Comments on: iPhone on AT&T: What's your experience?

Molly Wood claims the iPhone "sucks" on AT&T. Have you had the same experience?

[AppleSuxLeo]

Red Alert !!!
Palm Pre is coming to O2 in England !

[Josh BSN]

Both sides of my family use ATT. There isn't one place where I have less bars than any of them, and in 90% of places I have a bar or 2 more - I'm the only one with an iphone. The difference is almost enough that some of them are considering jumping on board, but they won't because the price is ridiculous at $30 more a month...

[mosesdjr]

Seeing the video was very mind blowing for me because I had no idea there were so many problems with the iPhone/ATT service.

I actually haven't had any problems with my iPhone/ATT service in my area. Other than it taking a bit longer than most phones to dial a number, I've never had a dropped call or experienced poor voice quality. I've only seen the phone switch from 3G to edge maybe 3 or 4 times in the two months that I've had it, and that may be due to being inside of a building.

What surprises me the most is the fact that I live in a small town which has a lot of rural areas in it yet more often than not, I have full bars. I can only assume that having a large amount of subscribers in concentrated areas can cause the problems that are described.

I'm very thankful to have the service that I do in my area and having seen the video and also having read the article, I can say for sure that I won't take my good service for granted.

[salayyad]

I pretty much used every cellphone company except for verizon and none of them kept a good reception like at&t has while driving around the country. i have to say while at&t is pretty damn expensive the service makes up for it. trips across the midwest have been awesome. i seem to maintain 3g coverage for a decent portion of the drive and when it switches to edge i dont have much of a problem. i stream pandora and some aol radio stations without any problems. I remember driving from florida to ohio while i had sprint and i lost service for over 3 hours, imagine if i had an emergency. GPS also worked great. The iphone does have some flaws but will be fixed in 3.0 i wish we could get an updated UI. My only complaint about AT&T is just the price but thats the price you pay for good service at least for me its been good.

[arthurone]

On a recent trip to Connecticut, I had rock-solid iPhone voice and data service from JFK airport to east of New Haven. This was a refreshing change from daily life here in Los Angeles where I can't place or receive calls at all in my home and about 1/6 of my calls are inaudible or disconnected. I've had generally good service in the San Francisco area, but awful service in Manhattan. This leads me to believe the widely-reported problems are with AT&T not Apple. The voice service overall is so undependable that I also carry my old Treo (with data service removed) on Verizon as a back-up phone. Irritating and expensive!

[quasi888]

AT&T service sucked when I was living in the Bay Area (dropped calls were a regular occurrence) but things IMMENSELY improved when I moved out to the Sacramento area 2 years ago. On a daily basis I use SImplifyMedia and/or Orb to stream music, videos, and even live TV from my home media server to my iPhone without little to no interruption in 3G service within this metropolitan area, even while driving.

I actually left AT&T a few years ago for Verizon, only to come back because I really wanted an iPhone. I wouldn't call myself a fan of AT&T -- not by a long shot -- but for my current location, their service has lived up to my expectations, with signal quality that is MUCH better than when I was in the Bay.

[casoren1]

Just cancelled my account. For $100 bucks a month I would expect better reception than this. Dropped calls, not getting through, slow 3g...don't know if it's the phone or the service but this didn't work for me. Worst phone I ever had even though I really wanted to like it.

[eunosroadster]

I love it, I have had very few and small issues, just little glitches that were resolved fairly quickly. still the best phone(s) I have ever owned. I have been an AT&T customer since 2001 the Cingular days, I've had very few issues with the network, and have only called Customer Care one time only in my 8 years.

I had a T-Mobile Sidekick for about 6 months while having a Cingular cell phone just before buying my 2G iPhone and hated the device, the software, the customer care employees and the service, atrocious is the only work I can think of.

[courtpassant]

I got an email recently from AT&T saying they just upgraded my neighborhood and yes I am getting 5 bars of 3G. Also getting more bars on the West Side too, even inside the brick oven West Side Y.
I live in Manhattan and rarely get dropped calls now.
Plus there is a Starbucks every five feet and I use the free Wifi.

[NCTARHEELS]

Just fine in NYC, no real hiccups. I really have/had no idea what all the fuss was about

[mlclark2]

i live in southwest virginia and switched from sprint to get the iPhone.

to share my story briefly... i am totally with Molly on this one... i am praying to the phone gods that the palm pre will be my savior from att... i've never had such spotty service before! I love the iPhone, but the service sucks, and when it loses signal it seems like the antenna just goes to sleep and i have to really push it to find service again (sometimes takes 6 minutes to get a signal after i go through a tunnel). it shouldn't be that way, not with how much we all pay for service with this device.

just my 2 cents!

[Gorifyny]

Have you had any experience in the Roanoke area.? I really want to get an iPhone, but, of course, all this talk has me very hesitant to go from Sprint to ATT service. Yours is the only report I've seen from anywhere in this area, and I don't know anyone with an iPhone. Thanks for any information you can supply.

[phrint]

I am in a small suburb of Columbus, Ohio. I have no issues with the 3G coverage in any part of town. I had issues with my first-gen iPhone with reception and the edge network but edge seems quite a bit stronger on the 3G along with better reception across the board. I get various degrees of a signal in my home but I have never had any issues. I had more dropped calls with the first-gen iPhone but I have yet to experience one with my 3G.

