AT&T iPhone 3G

ST, they are still installing 3G in Bama, just taking some time. Bald Guy will talk to our mutual friend who does this for AT&T sooner than I, so I will have him to ask him about it.

Link

3g rollout will concentrate in the most populated areas first, then filter out to smaller locations. In other words, don't expect it for another year or so.

I get 3G in Decatur...I guess it's my proximity to Huntsville.

yes I am aware that Alabama is still in the process of getting it. I just would have thought that they would have added more coverage in the last 6 months but the 3G map has looked the same for about 6 months now. Decatur got it with Huntsville. The funny thing is it reaches to this side of Athens and I have been hoping the blue with creep this way but it hasnt moved. The AT&T rep that I talked to said 3-6 months. I can handle, hopefully closer to 3 though.

Link

Don't know about AT&T, but T-Mobile is just now starting to roll it out. B'ham gets it first. We won't be seeing 3G for some time to come.

quote:

Originally posted by Small talker:
yes I am aware that Alabama is still in the process of getting it. I just would have thought that they would have added more coverage in the last 6 months but the 3G map has looked the same for about 6 months now. Decatur got it with Huntsville. The funny thing is it reaches to this side of Athens and I have been hoping the blue with creep this way but it hasnt moved. The AT&T rep that I talked to said 3-6 months. I can handle, hopefully closer to 3 though.

Did you see the press release link I made? new 3g coverage will only occur in Auburn and Tuscaloosa. Birmingham's coverage will expand towards the north. Muscle Shoals, Phil Campbell, Russleville, Hamilton, Double Springs and Bear Creek will get additional coverage, but that does not mean 3G coverage.

As I mentioned they will add coverage where there are the most people who will likely use it so using that logic After Auburn/Opelika and Tuscaloosa, the next areas would likely be Gadsden, Anniston/Oxford, Dothan and the Shoals area. don't expect anything until 2010, or 11.

i've had my 3g 8525 for two years now, still waiting.

I know this is an old thread but it looks like ATT would come out cheaper to go ahead and get 3g in our area. I am sure once that class action law suit is settled, ATT would have come out cheaper to get 3g here instead of advertising something that they can't provide or won't be able to.

Is Sprint 3G available here? They are claiming the largest 3G network.

The lawsuits filed against AT&T, including the one that was filed in Alabama courts were dealing with the idea that AT&T was doing false advertising by saying the 3g iphone was twice as fast as the original edge version, not coverage. As I mentioned before their strategy was to take care of the most populated places first, and slowly build up the speed, which to their credit has also somewhat filtered down to the edge network as well. (thus making their claim of fastest technically correct) Again, you'll get it eventually, but not for another year or so.

As far as sprint, they haven't said they are the largest in a few years, just that they cover more people. Largest in actual coverage would be Verizon, but only because they purchased Alltel late last year.

As a side note, Verizons and Sprint's 3g coverage is virtually identical as they both had peering/roaming agreements with Alltel before the Verizon purchase. To answer CrustyMac's question, there is a limited amount of 3g in the area due to relying on Verizon/Alltel's network in the area, however its limited to their broadband users for the most part due to the added costs.

I have at&t and have waited and waited for 3G in Lauderdale County. If it weren't for my company affiliation discount and combined services discount, I would have switched to Verizon, who has broadband in the area. at&t can't even roll out DSL to populated areas, much less wireless 3G. A pity, really. Perhaps they should spend less on advertising and more on enhancing their equipment.

Amen, brother, Bob_White, ATT continually sends me advertising materials for DSL and 3G, well bring it on ATT or stop advertising it! Been begging for DSL service for 8 years with no plans in site from ATT. ATT talked me into purchasing their wireless broadband internet with the promise that I would have 1.5 Mbs service. Wrong!! I had to cancel and get out of that contract (act of Congress!!). I now have Verizon wireless broadband which is better but a long way from DSL or cable. Charter Cable will not upgrade their services to provide internet and ATT will not provide DSL, so the areas that are served by Charter is just out of luck!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Small talker:
Anyone have any idea when the shoals area is gonna get 3G service? It seems to me that At&t has just stopped installing 3G in Alabama. I could be wrong. I thought we would have the upgrade by now since 3G phones have been out for almost 9 months. I will be a happy camper the day it happens because the edge network is terrible!

I've got the 2.0 iphone and the edge is slower than a herd of turtles.

I don't have an iPhone but have looked into getting it. One reason I didn't was that even though we don't have 3G speed and service here they still charge you as if you did (at least from what I've heard). Not quite customer friendly is it, if that's the case.

I live in Huntsville, where we have very spotty 3G coverage. I don't have an iPhone 3G, but many of my friends do. They're always complaining about dropped calls and unreliable data coverage. So it doesn't sound like you guys are really missing much.

