much, much more out of AT&T data service for what I pay for.
I think this app is merely AT&T's way of letting their user base speak to where existing coverage issues lie. How is this a bad thing again? And are you really saying that you want an AT&T engineer following you around inside your house / place of business / daily commute to address this stuff? For better or worse, they're using a modern "wiki" approach to addressing coverage failure - they're harnessing the power of their user base to show them where the real problems lie.
your mileage may vary. And we all know where arguing on the Internet gets us, right?
AT&T has Very Good reception for me, No Dropped calls , and signal is great.
AT&T knows exactly where its calls are dropping.
Cellphone connections from moving people suddenly dropping only to be reconnected later.
AT&T has that information.
They just failed to act on it so far.
To me this app is much more a marketing gag than anything else.
Motto: 'see my dear (eager to leave) customers we are proactively sorting this mess'.
BS
You're quite wrong about AT&T knowing exactly where its calls are dropping. AT&T certainly know which towers are dropping calls, but tower triangulation is imprecise--nowhere near as precise as GPS--and too slow for determining where the handset is located. Triangulation doesn't work at all if only one tower is in range. Even if users are error-prone or noisy in their reports, the combined statistics should be far more accurate and will provide data from the most savvy of AT&T's customers about areas of coverage that matter most to them.
What I truly don't understand is all the AT&T hatred on these boards.
Consider that the iPhone has hurt Verizon hugely and put a black eye on Verizon's management for having declined to support it. Consider that the iPhone experience is so good, it has placed an enormous burden on AT&T's network. Verizon is "lucky"
Oh, and by the way, I have found AT&T's coverage to be quite good and far better than Verizon's coverage in some important, "out-of-the-way" (major tourist destination) places.
Dude- do you know how many people actually use that data/voice BS that has suddenly become the only lame comeback to counter Verizon ? I would venture next to none. Who cares? I've never had any desire to interrupt a call and browse the web and I doubt most people do as well. Besides that and playing music in the background( a nice feature but hardly a real app ) why can't I browse the web and answer my text messages simulaneously. Why? Where the real multi app functionality? We'll probably get it in June to combat Plam , google, etc. but for now it's virtually non-existent. Your pom pom chearleading is what's really juvenile not my stating what should be included on my device. And where is tethering for that matter?
Naturally you change the subject about your constant whining....because when someone calls you on it, you pretend like no one addressed it...selective amnesia i suppose
And once again you uniformed opinion is wrong, I personally use the simultaneous voice/data several times a day. I usually am asked a question or two while away from a computer whilst talking on my phone...so hyperbolic rhetoric is once again wrong as usual....
because none is wrong, I can say positively that YOU ARE WRONG. and what they hell. answer text messages and browse the web? right...that sounds like an impossible act unless you had two devices...while TALKING ON THE PHONE AND SURFING FOR DIRECTIONS TO GIVE SOMEONE WHILE talking is far more appropriate.
Naturally you change the subject about your constant whining....because when someone calls you on it, you pretend like no one addressed it...selective amnesia i suppose
And once again you uniformed opinion is wrong, I personally use the simultaneous voice/data several times a day. I usually am asked a question or two while away from a computer whilst talking on my phone...so hyperbolic rhetoric is once again wrong as usual....
because none is wrong, I can say positively that YOU ARE WRONG. and what they hell. answer text messages and browse the web? right...that sounds like an impossible act unless you had two devices...while TALKING ON THE PHONE AND SURFING FOR DIRECTIONS TO GIVE SOMEONE WHILE talking is far more appropriate.
So just because you use means everyone uses it. Like how often does that scenario ever occur unless you work in a toll booth? DUde - give it up!
1. Most of Malibu
2. Most of Pacific Palisades
3. All of Brentwood when 3/4 mile north of Sunset Boulevard
4. All of Bel Air when 3/4 miles north of Sunset Boulevard
5. All of Beverly Hills 3/4 miles north of Sunset Boulevard
6. Parts of the Hollywood Hills
When does tethering arrive?
Not sure what that means in this context.
