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AT&T Considers Dropped Call Rate Of 30% In New York City Normal

September 30, 2009

geniusbarworkform

A Gizmodo reader recently visited the Apple Genius Bar at the SoHo retail store in New York City to figure out why so many of his calls were being dropped, assuming that there was simply something wrong with his iPhone.  After performing some tests on the device, an Apple Genius informed the reader that this type of performance was considered normal, and that he was actually lucky to have only 22 percent of his calls dropped since the normal drop rate in New York City is more like 30 percent. To prove his point, the reader provided Gizmodo with a copy of the Genius Bar work authorization form, which is pictured above.  We have provided the information included in the document in text form below since it is somewhat difficult to make out.
Issue Description: dropped calls, poor signal Steps to Reproduce: plugged into behavior scan, report concludes that phone has dropped over 22 percent of the phone calls made. customer states that the percentage is a bit higher but does not register to the phone due to the fact that when a call begins to fail he manually disconnects the call. Issue Verified: Yes Proposed Resolution: this is a basic trouble shooting case so that the customer may report back to ATT to show that the phone is fully functional and the problem is consistent with the service provided by ATT Cosmetic Condition: good Known Liquid Damage: No
As we have seen in the recent past, AT&T has been taking some steps to improve wireless signal strength in major metropolitan areas, and apparently it is for good reason.  But a 30 percent drop call rate is just difficult for me to wrap my head around.  Those of you who reside in New York City may not be that astonished by this number, but being an outsider, I can tell you that if I experienced drop call numbers like this, I would more than likely be furious.  Of course there is nothing Apple can do about this poor performance, so the customer left without a resolution. So, New York City iPhone users, what's your estimated drop call rate?

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