The NewYork Times published quite an intriguing piece this Saturday that comes back on the iPhone and the whole network war. What’s so special about the article is that it actually claims pretty much the opposite of what everybody has been saying lately.
Indeed, according to the interviewed specialists, AT&T’s network would be far superior than Verizon’s. Furthermore the iPhone’s network issues would actually be Apple’s fault :
And the iPhone itself may not be so great after all. Its design is contributing to performance problems.
Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the iPhone’s “air interface,” the electronics in the phone that connect it to the cell towers, had shortcomings that “affect both voice and data.” He said that in the eyes of the consumer, “the iPhone has the nimbus of infallibility, ergo, it’s AT&T’s fault.” AT&T does not publicly defend itself because it will not criticize Apple under any circumstances, he said.
The only thing is that actually, this issue doesn’t exist outside of the US, so unless Apple is dumping a different iPhone over here this guy is a clown.
Also, the iPhone is just, perfect and infallible.
Actually, here in Sweden there’s been problem with the iPhone as well.
Not as much as in the US maybe, but I think that’s cause to the fact that the mobile networks here a far more expanded than in the US.
There are still flaws with the iPhone. I think that article isn’t that far from the truth.
What do Blackberry and WinMo AT&T users in San Fran & NY say about their experience in those markets?
For what its worth, I live in Japan. I rarely encounter no service, only on the Tokyo subway when it is underground. I practically always have a 3G connect, on the train, on the street, in malls, and at home. I have never experienced a dropped call in four months. I use Maps to find where I’m going (since I don’t speak the language yet) every weekend without fail. I don’t know the details. I’m not an engineer. But they seem to have gotten the air interface right in this market.
My blackberry and iPhone, both AT&T, have coverage problems. Thy said, my daughters generation 2nd gen is far worse
Our entire office uses AT&T. Regardless of the phone we all unanimously hate AT&T and are considering moving back to Verizon.
Well I don’t know about the iPhone being perfect and infallible, but it is definately not the cause of AT&T network problems. I sell AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile phones, 80% of them Verizon. Thier network is far superior, their network is always faster/more reliable. The only thing AT&T has on them is the iPhone. Which will change, probably in 2011 when Verizon’s LTE network launches nationwide. I think T-mobile will be getting it next year, which is going to put AT&T in a tough spot. When they lose their exclusive contract with the worlds most popular phone and everyone has it they will be forced to lower their prices. If they don’t it could be the beginning of the end for them.
Sent from my (jailbroken) iPhone.
I disagree with Cal, I also sell phones in my store and I sell about a 50-50 mix of AT&T and Verizon. Where I live we have no real AT&T network issues but Verizon’s coverage is very spotty in Northern PA. Anything above Harrisburg (south central) and coverage with Verizon is very spotty and anything north of Williamsport, coverage is very poor.
And my experience is the opposite. We dropped Verizon after moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth (Texas) area and switched to AT&T. No coverage problems at all. No dropped calls either, and the data speeds have been 1.6mbit down and 260kbps up consistently. We had awful coverage with Verizon and frequent dropped calls. This was consistent between three different handsets.
Your mileage may vary, of course.