AT&T downgrades 2G service effectively telling you to upgrade
If this rumor proves to be true, we’re going to be a little disappointed in AT&T. Word is big blue has been quietly reallocating its EDGE service to its weaker 1900MHz band, which translates into much weaker coverage. According to AT&T, this move is supposed to reinforce 3G strengthen its HSPA services. While 2G isn’t going to be phased out, this is essentially doing the same for many customers, especially people who are having difficulty with AT&T service already. The kicker in all this is that AT&T’s 3G network performance is still abysmal in many areas. Urban markets will likely but unaffected by this move but many customers in fringe coverage areas will likely be forced to move to a 3G device in order to retain data coverage. This brings us to a question: Is anyone here still relying on EDGE service (including the hoards of first-gen iPhone owners)? Remember, even if you have a 3G phone, 3G isn’t available in all areas and all you Bold and iPhone owners have undoubtedly seen your devices switch back to EDGE constantly. The bottom line is AT&T should be taking measures to strengthen its 3G service before it starts cutting the legs out from under its EDGE network.
i live in south florida and always have 3g on my iphone. never has it switched to edge.
HA. cant wait to send this to all my friends who dropped their bolds like bad habits for 8900. they make like its the jesus blackberry
@NotHTCkid, You people talk about 3G like it’s the ultimate thing when it’s not, 3G Sucks, it’s better than EDGE but not by much, i live in the NYC area with good 3G coverage and have gotten up to 2000Kbits/s once or twice which is not bad but that’s nothing compare to the 15 or 20 Mbits/s i get when am at home or work via WiFi. Verizon & Sprint do have more 3G coverage than AT&T but their 3G service is not even close as fast as AT&T and not even the upcoming LTE can match Wifi for speeds
I work in Network Ops for AT&T and I can assure you that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact we are currently allocating 2G 850MHZ spectrum in many places that were 1900 only to provide BETTER 2G coverage.
I don’t know where you got this info but it is completely false.
I used to work for ATT so something like this does not surprise me. ATT is a shady company willing to do anything to get you to switch to a higher right plan.
SHAME ON YOU ATT!!!
“Data plans are data plans. There is no distinction between EDGE/3G. You don’t pay more for 3G data access. If it’s available in your area and you have a 3G capable phone you get it for the same price.”
You are wrong. The cheapest 3G phone service available runs for $85/month in my area. That doesn’t even come with unlimited txting. I’m still using the edge service with my original 4gig Iphone, I pay $67/month get unlimited txt, 3000 night and weekend, 500 anytime, and free mobile to mobile. The price increase of services with 3G service point to 3G causing the hike.
This is horse shit btw, and if At&t continues to act this way, I will no longer be their customer.
I live an hour outside of Atlanta and there is no 3g coverage for ATT. That’s why I gladly pay the higher prices of Vzw because their 3g coverage is great in almost all of Ga even several hours outside of metro areas. I won’t even dream of leaving for Att until they have a major expansion of their 3g coverage.
Wow that really makes a lot of sense to the blackberry customers (like me) who don’t own a bold. Maybe if RIM got on making more 3G devices then this would make sense but there’s only 1 BB 3G device currently. Lame.
this won’t affect anyone jeez.
look, if more 2g is sent to 1900 band all that means is that well established areas are going to have faster 3G nothing else. 2G won’t change because of how well established 2G is in those areas.
AT&T isn’t an idiot company, think about it, if most of their subscribers (corporations included) DON’T have a 3G phone, why would the decrease the performance of 2G? especially in areas where is there isn’t 3G it’d make absolutely zero sense to lower performance if there isn’t an installed database of 3G customers in an area. all that means is more service calls complaining about lack of service and what not.
now about big cities that have 3G, if they allocate more to you so what? people are talking like the 850 band isn’t well established and it’s going to hurt. the 850 band has been building for about 10 years, and it is increased exponentially faster in larger population areas. don’t be tricked into thinking that the reallocation will hurt you. infact, when you decide to finally get a 3G device you will be thankful (unless of course you live in an area of zero 3G, in which case this still won’t matter)
@chewychomp, wow you are dead wrong buddy, might want to rethink that.
This rumor is very misleading.
@Chewychomp
Are you joking? Show me an AT&T “3G phone service” plan. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
You can get the cheapest phone voice plan for $39.99 + unlimited media net with unlimited text for $35. You can get unlimited media net for $15 w/o texts with a non-PDA 3G phone.
There is no difference in plan cost or even any distinction between EDGE and 3G. If you have a 3G capable phone and have 3G service in your area, then you get 3G. You don’t pay anything extra over EDGE. Obviously iPhones are a different case.
Show me any evidence of an “EDGE plan” or a “3G plan”. Good luck with that.
@Dan, ..he may be mistaken by 2g and 3g iPhone plans. It is true if you have a 3g enabled device and pay for data you CAN get it. But the shady fucks like att try and confuse people and offer “packages” like what they try and shove down iPhone users throats. Other carriers are no better. They are all fucktards equally.
