I was riding the train home from work the other day and I started to wonder, is AT&T wireless voice and data service getting worse? Or is my tolerance for the crappy service diminishing? As I sat on the train, trying to Google search for something on my iPhone, I looked over at someone with a Verizon mobile broadband card and he was remotely managing some Windows systems. I'm barely able to pull up Google search results on my iPhone and he's using CoRD (on his Mac) to RDP to his systems with no problems whatsoever.
To top it off, I spend most of my days in an office that is absolute telephone hell. I've got a Sprint phone and my AT&T iPhone and I can't use either of them while sitting at my desk. Making matters worse, I've got a Nortel VOIP phone there that only works intermittently as well. WTF?! If it weren't for my current attachment to OmniFocus on my Mac and iPhone, I think I'd ditch the crappy AT&T service. What are the chances the Omni Group will ever come out with an Android version of OmniFocus?
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I can't comment on alternate service, but I can confirm that AT&T service is getting worse on my train line.
While it is nice they added service in the subway, it is limited to edge data and it spotty between stations. So if you are in a station, you can text and do VERY limited data, but that is about it. No 3G. And don't even try having a call while moving through the dead spots between stations...
However, once above ground, the data service drops off WAY more often. And this is on the red line between Armitage & Fullerton. Not exactly out in the middle of nowhere.
In general I find that if you are moving it works very poorly. If you are sitting at a station and you actually have 3G (yes, @ Fullerton I often get edge only -- which is basically useless) you get reasonable response times.
Makes me wonder if they have implemented any kind of data handoff like they do with voice? For instance, perhaps the cells are so close together that you are hopping from one tower to the next at short intervals. Now, if you were on a voice call, the system knows how to hand off the voice call. Does it hand off the data request? So you type in www.cnn.com or whatever, move into a new cell, and the response is going to the tower you just left. The icon keeps spinning, etc. But if you refresh - bam, you get a response -- especially if you are moving slow or stopped in a station.
So are you crazy? No.
Is it getting worse? Having had the original iPhone and now a 3Gs, I'd have to say Yes.
I was really hoping for a better iPad data option so I'd switch back to a regular phone. After a few years, the phone integration is nice, but I can live w/o it. One other option I'm considering is getting a clear.com wimax account plus the $140 wifi to wimax access point box. Then no more AT&T, I'd always be on wifi -- but with one more thing to charge in addition to the phone. Going this route you could hack your phone, go tmobile (never used them so YMMV) w/o data plan.
You can keep hoping that the exclusivity ends this year...
You can hope that a verizon iPhone is in the works for later this year...
who knows. Apple will do whatever makes them the most $. Too bad they've given up on the "total user experience" idea that made them a success in the first place. But, for now, I'll keep buying their stuff 'cause it is still better than the other guy's stuff.
And no, I don't have Apple stock anymore ;)
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