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Thursday, July 26, 2007
It has nearly been a month with my iPhone and I must admit, at times I get home sick. I miss the old neighborhood where everyone came out to play ball and you could hear every word they said. The clarity was great and no matter where you went on the block, you never lost or skipped sight of your pals. But now in my new neighborhood, it just ain’t the same. Some of the kids are rude and just leave in middle of a conversation. Others fade in and out, never repeating what you missed. No, life in the AT&T neighborhood has been tough. Real tough.
I was with Verizon for nearly four years and outside of the hardware selection, I loved my service provider. The Treo and Q are solid smartphones on its network and the RAZR is just a slam dunk for great sound and reception. Plain and simple, I never had issue with Verizon Wireless. Ever. Now let me tell you, my day job takes me all over the place. I’ve been all over Northern California from the Oregon border to the Central Coast. I’ve traveled in L.A., Pasadena, San Diego, through the Southern California desert, and throughout Arizona. I’ve even been through AT&T’s home base of San Antonio, Texas, and even there, Verizon never gave me a brick. I’ve only been one place where I had no signal and that was deep in the eastern hills of Northern California. My wife’s RAZR did get a signal, though.
Now let me talk about my four weeks with AT&T. It is the norm to find myself saying on calls on a major California highway (CA-99), “Could you repeat that again?” due to skips or degrading audio from a poor signal. This is in Stockton area. A large city where you know towers are plenty. Well, maybe for Verizon but apparently not AT&T. I find myself wandering outside of friends houses many times as if I’m searching for exotic coins on their lawn with a metal detector as I randomly bounce in an erratic direction searching for the strongest signal point. You can find me in the most unusual isles of the store due to it being the place for the highest bar reading. In short, I find myself concerned about signal strength on every call I make on my iPhone. I never had this pressure with Verizon.
I love, love, LOVE, my iPhone. It is the best phone I’ve ever had. No issues with what’s on it and even with the short-comings, it’s still one of the best phones I’ve ever had. It just does not disappoint like my XV6700, Treo 700w, Motorola Q, and Samsung 740 did. I tell people all the time, “The iPhone would be perfect if it were on Verizon.” Man, VZW, you guys blew it!
Sure, AT&T isn’t always bad. There are a few areas I have no issue at all. In fact, in my new home in a town of 900 just south of Sacramento, I get better signal with AT&T than I did with Verizon. But at the end of the day, I do find myself wishing I was still on Verizon’s network. I really do miss it.
I haven’t been too many different places with the iPhone yet, but in the coming weeks I will be going to Santa Rosa, Napa, Fairfield, Chico, Half Moon Bay, and some other far out areas and I guess that’s when I’ll get some real testing done on the signal. Then I’ll be able to see if Cingular really did raise the bar before becoming the new AT&T or if it just made me long for Verizon even more.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:13
So AT&T coverage in your areas isn’t as good as Verizon. What does this have to do with the iPhone in particular?
I’d recommend taking it back before your AT&T 30 days is up. Also check with AT&T and find out how to report and get them to improve poor coverage… now that would be something worth writing about!
Just like most of my 9 years with Verizon, there were always better phones I wanted on other carriers, but I never switched because Verizon’s local coverage was better.
But prior to deciding to risk switching networks, I used an AT&T phone in my normal routine, and found that over the years since I’d last checked, their coverage had improved enough that it was similar to Verizon (Pittsburgh-West Virginia panhandle areas, if anyone wants to take my word for it).
I highly recommend, if you’re switching providers, instead of buying an iPhone, buy the cheapest phone ATT sells, for around $50, and their cheapest plan ($39) and test it for a month. If you’re happy with the service coverage, buy an iPhone, add the $20 data plan, and transfer your number. If you aren’t happy with the coverage, cancel under the 30 day trial period.
Spending an extra $90 may seem crazy, but it’s better than getting locked into a 2 year contract with poor service. And if you do stay with them, then it’s a good investment, because you’ll always have that cheap $50 phone as a backup phone (or travel phone if you don’t want to carry your iPhone to some questionable destination or drunken party).
I wish I’d gotten the subsidized cheap phone first, then switched the plan to the iPhone. At least I’d have a backup, and GSM’s sim card swap is far easier compared to VZW’s battery removal, serial number entered on a website method of swapping phones.
July 27th, 2007 at 8:58
I wish Verizon didn’t build out a proprietary network in the 90s, incompatible with the rest of the planet. Bandwidth is bandwidth. Incompatible protocols creates a “fake difference” that only benefits the service providers, not the end users.
Yes, Verizon DID blow it - but they painted themselves in the corner they’re in. If they’d submitted their research to the (Open) GSM board, rather than building a wholly incompatible network to lock in users, EVERYONE’S service would be better, because the bandwidth wouldn’t be divided and GSM itself would be more advanced. Instead, they have to tip-toe around each-other’s patents, re-inventing the wheel whenever they want to improve anything.
We should all go to WiFi or WiMax or ANY faster protocol, as long as it’s a standard that’s controlled by an open group. The analog television spectrum is being proposed for this use. Unfortunately, the “other” choice being pushed through congress is to sell it to Verizon. They disguise the language, calling it an “auction”, but the end result is the same, as everyone else that has expressed interest hasn’t half the money as Verizon.
The underdog is a small company that wants coast-to-coast WiFi, a nationwide HotSpot. Verizon wants to buy it just to stop him.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:20
Two words. “Teeth” “Whiteners”.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:48
There’s certainly a lot of bemoaning out there that Apple should have gone with Verizon over AT&T, but the truth is that if Apple had met Verizon’s terms, the iPhone would be a much different device than it is under AT&T. It seems that Verizon and Apple started butting heads quickly, not over control of distribution and pricing and subsidization and branding and all that, but over what applications would be on the device.
Do you honestly think Verizon would allow iTunes on there and allow you to sideload your music, movies and tv shows from your PC, rather then force you to pay for their V Cast service and receive your media OTA? No chance. YouTube app? Gone. But they’d happily sell you a small selection of YouTube videos through V Cast. The iPhone couldn’t have possibly been a real iPod under Verizon. Yes, you may have had a better network experience, but the hardware would have been severely crippled, so frankly Apple did well to stand their ground on complete control over what apps would be on the device. Verizon, of course, confidently told them to pound sand.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:29
I find AT&T/Cingular’s coverage fine in my area: California.
I use to have Verizon - but it has no rollover, phones can’t be used in Europe and other areas where GSM is standard. Verizon also has a 5 GB/month limit on their “unlimited” internet use. If the iPhone was on Verizon, I would always go over Verizon’s limit by surfing the net and using YouTube, and emailing the 2mp photos. Verizon also cripples the phones so you are forced to use their services.
Yes, there are differences in cell phone coverage. For my car, to help, I use a cell-phone signal amplifier made by Wilson, for those signal challenged areas such as in the mountains. An cell phone repeater can also be used by persons in their homes if needed.
I find Verizon too limited for my purposes than AT&T/Cingular.
I love my iPhone. I think it is the best cell phone I have ever used - particularly combined with the Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headphone.
July 27th, 2007 at 10:30
Maybe with all the new iPhone contracts AT&T will be able to afford to put in more cell towers.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:28
Get an education and you won’t have to do that farm worker migration thing for a living. Reading your posts at times is like having my eyes taped open to watch saturday morning cartoons. Any self proclaimed tech guy who switches carriers without first testing the signal in the areas they frequent is just, well, not very techy.