They're not Cumcast.

FlashHarry: the most interesting bit, if you're an AT&T exec:

The iPhone, which nabbed the top-rated cell phone spot, boasted immensely satisified owners, with 98 percent saying they would buy the phone again, despite AT&T's poor service.

that means, as soon as you exclusive agreement is over, a whole shiatload of your customers are jumping ship. so, maybe instead of blaming them for your poor service (iphone users are clogging up the bandwidth!!!!), you should address it with some investment in infrastructure and capacity.

/love my iphone
//hate AT&T

This. I would absolutely love to have an iPhone, but it's just not worth dealing with AT&T. Rumors are currently saying it may pop up on Verizon sometime in 2010...fortunately, I'm due for an upgrade around then.

A couple of things I wonder though...

First, will AT&T really lose all those subscribers? If they go to Verizon, they'll probably have to get a new phone, and even if they don't, while Verizon has better coverage, they really aren't as fast as AT&T in the (rare) areas that AT&T does cover with 3G.

Second, if they do lose them, will AT&T survive the loss? Right now the iPhone is really all that's keeping the company afloat.

/AT&T can DIAF

FlashHarry: /love my iphone
//hate AT&T

This.

Is there any carrier that doesn't suck? Think about it.

I must be the only person in the U.S. who has never had a problem with AT&T apparently. 8 years Cingular/AT&T and I can't remember there ever being an issue. The few times I've had to speak to customer service (upgrading a plan, canceling a phone after drunkenly losing it in bar), they've been nothing but polite and helpful. Coverage in DC is fine, although I've had problems getting a signal when visiting relatives in bumfark Nebraska.

Maybe I'm just lucky. Then again, I'm not an iTard.

I had to pay AT&T a $36 fee in order to sign up for an employer discount.

No, I'm not satisfied.

So the only reason AT&T still has any market share of the wireless business is due to the iPhone? Can't wait to see the fallout when the iPhone goes to Verizon...

AT&T service sucked. I switched to Sprint when I got my BlackBerry a few months ago and the reception areas doubled.

I had issues with Cingular back in the day (dispute over plan changes when in Hawai'i). Switched to Verizon for 5 years. Got crummy cell reception at the office; and hated that I didn't have a roll-over minute plan (though had no issues when dialing from Vancouver, so kudos to you VZW). Also had problems getting coverage in the mountains near Front Royal, VA.

Now I just got an iPhone in October, right after AT&T upgraded all the DC/MD/VA coverage. I get awesome coverage at home, I get awesome coverage in the office, and I get great 3G coverage in the mountains, and I was able to VPN my way into my work e-mail while in a concrete building in Gaithersburg. And I get roll-over minutes, now.

So far, I'm loving AT&T.

/but I hear if you live in San Fran/Bay Area, it sucks.

The only thing good about the iPhone is that it's easy to jailbreak.

Droid is a better phone and doesn't need to be hacked to run multiple applications

\iPhone owner

Not to turn this into a flame war, but I've had Verizon for almost 5 years now. I've been pleased with their service, if not their prices.
Most of my friends with iPhone's have said "if it weren't for the iphone, I'd have left at&t a long time ago"

go figure.

All US carriers suck any more. Use what works best for you price and coverage wise in your area.

Network fanboys are ridiculous

Now how bout some flipping decent rate/plan changes on the phone side AT&T?

slayer199: Is AT&T a branch of Ultrafa+++===CARRIER LOST===+++

You have no idea at all what the symbols around CARRIER LOST mean, do you?

Meh. AT&T works fine for me.

It's funny, I've got Verizon, but many of my friends are AT&T iPhone users - they ALWAYS have service when I don't. We live in the DC metro area, so maybe it's just that AT&T has better coverage here?

Case in point - we're out at a bar in downtown Fairfax, VA. Middle of the suburbs. None of the Verizon phones work, but the AT&T kids have full bars. I also drop service for two-three long stretches of I-66, which is beyond annoying, but my best friend gets solid service with AT&T. Still can't figure it all out.

I really haven't had a problem with ATT, actually like the whole sim card thing.

What I hate is their coverage. I don't live in a huge city but it is a major college town. One would think the coverage in the area would be sufficient.

/looking at no bars
//maybe a bar across the street?

Mugato: As Hooper from Jaws would say, "I got that beat". I worked tech support for AOL in college. I guarantee AT&T isn't run by a bigger collection of farkups than AOL.

Dude, you didn't just set the bar low, you dug a hole to put the bar in.

Sounds about right.

I just spend about 2 hours on the phone with half a dozen different people (and $10 worth of cell phone minutes) trying to get my internet set up at my new house.

And on top of that, they have the audacity to try to sell me things in the middle of not being able to fix my problems. "I see you don't have AT&T home phone, did you know you can add that for $14.99 a month?"

We have had the worst service imaginable.

