AT&T drops the ball on iPhone service at SXSW

Update at 10:20 p.m. PDT, Sunday, March 15: Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that AT&T will add wireless capacity in downtown Austin to deal with the "unprecedented" demand.

AUSTIN, Texas--If there's one thing that's been made clear after two full days of the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference here, it's that AT&T clearly didn't get its network up to speed for the throngs toting iPhones around.

You could hear it being talked about everywhere: it was nearly impossible to call anyone inside the Austin Convention Center because the cell service was so poor. And because it seemed like nearly everyone at the conference has an iPhone, that meant that very few phone calls were going through.

Oddly, that didn't mean people inside the convention center weren't able to Twitter or IM or use the Web on their iPhones, or their iPod Touches. That's because SXSW really got its act together this year when it came to Wi-Fi. I've been to a ton of technology conferences over the last few years, including three previous SXSW gatherings, and I've never seen a stronger, more consistent Wi-Fi setup.

Even in Saturday's SXSW Interactive festival keynote address by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, with about 2,000 people in the room, the Wi-Fi service was strong. Very impressive.

But AT&T's network has not been nearly as impressive, and that's a shame. I suppose there's a reason, but it would seem logical that the company could have put in the effort to ensure that the thousands and thousands of people at SXSW--which may constitute the highest concentration of iPhone users anywhere on Earth--could get good cell service. Alas, that wasn't the case.

Still, people seemed to be able to communicate with their friends anyway. Among what is probably the most accomplished group of interactive media professionals in the world, that shouldn't be surprising. But the grumbling about AT&T could still be heard everywhere you went.

[mrcjacobs]

You're kidding right? I'm no fan of AT&T but it's a bit much to expect a company to roll out more capacity or repeaters every time some group converges for a large conference somewhere. Sure, it would be great for the attendees but imagine the headache for the service provider. And people would still complain anyway if the slightest thing went wrong.

[jefflac]

You mean like this?

http://tinyurl.com/bfpwnx
http://tinyurl.com/bq6okj
http://tinyurl.com/bdjvjd

It's done all the time, at least by Verizon Wireless. I think AT&T can do the same thing. It looks like someone at AT&T simply dropped the ball on SXSW.

[RoundSparrow]

Clearly, you are overlooking:

Cell on Wheels concept
The long-standing issue with Austin and AT&T overload during ACL, 4th of July, SXSW 2008 in Austin. I personally have confirmed it with other local users on Twitter when entire hours of outages near Barton Springs to 12th street area
The insanely expensive monthly charges for the iPhone plans that are exclusive to AT&T and bind you to a 2 year contract. It isn't lack of income from these users that is the problem.
The extremely long sales lines for the iPhone that went on for months; it is clear that Austin has a huge number of iPhone users.
The modern customer service concept called "honesty'. Come out and publically admit to the widespread Austin outages whenever more than 50,000 iPhone users are downtown.

Where's the infrastructure beef AT&T? Sure you will improve the network 2 years AFTER you have collected millions and millions of $ from iPhone users in Austin. I traveled full time and depended on cell phone for my business, Verizon and Sprint both did better than AT&T in 90% of the cities (Verizon 95%).

These issues were understood and resolved long ago [by all carriers], back in the mid 1990's, at CES & Comdex in Vegas. No excuse for these predictable and long-standing Austin issues.

[ThreeMilesNorth]

You get paid to write this kind of articles?

[Philips]

This isn't article per se - this is a blog post.

[ittesi259]

Comment when you learn when to use the word these instead of the word this

[XxDonnyxX]

AT&T is a joke. always has been, always will. but wait "We are spending "blah blah blah blah blah" amount to upgrade our towers this year." Which I have hear for the past 13 years. Can't wait til the iphone is out of contract with them. which will be very soon.

[joerickx]

AT&T's service in not 3G, it's 3rd rate. Both AT&T's customer service and infrastructure are way behind the times in terms of the level of support they should be providing. One of the more unfortunate decisions of the recent past was to use AT&T as the single provider for the iPhone. I hope that mistake is corrected in the very near future.

[ShawnKing]

"the company could have put in the effort to ensure that the thousands and thousands of people at SXSW--which may constitute the highest concentration of iPhone users anywhere on Earth..."

Really? CNET itself reports that there were "9,000 attendees" at last year's SXSW and upwards of *30,000* at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Numbers this year will be comparable.

My money is on a bunch of Mac users having a *lot* more iPhones than the group at SXSWi. :)

[jscott418]

Just a bunch of pathetic whiners. I hope we never have a major disaster here in the US and loose Cell service. Because I don't think some people could live through it. This is the problem with technology like cell phones. Not enough capacity when its needed. Not sure how they base capacity but we all know in big cities its not enough. This is not news!

