Category Archives: AT&T

Verizon : ready for the iphone!

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Verizon says they’re ready for the iPhone, and I gotta tell you, it can’t come soon enough!

In an article on NeoWin, “According to BusinessWeek, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer, Anthony Melone, said that in the event that AT&T’s exclusivity deal is broken, Verizon is ready for the iPhone. Melone confirms that Verizon has been beefing up its network to prepare for the possibility of adding the world’s most popular smartphone to their lineup. “We have put things in place already… We are prepared to support that traffic.” Melone feels that Verizon’s network and equipment would do a much better job of handling the heavy traffic load produced by the iPhone, stating, “Absolutely, I think we could handle it.””

YES!!!

In addition, Verizon is serious about keeping iPhone users happy. They’re deploying 100 trucks for their technicians to… “literally drive on roads throughout the country testing the service of their own devices as well as devices of their rivals… If techies find an area that has weak service, the company can target more investment to improve the quality of the phone call or the data download.”

As soon as the day comes, I’m bailing on AT&T. I’m almost free of their two years of crap service, and it can’t come soon enough!! Since AT&T hasn’t bothered to make any serious upgrades to their rickety network for the iPhone until late this year, the best way I can think of to say “thanks” for two years of horrible service is with my pocketbook. As soon as my contract is up with AT&T, I’m going to stay month to month until the Verizon deal is announced. Then I’m jumping to Verizon as soon as I can.

I bet we will get to watch AT&T’s bottom line sink like a brick in concrete shoes next year when all the iPhone users finally get a chance to abandon the AT&T ship. And I also predict we will get to watch some very long-overdue AT&T executive heads roll soon after.

Here’s the link to the NeoWin article.

And a link to the Business Week article.

AT&T planning on going after those “unlimited” iPhone users

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Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s wireless division, said AT&T is planning on going after the “small percentages” of iPhone users who have the nerve to steam video and music over their piss-poor network to “reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites.”

Quoting from an article on Cnet, Ralph says… “what’s driving usage on the network and driving these high usage situations are things like video, or audio that keeps playing around the clock… And so we’ve got to get to those customers and have them recognize that they need to change their pattern, or there will be other things that they are going to have to do to reduce their usage.”

In other words, instead of getting up off their fat greedy butts and actually going out and spending money to improve their busted and topped-off network, they’re going to take the easy way out and charge their customers more. Those same customers who signed up on their unlimited plan because they apparently misunderstood the word “unlimited” and are actually using their iPhones in an unlimited manner!

The Cnet article also says that all the “unlimited” iPhone use is… “clogging the network, causing many iPhone users, especially in large cities such as New York and San Francisco, to experience dropped calls, slow 3G service, and issues connecting to the network at all.”

Small wonder AT&T was named in Consumer Reports magazine as “the worst carrier in the United States.” Far below Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

Hey AT&T! Instead of going after us “unlimited” users who like to use our iPhones as they were designed, how about fixing that no good network you have! Then maybe some of your customers won’t leave you when their contract is up and jump to Verizon when they get the iPhone in the third quarter of 2010!

As Craig Ferguson would say… “Ah! ha! ha! I made myself laugh.”

Hey Apple. If you’re paying attention, you really need to put the screws to AT&T for this. When Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs for AT&T says in a published article that “we will have to start telling wireless customers that they can’t do all the things they want to do with their devices”, you guys need to find a better partner to dance with.

Here’s the link to the CNET article

And here’s the link to the Consumer Reports article

iPhone vs Android : a close race except in one important area

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In case I haven’t mentioned it in the last two posts, I think AT&T’s cell phone service sucks. And now an article on Consumer Reports confirms it. When they compared the Andriod phone against the iPhone, the iPhone won in most everything… except in the all important phone network category. No surprise there. AT&T’s busted-ass broke-down no good network is so bad, even Consumer Reports laughs at it!

And what damn good is any phone without a reliable network? It’s like saying a car has a great interior, a smokin’ engine, carbon fiber detailing, top of the line sound and premium suspension system, buuuuut you can’t drive it on 90% of the roads out there.

On a related note, I’m loving the new Verizon ads. This one especially…

Apple to launch Verizon iPhone q3 2010

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Glory hallelujah! In a report posted on Apple Insider, Apple is preparing to move the iPhone to Verizon around July of 2010, as well as make the iPhone an official “global” phone by adding CDMA2000 network compatibility.

