Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T's reaction to Verizon
- Thread starter wordoflife
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm not a current Verizon customer as I believe Sprint is a much better deal but I've been one in the past before I got my iPhone and there's a lot of nonsense being spread around.
-Verizon does not cripple their smartphones nor do they install their GUI on them. Yea your smartphone might by default have a Verizon theme but that can be changed in 15 seconds. They have in the past locked down GPS to work only with their navigation software but they've released a patch for many of their older smartphones to unlock the GPS and all of their new smartphones the GPS is unlocked. Besides that all of their smartphones are just as functional as they would be on any other network.
-Verizon's EVDO is speed wise about on par with AT&T's 3G in my real world experiences. AT&T's theoretical speeds might blow Verizon's out of the water, but we're talking real world here. I remember many of times I had a solid 3G signal where the data crawled.
-If you're streaming on EVDO or using data and somebody calls you the call does NOT go to voicemail. The data is paused and the call rings through normally. Even on Verizon's 1x the call still goes to the phone and pauses data. AT&T's 3G has the advantage to do both voice/data at the same time however I have not once needed that feature. If you're in a position to where you find you're having to browse the web while talking on the phone stick with AT&T. For the 99% of us who don't care we just don't care.
-AT&T's EDGE does not do voice/data at the same time and if you're streaming data or there's data being transmitted on EDGE when a call comes in it goes straight to voicemail. This is a big fail considering AT&T's poor 3G coverage. Even in areas covered with 3G on a map I still found countless 3G deadspots where only EDGE worked. My home is one of them. That explains the number of voicemails that popped up without my phone ever ringing. To make matters worse I found out AT&T could enable the phone to ring during an active EDGE session but they disabled that feature on their network. T-mobile has the feature enabled and calls go through just fine while using EDGE or 3G.
-Verizon does not cripple their smartphones nor do they install their GUI on them. Yea your smartphone might by default have a Verizon theme but that can be changed in 15 seconds. They have in the past locked down GPS to work only with their navigation software but they've released a patch for many of their older smartphones to unlock the GPS and all of their new smartphones the GPS is unlocked. Besides that all of their smartphones are just as functional as they would be on any other network.
-Verizon's EVDO is speed wise about on par with AT&T's 3G in my real world experiences. AT&T's theoretical speeds might blow Verizon's out of the water, but we're talking real world here. I remember many of times I had a solid 3G signal where the data crawled.
-If you're streaming on EVDO or using data and somebody calls you the call does NOT go to voicemail. The data is paused and the call rings through normally. Even on Verizon's 1x the call still goes to the phone and pauses data. AT&T's 3G has the advantage to do both voice/data at the same time however I have not once needed that feature. If you're in a position to where you find you're having to browse the web while talking on the phone stick with AT&T. For the 99% of us who don't care we just don't care.
-AT&T's EDGE does not do voice/data at the same time and if you're streaming data or there's data being transmitted on EDGE when a call comes in it goes straight to voicemail. This is a big fail considering AT&T's poor 3G coverage. Even in areas covered with 3G on a map I still found countless 3G deadspots where only EDGE worked. My home is one of them. That explains the number of voicemails that popped up without my phone ever ringing. To make matters worse I found out AT&T could enable the phone to ring during an active EDGE session but they disabled that feature on their network. T-mobile has the feature enabled and calls go through just fine while using EDGE or 3G.
My business phone is Verizon. No dropped calls at all in ten years. It's always my kids on ATT that lose the connection between us.
Of course there are always exceptions, but with with everything else being equal (towers, location, etc), CDMA phones won't drop calls like GSM ones do.
CDMA by nature is usually connected to more than one tower. As you move, it uses a soft handoff technique... it connects to the next tower while still using the original. Losing a connection is almost unheard of. It also handles more people, so again, fewer drops.
GSM is only connected to one tower at a time. When you move, it does a hard handoff... it drops the current connection before it switches towers. That's when call drops happen the most.
CDMA's superiority in user and bandwidth capacity is the reason why GSM carriers used WCDMA for 3G.
I have AT&T and most of my friends have Verizon or Sprint. When we go on trips, there has never been a time when I had service and they didn't. There were however many times when I didn't have service and they did. Also, they have never had a dropped call and I never did either when I was on Sprint. Now I average about 2-3 a week and I only use about 200 mins a month.
Even better would be a DATA based plan instead of a VOICE based plan. For an industry that promotes itself as having all the latest cutting edge technology, why do I still HAVE to have a voice plan before I do anything else? It's not 1988 anymore.
Fight! I love watching competition, we always win. Where is that MJ popcorn .gif when you need it?
AT&T is like a mentally challenged swordsman armed with the best weaponry fighting a highly trained warrior (Verizon) who is armed with sticks and twigs.
