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Consumer Reports Gives AT&T Lowest US Carrier Rank
tekgoblin writes "Consumer Reports has just released results for consumer satisfaction across all US cell phone carriers. The survey covered around 58,000 Consumer Reports subscribers. Over half of the respondents who used AT&T used the iPhone when taking the survey. According to Consumer Reports, iPhone users were less satisfied with AT&T than other users with different phones. An AT&T spokesman responded by citing independent speed tests, as well as higher subscriber numbers and a dropped call rate within 0.1% of the industry leader."
Update: 12/07 01:49 GMT by S : Corrected last sentence to indicate the 0.1% dropped call rate statistic is the difference between AT&T and another carrier, not 0.1% overall.
Look AT&T, if you're going to lie you should at least make it a plausible lie. Nobody who uses AT&T (or has to call people on AT&T) is going to believe your ridiculously low 0.1%.
Statistics are easily skewed when the demographics aren't considered. Verizon is equally as bad, but the whiny cry baby iPhone types just are not there to bitch. I'll bet that if you asked Starbucks and included cell phone type as a criteria, the iPhone users would be the ones ordering the "extra skinny, double foo foo, with non fat something" and will send back 2 or 3 making everyone else wait just because.
It's what iPhone users are like!
iPhone 4 users are even worse!
* Carthago Delenda Est *
"Over half of the respondents who used AT&T used the iPhone when taking the survey."
Yeah, right, a "fickle bunch" consisting of tens of millions of users. What a ridiculous comment.
And when the hoard of iPhone users flood another carrier (Verizon?) when at&t loses its exclusive contract with Apple, maybe two things will happen. 1. The speeds on at&t's network will increase 2. The call quality/service will increase. at&t will have to try harder, to keep customers because you won't have to go there if you want an iPhone. I have been with them for 8 years, never had a problem. It will just be nice to walk into an at&t store and not have to look to see if you accidentally didn't wonder into an Apple store LOL.
A lady I know over at my favorite coffee shop also complains of problems with AT&T data service and dropped calls both at home and at the coffee shop, and she doesn't use an iPhone either.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Even as somebody that owns an iPhone, this was actually my first thought too. I don't have any major problems with AT&T in my area, so whatever.
If your service sucks and your customers hate you, citing studies and statistics won't make them hate you less...
Most of the iPhone users i've talked to say its been just fine on AT&T. I've got an iPhone 4 and it's working great, 3G speeds are plenty fast, and calls haven't dropped at all. Voice sounds bad, and AT&T might be worse in that respect than other carriers, but poor call quality seems to be part of a trend that followed the switch to digital phones, they just sound worse than the older analog ones and definitely worse than landlines.
Most of the AT&T hate seems to be coming from users in large cities like SF and NY. I expect that the signaling issues that TechCrunch and others have reported on that are specific to AT&Ts network are hitting hardest there.
The response by AT&T reminds me of almost every episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Gordon goes in, finds out the food is shit, and the owners always respond "but the customers all tell us the food is great!" (to which Gordon usually responds "What customers?").
Tens of millions. Big deal. There are 4.6 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide as of 2009 according to Wikipedia. Actually, that's pretty sad.
Try getting internet or phone services with them, it's not only a painful experience getting them, but it's a terrible experience just trying to pay them without direct withdrawl. I fought against them for months when I finally won and got the money that they owed me and left them permanently. I haven't ever met anyone who liked their services. Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS have had pretty decent if not excellent (see verizon) customer service for me and my friends. Though you get what you pay for but interestingly enough the pay as you go service (MetroPCS) while insanely cheap, their customer service is pretty good.
It's like Qwest. When you have assholes as your customer representatives you garner no new business(aka the people you talk to when you call Qwest). I will never use qwest again, EVER, I don't care if it's free or almost free... If anyone buys them... I won't use them either. Only shitheads buy shit. A new slogan for Qwest and ATT, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.... It's like binary but only zeros.