I can understand those who complain about the service as I am sure there are more users on the East or West Coasts versus Ohio. I do lose signal strength if I go to the countryside with the 3G often reverting to edge with one bar or nothing. This is common for both Verizon and Sprint in those areas too. AT&T does need to build out their 3G network and improve reception especially if the third-gen iPhone is coming with faster 3G speeds. AT&T will lose the iPhone if they do not make the necessary investments in their network across the country.

[mb4299]

I hear all the same complaints with every other carrier. A lot depends on tower locations, buildings, what the building is made of. Surrounding builds....ect. all these componets play a factor in signal. I've been with at&t since 93 with the same phone number. Never have been with another carrier so I really can't speak for them but from friends and family they have the same issues. The iPhone is great. I have the 1st generation and plan to get the 3G once the new OS comes out so that I will be able to do some of the basic features that most cell phones can do already. Aside from that, I am happy with at&t and don't plan on changing any time soon.

[eddieruiz001]

I switched from Verizon just to get the iphone and to be honest I was a little skeptical since i had AT&T a few years back and did not have a great experience with them, I did not get reception in my house back then. But just getting the iphone was worth the risk, to try them out at least for 30 days but honestly I cannot tell the difference now between Verizon and AT&t's 3g coverage althou I must admit that probably verizon has better coverage in some very rural areas but overall not a big difference for me.. I get full bars at my house wich tells me that their reception has improved over the years that i had verizon. Overall very happy with the iphone and AT&T's service.

[brocknation]

I've been an iPhone owner since the multi-touch phone's debut. I've continuously experienced dropped calls and weak AT&T signals in Eastern, U.S. I'm not sure if it's the actual device or service. I had a Sony Ericsson with AT&T, and never experienced dropped calls as I do with the iPhone. Ironically, increased dropped calls became noticeable during AT&T's least dropped calls campaign. However, the iPhone is a superior mobile computer. I primarily use my iPhone for internet, email, and iPod without technical difficulty; unlike phone conversations.

Consistently, my closest friends desiring an iPhone, who are AT&T and Sprint customers, wish three things.

1.) A cheaper entry price.
2.) Reduced term (time) in contract.
3.) Offer iPhone on competing carriers besides AT&T and rumored Verizon.

In order for the iPhone to truly succeed as the iPod, it's accessibility must become universal.

[wschloss]

I live in Stamford, CT and train commute to midtown and lower Manhattan and have only rare glitches on Metro North around Greenwich. Around Stamford and NYC very rare problems in areas where I know residents won't permit cell towers and all carriers have issues. At home (between I-95 and Merritt Parkway) reception is rarely more than 2 bars but call quality is fine. My wife also has ATT but not iPhone and she can only use her Motorola Razr in some rooms in good weather. Steps outside and fine. iPhone also has at least 4 bars outside.

Otherwise I LOVE iPhone and the only glitch I have is the NY Times application freezes and is slow to the point where it is barely usable, but when that happens all other comm apps work fine. I download NPR podcasts on the fly, follow Pogue and other tweets. WSJ, Bloomberg, Sportacular apps all fine, web browsing fine.

Molly should do standup comedy. Brian Tong's outfits used to annoy me but getting used to it, he's a good guy.

[wschloss]

Addition to my earlier post: I have travelled extensively in Western New York State, along routes 17, 81 and 390, and especially out past corning and around Rochester and Syracuse and had no problems.
In general when I do have reception, call quality has been excellent, often better than land lines.

[stump556]

Been using the iphone 3G and AT&T since July 2008. Lexington and Louisville areas of Kentucky work almost perfectly for me, very rarely have had any issues. I have no problem staying with AT&T....for THIS area.

[veruslite]

I live in the NYC metro area. I work outdoors and frequently use alot of the Iphones featres to get around and for their convenience. Unfortunately it would seem that any feature i use with the need to make use of the 3G network becomes a bothersome if not downrite torturous experience. My phone is a total >POSER<. It tells me its got a 3g signal, five bars in fact all the time. yet when i actually try to make use of that supposed connection, things just get wonky. Within the blink of an eye that magic "3G" icon silently slips into its "edge" outfit and proceeds to give me pitiful data speeds. Funny part is this is only when i try to use the connection. As i stated it says 3G all the time until i use the connect. Youtube videos, not in this lifetime. Itunes store, mebbe when it feels like it. My present and "very annoying" solution to this problem is i regularly have to go into settings turn on airplane mode, then back off again to reset the data signal. Prob is it seems i need to do this every time i go into a building where my signal drops, Cuz once it drops, on the surface it appears to be fine but once again using anything is just plain pointless. Ive even had a number of experiences where i had full bars with a 3G icon and the crap phone tells me it cant find any service WHILE IM STARING RIGHT AT THE 5 BARS AND 3G ICON.

I swear using this thing sometimes is like Trying to wake up a Teeneager so he wont miss the school bus. You poke, you prod, you yell, all for naught cuz the damn phone/kid aint getting his butt in gear until hes good and ready.

[coveblue]

My iPhone is working much better than my previous WinMo phones. I had an 8525, a Tilt, and a Fuze. I loved them all except for the phone reception. I'm in an area that is right on the edge of the 3G network and I could never use my phones indoors. I switched to the iPhone with much trepidation and to my delight, it's reception seems much stronger than any of my previous phones. I finally have bars in my favorite bar! I live in Central Florida for reference.