But, for the sake of information, because I needed a travel data connection, I purchased both an AT&T data card and a Sprint USB card and tried them out as I traveled. (taking advantage of the 30 day return window)
The sprint card worked perfect. Most places were plenty fast, sometimes I would need to sit at the lounge across from the gate to get a better signal.
The AT&T card crashed my mac several time (grey screen of death I guess I would call it), and the data connection was just not there most of the time.
So based on this, I never pursued the tether option. I suspect that from the phone, it would be much more stable, but probably not as fast as I have now.
You're quite wrong about AT&T knowing exactly where its calls are dropping. AT&T certainly know which towers are dropping calls, but tower triangulation is imprecise--nowhere near as precise as GPS--and too slow for determining where the handset is located.
I understand what you're saying.
Yet:
1.) I'm talking about moving customers that experience call drops or service degradations.
The movement data in itself will provide enough additional information to greatly help triangulation.
And with the phone's ID AT&T knows exactly which customer moved from where to where.
If AT&T sees statistically a lot of calls dropped and regained by people moving from very specific A to B areas, it should be easy enough for their technicians to follow this up pinpointing the exact issue.
It can be done from the data AT&T has had available for years.
2.) While it is certainly nice to be able to provide feedback to AT&T, it is still up to AT&T to provide the service in the first place.
Sure, 100% coverage is impossible, but I'd say 99% coverage should be expected within major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles or New York. But I am not seeing that. Not even close.
3.) People also seem to forget too quickly that AT&T in 2008 alone made 10+ billion in profits.
http://www.att.com/Common/about_us/a..._Narrative.pdf
How about not milking the customers and paying huge dividends to the share holders - and for once invest this money in a better coverage and bandwidth infrastructure?
AT&T had the time and the money.
Yet this whole huge profits on one side vs. not great service on the other smells too much like 'let's see with what we can get away with...' than actual proactive customer service.
Even though AT&T had complaints about poor coverage and bandwidth for years, and even though they made billions in profitr, it never occurred to them to create a coverage feedback app...
Now suddenly they do?
It really took Verizon to get AT&T moving.
And whatever AT&T will say, for years they had enough money and time to prove their worth. They didn't.
They'd rather tried to get away with as much as possible.
Shame on you AT&T!
But you''re not fooling anyone now.
Can't wait for the day the iPhone becomes available on other carriers!
Next for those who do not think the cell phone company do not test their next work... They do, the problem is VZ and A&T no longer own most of the cell sites, most of the towers are owned by private companies and VZ and AT&T rent time and space on those towers. The cell town owners are responsible for the maintenance and up keep of those towers many time.
Also, before a tower is put in they have simulation software that looks at the surround terrain and makes predictions on where the best location is for the town. on top of the highest hill is not always best since the next hill over can cause a shadow. However, tower placement is not always at the best location for various reason, mostly because the property owner will not allow it or local zoning forces them to be put at another location.
When those towers are built there is a bunch of engineers who in fact drive around the town location and map the signal strength and then report this back to AT&T and VZ. The problem is as someone pointed out, if certain things in the area change they do not go out and map it all again. The best signal maps I have seen was on T-Mobile, they use to show the signal strength at various locations, and for the most part if was right on.
A very good friend of mine owns a business who works with cell towers owners and AT&T and VZ to decide on best placement and then goes out and maps signal strength once installation is done.
This is great idea form AT&T since they can get real feedback form consumers on poor service location and then they can go out to owners of those towers and force them to make the necessary adjustments or if need be put in extra equipment.
... btw, what happened to Teckstud?
Umm... Am I the only one who noticed that in the example of a customer report given, the map shows the problem happening in the middle of a highway, with the report made for "current location". Also clearly shown is a warning NOT to report problems while driving. But ... looks like that's exactly what this customer did. LOL
Both my girlfriend and I have iPhones. Only one of us can be driving the car at a time!
Seems like this app would be welcomed by the complainers... You guys can cry to AT&T instead of AI from now on. And hopefully AT&T won't put you on ignore like I have.
The problem with Teckstud is that constructive criticism or productive efforts mean nothing to him. He just wants to complain about everything. Even if AT&T’s network was perfect tomorrow in every possible way I am sure the best we’d hear from him is, “it’s a little too late” and “took them long enough”. I guess some people just like to be miserable.