Actually, this post is about my newly acquired iPhone 4. Got it last week and it only took 2 business days for AT&T (aka Death Star) to ship it to me. Pretty quick considering they were warning about 8-10 days back-orders.
After a long deliberation1, I finally pulled the trigger and made the switch from expensive Verizon (without the cool toys), to the nickle & dime AT&T (with the cool toys). While in China, I found my iPhone 3G to be very useful and it’s advantageous to get a GSM phone. Plus, I’ve always enjoyed using the iPhone, ever since I got it in December 2009.
My only concern now is the AT&T service.
I got a good start with AT&T Premiere Support, as they were able to sort out the changes in my orders and plan. They were able to fix everything on the phone, including transferring my Verizon phone numbers.
I haven’t received my monthly bill yet, but the AT&T Premiere Store estimated it to be about $80/month, including discounts. I also got the Personal Data plan that has a 2 Gigs/month limit for about $20. I wish they still have the unlimited plan, because watching my data usage is a pain. I’m not a heavy wireless internet user, but I do want to enjoy listening to Pandora App for an hour each day, without being afraid of overage charges. However, I think I won’t reach that limit considering it takes 20 Mb each day to listen to Pandora in my car.
Speaking of 3G coverage, while listening to Pandora, I discovered a black hole in AT&T’s data network. On the North East side Jamboree and Portola, near the Fire Authority, wireless data coverage was simply non-existent. Pandora would just stop playing. It wasn’t until I turned the corner, and went past the 261 Toll road ramp, that it would resume. AT&T really needs to plant more cell towers in the area to fill in the gap. I also wonder if it’s the city’s fault? Case in point, the city of San Francisco takes 3 years to approve new cell tower!
The grumblings continued with co-workers complaining about dropped calls. I got a couple of dropped calls while driving on 241 Toll Road, south of 133 Toll, but that was expected due to the hilly terrains and lack of cell towers. Anyway, I don’t make that many voice calls. The phone calls I make are with my wife, a free mobile-to-mobile calls, and the connection is mostly clear and stable.
So with AT&T, I’m not too proud of the technological terror they’ve constructed. They definitely have the money and demand to improve the network. Maybe what they need is an act of Congress, which I’ll doubt it’ll happen since they have enough lobbyists in Washington to keep the company out of trouble.
- Between me, myself, and I. [↩]
Tags: iphone, mobile phone, wireless
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hey Rudy,
Another black hole in AT&T’s coverage is my house! I was happy when I was with Cingular, but then AT&T bought them. A few weeks later my phone literally stopped working at home (the same thing happens to friend who have AT&T that visit us). I spoke with AT&T repeated for weeks, but to no avail. I almost think that they thought I was imaging things… anyway, I changed to T-Mobile and their coverage is great. So as long as I live here, AT&T is not an option. 🙁
Have fun with your new toy! Steve
Hey Steve,
My experience is somewhat the opposite: I had a bad experience with Cingular when I lived in Sunnyvale, California back in the late 90’s. So when AT&T bought it, I naturally assumed the service would continue to be terrible. Looks like I’m partially correct: service is not that much better.
But then again, the battle now is on Cellular Data. I hardly use voice calls unless I have to. I mainly use SMS or Facebook/Twitter/Email. So whoever can give me the best price for 3G, I’ll go with them. Right now, it’s AT&T.
Too funny. That is exactly why I don’t have AT&T and have been stuck on Verizon which as you said is expensive and no bells and whistles.