Consumer Reports responded in kind that AT&T could shove it's speed tests, considering they were measuring customer satisfaction, and apparently customers could give a good goddamn about how AT&T performed on its own, unverifiable tests when their customer service is horrifying.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Being fickle is a part of the machinery that keeps capitalism viable. How else do you ensure there's competition between the telecom providers? And why else would someone try to make a better phone year after year?
Where is the "Ignorant" mod tag?
My girlfriend and I have been in a long-distance relationship for a while now and communicated almost exclusively via phone at night. Some nights there would be 5-10 dropped calls in a 30 minute period. It didn't matter which side dropped the calls because we both used AT&T. Moreover, even when the dropped call rate was tolerable, the call-quality was very poor. We both finally decided to switch to T-Mobile when our contracts ran out and have never looked back.
Douglas Whitaker
Although there are a couple holes I deal with frequently (service around my cabin and in the city of Winona is pathetic) in general I have better service quality than any of my friends on competing networks everywhere I go (and that's no small amount of travelling both domestically and internationally)
I would have preferred to see a Consumer Reports article that actually did its own investigation than just a survey. As mentioned the iPhone users are a fickle bunch and I don't care how they interpret their service... I want to know how it actually is! Personally I also think other phones are better "phones" despite what the iPhone may or may not do better which could lead to the show of results.
I can tell you I am completely satisfied with ATT, but ONLY when I'm in Brooklyn. In fact, 3G service has better latency than my cable connection through Cablevision.
As soon as I go to Manhattan, ATT provides the most horrible experience I've ever had with a phone.
I'm not totally sure if this is ATTs fault though, for two reasons: 1.) Buildings interfere with cell signal, and 2.) Tons of people there have an iPhone/smartphone.
I find that the latency in Manhattan (especially lower down in Hell's Kitchen, the Village, or near the WTC) can sometimes be atrocious, especially when just coming out of the subway. When you're looking up directions or reviews, you don't want to have to wait a minute for results to come back... That minute can feel like much longer especially if it's freezing cold out.
Does android on verizon or sprint have similar issues, or is it just ATT? Anyone?
Seattle area, iPhone, AT&T, fully satisfied. No problems.
(Plus, the SB baristas all know my drink, so I don't take up time ordering it. :-) )
"Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
Dropped calls of 0.1%? What is that statistic for, where AT&T service is available? The problem is how "gappy" AT&T's coverage is. Within the same town I often find myself going in and out of 3G, or in and out of roaming. That's where my calls of course drop ;)
I'm sure dissatisfaction has a lot to do with the iPhone antenna issue. I'll tell you - I switched from Sprint when I bought an iPhone and I've never been happier. U.S. based call centers. You don't have to wait 30 minutes to talk to a person. And the service just works. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to go back to Sprint.
With Sprint, they double-billed me, tried to blackmail me from leaving by stating that I agreed to a new contract when I did not, and they made me spend countless hours on the phone when I ever had a problem.
I have been happy with my Verizon broadband, but I'd be hard pressed to move away from AT&T based on the fact that I always get an american on the phone and it always happens quickly.
AT&T is a great carrier... TO PEE ON!
The article said AT&T's "dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent – the equivalent of just one call in a thousand – of the industry leader". So if the industry leader drops 5% of the calls, AT&T drops 5.1%.
If Verizon had the iPhone too, albeit the results would be similar. 2GB is a ridiculous monthly cap. $10 for every additional GB? What is this, 1995? OK, throttle bandwidth as needed to deliver QoS, but don't put an artificial per-month cap on my usage.
The main advantage of having the iPhone on Verizon will be that it will drive down data plan prices and drive up caps.
And $20/month extra for tethering? Really AT&T? Go shove it up your ass.
Maybe if AT&T got it right, they wouldn't have anything to complain about. It boggles my mind that you can still use Consumer Report's metrics when choosing your car, because after 100 years of auto industry, some car companies still can't produce a car with full marks across the board. The same applies to cell phone carriers.
What? They must be counting all the minutes you're NOT using your phone as them NOT dropping your call.
