The first generation iPhone sold out very quickly and broke all sales projections, therefore resulting in huge shortages. But now it seems that its users are being forced to abandon their device in hopes of getting a stronger signal on a 3G model!
BGR reports that AT&T is trying to speed up the development of it’s 3G network and to do it, it’s killing the 2G network day by day. As reported, the company previously relied on the readily available 850 MHz band offering better signal and reception, but now it has seems that they are downgrading to the worse 1900 MHz Band! This is certainly bad news for those millions of users who are still using their old 2G iPhone contracts on AT&T.
AT&T’s service was bad before but they are still shifting to a less reliable band for everyone who is running on 2G! This news has been confirmed by OFB (Open For Business) who tested the signal with transmitters on multiple devices. The worst part of the whole scenario is that on contacting AT&T, the guys at OFB got a creepy answer forcing them to upgrade to a 3G device. This is disgusting for the original iPhone users who spent the huge amount of $$$ on the device, just to be forced to upgrade later!
What’s more amusing is that one of the AT&T customer service representatives even recommended them to terminate the contract and Unlock the iPhone with instructions on internet. Now, this is quite shameful that they are not even trying to help the users and instead asking them to go away.
Mark Siegel, AT&T Executive Director of Analyst Relations, denied the fact that AT&T representatives are advising customers to upgrade but still the fact remains the same. People in the affected areas will have to upgrade to an expensive 3G model, which won’t come in handy very much as AT&T’s 3G Coverage is still not very broad and the current areas under coverage usually experience poor signal.
I have AT&T and I have to say im very pleased with their service (not their customer service, mind you). I dont appreciate that a little bit of bad luck with the iPhone 2G (a notable cause of the signal issues itself) has caused a bad reputation for AT&T. They still have the most subscribers, the fastest 3G data network, and the most potential for expansion. I think that it is a good thing that AT&T is trying to get a jump start on the competition by upgrading to an all 3G network. I get great signal everywhere and always fast 3G speeds. I have also never gotten a dropped call, and I live right outside of Charlotte, NC (about 1,000,000 people in the metro area). Friends that have Verizon dont even get signal where I do. I have never had Verizon personally, but I have had Sprint, Nextel and T-Mobile and they all pale in comparison. (Especially Sprint)
I’ve been an AT&T customer for a little over 10yrs now, because generally their service is very good (the only network that has comparable service coverage is verizon).
But…
Through 2006 – 2007 I lived in Durham,NC and had dropped calls all the time, and quite frequently got call failed attempts that forced me to try upwards of 20 times or every 15mins to try to get a call out.
Since then i’ve moved back to the northeast, and back to a decent level of service.
It’s really hit or miss, depending on the area you live. And I dislike the fact of downgrading the service level of 2G iphone users in certain locations.
AT&T needs to focus on improving Customer Service….PERIOD!!
yeah AT&T does need a better customer service and well as far as the service ive had pretty good signal everywhere i go in my home at work on the freeway everyhwere at first when i had my first gen iphone i did have alot of droped calls here at home but now with the time passing by it does seem as if they have improved there service because with my iphone 3g i dont seem to have any problems texting or calling, but like i said at the begining they do need to improve on there customer service