[Outside_Looking_In]

I agree with you, jscott418. I live in Southern California and whenever there's an earthquake that gets our attention (greater than a 4.0), no matter what carrier you have, they all go down because everyone wants to jump on their phones and check with their loved ones. I say this because all three of the major carriers are represented by at least one person in my office of about 20 people and we all experienced the same thing; NO SIGNAL.
Every carrier has their problems. You just need to pick what's best for you. Just like buying a car. Every car manufacturer has their historic problems. You just need to decide what it is you want to put up with. And yes, I know there's a vast difference between the cost of the two. People are just loyal until they're tired of getting burned.

[ittesi259]

Check on loved ones? Hardly.....I was trying to call and check on my mom and couldn't get through because people were calling to check on their friggin pets. So hope the landlines stay up because the cell carriers don't have the capacity to deal with it.

[pkchu2002]

I was with Cellular One in the 90s..then AT&T... which was rebranded to Cingular..then back to AT&T..I had so many dropped calls, when I called to cancel my contract 1 year early with AT&T, the operator felt bad and didn't even think to charge me a fee.

No matter how you brand them..AT&T/Cingu-crap does not compare to Verizon. Love the iPhones my friends have..but love my non-dropped/good reception calls in ALL major cities even MORE! How many years has AT&T been losing to Verizon in all consumer reports analyses?? I truly don't think AT&T gets it.

A cellphone's phone should be its first function... get it AT&T?

[docster87]

I've had AT&T for several years and an iphone for almost two years, I've rarely if ever had a dropped call here in Tampa Bay area.

As for Verizon, they couldn't pay me enough to join. Never had the cell service but I did have DSL through them and all they could do was blame my router or my mac and couldn't fix or blame their own service that just didn't function. I told several tech reps that if my problem wasn't solved I would cancel everything from them. And I was floored when they seemed surprised (after months of tech calls and problems not solved) I wanted to cancel everything. Suddenly their complaint department was ready to do what their tech department couldn't? Proper service doesn't start when the customer says "I want to cancel" - proper service should start when customer says "I have a problem, lets try to fix it." I would rather send smoke signals than pay for service from such a company.

[sharmajunior]

Here's a person who fell into the Verizon marketing scheme. I had Verizon and had to pay a cancellation fee to get out because they didn't have any service in the area i moved to and didn't even think about apologizing. Instead they said too bad you gotta pay us or we will ruin your credit. Now if thats the kind of customer service you want. Good, but i can't stand that. Now i use AT&T without any problems. You'll be surprised as to where the service is available. Up at 15000ft in squaw valley, you have better AT&T coverage than Verizon. In New York you have verizon signal interference between some buildings but not AT&T.

[i_am_still_wade]

No company is perfect. Where I live in Eastern NC, AT&T is great. Granted, customer service is pitiful. But I hardly use that. My cell service is as good as anyone else's around here.

Verizon has good service, but their prices are too high. Plus, Verizon cripples their phones so you have to pay for stuff others let you do for free. AT&T seems to not care about what I do with my phone. My brother and his wife are all on my family plan, and they live in another state. Have been for 3 years. AT&T has many vices, but price isn't one of them. And since where I live they are as good as everyone else, I stick with them.

It all depends of where you live. You should not assume that just because your service is good where you live it is universally good. The only company that is universally bad is Sprint.

[ausernamenoonehaschosen]

It really depends on where you are. I've lived in Chicago and right outside of DC. I've also taken several trips to Boston, St. John, and throughout Virginia and can't remember having a dropped call. Reception is rarely a problem.

[DevinB999]

haha maybe if they had a little something called WiFi calling like that OTHER smart phone. What's its name? Oh that's right. BLACKBERRY. Specifically the 8120 through T-mobile. I've never lost a call anywhere there is Wifi and really I've never lost one period. Not trying to say that any smart phone is better than the Iphone. (because there is nothing at this point in time) But for texting and call strength I think RIM will win every time. Too bad apple has to be too much like apple and limit everything they have. If they sold Iphones on ALL carriers I think they would make a lot more money. But apple likes to limit everything they make.

[ballmerisanape]

Nobody wanted to cover the iPhone when Apple was trying to find carriers. Blame the shortsightedness of verison for turning down what would have been their cash cow for at least two years.

No doubt... If ma bell's issues cut into iPhone sales...Apple will drop them like a bad habit.

[SenorFrog]

I'd love to have seen the internet traffic after people found out that reception was lousy. With it being SXSW I'll bet the majority of iPhones were jailbroken and that if people didn't already have a Voip app already, they downloaded one immediately.

[ittesi259]

@ballmerisanape,

I highly doubt that since AT$T is armed with their 5 year exclusive dealer contract. I doubt there is any type of escape clause for Apple there.