In the NYC & North NJ area AT&T's coverage and service is abysmal. AT&T probably would have gotten a worse rating from many of us iPhone users but the survey calls never made it through.
I don't need 58,000 consumer report subscribers to tell you that.
It is so fast, the bits just fly by before anyone realizes it. Calls are not dropped, they merely end before the subscriber does. The problem is 2G subscribers on a 3G network. Subscribers need to upgrade themselves to 3G. Truth is, no one is nearly fast enough for AT&T. Send them all your money, and they will forgive you.
No, I am not a shill; I just play one on the Internet.
Different carriers are better in different areas of the country. Anecdotally, in my experience AT&T is great in the southeast and Sprint sucks. In Northern VA it's the opposite.
Since the iPhone is only available with AT&T, some people who would go with a superior carrier in their area will opt to go with less-desirable AT&T because they want the iPhone. Those who want a different phone or don't care about their phone's brand are going to tend to go with the better carrier, and the data will reflect all of this.
ATT in Manhattan (iPhone 3g):
~40% dropped calls in first 5 minutes. That's right -- 40%
Acceptable data rates: Pandora on high-bw with no buffering stutters.
Customer service: lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.
Conclusion: ATT is UNUSABLE in NYC Metro Area, and I hate, hate, hate them for wasting my time.
Sprint in Manhattan (HTC Hero and HTC Evo)
0% dropped calls. Some loss of signal resulting in dropped calls in some backwoods areas of rural/suburban areas.
Acceptable data rates on 3g: Pandora on high-bw with no buffering stutters.
4g: Available in Brooklyn in the Park Slope area. Insane up and down rates, but 4g connection often flakes, requiring restart of networking services (switch on-off airplane mode).
Customer service: Downright classy. At least right now, intelligent people who don't seem burned out.
Comment on HW: HTC Hero is frustratingly slow.
Conclusion: Sprint on the Evo is the best Phone/Carrier Combination I've ever had. I finally have a device I am truly happy about!
They paid Jobs massive $$$ for exclusive iPhone rights, got a lot of customers, and now their network is overloaded. There's no money left for infrastructure upgrades because Apple has it all!
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
I guess sucking less is a service differentiator.
The top ranked carrier doesn't offer plans in my metro area (9th largest in the country) for some reason. Guess I'm stuck with the majority-suck carriers.
My cable company sucks too - but only due to the price and fact that my VCR is worthless now thanks to the QAM digital change (not the mandated FCC OTA digital change. As an ISP, they offer a great service for a reasonable price. TV service sucks and they charge 100% too much.
I've been on a pay-as-you-go cell plan for personal use for 5 years. If I take all the money for that plan and the phone, then average it out monthly - it is just $2.88/month for the last 5 yrs. I doubt they are making that much off me.
I have T-mobile prepaid. Fewer dropped calls because more often you can't place the call because there's no service at all. On the good side, it's cheap.
Why cant tens of millions be fickle ?
read history ! Of course they can
I think he;s right - the problem isnt AT&T - its the iPhone and the type of person that buys it. Odds on that demographic IS statistically significant in such a survey !
What I like about AT&T:
* They use SIM cards
* They offer the iPhone
What I dislike about AT&T:
* Everything else
I've been with them since they were Cellular One and I had a big old bulky NEC phone - They were great back then. Now, not so much. I'd love to be able to use the iPhone on T Mobile (I know, I can unlock it blah blah blah)
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I had two different iPhones over two years. I experienced dropped calls all the time. It was awful. I hated AT&T. During this time, I even moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and still had the same poor experience. I was ready to leave AT&T. I had friends on AT&T that didn't have iPhones and they said they had a good experience with AT&T. So, I decided to get a new phone. I got a Samsung Focus running Windows Phone 7. Now, my experience is really good. The network seems fast and reliable. No more dropped call issues. I can't speak for everybody. But, this is my experience. I wish I had changed phones sooner. It would've saved me tons of aggravation.
