# AT&T Loses a Chunk of their 3G Map



## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Reports are rolling in... no doubt via land line of a massive 3G AT&T outage Friday night... the House of Cards stumbles!


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

(Loses)

AT&T's 3G coverage map gets even skimpier, that is, if Verizon can be believed.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Nick said:


> (Loses)
> 
> .


Fixed.


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Considering TMobile's 3G went down across most of the country just a little while ago and all the carriers have had their major outages over the years...I throw this one up as just another outage/act of nature, no one is perfect.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Grentz said:


> Considering TMobile's 3G went down across most of the country just a little while ago and all the carriers have had their major outages over the years...I throw this one up as just another outage/act of nature, no one is perfect.


This one is a PR nightmare for AT&T... New York & San Francisco are their iPhone/3G achilles heel... constant never ending issues in 2 of their biggest penetration areas.


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## John W (Dec 20, 2005)

LarryFlowers said:


> This one is a PR nightmare for AT&T... New York & San Francisco are their iPhone/3G achilles heel... constant never ending issues in 2 of their biggest penetration areas.


Penetration areas have been causing all kinds of upheaval lately.


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## apexmi (Jul 8, 2006)

I for one am happy with my at&t wireless service, If Verizon had 30 million iPhones hitting it's network it would have problems too...


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Heck, they don't even provide DSL in our area where they provide the land lines. 3G, what's that? But at least they're honest and don't claim to have service at our house and show us on the ragged edge of cell service:










Verizon's map shows the whole ball of wax at our house - mobile broadband, etc. On the other hand, our Verizon cell phone shows "no signal."


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

apexmi said:


> I for one am happy with my at&t wireless service, If Verizon had 30 million iPhones hitting it's network it would have problems too...


Verizon has just shy of 90 million subscribers.

It took 2 years for the iPhone to sell 57 million units WORLDWIDE - I don't have handy how many of those are in the US but even the Motorola Razr outsold the iPhone when comparing it's first two years (50 million in only 18 months).

Verizon has a much more robust network, nationwide at least, to handle any surge in subscribers. If you're AT&T, you look at that 3G map and you should be scrambling to fill in the holes. AT&T seems to have been caught with their pants down. WHen they were Cingular, you used to hear all the advertising about how they had more bars in more places and fewest dropped calls. You don't hear that anymore because AT&T got where it is by buying other companies instead of building out it's network more.

Compare that with Verizon which has had it's own version of an "app store" with lots of games and other data features for it's phones for a lot longer period of time. The iPhone will just be an addition to that - it won't be like a tsunami. This is all very bad news for AT&T and, eventually, the consumer. When AT&T's exclusivity agreement with Apple expires and Verizon gets the iPhone (and perhaps Sprint as well), there will be no reason for the Apple fanatics to stay with AT&T.

This could make AT&T a takeover candidate for a carrier that wants to buy a GSM network instead of building one.

All speculation, I admit - but I would be very worried. AT&T has had two years to make their 'map' better.


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## apexmi (Jul 8, 2006)

The flaw in your comment is you use the 90 million number as if that is what's hitting the data network not even close, the iPhone also hit data networks harder than any other phone by far. As for the exclusivity it doesn't really matter as apple is not going to do a CDMA iPhone so the soonest verizon will get it will be when LTE starts to become widespread which is still years away, yes I know they are rolling it out next year but it will be 5 year before LTE starts to take over the market. Just as an aside AT&T has a very accurate coverage map for my area, Verizon shows 3g for my house and no one on Verizon can even get a signal here.


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## apexmi (Jul 8, 2006)

Verizon also got to 90 million by gobbling up all the smaller CDMA networks. So suggesting that's how at&t got big is failing to look in the mirror and admit the same. Verizons app store is a joke compared to Apples, Not even close.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

AT&T has had all sorts of issues with data in my part of Southern California. If I interpret them properly (since they won't come out and say so) they're upgrading the data transceivers on their towers to the latest technology.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

Have been away from a computer the last few days, this explains why my Iphone would only access the edge network instead of the 3g


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Speaking of AT&T and iPhones and usage and such;



> AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega reiterated the company's idea charge heavy network users more for their activities at the UBS conference on Wednesday, noting that a mere three percent of smartphone users suck up some 40 percent of the company's traffic.





> That tiny percentage of customers, which de la Vega pointed out were mostly iPhone users, are using a disproportionate amount of the company's bandwidth thanks to their heavy use of video, audio, and images. The company claims that perhaps these users aren't aware of what kind of effect they're having on the network and could use some "education" on the matter.
> 
> "The first thing we need to do is educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data,"


http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/12/att-wants-to-educate-charge-heavy-data-users-more.ars


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Sometimes it is better to be in a smaller market. We were late to the 3G party here in WV, but as such, we got a network built with newer equipment and enough capacity. AT&T 3G works very well as long as you are in the I-64 corridor between Huntington and Charlesotn, which I am 95% of the time.

With that said, once Verizon gets the iPhone, I am gone unless AT&T upgrades the areas I am in the other 5%.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Well, according to a story at engadget, Verizon lost California and Ohio, Wisonsin and Michigan overnight, so I guess no one is immune.

http://mobile.engadget.com/2009/12/13/verizon-down-in-midwest-and-california/


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Lee L said:


> Well, according to a story at engadget, Verizon lost California and Ohio, Wisonsin and Michigan overnight, so I guess no one is immune.
> 
> http://mobile.engadget.com/2009/12/13/verizon-down-in-midwest-and-california/


and Verizon's outage is arguably worse at this point as it is a complete outage, AT&Ts recent one was just 3G and most phones were able to migrate back to regular GSM modes and still make/receive calls.

In the end it happens to everyone.


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