Carl Hutzler's Blog

Recently, I posted a couple of times about AT&T’s poor network in the Reston Town Center area. Well the issue is spreading.

Now the tower by my house is starting to show strain. My house is located 2 miles south of the town center and exactly 2,102 feet from the cell tower at the Fox Mill shopping center (actually in the parking lot of the fire station). I always have 5 bars. And I have never had much issue with my iPhone when I am at my house. But in the last 5 days or maybe a week now, I have noticed dropped calls, the inability to make calls, and missed voice calls (you get a voicemail but nothing in the missed call list). All of this while at my house, stationary.

For example, last night (Tuesday) I was talking to my tax guy at 3:32pm. The call lasted 6 minutes before I got the below CALL FAIL. Sitting in my living room, 5 bars, not moving much at all. I dialed back at 3:39 and we completed our conversation during the next 4 minutes.

On Sunday, I was on the phone with a customer support center getting help installing a new thermostat at 2:46pm. I was on hold for about 7 minutes before I got to a person. I was just beginning to tell the person what the issue was when I got dropped with a CALL FAIL. 9 minutes on the phone. Stationary in my kitchen. 2102 feet from a tower. 5 bars.

And last week it was trying to hold a call with a client. Same result. At least with this case my client was well aware of AT&T’s troubles as they have AT&T service on their iPhone too. Oh and before you say it might have been their cell phone drop, they were on a land line :-)

These are not the only examples. I have plenty more from in and around Reston. (like at my son’s viola teacher’s house the Wednesday before) But what this seems to show is the beginning of the cell tower at my house showing signs of being completely overloaded with voice calls (and likely data) on the ATT 3G network. I bet switching to EDGE will work better. But why do I need to switch to EDGE when I am paying extra for 3G coverage?

And I am not the only one noticing. Consumer Reports just did their annual survey and AT&T, our largest cell carrier, came in dead last! Behind even the lowly Sprint and the barely there T-Mobile. (I actually had Sprint recently and loved their service…but they are hemorrhaging subs big time).

What can AT&T do about their growing oversold network? Create an iPhone App to “report the issue”. Great idea! NOT.

Mark the Spot (iTunes Link) is one of the biggest public relations ploys I have seen in a long time. Give iPhone users the ability to report a dropped call or inability to use data. Sounds great. And to be honest, the app is well done…complete with GPS location, maps, and a nice interface to report the issue. But wait. Why does AT&T “need” this information anyway? I would think they already have it! And if they don’t, wow!! They really suck. But I know they have the info already. The app is just to placate customers who are pissed….giving them a way to vent and think it makes a difference.

Trust me. I worked systems operations for AOL for many years. We always knew how the email system was running. Sure there would be a weird issue now and again that we did not have monitoring for. But in the case of AT&T’s network, this is the basic stuff….percent utilization of their towers. Channels in use. Calls dropped. Calls handed off successfully, etc. That type of stuff is basic basic stuff. They already know the issues. This Mark the Spot app is a complete PR stunt. Don’t bother unless you are trying to report a lack of coverage and hoping others do the same and maybe, just maybe AT&T will erect a tower in your location. But otherwise, don’t waste your time.

I predict that AT&T will be hit by a class action lawsuit shortly. Some person (lawyer type) in NYC, San Fransisco, Chicago or one of the other large urban locations will get fed up and sue. And then AT&T will be in even worse shape from a PR perspective. They are selling a network and people are paying to use it. But when they can’t use it, AT&T must be breaking a contract. I know AT&T has terms that state that a radio telephone can be affected by weather, terrain, etc. But in the case of AT&T, it is over selling capacity and not investing enough to build out more. That can’t be legal while still charging full price to customers. Right?

And from Apple’s standpoint, they need to move quickly to get another carrier…T-mobile would be fine! But obviously Verizon would be a better choice. Apple needs to spread out their iPhone customers. And I bet AT&T’s network would be happier too.

I think all the ads you see from Verizon and Apple are more or less negotiations and posturing chips. Verizon knows AT&T blows and that Apple’s wonderful product is hamstrung on the AT&T network. Verizon also knows (as do I from talking to people) that many people are holding off getting an iPhone because of AT&T’s problems. Apple wants to get a nice deal from Verizon. They want their $400 or more from each iPhone sold. But VZ wants to pay less as they feel like the network they have is a wonderful bargaining chip and Apple is asking too much per phone sold. Which is why VZ run the ads “there’s a map for that”. Sure it also helps convince consumers that Verizon’s network is great (and it is). And it also keeps some people from leaving VZ for the iPhone. But it also helps negotiations with Apple behind the scenes.

And Apple is trying to push their point that AT&T’s network is the fastest and also has features VZ does not have like the ability to make calls and use data simultaneously. I think Apple has the weaker case as that feature is really not that critical to consumers, but that is their bargaining chip along with the iPhone itself.

So in the end, hopefully Apple and VZ will get a deal done and open up things a bit. And I hope a lot of iPhone people and other AT&T customers do move to VZ. That will help everyone out…including AT&T.