I got hired with Convergys, a company that handles AT&T customer service. During the course of the training, we were told that, yes, AT&T is the most expensive carrier. We learned how AT&T grades their customers, on a scale of 1 to 0 to 5, with 0 being the type of customer they want to lose, the one who always calls with complaints and requesting adjustments. Meanwhile the 5's they will bend over backwards to keep.
The most astounding thing I learned, however, was during a discussion about international roaming charges. The question was posed to the class, "If I take my iPhone to Mexico, and hook up to my brother's wi-fi, will I be charged international roaming?" Of course, I answered no, seeing as how being connected to a private access point means that AT&T is not providing any network service at all, but it turns out I was wrong. We were told that the customer can avoid the charges by not having their SIM card inserted. But if the card is in there, apparently AT&T can charge you for a service they are not providing.
So if the industry leader drops 5% of the calls, AT&T drops 5.1%.
And then T-Mobile in reality drops 51%. But really, what's an order of magnitude between friends?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I second that. I've traveled to the NYC metro area on business trips for many years, and my company has switched providers three times in the past decade. AT&T was the worst, followed by my current carrier, VZW, although they are a quantum leap ahead of AT&T. I had the best coverage, reception and fewest dropped calls with Sprint, but my experience was only a little better than VZW. Put another way, of the carriers I've used in the NYC area, I found Sprint to provide the best service, VZW a close second, and AT&T a dismally distant third.
This isn't the sig you're looking for... Move along.
My phone, wife's phone, son's phone, in the same room in our house, literally within 10 feet of each others. My phone shows four bars, the other two nothing. Happens all the time, just in a different combination. First contract expires in April, at which point we're "phasing out" AT&T.
"Antennas." Antennae are what insects have.
To be fair, AT&T service here is sufficiently bad, that were we the only people with iPhones the problem would never have been discovered.
There's something about Seattle which leads us to get crappy service from telecoms. AT&T, Qwest and Comcast all in the same market. And I'm not sure that the others are any better. Receptionwise, Sprint was actually pretty good in my experience, but that was just for voice, no idea how they are for data.
What? It's not easy or economically viable to make a perfect car at every price range? But they've been around for 100 years! Seriously, even if what you demand wasn't ridiculous, Consumer reports would still be needed because the conception of the perfect car is continuously changing, not to mention that the idea of a perfect car -- or one with "full marks across the board" -- is different to different geographical areas, age groups and genders, so Car reviews would be necessary to if nothing else compare the feature set of each perfect car, so as to inform consumers who should by what.
"Over half of the respondents who used AT&T used the iPhone when taking the survey"
Hmm, and just think about how many of those surveys were never received due to AT&T packet loss.
Customers that demand good service are too expensive and need to be driven out, didn't you get the memo on that?
They've got good coverage in my area and the plan I use is comparable to Verizon's in price and availability. Other customers haven't been so lucky, I suppose, but I haven't had any problems with them.
I did, however, have a horrible time with Sprint in this area.
Haven't had Verizon yet, but AT&T just hasn't given me a reason to leave yet.
I'm really hoping Verizon gets the iPhone because I think a LOT of people will flock to that network. After a year or so, I'll see how the reports look for both sides and make an informed choice...
Verizon better be ready, because AT&T sure had issues with the load they got.
Although in my region too, these days AT&T is actually pretty decent.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Those tens of millions of iPhone subscribers:
They are among perhaps the top 10% richest and most influential mobile subscribers worldwide. Not the kind of people who barely scrape together the money to top up a prepaid SIM in their Nokia.
Competition between the telecom providers? I've heard rumors of that combination of words applying, but I've never actually seen it. Ah, well, I guess I'll just keep on paying a couple dollars less for my DSL than Qwest pays for 40mbps service in other areas and pretend like I'm zooming down the tubes. And pretend that my over priced cellphone provider is actually providing my money's worth.
But, OTOH, free market capitalism and a deregulated telecom industry, is really going to do something for the subscriber...
