Network Quality

[woody9]

I had a demo of the iPhone at a local AT&T store tonight. First, I noticed that the speed of loading a web page even on a high powered local network was not satisfactory. As the salesman dazzled me with all the features (which I love), I noticed that the phone aspect of the iPhone was not being discussed. So I asked him to demo the audio quality of a phone call. He fumbled and stumbled, because AT&T had not had the foresight to make the audio quality of their network a feature of their demo. Here I was in a retail phone store! Has anyone had a chance to listen to phone calls? What do you think of the audio quality compared to other cell phones?

 

[kcadam]

I had a demo of the iPhone at a local AT&T store tonight. First, I noticed that the speed of loading a web page even on a high powered local network was not satisfactory. As the salesman dazzled me with all the features (which I love), I noticed that the phone aspect of the iPhone was not being discussed. So I asked him to demo the audio quality of a phone call. He fumbled and stumbled, because AT&T had not had the foresight to make the audio quality of their network a feature of their demo. Here I was in a retail phone store! Has anyone had a chance to listen to phone calls? What do you think of the audio quality compared to other cell phones?

I have a Blackberry 8800 and can tell you that AT&T's EDGE network is crap. They talk about an update, so hopefully that'll come soon.

I was originally on Sprint and switched a while back to Verizon when I just couldn't stand Sprint anymore. Verizon's EVDO network is crazy fast. I still have a Verizon card for my laptop which is amazing. I switched my cell phone because I needed a Blackberry that would work internationally. I don't need much speed for email, but regardless, EDGE is sloooow. I'll go buy an iPhone if I can have Push email work with the hosting I pay for. Waiting to hear back on that one.

I'm similarly disappointed in the voice quality anywhere on their network. You know those commercials where the person only hears half of the call, and they're saying that their network doesn't do that, well that's BS too. That happens to me all the time.

 

[CubeHacker]

AT&T's network call quality can be excellent if you use a phone that can disable the horrible AMR-HR codec that AT&T forces down your throat. Couple AMR-FR with 3G, and the quality is better than a landline. Yes, its that clear.

As for the iPhone... someone else will have to chime in.