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) in: Los Angeles CA, 90025
all the more reason for me to be happy with my new STORM
at&t sux!!!
I officially hate AT&T even more than I do now if this turns out to be true. After my contract is done (if not before) I’m going back to Verizon. I had Verizon before I got the iPhone, and I’m already upset with AT&T’s coverage, but now this!? Verizon Wireless truly does have the best network.
In my area, AT&T actually has more towers than Verizon, but Verizon covers my area better. AT&T doesn’t know where to put their towers. They stick them in the big towns and forget about the outlying areas. If they switch our 850 MHz coverage here to 1900, AT&T is going down the drain. They no longer should even be able to call themselves a cell phone company after this move. 1900 MHz is not for rural areas. Absolutely NO. If you’re going to deploy 1900 in a rural area, plan to have quadruple the number of towers a normal 850 carrier would have.
My area is never going to see 3G coverage at least for a few years. If they do this, I’m gone!!
@keymaker: LTE trials have it running at over 100mbps. Kicks the crap out of WiFi speeds.
Amazing… If this rumor had come from Verizon you would have seen 300 comments about how the devil “BIG RED” proves it’s the evil empire! LOL .. shocking at the difference of posts when Big Blue Blue screws you even more with their pathetic network… Simply check the coverage maps and compare 3g from VZW and Att, then go with a REAL nationwide 3g network. Blue continues to suck as usual…
@ilikephonesthatwork What are you talking about? You probably didn’t even read the post. It was a negative piece about AT&T.
Well, this means you WILL be getting 3g, if the 850 your edge is on now will be converted to 3g, then your coverage will stay the same only 3g instead of edge. Sucks if you have an edge only phone, but if you have a 3g phone this is better.
I have an original curve, my kids hava a Bold and an iPhone. if i really want speed I guess I would jump to the Apple iPhone, I am not impressed with the browser nor speed of the Bold, which kind of disappoints me. When they surf, side by side there is no question, the iPhone wins, but the Curve inspite of the Edge has been a dutiful phone and email device, plus I don’t think I could get the hang of typing on the iPhone. So until the 3g/wifi curve hits the streets, I think I will just hold on. Too bad AT&T, my carrier hasn’t seen fit to update my Curves (8300) OS, and most likely won’t, not that really sucks.
I’ve got the Balckberry Bold, but still rely on the Edge Network because I live in the Fort Knox area of KY…which is not in the 3G coverage area. If they completely phase out the Edge network before getting 3G in my area, I will be furious.
*What* 3g? All we have is stupid EDGE and promises of 3g “coming soon.” There are no viable alternatives for semi-decent internet service here. Alltel/verizon has 3g here, but it’s oversold and constantly dumps people off during peak hours.
All I know is people spend a good deal of time bashing VZW for it’s hardware and it’s cost, but I tell you what..you get what you pay for.
In all my years of being a VZW customer, I’ve moaned and groaned while other carries have offered way sexier equipment and moped in the corner waiting for Verizon to offer something half as decent.
But NEVER once did I complain about being able to USE my service. It’s always been there, at a consistent speed over a wide area. I never worried about traveling (except to Long Island…abysmal..just abysmal).
So to conclude, Verizon: Pricey, restrictive hardware but man-oh-man does that test man do his job.
AT&T sucks where i live, and actually they pretty much suck everywhere according to the new CONSUMER REPORTS magazine (it has the g1 on front cover), they did a study on like 40 major cities as far as call quality and service and AT&T ranked only above Sprint, T-mobile beat them in about 85 to 90 percent of the tested cities, which is crazy becuase tmobile has less than HALF of the customer base that AT&T has, and yet tmo has better service. This is why i love T-mobile even though they have been slow to implement there 3g network (i live in cincinnati and i am EDGE only) they still are cheaper, better coverage and have faster data speeds (EDGE and 3G), i think the strength of tmo’s EDGE network is great, on my g1 which was running on EDGE, i beat an Iphone 3g running on 3G 3 out of 5 times, thats pretty impressive. As Far as coverage (voice) and speed goes, T-mobile is the best GSM carrier in the US, and as soon as they get there 3g fully rolled out, they will be the fastest 3G GSM carrier available and yet there the smallest and least money making of the big 4. This just shows that t-mobile is putting the money it earns to good use all the while at&T is spending there money on who knows what, maybe nicer phones but really, whats a noce phone if its on a poopy network?….
all my friends who have Att and/or Iphones, have the worst coverage in my area and they constantly dropping calls or recieving text late or not at all, its kinda pathetic becuase you see there commercials and it just makes me laugh, i dunno how there even allowed to post that false info on TV. Consumer Reports advised that as a last resort get AT&T or sprint but they highly recommended Verizon and T-mobile.
If you’re having service problems, MOVE OUT OF THE STICKS!!! It’s really tiring to constantly hear people saying they don’t get service in a 600 person town. Why should AT&T care about that? Bravo Big Blue, bravo.
THANK GOD!! I’ll take a slight hiccup in my EDGE service to make room on the network to be upgraded to 3G!! That’s going to be AMAZING!!