I am posting this reply from my iPhone 4 on AT&T and I have never had a dr
So the ones who couldn't get through aren't accounted for. It would have been 90% of the respondents...
Meanwhile Apple has to build a second campus to store all their money.
What kind of forklifts do you think they are going to buy, to move their pallets of cash around?
On my AT&T Blackberry, I can't even load a site like Speakeasy.net to test the speed...
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." General James Mattis
Score:+5 extermly poor trolling
warning pointless sig
A GREAT handheld computer, and a LOUSY cell phone. I've been on ATT since pre-cingular days... haven't had dropped calls or speed issues through my LG, Samsung, or other phone(s) and definitly not with my current Galaxy.
I'd stand side-by-side with IPhones since day one and have no issues when they have all had trouble finding a simple connection.
IPhone on Verizon will be interesting... I expect it'll show one of two things... either the IPhone is as I think it is ad it'll do the same as it rolls out across Verizon... or that ATT has been shuffling the IPhone off to bad data lines after it's hit the cell tower.
Even as somebody that owns an iPhone, this was actually my first thought too. I don't have any major problems with AT&T in my area, so whatever.
My ATT "problems" began when I switched from a Motorola phone to an iPhone. Rare phone specific issues, it has all been browser and apps that just shut off in the middle of use.
My experience anyway.
Home of The Suki Series
Profitability has nothing to to with the story at hand.
How much of that profit was made on the back of AT&T?
How much of the network complaints against AT&T are REALLY the fault of the cheap infineon chipset in the iPhones? The mere fact that iPhone users were much less satisfied and rated AT&T much lower than other smartphone owners surely suggests that the iPhone is at least partly to blame.
My dropped call rate has gone to zero since I switched to Android from an iPhone.
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My ATT "problems" began when I switched from a Motorola phone to an iPhone. Rare phone specific issues, it has all been browser and apps that just shut off in the middle of use.
My experience anyway.
Hmmm, my ATT problems ENDED when I switched from iPhone to Android.
Yes, Sir, I think we see a pattern developing here.
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My experience is different. The only place in Seattle I have problems is Safco/Quest during a game. Drop back to Edge, problem solved.
I used to have dropped calls by the airport in SeaTac, but not since I switched to Android from iPhone. Even in the I5 underpass I don't drop calls.
AT&T in NYC and San Francisco may have serious problems, but in Puget sound area, AT&T is solid. If you are still stuck with an iPhone you may still think AT&T sucks, but not more so in Seattle than anywhere else.
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You bought two iPhones plus the Focus in the space of two years? An iPhone is $400 if you haven't served out your two-year sentence, isn't it? Then about $100/mo for service. I'm just curious how much all that cost?
I just came back from a semester abroad in Sydney, Australia. I bought an iPhone 4 there unlocked, and used it every day, chewing through a lot of minutes and using a lot of data. I was on Telstra in Australia, and their 3g network is hands down the best I've ever seem anywhere. During my entire time there (6 months), I didn't drop a single call. I had wonderful service and fast data almost everywhere, and even with low signals (-110dbm and lower) I was able to make and hold good voice conversations.
In New Zealand it was a similar story. I was on the South Island, and used Telecom. Their 3G network was also very good, and fast, though coverage was far more spotty than Telstra in AUS, especially on the west coast. But when I had a signal, I had fast data speeds and didn't drop a call.
Then I flew into LAX. Popped in my AT&T sim, and was very, very dissapointed. 1-2 bars at the airport, dismal data speeds, high latency... and I've been dropping about a call a day :/ I was on a major road near my house outside of Boston yesterday, and dropped a call driving home. GAH!
appleguru.org
Somewhat less than what he's making astroturfing for Microsoft, I would imagine.
I would like to ride the wave with the latest headline catcher. So I will make up some news, and love (than hate because they don't give a free bumper with new iphones) Apple to make headlines. So, in order to save some time here are some headlines of some other "headline" companies" for you: Comcast re-routs all traffic through China's dns. Bank of America forecloses on free-loaders who just had a child. Also, I have a message to all of the complainers: GET OFF OF YOU DAMN PHONE AND ENJOY YOUR SURROUNDINGS! Life is short, walking into a wall because you are on your phone shows that you are wasting your life.
