AT&T Service Is Crazy Bad; 30% dropped calls in NYC

I wasn’t going to bother saying anything but everytime I look at this article from Gizmodo, I am simply astonished.

30% Dropped Calls is Normal?

On Tuesday, Gizmodo described how one of their readers was having dropped call problems with his iPhone 3G (this rings echoes of our network speed post). After contacting AT&T and AT&T saying that everything was fine, the reader went down to his local New York City Apple Store thinking it was a hardware problem. After the Apple Genius did some tests to the device, it was noted that the phone dropped an astonishing 22% of phone calls! Even more crazy, that 22% is apparently “normal” according to the Apple Genius.

Also, the reader noted that the rate of dropped calls was actually higher, around the 30% range, because he has the tendency to manually end the call when a call begins to drop. I find a 30% drop call rate completely unacceptable.

To add insult to injury, AT&T has recently began to offer its 3G MicroCell box to boost cellular service in your home or elsewhere. Just consider that for a second; AT&T provides the cellular service and you pay for said service. Then AT&T service coverage is horrible so instead of AT&T fixing their flaws, the company says the customer can pay MORE per month and fix it themselves. What?!

This is an AT&T failure, not a customer failure and should be completely covered and fixed at the expense of AT&T.

I actually had the privilege of speaking with an AT&T customer about cellular coverage on a recent trip to Seattle, and the man was almost in tears. He was paying $130+ per month.

Rogers vs. AT&T

I contrasted this with my service from Rogers and I can honestly say that in the three years I have been using iPhones (including the first gen), I have only received approximately five dropped calls (not counting obvious areas where there is no cellular service). FIVE calls! AT&T customers are receiving up to a 30% drop call rate (in NYC)! That is insane, disgusting, unbelievable, [insert word here].

So, community, are you receiving a 30% drop call rate with Rogers/Fido? Higher? Lower? Be honest and do not start flame wars. Okay, thanks! (To put it into perspective, if you make 35 calls per day, that means 10 – 11 of your calls are dropped per day.)

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