These days, it seems like every gadget blog and online tech forum all have one thing in common when it comes to the iPhone, they love the iPhone but absolutely loathe ATT. User comments generally go along those lines with the requisite "i'm going to dump ATT as soon as the iPhone comes out on Verizon." Now i'm by no means an ATT fan for a variety of reasons but I can't help but think this is a typical case of the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
I'll be the first to admit that the iPhone plans offered by ATT are expensive by any standards but even more so when compared to the iPhone plans offered in other countries. I know for a fact that Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan offers an iPhone plan starting at approximately $30/month. Even compared to other ATT plans, iPhone users are paying a premium for the plans they are getting. That beings said, ATT is subsidizing an expensive piece of hardware and I can't really blame them for trying to make a profit off of their investments.
ATT's inability to keep up with the iPhone's features like MMS or tethering etc. has also been a source of complaints levied against ATT, especially when compared to other countries who have already implemented these features. Again, I don't have hard numbers to back up my claims but I really doubt the other countries telecom companies have as large of an iPhone customer base in as vast of an area as the United States. The only country I can think of that comes close is China and last i checked they just began to officially offer the iPhone a month ago. So while ATT is lagging behind other telecom companies in this sense, i'm willing to give them a pass because they're in a no-win situation. If they rushed to roll out MMS and tethering before they were sure their networks could handle the inevitable rush of traffic and it collapsed, the resulting PR nightmare would be just as bad, if not worse than if they took their time to make sure their networks could handle it.
By far the biggest complain against ATT is that their networks suck compared to Verizon's network. I'll be the first to admit that i've never used Verizon because I go to Asia a lot and need my phone to support GSM and not CDMA. But I have a lot of friends that are with Verizon and I have not encountered one instance where I didn't have signal and my Verizon counterparts did. Until the Droid comes out, Verizon does not have a phone that has the multi-media, internet capabilities of the iPhone and even then, it will take years, if ever, before the network demands of Droid users come close to the sheer number of people with iPhones. If all these iPhone users were on Verizon's network, whose to say they wouldn't encounter the same problems? I know for a fact that prior to the iPhone, i never once accessed the internet from my phone and I now avg about 400 MB of data usage per month and I'm pretty sure i'm not alone in that regard. That astronomical increase creates a huge burden on any network.
ATT is by no means perfect but every time I hear these complaints about them, I feel slightly indignant for ATT because I do feel that they're working on improving their network infrastructure. This is 100% anecdotal but when I first got my iphone, my house was pretty much a complete dead zone with spotty reception at best and now i have 75%-100% full bars throughout the house and haven't had a dropped call in my house since. I do hope Verizon offers the iPhone as well simply because competition would result in better deals on iPhone plans for us, the customer. I won't hesitate to switch to Verizon's iPhone plan if it is a better deal. And if nothing else, the exodus of iPhone users on ATT networks would help alleviate the network congestion on ATTs networks.
I'll be the first to admit that the iPhone plans offered by ATT are expensive by any standards but even more so when compared to the iPhone plans offered in other countries. I know for a fact that Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan offers an iPhone plan starting at approximately $30/month. Even compared to other ATT plans, iPhone users are paying a premium for the plans they are getting. That beings said, ATT is subsidizing an expensive piece of hardware and I can't really blame them for trying to make a profit off of their investments.
ATT's inability to keep up with the iPhone's features like MMS or tethering etc. has also been a source of complaints levied against ATT, especially when compared to other countries who have already implemented these features. Again, I don't have hard numbers to back up my claims but I really doubt the other countries telecom companies have as large of an iPhone customer base in as vast of an area as the United States. The only country I can think of that comes close is China and last i checked they just began to officially offer the iPhone a month ago. So while ATT is lagging behind other telecom companies in this sense, i'm willing to give them a pass because they're in a no-win situation. If they rushed to roll out MMS and tethering before they were sure their networks could handle the inevitable rush of traffic and it collapsed, the resulting PR nightmare would be just as bad, if not worse than if they took their time to make sure their networks could handle it.
By far the biggest complain against ATT is that their networks suck compared to Verizon's network. I'll be the first to admit that i've never used Verizon because I go to Asia a lot and need my phone to support GSM and not CDMA. But I have a lot of friends that are with Verizon and I have not encountered one instance where I didn't have signal and my Verizon counterparts did. Until the Droid comes out, Verizon does not have a phone that has the multi-media, internet capabilities of the iPhone and even then, it will take years, if ever, before the network demands of Droid users come close to the sheer number of people with iPhones. If all these iPhone users were on Verizon's network, whose to say they wouldn't encounter the same problems? I know for a fact that prior to the iPhone, i never once accessed the internet from my phone and I now avg about 400 MB of data usage per month and I'm pretty sure i'm not alone in that regard. That astronomical increase creates a huge burden on any network.
ATT is by no means perfect but every time I hear these complaints about them, I feel slightly indignant for ATT because I do feel that they're working on improving their network infrastructure. This is 100% anecdotal but when I first got my iphone, my house was pretty much a complete dead zone with spotty reception at best and now i have 75%-100% full bars throughout the house and haven't had a dropped call in my house since. I do hope Verizon offers the iPhone as well simply because competition would result in better deals on iPhone plans for us, the customer. I won't hesitate to switch to Verizon's iPhone plan if it is a better deal. And if nothing else, the exodus of iPhone users on ATT networks would help alleviate the network congestion on ATTs networks.