People report it and other smartphones lost to get a new one at a much reduced price through insurance plans. That used to be free back 10 years ago but distributors have noticed the fraud.
Surveys show that the month prior to the yearly iPhone refresh, people report phone problems in a surge. After the phone is out, others trade up their version by selling the old one that was fraudulently reported lost (buyers are usually in a different country friendly to unlocking ). That way, they make up cash and get the new version without even extending their contract.
Youch, I live in Seattle and anytime there is a large gathering of people, i.e. Bumbershoot, sports, there is very little chance of ATT data, 3G or Edge. Usually you can still get voice, but occasionally that fails as well. Also downtown in any of the big buildings has sporadic problems. Now ATT seems to have this fixed in Austin TX... Of course public venues there seem to have higher probability of free WiFi which may take some of the burden.
I recently completed a round the world trip that included the US, Australia, India, sub-Saharan Africa, and the cell phone experience in the US (which was mainly AT&T) was by far the worst. Dropped calls, no coverage in many places for no reason (certain block in NYC, on the freeway).
3G wasn't deployed in Africa when I was there, but for talking I would pick an African carrier over AT&T (or T-Mobile for that matter) any day.
My UID is prime. Hah!
What kind of forklifts do you think they are going to buy, to move their pallets of cash around?
The shiny white mecanum-wheeled ones like you saw in the new Star Trek movie (yeah it's a real thing).
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I am not in love with AT&T, which really sucks, but wait until the iPhone is on Verizon, and I would be surprised if iPhone users were not going to bash that network too in greater proportion, compared to other smart phones.
As an AT&T customer who doesn't use iPhones, I'm convinced that the vast majority of the complaints are due to the iPhone's crap antenna. On both my old HP iPaq 614 and my new Samsung Focus, I've repeatedly looked down and seen 2 "bars" of service when iPhone users next to me are dropping calls. It's purely anecdotal experience, but the sheer volume of it is pretty convincing, from my perspective.
I do hope Verizon eventually gets the iPhone, for two reasons: First, it'll get a lot of the whiners off my network and give me even better data speeds, and second, it'll be endlessly amusing to see their reaction to Verizon Math.
I disagree. I avoid NJ like the plague, but NYC reception has been great for me in all 5 boroughs. Few problems on the street or in tall buildings. Only the subway is a problem.
Verizon's coverage is definitely better in NYC, though, and Sprint's is by far the worst. Just my own personal experience from using all 3 carriers in NYC.
Developers: We can use your help.
iPhone users are a tiny monority of AT&T customers. I used to be one of thir customers, and Cinsumer Report is spot-on. They were the absolute worst cell phone carrier I ever dealt with, and will NEVER use AT&T again.
I had been a happy Cingular customer until the merger, with bills never going over $40. As soon as the merger was completed they jumped by 150%; they started counting minutes as soon as you finished dialing rather than when the other person answered, rounded up the minutes, etc.
I'm on Boost Mobile now, when Im at my friend Mike's house in the boonies he, with AT&T, often has a hard time connecting when he's at home. I have no problem at all.
AT&T should die IMO. They are indeed the worst carrier, and that's saying a lot because most of them are abysmal.
Free Martian Whores!
Where I am located -- a relatively rural area -- AT&T has the best service available. That's my subjective analysis which gives a higher weight to coverage and a low weight to speed because I don't use the phone for anything but making calls and sending messages. If I were a smartphone user, I'd probably care more about speed than I do. If smartphone users are distributed equally through the population, more of them will be in urban areas and signal availability may not be as important.
My brother had no issues with either iPhone or android on AT&T or T Mobile. Everyone else I know bitches about both of those (actually, the 3 other people I know that use T Mobile will never use it again - mostly customer service horror stories).
