their service is getting worse by the week... and it is aggravating the **** outta me. i cannot receive calls in my house half the time on my blackberry.

 

I LOVE this...

Anyone with an IQ above 80 who saw an iPhone and it's features could have safely bet that people would be using it for more then making phone calls. AT&T took it on as the EXCLUSIVE carrier in the biggest market in the World, didn't they do any research on the thing? How some of these morons get 7 figure jobs is simply astounding to me.

 

BTW....in Canada the exclusive carrier is Rogers. While their plans are the ****s and the price we pay in Canada for cell phone service (we pay among the highest amount for service in the developed world and have the lowest users per capita in the developed world) the call quality is excellent. The issue, at least in the Greater Vancouver area ids the 3G service. It borders on laughable. VERY slow and spotty, I actually switch to the non 3G signal sometimes and get faster internet. It's pretty funny.

 

AT&T had horrible service WAY before the iphone

 

Leave it to the disingenuous bastards at ATT.

Their exclusive deal with Apple has allowed them over the last 4 years to maintain their artificial market supremacy with an inferior network, using an inferior technology.

Now they will throw the iPhone under the bus, since that exclusivity can't last forever.

 

More reason not to like them.

I wish the iPhone would head on over to Sprint.

 

i have at&t and the iphone...i dont have any complaints about service. i mean my grandmas house which im at right now has bad service but when i had verizon it didnt get good reception here either...some people are to picky or something

 

Call quality is bad when I'm talking to someone with an iPhone.

I have a law firm that just went to them, and every one of them complained about call quality from the jump.

 

The iPhone is probably fine; after all, is anything technologically bad about any of Apple's other products? :wink2:

It's ATT's network technology that is doubtless at fault. They use GSM (TDMA-based) for voice and WCDMA for data; the fact that the iPhone has to work with both technologies - mutually exclusive technologies, mind you - means that compromises had to have been made to accommodate them in one handset.

If the iPhone were available on Sprint, it would only have to work with the CDMA/WCDMA technology they employ. BIG difference, since they work similarly, while GSM and CDMA do NOT.

Here's a breakdown:

http://www.arcx.com/sites/CDMAvsTDMA.htm

That's the best explanation I've heard.

Having one handset that sends/receives in CDMA and the more robust WCDMA (WIDEBAND CDMA - which is what is used for data) is a lot simpler than one which has to use one technology for voice, and another (far more advanced) for data.

But hey, Sprint does have a handset that competes quite nicely with the iPhone.

 

Speaking of horrible networks, in my area anyway.

Agreed, I've had the iPhone and AT&T for 2 years now, no issues at all.

 

Is AT&T still actually AT&T? That company has been bought, sold, merged and bought again so many times I think it may actually be part owner of the Miami Dolphins.

 

Its also comes down to Global coverage (AT&T and T-Mobile using GSM/GPRS) vs. North America (Verizon & Sprint using CDMA).

Wireless coverage is based on towers and roaming partnerships....none of the 4 Major US carriers can cover everyplace. While some users only concern themselves with the location they live/work, the reality is the minute you need to travel overseas, Verizon and Sprint while on faster networks are only paper weights overseas (unless users purchase the SIM chips for use in their Global phones).

AT&T and T-Mobile are SIM chip based devices offering GLOBAL networks though other GSM/GPRS/WCDMA (dumbest naming ever) World Carriers and towers.....Verizon and Sprint are not...they are US Only "for the most part" CDMA (not to be confused with GSM/GPRS based WCDMA) networks.

As far as the iPhone....Apple underestimated (like most phone/OS mfg's and developers) the impact on their Network system (iStore) and the Carrier towers infrastructure (AT&T or any other really).

 

This isn't an issue with AT&T's service, but for those of you that do have the iPhone, do you have problems with the earpiece? If I'm outside or in a crowded area trying to make a phone call, I can't hear the person. I've adjusted the volume controls on the device (turned them all the way up), but its still too soft.

Any suggestions?


UPDATE: It appears as though this isn't an isolated incident.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10115067-233.html

Anyone else having these issues?

 

Yes, GSM is the standard in Europe; and if you traveled there all the time on business, I could see the attraction.

But how many people actually do?

And in the East, CDMA is the standard - so it's not even a world-wide advantage to have a GSM handset.

Even in Europe...with roaming rates at $5-10 a minute, you'd be better off buying a prepaid handset with just enough minutes on it for your trip, at about 1/4 of the cost of roaming with your own US handset.

 

GSM is the Globe (it is a worldwise advantage), Europe, South America, and Asia (depending on Frequency)....CDMA is America for the most part.

And if you Travel, you are better off simply purchasing a local SIM chip from the local GSM provider to keep costs the lowest. Thus you are not roaming!

But you are correct, if you are in America, the faster network is Verizon or Sprint and their CDMA based network.

 

At the beginning of the year it looked like Sprint were the ones about to go down the toilet. ATT is on a one way ticket to being gone and once they lose the exclusivity to the iphone they're finished.

 

I disagree; you go to Japan, the financial hub of the East, for instance, and they're already routinely running 4G - which is definitely not GSM.

Not saying there isn't a GSM network available, but anywhere you go you'll have both. There's no significant global advantage anymore to GSM, not the way it was 10 years ago.

 

Again, Nabo, it comes down to frequency for Asian markets...GSM based frequencies...its why carriers and device mfg promote Quad-band SIM chips, etc.

And very few countries offer 1xRTT or CDMA (Verizon & Sprint).....W-CDMA is GSM!

http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/roaming/index.htm for all the roaming partnerships and coverage (remember GSM is the voice side, and GPRS is the data (along with the 3G (EDGE) and 4G progression and naming changes, aka WCDMA)

http://gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml

The globe is GSM based....not CDMA, W-CDMA yes...but again, thats not CDMA thats GSM, trust me!

 

Never had a problem with AT&T, and just within the last month or so noticed frequent dropped calls. I guess this explains why.