Monday, December 14, 2009

AT&T Takes the Fall for the iPhone’s Glitches

The New York Times writes AT&T Takes the Fall for the iPhone’s Glitches.

"Roger Entner, senior vice president for telecommunications research at Nielsen, said the iPhone’s ‘air interface,’ the electronics in the phone that connect it to the cell towers, had shortcomings that ‘affect both voice and data.’"

"The results place AT&T’s data network not just on top, but well ahead of everyone else. “AT&T’s data throughput is 40 to 50 percent higher than the competition, including Verizon,” Mr. Carter said"

"This year, Root Wireless ran 4.7 million tests on smartphones for each of the four major carriers, spread across seven metropolitan areas: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles/Orange County, New York, Seattle/Tacoma, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington. In every market, AT&T had faster average download speeds and had signal strength of 75 percent or better more frequently than did Verizon. "

I don't have much problems believing this. When the iPhone 3G came out, I didn't get signal in my house with one, in spite of the fact AT&T has 6 3G towers within 1.5 miles of me. A few months later when Apple updated the software to 2.1 I got some coverage at home (and I went out and bought an iPhone that afternoon).

Update: ars has a followup.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The problem is that most of the complaints I see about AT&T are related to dropped calls, and this article is talking about their data network.