I used to only hear horror stories about Sprint, so it is good to hear they've improved. I imagine Verizon and AT&T still have better signal support, however (since they have higher penetrating bands). I personally am on Verizon, but I don't own a smart phone and if I did I would switch because Verizon is the most expensive carrier (by $20+). I also don't know anything about US Cellular because they don't have service in my state.
Though well-intentioned, the CRO report is meaningless. I've used four different carriers in the last 12 years. Saying that one is better than another is like saying one of Satan's minions doesn't stick you with the pitchfork as much as another of Satan's minions.
Proverbs 21:19
Not necessarily. You don't need a high credit rating to put the iPhone on your credit card - my credit limit on the first credit card I ever had, aged 18, was big enough to do that. I might not have been able to pay it back at the end of the month, but the credit card company would have been very happy for me to have been in debt at a high interest rate.
Your second point is the same as your first - you need either the cash or the credit to buy the phone. Borrowing $200 is pretty easy though, even for people with little income. Borrowing $200 at a reasonable interest rate is much harder (for anyone - banks don't like lending that little).
The monthly payments sound like quite a lot, but a surprising percentage of Americans seem to manage to spend that much on cable TV per month. You have to be a bit above the poverty line, but not exactly wealthy by first-world standards.
Being in the top 10% worldwide is a red herring - pretty much anyone in the USA or EU is in the wealthiest 10% worldwide. And the top 10% of 4.6 billion is still 460 million - quite a lot more than the number of iPhone customers.
For the record, I just put a new (cheaper) prepay SIm in my (four-year-old) Nokia. I could afford an iPhone and a contract pretty easily, but I don't consider it to be good value for money. A large part of the reason that I could afford it is that I haven't wasted my money on things that are not good value...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
In order to get a cell phone on a monthly plan, you need decent credit. When I went to dump my ex wife off my cell phone plan, they wanted $2k deposit because her credit rating was "bad", and this for an account that had been open and paid routinely for a couple years.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
While driving up to Long Island a month or so ago, I was actually surprised when my VZW, BB Storm rang in the middle of the Lincoln Tunnel. I thought that was physically impossible.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I've had perhaps 6 different phones i've run on AT&T's network, including a work iphone. 5 of them worked great. the iphone was consistently worse. Apple is a software & marketing company. Their RF design is awful in comparison to the Motorolas, HTCs, and Samsungs out there.
My AT&T problems (many, many dropped calls) ended when I switched from Blackberry/AT&T to Android/Verizon.
AT&T's coverage in Utah is notoriously bad. My company uses AT&T as a carrier, and consistently, those who had company-provided phones had problems, and when they dropped the company plan and switched to Verizon, the problems vanished.
When I started looking at switching, I did an informal survey of folks in the office, and those who were on their own plan were on Verizon and reported very few - if any - problems with dropped calls.
I'm very happy that I switched.
Insanity is a gradual process; don't rush it.
I've drive thru Utah, and you are certainly correct that their coverage is thin there and in Nevada, other than population centers.
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I live in Salt Lake City and would check the signal riding between SLC and Provo, and even along I-15 (which is one of two major freeways in Utah), there was a strong propensity to drop calls multiple times along that 40 mile stretch of road, right where the bulk of the Utah population lives.
Insanity is a gradual process; don't rush it.
Not when they install micro-cells or repeaters inside the tunnel. Look up sometime when you're not driving.
+++OK ATH
I have looked at the ceiling, never saw any of them, but I had heard they were in some tunnels.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Yup... lots of tunnels have better cell-network engineering than the out-of-doors, a few feet outside of the tunnel. :-) Lots of places also have XM/Sirius base stations in tunnels and areas where Satellite coverage is piss-poor too, but only newer XM/Sirius receivers can use that signal effectively. My stock XM (pre-merger) receiver in my truck, doesn't.
+++OK ATH
LOL. I only ever had bad service on my iphone when I was in some place like Yosemite and even then, I managed to get a few emails and tweets in and out.
Daily News http://newsblaze.com
You are just too good at explaining things! I have found this extremely useful. Please keep us posted.