I think a better ad campaign should be AT&T saying "We have the iPhone, neener, neener, neener, youuuuu can't have it" and then show a picture of a tall kid in an AT&T outfit taunting a short kid in Verizon outfit by holding the phone over his head and he jumps up and can't grab it.
AT&T is like a mentally challenged swordsman armed with the best weaponry fighting a highly trained warrior (Verizon) who is armed with sticks and twigs.
I think a better ad campaign should be AT&T saying "We have the iPhone, neener, neener, neener, youuuuu can't have it" and then show a picture of a tall kid in an AT&T outfit taunting a short kid in Verizon outfit by holding the phone over his head and he jumps up and can't grab it.
Because an average user really travels to a country every day/week? And really needs the global coverage.
I've used CDMA phones before on Telus in Canada and had plenty of dropped calls. Don't know if it's only Verizon phones that are immune to dropped calls but judging by my experience on Telus, dropped calls is a reality on CDMA phones. Funny thing is Telus is moving on over to GSM along with Bell, who are the only CDMA providers in Canada and are also getting the iphone in the process. You can't even talk on the phone and use data at the same time with CDMA, something you can do on GSM phones.
I've used CDMA phones in the past and had plenty of dropped calls. Now that I'm using the iphone which is GSM, I haven't noticed any difference between them.
Every cell phone company claims to have "the best coverage".
ATT may be the choice for traveling outside the country... but not within. I'm not having as many dropped calls as I thought I would when I switched from Sprint to ATT... but it is noticeably worse.
But I must admit, I have been waiting for ATT's response to Verizon's new attacks. Nice work!
ATT may be the choice for traveling outside the country... but not within. I'm not having as many dropped calls as I thought I would when I switched from Sprint to ATT... but it is noticeably worse.
But I must admit, I have been waiting for ATT's response to Verizon's new attacks. Nice work!
Then buy yourself one of those Verizon blackberries --- they are true global phones with both CDMA and GSM chipsets built-in.
As I said, there will be exceptions. If Telus had a poor tower or backhaul or lack of frequencies, then you'd have problems. If there's a missing tower blackhole, then you'd have problems. If you work in a basement, ditto.
But if everything else is equal (towers etc), CDMA will not have anywhere near the dropped calls that GSM will have, because CDMA is technically designed in such a way so that dropping isn't a common failure mode.
Interesting story on Macworld:
AT&T exec implies iPhone exclusivity in U.S. to end
Who knows exactly what is going on between Verizon and Apple, but it's definitely been odd reading quotes over the past two months.
While I have ripped into AT&T (and they deserve it), no single carrier could handle the data usage of iPhone users and that includes Verizon. If it turns out to be true, the ending of carrier exclusivity is the best thing that could happen to all parties involved.
AT&T exec implies iPhone exclusivity in U.S. to end
Who knows exactly what is going on between Verizon and Apple, but it's definitely been odd reading quotes over the past two months.
While I have ripped into AT&T (and they deserve it), no single carrier could handle the data usage of iPhone users and that includes Verizon. If it turns out to be true, the ending of carrier exclusivity is the best thing that could happen to all parties involved.
The carriers have to love Android. It's their ace in the hole when dealing with Apple.
A girl can only play hard to get for a while, before her suitors go elsewhere.
LOL, I agree. It seems everyone is using it as a bargaining chip. It also funny how Verizon and AT&T were originally lukewarm about Android. At the same point this has to anger Apple even more at Google.
The only problem that the carriers have is that the iPhone is instant gold to whoever carries it (especially exclusivity). The flipside of that coin is that it's also been at the forefront (along with Google) of pushing the networks to officially become dumb pipes.
The carriers are between a rock and a hard place. They hate both Google and Apple. They have been battling with Google about net neutrality for a long time now and have to make a deal with them for Android. I also find it funny that AT&T says Android might be best suited for them yet they are astroturfing on Google Voice.
It's fun to sit back and see how this is all going to play out.
I have been enjoying reading all the responses here. Just wanted to remind everyone that the apple iphone is a solid product to start with. I do think its sad they only put it on ATT since this exclusivity hinders its growth. Competition is only now coming around and this will benefit all of us. I have 11 phones and cards with VZ because for my team across five NE states they are the fastest & efficient in that we get 3g and the phone calls on even one bar of reception with no cutting out. So for me VZ have proven themselves. Other countries like germany and canada have enjoyed the iphone on multiple carriers along with mms and tethering a long time ago. Imagine that iphone users had to wait this long for such a simple feature as mms. Competition is needed, lets get Apple to put aside a few $$$ handshakes and open it up to all that can handle it.