Buh bye AT&T!

For those of you who have contracts with AT&T that expire soon, DO NOT renew your contract with AT&T when your current contract ends. Just keep going month to month until July-ish of 2010. Then you can jump to Verizon free and clear when the new service (and probably some new iPhones) come out around then. You should be able to keep your iPhone and all the apps you have on it intact during the transition. Plus by staying on month to month, you won’t get popped with a $250-ish breach of contract fee from AT&T.

All I can say is that it’s about damn time. In case I haven’t mentioned it in the last two posts, I think AT&T cellular service sucks ass. I’ve never had such pathetic phone service as I have with the iPhone. Constantly dropped calls. Robotic sounding voices. Horrible coverage (1 bar most of the time. 2 bars once every blue moon). Piss poor 3g. And even a CEO who admits his company’s busted ass network can’t keep up with all the iPhone users.

The article says AT&T has… “a year to improve its 3G network and roll out the 3G MicroCell before being hit with mass defections from iPhone users irate over service issues.” Yeah. Right. AT&T spending money to improve their customer’s service? When they had all this time to get it right? That’s not gonna happen.

At least AT&T’s “busy network” problems will disappear when every iPhone subscriber jumps to Verizon. But I’m sure all the money AT&T saved by not upgrading the network to handle iPhone traffic will easily offset any losses in q3 2010. What’s the iPhone income for AT&T? 1%? 5%? It’s gotta be something ridiculously low for the service to be this bad.

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

AT&T now whining that Verizon plays too rough!

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Why AT&T sucks - Exhibit #4328

Why AT&T sucks - Exhibit #4328

AT&T, the juggernaut with such dainty feet of clay, just filed a lawsuit against Verizon. For having the nerve to show their craptacular coverage map in comparison to theirs. On the article on Engadget, “AT&T thinks Verizon is trying to fool viewers into thinking that they can’t use any AT&T phone services outside of 3G coverage areas by showing two essentially different maps. Since Verizon’s entire network is 3G, the gaps in the red map are actual service gaps — but Verizon doesn’t show that the gaps on the AT&T map might be covered by AT&T’s huge 2G network.”

Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Whoo!! That was a good one!

AT&T is not arguing the fact that their 3g service isn’t even in the same ballpark as Verizon’s network. Just that you “might” be able to downshift to 2g, and you “might” still be able to make phone calls outside their mapped area. And that Verizon “might” be confusing some people about that very important piece of trivia.

Way to solve the wrong problem, AT&T!

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I know firsthand that AT&T’s cellular service sucks. All the calls I make or receive on my iPhone drop 3/4 of the time. No warning, no nothing. Just three beeps and it’s gone. In addition, I’ll have my phone right next to me at home or at work, and suddenly five missed calls show up – no ringing incoming call notification at all. SMS messages sometimes don’t show up until after a reboot. And when AT&T’s rotten service does work, about 1/4 of the time I get a choppy connection with the other person dropping in and out of the call or otherwise sounding like a robot with a broken voicebox.

My wife and I got an iPhone the same day. We both have the same problems. We’ve switched SIM cards. Updated to the latest and greatest OS. Even tested the phones in other cities we traveled to across the US. It’s the same horrendous service everywhere we go.

If Verizon wants to fight AT&T on this, I think the best way to do it would be to just show how people with an iPhone have been putting up with the trash AT&T calls a cellular network. Show in a court how the AT&T signal drops. Put a video up of how the iPhone will constantly fail when simply driving across any major city. Heck, put up the quote from AT&T CEO John Donovan himself that AT&T can’t handle all the iPhone traffic! (Related links Here and Here and Here too.) And then directly compare AT&T’s service with any of their own plans.

The truth hurts! Use it!

As of today, I’ve successfully managed to keep over 20 people (and their families) away from AT&T this year. And as soon as my contract is up with AT&T early next year, I’m jumping to Verizon. To the new Andriod to be exact. Check it out here if you haven’t seen the droid site yet. It kicks AT&T’s sorry butt all over the place.

Why stay with a company that promises they will get better any minute now? I’m paying for good service right now. If it wasn’t for this contract, I would have dropped this pile of junk within two months of owning it.

And Apple? If you want to save the iPhone? And those million billion apps you have out there? Drop AT&T. You’re going to get killed by association.