And to those who say ATT isn't overpriced......69 bucks for 450 minutes? Really? I pay 69 and get 1000 with my blackberry....oh yeah....unlimited data for all other carriers actually includes SMS....which you all pay extra for with ATT

[twitter_1963]

This is not new. After using Verizon for years, with no issues on 3G or calls, the Iphone and AT&T combo is a joke.

This issues you describe here was exactly the same at the Consumer Electronics show in las Vegas (CES). the same complaints and problems *and* attendance was down 40% from 2008.

I have been traveling a lot lately and there are other black spots. New york is sporadic for 3G - worst than dial-up. Boston was a bit better and LA was great. Atlanta can be pretty shoddy too.

You would think, in 2009, this would not be an issue. It's not an issue for Verizon. Question is, is the Iphone wireless chip at fault (there are reports of bugs) OR is it the ATT network. I am concluding after nearly 6 months on a Iphone, it's a combination of both. Shame.

[tdiguy1]

I was on verizon for quite a few years and yes their coverage is the best out there. I went to AT&T just to get the iPnone and am very disappointed in thier service. Her in Illinois they do not even have the major cities covered with 3g yet. The reason i left Verizon was because of their policy of crippling phones. Want WiFi? To bad. none of our phones have that cause that would mean you might not buy our data package. Want GPS? Sorry but you will need to use our VZ Navigator service for 9.99 a month. They just rape you anyway you go. I still use their data card cause it is works no mater where I am. I may have to go back cause AT&T's phone service her in central IL is crap.

[DevinB999]

haha maybe if they had a little something called WiFi calling like that OTHER smart phone. What's its name? Oh that's right. BLACKBERRY. Specifically the 8120 through T-mobile. I've never lost a call anywhere there is Wifi and really I've never lost one period. Not trying to say that any smart phone is better than the Iphone. (because there is nothing at this point in time) But for texting and call strength I think RIM will win every time. Too bad apple has to be too much like apple and limit everything they have. If they sold Iphones on ALL carriers I think they would make a lot more money. But apple likes to limit everything they make.

[dbrohamTV]

I definitely want iPhone on Verizon as well as T-Mobile and Sprint. If not, them Microsoft/HTC need to step up and provide a multi-carrier phone on par with iPhone/App Store

[SeizeCTRL]

The only reason I haven't switched to AT&T is that they lack a plan that comes close to Sprint's Simply Everything Plan. $99 for unlimited everything, that's voice, data, text, GPS. Plus the fact that AT&T coverage in my area completely sucks! So I am sticking with Sprint for the time being, using the Samsung Instinct along with an iPod Touch 2g and I'm fully covered.

If the iPhone was available for other carriers then I would consider it, but right now it's Sprint and the Instinct or switching to T-Mobile and the G1.

I love how Sprint, Verizon and AT&T all claim to have either the largest or fastest 3G network in the US ;)

[Perry_Clease]

"The only reason I haven't switched to AT&T is that they lack a plan that comes close to Sprint's Simply Everything Plan."

I used to be with Sprint and had that plan. I also had that $5 for 100 extra minutes in case I went over my allotment, a lot cheaper than overage on other plans and other carriers. Sprint coverage was great here in San Diego and every metro area I visited, also along the interstates. Customer service was horrid, but that seems to be the norm for cell carriers.

We now have iPhones and AT&T. Coverage is also good, but sometimes deep in a building I will lose it. AT&T lost a good PR opportunity with the poor coverage at SXSW

[mjlambie]

rumor has it that they're bringing in backup

[achernow]

Yet another reason I don't have an iPhone, AT&T's craptabulous network. I don't much like Verizon, but I've so far only found one spot up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin where my cell phone wouldn't work. And for the record, that was 10+ miles off the main road, in the middle of the woods, at the family cabin on the lake.

[streamOG]

ATT's network is just a sham and they didn't rollout anything because they don't care. They don't make money to add capacity for an unlimited usage plan. You get what you pay for and when you use ATT you are just taking your destiny into your own hands.

[Perry_Clease]

"you are just taking your destiny into your own hands."

Isn't that always the case?

[tmas98]

Call AT&T and complain. They have always credited me for outages. If they have to pay enough money for screw ups, then they might work on better coverage.

[bonesbautista]

Austin's one of those areas with the newer 850 overlay over 1900 antennas. Everywhere I go with a mix of frequencies the ATTWS network just isn't working right. Really frustrating, that.

[clynx]

Data caps on all carriers is censorship and price fixing. They all are junk services and I am going without any of them. We own the air waves they lease from us, do it right or not at all.

[zane_o]

I have attended numerous conferences at the Austin Convention Center for the past 8 years. In that time I have been with three different carriers. I always get little to no reception. It isn't just an AT&T thing.

[aka_tripleB]

Is this exclusively an AT&T problem or was cell service horrible from all carriers? Inside buildings is notorious for bad cell phone reception. They're the equivalent of tunnels without the cars. On top of that, the building itself could be acting as a Faraday cage destroying much of your signal.