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Consumerist Says AT&T Site Won't Sell iPhone In NYC, Citing Network

Posted by timothy on from the sounds-a-bit-hinky dept.

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.

10 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. This has been an issue for quite awhile. by palegray.net · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's been a lot of coverage indicating problems with iPhones in New York, including one Gizmodo piece saying a 30% dropped call rate is apparently normal.

    --
    512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
    1. Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. by Khyber · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Bullshit.

      I called Wells Fargo before my last cross-country trip - They immediately locked me from $2,000 daily limit to $200, I got stranded because I filled up for gas and then had not enough left for the rest of the day to cover my hotel expenses - I had to sleep in my car in the freezing cold in a fucking parking lot.

      And when they said they raised it back up - they lied. They cut it down to $150.

      Of course, as soon as I got back, I withdrew all of my money and made a very loud statement in the lobby to all of the customers present. I think two followed my suit.

      You tell them you're going around the country, they'll lock your shit down so you don't make THEM off-balance. They're the ones playing dirty with your money. What, you ain't seen the bailout?

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    2. Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. by 644bd346996 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, the South Korea that wanted strong (128-bit) encryption back when IE was the only browser worth mentioning, but 128-bit encryption couldn't be exported. They implemented their own encryption scheme as an ActiveX pugin, and open source browsers have been really slow about implementing a compatible form of that encryption system.

      To me, that sounds like a country that was quite tech savvy, but got screwed by US politics.

    3. Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. by EdIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How far they have fallen. I used to be die hard AT&T. Between 93-98 I had an old Nokia TDMA cell phone with a freaking brick on the back for a battery.

      My talk time was like 3-4 fucking days. I forgot my charger one time on a trip and it lasted on standby and just a little bit of talking two weeks. I shit you not.

      I was once out on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere (probably 20 miles away from the interstate) and I was the only person with a cell signal. Made calls and everything. People were dumbfounded that I was on my cell phone considering how far away I was.

      2009.......

      I am ready to strangle people with iPhones on AT&T. It is such a joke. From Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Houston, and New York, I talk to people with crappy sound, disconnects within about 3-4 minutes (90% of the time), and pure constant frustration trying to communicate with these people.

      They still love the iPhone though.

      What I have learned is two things.

      1) How far you can fall in terms of customer satisfaction and real world coverage and performance. (Not flaming here, these are my direct observations).
      2) How much shit people will put up with for a shiny iPhone.

      P.S - The iPhone does not look that bad. Jailbroken and on TMobile or Verizon (hopefully soon because CDMA will finally be available) it might be pretty nice to work with.

  2. No problems last month by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I live in NYC under a 114xx zip code and had no problems buying one in person at an ATT store. I bought it the weekend after Thanksgiving so it was about a month ago. Maybe they changed it since then.

  3. Re:Spin by XPeter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Everybody outside of the tech world knows what an iPhone is.

    Not everybody outside of the tech world knows what the E55, Hero, or GW620 are.

    True, but promisingly I've been seeing a lot of my non-tech friends carrying around new Android devices lately.

    --
    "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
  4. Re:AT&T's service is crap by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interestingly, here in rural Alaska we get at least 20% dropped iPhone calls. After a particularly annoying one (I was within 200 yards of the tower, line of sight, over water) I complained to the local AT&T rep and the FCC.

    About 2 weeks later, I got this nice call from an AT&T droid who says he was asked by the FCC to look into this. After a few pleasantries, he suggested 1) Making sure the battery was charged (OK), 2) Turning off 3G (already done, don't have 3G here in the boonies) and getting closer to the tower. I explained that if I got any closer to the tower on the last dropped call, I'd have to marry it.

    His final suggestion was to take it up with Apple, maybe I needed a new handset.

    I suppose it's something of a start but AT&T isn't going to solve very much of the problem this way.

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    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  5. Re:AT&T's service is crap by Bananatree3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "His final suggestion was to take it up with Apple, maybe I needed a new handset."

    Go back to the FCC and resubmit your complaint. Obviously AT&T simply read you the script to meet the barest of "compliance" requirements...by sending you to some script reader in a call center. They won't do jack shit until the FCC requires them to. Or, you're able to find someone within the local ranks at ATT that are willing to listen to you, not just some corporate weenie.

  6. Re:AT&T's service is crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually you may have been too close. I am far from a wireless engineer but I do know that depending on the antennas used the base of a tower can be a dead zone. I've seen this in the wireless ISP world a few times and its frustrating.

  7. Re:I'm a little confused here... by digitalchinky · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's like a ghost town compared to a few Asian cities. Light traffic, hardly any people, clear air, you could almost eat off the concrete. :-)

    I live in Manila, we have 10,500 people per square kilometer across the metro on average, though some of the slum areas are as high as 40k - and yes, they all have cell phones - we send 140 billion text messages a year, the entire country is bathed in 3.5G, surprisingly you can actually get the juicy speed goodness anywhere at any time too, so the telco drones must be doing something right.