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Consumerist Says AT&T Site Won't Sell iPhone In NYC, Citing Network
cowp writes "A Consumerist tipster couldn't get AT&T's website to sell him an iPhone when he shopped using an NYC ZIP code, but could when he tried other cities' ZIPs. Consumerist asked an AT&T CSR and seems to have gotten confirmation that this is carrier policy: 'Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone. You don't have enough towers to handle the phone.' Considering Apple's gadget is currently the most popular handset in the US, its exclusive carrier's inability/unwillingness to support the device in the country's largest market is pretty huge news. If this proves true, I'd expect curtains for AT&T's exclusivity deal when it comes up for renewal." If you're in NYC, can you confirm or deny this outlandish-sounding claim?
Updated 20091227 1:03 GMT by timothy: Headline, now corrected, inaccurately named Apple rather than AT&T. Mea culpa.
Summary makes it clear it's AT&T that isn't selling the iPhone in New York City. Headline says it's Apple, who last time I checked have iPhones for sale in their New York City stores. :)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Nope. It's the most popular phone in the US based on units sold. 4% of the market.
That's almost 10% better than the best BB. 75% better than the entire RAZR V3 line.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Okay, from TFA, here's a graph entitled Top 10 Mobile Phones in Use.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
People are wising up though. The Droid's marketing campaign just hasn't gotten people into VZW's doors, it has spurred interest in Android devices in general. I've talked with people who see the Droid, find it interesting, but prefer T-Mobile, and end up coming out with a Samsung Behold, a Motorola Cliq, or a MyTouch 3G. People on Sprint find that the Samsung Moment offers one of the fastest processors. The only carrier that has no current offering is AT&T, but supposedly they will be offering a Dell Android phone. AT&T also has the iPhone, so just business common sense says that Android devices will be second fiddle to AT&T's mainstay.
Back in 2004, I quit my job and went on a roadtrip on steroids. I drove from Mexico to Alaska, down to Texas, up to the Dakotas, and finally back home to Massachusetts. I was an AT&T wireless customer and I was stunned at the lack of coverage. I could only talk near major cities if I were lucky. Even then, calls were being dropped every other call. Their coverage charts were such BS. I quit my service once I got home, and switched to another provider, experiencing only minor irritations on subsequent road trips.
The same South Korea that took over two years to get the iPhone. And the same SK that still blocks any non-Korean approved unlocked phone from being used on their networks without paying a $300 "inspection" fee? And the same SK where the majority of domestic websites require Internet Explorer 6 (yes, 6) to function correctly?
For those of you who don't know, South Korea is not a technological paradise. We have fast broadband but that's about it.
"AT&T's service is crap"
correct.
BUT...
You could be standing under the tower and your phone not work.
Its called site geometry you actually could have a dead spot in certain areas that are very close to the tower and even in plain sight, including directly at the site.
Just because you see one tower, its not ONE cell site. Depending on the location and the needs for that are it could be upto 6 sites depending on the sectorization used at that location. Most are 3 at a minimum, 120 degree sectorization. As you move into the urban area, and to meet other coverage needs it can go down to about 60 degrees.
this applies to all RADIO systems, which cell phones are nothing more than radio systems.
1311393600 - Back to Black
Not all AT&T phone reps are equally versed in what's going on, as Consumerist later admits on their site. AT&T will sell you the iPhone in their stores throughout NYC. They won't sell you the phone online within NYC. Apparently this is because of fraudulent resales as people order the phones online, take delivery and then ship them overseas. Skipping out on the contracts in the process, as they never intended to honor them in the first place.
I wonder why NYC has more of a problem with this than other locations. Large transient international population I suppose...
I'd say a good 97% of all dropped call complaints on AT&T come from iPhone users. Not that I keep score, but every time I hear "customer is getting poor signal, dropped calls", I immediately think "another damn iPhone call". I'd assume unlocked iPhones work well, because odds are, they're not connected to UMTS towers much of the time. It's the phone. It's been trash since day zero, when Apple didn't supply AT&T with any documentation on the original iPhone until five minutes before launch, making for a lot of fun for everybody trying to activate the hockey pucks. Did you know that all the Visual Voicemail breakdown crap this past summer was from Apple pooping out repeated failed updates, jamming up iPhones that hadn't even been updated? Check Settings, General. If you have "Profile" listed there, surprise! Delete the corrupted AT&T profile and watch your messages roll in after two minutes. Also, anybody who knows how cell phones work knows better than to expect uninterrupted calls while driving. You're playing tarzan between towers. There isn't always a long vine in reach. Unless you're doing 120.