My advice to you is to wait until Verizon has their version of the iPhone, which has been long rumored. It's been said to be released within a year, which will probably be a much shorter timeframe than AT&T putting up enough 3G towers in the Shoals.

If you don't want to wait, you would probably have a lot better luck with the Palm Pre or one of the phones running Google Android. You're likely to get far better service with those as opposed to anything on AT&T.

T-Mobile's 3g network is even smaller than At&t's and Sprint does not offer it in the area and has no plans to expand it in the area (it now is a two party decision since Sprint outsourced their network to Ericsson) and if you wait to next year for the slim chance that the AT&T deal is discontinued next year you would deal with an even longer wait as the next one will probably use LTE instead of CDMA. I'm not trying to be funny. In the end you either want the phone or you are going to wait with just about any one else.

My iPhone 3G is absolutely horrible! I'm actually thinking of paying the $175 to get out of my contract. I've had mine for a year now and I think it's pretty sad that you can hardly get any coverage at all inside the Walmart in Muscle Shoals when the dang AT&T store is in the same parking lot. And the 3G thing is a joke! I can try to check my email at work and be inside of Muscle Shoals City Limits and it can take up to 5 to 10 minutes just for the emails to download. And forget about trying to download over half the apps, some take as long as 20 to 30 minutes to download. I don't think it's worth the money for the phone ($200 when I bought mine) or worth the $100/month service.

Wow, dntblnk! Maybe you have a bum phone. Make an appointment to go the apple store in Bridgestreet (Huntsville) and they may replace it. I've read good stories online of them replacing defective phones for free w/ no hassle.

I've had no problem with my phone whatsoever. I usually get my emails quicker than they come through on outlook. My apps (depending on the size) usually take about 30 seconds to d/l.

The folks that work the genius bar at the apple store are very helpful and very nice. You can make an appt online. My S.O. had a problem with his phone and we were in & out of the store w/i 20 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by dntblnk:
My iPhone 3G is absolutely horrible! I'm actually thinking of paying the $175 to get out of my contract. I've had mine for a year now and I think it's pretty sad that you can hardly get any coverage at all inside the Walmart in Muscle Shoals when the dang AT&T store is in the same parking lot. And the 3G thing is a joke! I can try to check my email at work and be inside of Muscle Shoals City Limits and it can take up to 5 to 10 minutes just for the emails to download. And forget about trying to download over half the apps, some take as long as 20 to 30 minutes to download. I don't think it's worth the money for the phone ($200 when I bought mine) or worth the $100/month service.

Which is exactly why I paid a prorated early termination fee, left at&t and went to Verizon. I have waited three years for at&t to roll-out 3G in the Shoals area while my Verizon friends were enjoying broadband speeds. Now, I'm waiting on Verizon's 4G service

You'll be waiting a while for 4G too.

Yes, they will start rolling it out next year, but no one has created a LTE phone yet. Verizon has even stated that they expect CDMA2000 to be their primary standard until at least 2014. More than likely when it comes to the area, it's going to be on the edge of that 2014 completion date.

Switching is your own business, but It may have been a mistake if you think that you be able to get something new in the next two years.

quote:

Originally posted by ryokurin:
You'll be waiting a while for 4G too.

Yes, they will start rolling it out next year, but no one has created a LTE phone yet. Verizon has even stated that they expect CDMA2000 to be their primary standard until at least 2014. More than likely when it comes to the area, it's going to be on the edge of that 2014 completion date.

Switching is your own business, but It may have been a mistake if you think that you be able to get something new in the next two years.

Unless the something "new" you're looking for is 3G coverage, which Verizon definitely has in this area, and AT&T doesn't. Due to the infrastructure already in place, it wouldn't shock me if Verizon's 4G shows up here before AT&T manages to get 3G.

No I was referring to 4G. And since your brought it up, it's likely that what happened to at&t on 3g will happen to Verizon on 4g. To understand this, you have to look back at history, and understand how the protocols work.

let's go back to 2003, when 3G was a ways away, and the predominant technology was EVDO (Verizon) and EDGE (at&t) If you look at coverage today, they are essentially equal, minus areas sprinkled around the country where one or the other have limited radio spectrum.

Now, let's step it up to 2006 when 3G was widely introduced, in this situation, EDGE was the technology dead end, and Verizon's EVDO network was software upgradable to CDMA2000. This resulted in at&t having to build a new network from scratch, and Verizon only having to improve tower backhaul. A lot cheaper and quicker then what at&t had to do, especially when you realize that the technology that at&t chose UMTS requires a denser population of towers and was not compatible with the phones that were existing at the time, unlike CDMA2000.

