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NYC AT&T Customers - Good News

J

jw nyc

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
854
0
I called AT&T last night b/c I was contemplating switching to Verizon due to my iPhone not being able to use 3G data during business hours. The customer service reps I spoke with about my issue looked to see if there were other complaints in my area. Sure enough there were hundreds of complaints in both lower and midtown Manhattan. She then checked to see if there were any new tower plans in the area and she counted 52 (FIFTY TWO) new UMTS (3G) towers being put up in Manhattan by the end of March. 13 of those will be located in the Soho/Tribeca area alone. This should go a long way to alleviating the congestion problem in the city so I decided to stick it out with AT&T.
 
Wow that is good news. I didn't catch any real news on that so I question whether or not that is true. No offense to you but in my decade long experience with AT&T (and predecessor companies) they have been prone to say just about anything to get you to stick around. The last story they told me was about how I pushed through their network conversion years ago and that it was just a sign of better times. They said I would never see improvement over at VZW because they have no plans for a stronger/faster network.
 
jessica. said:
Wow that is good news. I didn't catch any real news on that so I question whether or not that is true. No offense to you but in my decade long experience with AT&T (and predecessor companies) they have been prone to say just about anything to get you to stick around. The last story they told me was about how I pushed through their network conversion years ago and that it was just a sign of better times. They said I would never see improvement over at VZW because they have no plans for a stronger/faster network.
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I thought the same thing but the rep was literally counting the planned towers (and telling me their dates) from the screen she was looking at. After she did that she also looked up the area around my apartment and mentioned there were 2 going up around there. I'm usually a skeptic but I doubt this rep was THAT good of a liar so it seemed legit to me.
 
I have seen MTI screen shots showing lots of new cells coming to ATT in NYC, so yes to this.
 
Yea I've never even seen that map and it 'coincidentally' shows planned towers by March 31 so I definitely believe the rep was accurate when counting the new towers in the NYC area.
 
I tend to believe it as their NYC problems have been plaguing them for almost 4 years. Takes about 3 years to get a new tower installed after all the gov't BS.

While I've always been happy with service on Long Island, it has gotten better.
 
rdowns said:
I tend to believe it as their NYC problems have been plaguing them for almost 4 years. Takes about 3 years to get a new tower installed after all the gov't BS.

While I've always been happy with service on Long Island, it has gotten better.
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I thought 3G coverage in NYC was good up until late last year?
 
I recently moved to Manhattan from LA...while the service back there was pretty good overall with decent speeds, and I only used to find some black holes around the city....here in NY the phone is practically unusable M-F 8-5, especially midtown and downtown.

I wonder how newyorkers have managed to keep their iPhones for many years with this terrible service....:confused::confused:
 
Enrico said:
I recently moved to Manhattan from LA...while the service back there was pretty good overall with decent speeds, and I only used to find some black holes around the city....here in NY the phone is practically unusable M-F 8-5, especially midtown and downtown.

I wonder how newyorkers have managed to keep their iPhones for many years with this terrible service....:confused::confused:
Click to expand...

From what I have read NYC 3G coverage was pretty good up intil late last year. Seems after the iPhone 4 release it started to get bogged down. So I don't believe it's been like that for many years as you're assuming.
 
Count me as one of the people that calls in complains in midtown. I've called about 10 times in the last 2 months alone. Speeds are ridiculously slow for the past 6 months.
 
And this text message from ATT seems to have come in handy (I just received it):
AT&T Free Msg: Great News! A new cell site was added near the Queensbridge Medical Ctr to improve mobile broadband coverage west of Crescent St between 36th and 44th Ave. Reply stop to end mktg msgs.
 
EvilEvil said:
Constant full bars and 3G on my new VZW iphone in Midtown :D
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It's never been about the bars. The bars on my AT&T iPhone in NYC are always b/w 4 & 5. The problem is the 3G data speeds are so slow during business hours b/c of the congestion on the network. Having a lot of bars and the actual speed you're connecting with are not related. At all.
 
My wife and I visited Manhattan last May, and I had very few problems with my iPhone 3GS. I had pretty good data speeds just about everywhere. Of course, AT&T is edge and crappy where I live, so it was a huge improvement for me.
 
jw nyc said:
It's never been about the bars. The bars on my AT&T iPhone in NYC are always b/w 4 & 5. The problem is the 3G data speeds are so slow during business hours b/c of the congestion on the network. Having a lot of bars and the actual speed you're connecting with are not related. At all.
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+1

Sometimes I can't even open anything - not talking of slow speed, just frozen connection
 
jw nyc said:
I called AT&T last night b/c I was contemplating switching to Verizon due to my iPhone not being able to use 3G data during business hours. The customer service reps I spoke with about my issue looked to see if there were other complaints in my area. Sure enough there were hundreds of complaints in both lower and midtown Manhattan. She then checked to see if there were any new tower plans in the area and she counted 52 (FIFTY TWO) new UMTS (3G) towers being put up in Manhattan by the end of March. 13 of those will be located in the Soho/Tribeca area alone. This should go a long way to alleviating the congestion problem in the city so I decided to stick it out with AT&T.
Click to expand...

Too late for me. I'm picking up my Verizon iPhone tomorrow at noon. I am so sick of not being able to get a data connection at least half the times I try. Streaming radio is an exercise in frustration. All these threads about data speeds are pointless. So what if you get 4 down and 2 up if 3 steps down the block you can't get anything. I won't mind a slower connection if it's constant and consistent. Oh, and be able to make phone calls as well.
 
jw nyc said:
I called AT&T last night b/c I was contemplating switching to Verizon due to my iPhone not being able to use 3G data during business hours. The customer service reps I spoke with about my issue looked to see if there were other complaints in my area. Sure enough there were hundreds of complaints in both lower and midtown Manhattan. She then checked to see if there were any new tower plans in the area and she counted 52 (FIFTY TWO) new UMTS (3G) towers being put up in Manhattan by the end of March. 13 of those will be located in the Soho/Tribeca area alone. This should go a long way to alleviating the congestion problem in the city so I decided to stick it out with AT&T.
Click to expand...

I always have a problem getting a signal when I'm in SoHo with AT&T.
Its been a consistent issue based upon my experience.
 
Sticman said:
I always have a problem getting a signal when I'm in SoHo with AT&T.
Its been a consistent issue based upon my experience.
Click to expand...

SoHO seems to be an issue. Our cousin lives in the Village and she says SoHo isn't good but doesn't seem to have many issues other places.

She did tell me AT&T is improving and getting more towers.
 
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