AT&T Admits New York City iPhone Service Sucks

crop from an AT&T slide via Tom's Guide

AT&T has realized that the first step towards recovery is admitting it has a problem. The phone giant has confessed that its New York City iPhone service is not up to par, according to a presentation slide published on Tom's Guide noting that the company's 3G Voice Composite Quality in the New York metro area—particularly in Manhattan—is below its performance objective.

This shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Last month, the phone giant explained that 3G service has suffered in New York due to "better than average iPhone penetration," meaning "AT&T has been too successful in selling the iPhone, to the point where the network has been severely strained." The company even briefly stopped selling iPhones online in New York City because the area didn't "have enough towers to handle the phone."

The slide does contain some good news for AT&T subscribers. Apparently, AT&T has had "[t]hree consecutive months of improvement" and it is doing "change-outs" of Radio Network Controllers among other upgrades, according to Mobile Crunch. Anyone notice service improving over the past few months? If we don't hear back we'll assume you're still waiting for this page to load.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Ben Muessig in News on January 28, 2010 6:10 PM

Comments [rss]

taxisdaddy

In my experience, all the big carriers provide equivalent service in NYC. The dealbreaker for AT&T is their lack of coverage in the immediate vicinity. I travel weekly to Sullivan County. I've tried several different service providers, but only Verizon gives consistent access in the furthest reaches of the Catskills. Although I don't go to Long Island with the same regularity, my experience there was the same.

banger

I have never had a problem with my AT&T iPhone. In fact, I get better reception in many areas better than my Verizon Blackberry. AT&T 3G is noticeably faster than Verizon's EVDO on any device and I have used many. I'm not the only one to report it. Other than occasional drop outs from GSM technology, I've very happy with my iPhone, more than I thought. Verizon's marketing lies about better coverage might be applicable to around the country but not in New York City. I even get coverage in several subways like the 1,2 and 3 line, also the F, V train at 34th street and more.

grifforama

Bullshit.

banger

My AT&T iPhone has been the best phone I've ever had, including reception. On occasion you get the GSM dead spot but it's rare. Internet is WAY faster than Verizon's EVDO and I also own a Blackberry too. Verizon's marketing is a lot of false information and I have been a customer for a long time. Everywhere in NYC is pretty much wired and I even have reception on the subway platforms a lot of times with my iPhone. I have rarely ever suffered an outage like people complain about here and multiple dropped calls. If you think it's going to be better paying a fortune on Verizon, don't kid yourself.

grifforama

Bullshit.

valeriob

@snoopy

actually, I call every now and then when I'm overly frustrated. They usually credit me with the cost of whatever I had a problem with (takes a while- just ask for a mgr immediately. Don't waste your time with "Tommy" or "Mary", most they can give you is 10 courtesy dollars)

If it's data- they refund me 30

if it's multpiple dropped calls over the course of a few days- they refund my monthly basic plan.

Sometimes I just call to say whassup. They don't like me very much; must have something to do with all of the BBB and FCC submissions.

philosophy

Yea, I did that with my iPhone and AT&T for awhile, about 4 months of TOTAL credit. Each month this required hours of tech support (using my Verizon phone.) Eventually they told me that they could not offer me any further credit, even though I couldn't make phone calls (in the middle of the street, in NYC..) I was informed: "We can't guarantee that you can make a phone call." So, I told them that they were under contract with me to provide service and unless they fixed my problem, they were violating that contract.

Now, my jailbroken iPhone 3GS is running perfectly on T-mo. My Droid is not as fun, but I use it more and have never had a problem.

TeddyNYC

Maybe AT&T knows about a Verizon LTE iPhone in the works so they're trying to let current iPhone users know that they're trying to improve (with proof) the network in SF & NYC. In other words, no need to switch to Verizon when the day comes.

longacre

The days of AT&T's iPhone exclusivity are numbered, as well.

Joe

Yup thats why apple decided on AT&T for the Ipad makes a lot of sense.

Gothamist_Cynic

This why I ended up buying an Android Eris phone with Verizon instead of an iPhone :D No dropped calls and the 3G is fast.

Dead Himmler

my iphone works great after I illegally put a booster in it.

inoyourider

How do you do that?

Ralph

Oh, that's cute, look at that. You've asked two questions here in the comments. You must be new here. Gothamist isn't a place where you come to get questions answered, fool! You come here to bitch and complain and offer no solutions on how to fix things or give any insight. It's purely for complaining and snarky comments.

Silly noob.

youngpro

'thanks' for dictating the rules here...

inoyourider

Verizon is SO much better here.

I had T-Mobile and that was the worst!

So many dropped calls and no service!

Had both happen repeatedly while at work in Times Square!

Mr Mel

You're right and that's why I bought a Verizon Droid.

inoyourider

How do you like it?

MsMarvel

I've only had my Motorola Droid w/ Verizon for two days - which, granted, isn't that long - and I haven't had a single dropped call or 3G outage. It took about 20 minutes to switch from 1x to 3G in my office today after leaving the subway, but I'd always had an unreliable signal at my desk on my LG Voyager w/ Verizon. Didn't have any issues on the new phone.

Apps are nice; better to get new skins like Open Home or GDE to customize your phone if you're a widget lover. It's my first smart phone, but the multi-tasking, internet, and total reliability makes me completely believe in CNet's calling it an iPhone killer.

Spirit of 76

Just wait until the iPad becomes available and users start really gobbling up bandwidth under their $30 unlimited data plans. There may be no Flash support right now, but HTML5 HD video from YouTube eats just as much bandwidth. This could all bring the AT&T network to its knees.

Snoopy

I don't see AT&T giving any breaks in their billing. Too many customers, too much money coming in, and they still are for shit.

Global Wombat

I agree with the nicemarmot. I've dealt with users handling both voice and data using both AT&T and Verizon, and they're both equally terrible in Manhattan.

longacre

I'd love to know what happened during that week on the chart where quality sank to zero.

starrygordon

The charts are bullshit. The vertical axis is given no meaning because it has no meaning. Someone just drew it freehand.

nicemarmot

Wait, AT&T thinks their 3G network is the big problem here? Sure, I can hardly use it the farther downtown I go, but that's not my big problem with cell phone service in the city. The big problem is dropped calls! I've had Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile here and they all SUCK. I now live near the top of a high-rise and I still can't get through a 15-minute call without at least one drop. We finally had to choke down our bile and get a landline. And apparently, you can't even get a REAL landline in my building anymore - TimeWarner has a monopoly over it and all we can get is their stupid cable modem phone. Which of course won't work when the power goes out.

I will say though, when I go visit my inlaws in Florida the speed of my iPhone's web-surfing down there is amazing. No dropped calls either.