Now here comes 2010, where Verizon plans to roll out LTE. At&t also plans on doing this in 2011 when they finish rolling out 3g. Now before you say they are slacking, like most people who are clueless do, It's important to note that this time CDMA2000 is the technology dead end, and just like at&t had to do in the 06-12 time frame, they have to build a new network from scratch and increase tower density. UMTS is the software upgradable system.

so whats going to end up happening is in 2011, when a LTE phone is actually produced, and everyone is wanting 4G phones, the Verizon network will likely look similar to what at&t's 3g network looks like now (small, but still around 75% of the US population) and at&t's will look like the Verizon 3g network does now, or roughly what their edge network looks like now.

I'm saying this as a Verizon customer. at&t's issue wasn't being cheap and slacking, it was just being behind the technology 8-ball, especially in dealing with a 5000% increase in data traffic in two years time. No one can prepare for that. If you jumped to Verizon in preparation of 4g, you may end up being disappointed. and again, my educated guess is that when it comes, it will be near the end of their roll out period, somewhere in 2013-14.

From what I've seen on the web AT&T's exclusivity contract with Apple runs through this year and ends at the end of 2009 which would free up the possibility of agreements between Apple and other carriers such as T-Mobile and more likely Verizon.

T-Mobile doesn't have 3G in the Shoals, and probably won't for a while.

Im not sure how that 3g thing works but its very popular, just not with ATT. Everyone I know who has ATT is/was very dissatisfied and couldnt wait to get with another provider. I know not every provider covers every time everywhere, but ATT really is the most unreliable...
Whether tis the blackberry or the 3g, cellphones sure have come a long way, havent they?!

quote:

Originally posted by ryokurin:
You'll be waiting a while for 4G too.

Yes, they will start rolling it out next year, but no one has created a LTE phone yet. Verizon has even stated that they expect CDMA2000 to be their primary standard until at least 2014. More than likely when it comes to the area, it's going to be on the edge of that 2014 completion date.

Switching is your own business, but It may have been a mistake if you think that you be able to get something new in the next two years.

I'm glad my comment encouraged you to write about the technologies. I did learn something. However, I "never" stated that I switched because of the potential of a 4G network from Verizon. I switched because I wanted access to a 3G network, and at&t did/does not offer that. My statement on waiting on Verizon's 4G network was a general comment and is not something I'm concerned with at this time. If, 2-4 years from now, at&t has 4G and Verizon is lagging, I'll just switch back to at&t. Simple as that. Doesn't cost much, if anything, to switch after end of contract.

Go with Verizon. AT&T sucks big time.

I have wireless internet with Verizon and it is just dandy. You install a tiny device about 21/2 inches by 1 inch by 1/2 inch that requires a simple USB connection. The software installtion is a snap. A bit expensive but well worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by beternU:
Go with Verizon. AT&T sucks big time.

I have wireless internet with Verizon and it is just dandy. You install a tiny device about 21/2 inches by 1 inch by 1/2 inch that requires a simple USB connection. The software installtion is a snap. A bit expensive but well worth it.

UNBELIEVABLE! Just scant minutes after I posted the above, I started having all kinds of problems with my wireless service. Not to worry, though. I called Verizon customer service and a very nice lady with no foreign accent whatsoever doped the problem out right away. Seems there was some kind of systemic problem affecting parts of north Alabama and Georgia. They fixed it and all is well. Good work Verizon. AT&Trouble still sucks.

quote:

Originally posted by CrustyMac:
T-Mobile doesn't have 3G in the Shoals, and probably won't for a while.

t-mobile rolled out 3g last week in Florence.

I swapped from Verizon to ATT a few years ago. Verizon would not work at my home or even on the highway in front of my home 7 miles from Muscle Shoals. I put up with them and then swapped to ATT which works fine. I have noticed the past few times when traveling to H'ville that the 3G service wasn't as good as it had been the first of this year. I still don't believe Verizon has 3g in my area or I would swap back in a second.

quote:

Originally posted by HARLEY FLSTS:
I swapped from Verizon to ATT a few years ago. Verizon would not work at my home or even on the highway in front of my home 7 miles from Muscle Shoals. I put up with them and then swapped to ATT which works fine. I have noticed the past few times when traveling to H'ville that the 3G service wasn't as good as it had been the first of this year. I still don't believe Verizon has 3g in my area or I would swap back in a second.

Well, it just might be that you are smack dab in one of the areas where AT&Trouble DOES have 3G. I am happy for you that you found what you need. But I suspect that now, a fewe years having passed, Verizon likely has good 3G service where you are. Overall, Verizon has geographic coverage FAR superior to AT&Trouble.

quote:

Originally posted by James Holden:


t-mobile rolled out 3g last week in Florence.

Proof? Maps don't show it. Not seeing a press release, and personally saying, Hunstville could use better coverage first. If you saw it in the store, they likely are using a fentocell to simulate it in the store.

I use tmobile & have been getting 3G for the past two weeks.