Their reps (on the phone and in-store) told my wife and I that if we got smartphones w/ the plans (I have a blackberry, she got an iphone) we could use yahoo instant messenger to "text" eachother for free, since it was data. Yeah, right. $600 in text messaging bills later, we got this explanation from a manager at their call center: "Well it is data, but it is a text to. You have to use the "other" yahoo messenger, the one that is not preloaded on your phone. First uninstall the one on your phone, and reinstall this one". After 4 hours of phone calls and finally a threat to call the police for theft (after all, they threatened to shut our phone if we didn't pay the outrageous charges immediately, but wouldn't let us out of the contract even though we were within the timeframe allowed by the contract), they finally admitted to being wrong, and took it back. Then tried to charge us a $20 "service fee" for keeping them on the phone for 4 hours.

Add to that the whole 3g coverage thing... We were told and received a guarantee that there would be 3g service in our town. (Written and printed by the local store manager, it supposedly it was being worked on as we signed) - two months later, no 3g service, and we were told there was never any plan, the local guys made that up to get us to sign, but tough shiat we signed a contract.

I'm getting a new job in the next month, and it pays well enough that we have decided with my first paycheck, we are paying the early termination fee and switching to verizon.

FlashHarry:
/love my iphone
//hate AT&T

it's an amazing piece of technology, but yeah ATT blows.

/posted from my iPhone

HotWingConspiracy [TotalFark] 2009-12-02 11:45:16 AM
They do indeed stink, but my phone works in my apartment, which is more than I can say about Sprint.

Verizon's prices are a joke. I'm stuck for now.

How so? Verizon has similar prices as compared to ATT. Am I missing something?

As soon as my contract is up im leaving att and going with Verizon again. my service has gotten allot worse.

Poll At&T non iphone users vs iphone users
/Way different results

Dr.Knockboots: eddyatwork: Is there any carrier that doesn't suck? Think about it.

I don't have a problem with Sprint's service at all, fast internet, no dropped calls..and works wherever I am in the US.
I do have issues with the phone they sold me on (Samsung Instinct).. and I badger them every week for a new phone, it paid off finally. 6 Months into my contract they said "well, since you're such a loyal customer and pay your bill on time, we'll give you the chance to upgrade your phone".
I'm not, because I'm not paying $279.00 with a $100.00 mail in rebate.. no thanks.

But damn if their plan isn't solid.
$70, for unlimited data, text and calls to cell phones.. 450 any time minutes and free nights and weekends..pretty damn good. I can't think of anyone I call that isn't on a cell phone.

I'm going to hold off another few weeks, see if any xmas deals come out from Sprint. I don't think any other carrier has the same deal as Sprint does, and not close to that price.. anyone know?

Best Buy has the Hero for 99.99. Not sure if they will honor the upgrade promise Sprint told you about.

Can we just say Bloated Bureaucracy that doesn't know it's ass from it face?

rvagirl81: We live in the DC metro area, so maybe it's just that AT&T has better coverage here?

In mid-September AT&T upgraded the DC-metro area (as far north as Rockville/Gaithersburg) and ... I don't know how far west into VA but definitely NoVa.

FlashHarry: the most interesting bit, if you're an AT&T exec:

The iPhone, which nabbed the top-rated cell phone spot, boasted immensely satisified owners, with 98 percent saying they would buy the phone again, despite AT&T's poor service.

that means, as soon as you exclusive agreement is over, a whole shiatload of your customers are jumping ship. so, maybe instead of blaming them for your poor service (iphone users are clogging up the bandwidth!!!!), you should address it with some investment in infrastructure and capacity.

/love my iphone
//hate AT&T

I always thought my iPhone was a terrible phone, but a great PDA. I suppose it could be the network. However, everyone in my family has AT&T and no one but the iPhone users has trouble with the service. When I'm at football games, I can't even get a text message out and my friend is looking at other scores on his LG something-or-other. Anyone know how people who went to T-mobile with their iPhones fared?

Kyndig: This. I would absolutely love to have an iPhone, but it's just not worth dealing with AT&T. Rumors are currently saying it may pop up on Verizon sometime in 2010...fortunately, I'm due for an upgrade around then.

A couple of things I wonder though...

First, will AT&T really lose all those subscribers? If they go to Verizon, they'll probably have to get a new phone, and even if they don't, while Verizon has better coverage, they really aren't as fast as AT&T in the (rare) areas that AT&T does cover with 3G.

Considering Verizon is a CDMA network and planning to move to LTE... there's little advantage in making a custom phone for Verizon customers for a year. Apple wouldn't cover the costs since Japan isn't going to be impressed with the iPhone, and that's pretty much the only other CDMA market.

If Verizon were smart, they would accelerate the LTE deployment and then try and make a deal with Apple.

That said, until Verizon lets a vendor put their own unmodified OS on a phone, and have their own app store... I doubt Apple will go with Verizon.

The most likely non-AT&T network is T-Mobile when you analyze the business. Verizon doesn't want the iPhone (they made this clear... they like to control the software on the phone, Apple will likely never give them that), and likely wouldn't cover the development costs for a CDMA variant.