When AT&T’s network crashes, it’s iPhone users who complain
According to AT&T, the outage that took down a major data network across much of the northeastern United States overnight Wednesday was brand agnostic — any wireless device using its EDGE network was affected.
But by all accounts, it was mostly iPhone users who complained — vociferously — in e-mail messages, in Twitter postings, on Apple and AT&T forums.
At DSLReports.com, where many of the early complaints were posted, there were message from the occasional BlackJack II and Nokia N95 user. But headline was “iPhone Users Greeted With Morning Outage,” and that’s who weighed in the loudest.
“This is insanity,” wrote “WildGod” at 10:23 a.m. from Brooklyn. “I never thought I would miss Verizon and my Treo as much as I do now.” (link)
iPhone owners, of course, make more demands on their cellphones than most users. But they also have a long history of complaints against AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. carrier since June 2007, for slow and often inconsistent service.
Last week in San Diego, the second class action suit in as many weeks was filed against Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) for failing to deliver the “twice as fast” network speeds promised in the iPhone 3G promotional material. (See here and here.) The latest suit draws heavily on reports suggesting that heavy iPhone use is pulling more power from AT&T’s antennas than its network is prepared to provide. See Roughly Drafted for more detail.
According to AT&T spokesman Brad Mays, last night’s outage was caused by a “routing issue” that affected “some wireless data,” but not voice calling, text messaging or Blackberry e-mail.
Service was restored by 11:56 a.m. EDT.
@Black Star Ranch:
Ditch your computer and internet connection and do us all a favor. I’m sorry, what were we talking about??
This is why I unlocked my iPhone and went to t-mobile. I couldn’t be happier now.
Five years ago I threw my cell-phone out a 15mph driver’s side window after an important lost call. Year later I quit drinking, 2006 ended smoking and rec drugs, and in 2007 gone was high speed & sat TV. I’m finally able to enjoy an uninterrupted 3-hour nap, lower blood pressure, and much less angst…… I’m sorry, what were we talking about??
Cont. from message below - Maybe this has something to do with the outage and the adding of the new router at AT&T
I don’t know about anyone else, but i have noticed a huge improvement with my iPhone 3G data service I am getting data rates of 846kbps inside my apartment an 1.1mbps outside, it used to be like 100 - 200kbps inside and maybe max 400kbps if the signal was constant, I am in the Washington, DC area, I have been doing speedtests all day to see if the signal would drop, but it has been constant.
So, how much cash would Apple need to buy a network and start providing their own services, top to bottom?
I wish i had never got my iphone. I live in a 3g dead zone and always have 1 bar and drops every call when i walk around my home. What bullshit. They should at least credit our accounts till they work out the bugs. They are ripping us off big time!!
That is the problem with exclusive contracts. I had AT&T (Cingular before the merger) and the network just got worse and worse. Finally when I had had enough I moved to Verizon and I have great connectivity.
You can have the greatest phone ever. If the network sucks, you basically have a fancy door stop.
I am a 2 iPhone family and can’t wait until the ATT exclusive contract is up. I will switch my iPhones back to Verizon as soon as I can.
A good example of the “Law of Diminishing Returns.” The more people pay for these services, the less of a service you get back in return. AT&T is good at this and it’ll only get better once they impose bandwidth caps on their Internet service.
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
The North-East??? I’m in Vegas and the AT&T network has been messed up since saterday!!! This is rediculious!!! I’m starting to think that Cricket & Boost must have better networks.