AT&T Talks about their Network...

[Scott Greczkowski]

AT&T today released this video...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5yIVgj0VVA]YouTube - AT&T Network 101 & MMS Availability Update[/ame]

Instead of AT&T saying they oversold their network, they instead blame it on to many people actually using their smartphones. Imagine that people wanting the use the service they pay for.

 

[goaliebob99]

If they are on it, then its not coming fast enough. Im still waiting for the 3g service in my area that was suppost to be launched 3 months ago, and has yet to show up!

 

[stimpson]

What a nerd.

 

[mike123abc]

The big push this year is to replace all the microwave links from the tower with fiber. They have said they are putting in 100,000 fiber backhauls. That is a lot of fiber. They are only building 2100 towers this year. It looks like a lot, but it is only 42/state. In past years they have done over 7000. Of course the good thing is if they really get fiber out to all the towers they will be able to upgrade speed in the future much faster.

It is unfair in some ways to blame AT&T. Other carriers (including verizon) would be just as choked up with the iPhone. I do think it was a bit of surprise to AT&T how much data would be used by the iPhone user. I think they saw their big empty network, with just a few people occassionally surfing on their crude phones, and thought they had a ton of capacity. Then the iPhone hit and they realized they had a huge capacity problem.

I think it will be interesting if other companies get the iPhone to see how their networks hold up. I hope that they see what happened to AT&T and are busy building out the capacity in advance.

 

[digiblur]

Data is not the only problem with their network... the voice side is bogged down as well. This was before the iPhone even hit the shelves.

A shame that the defacto standard is GSM... but hey... it always seems the technology that is the worst gets set as the standard.

 

[Stargazer]

I wonder if this fiber upgrade to their towers will result in them lifting the 5 GB cap and competing with cable/dsl?

 

[DJ Rob]

Data is not the only problem with their network... the voice side is bogged down as well.

They better do something. It now takes me 3 or more tries to make a call before it will connect even though I get full signal.

 

[navychop]

I must say on my trip from Northern VA to Oxford MS and back thru TN I never lost signal using my laptop with USB dongle and my iPhone. Granted, it was often Edge, but we had a great experience.

 

[kenny911]

I was always disappointed that I never actually got "3g" speed. I hope ATT corrects this soon.

 

[mike123abc]

It is a stagering amount of money being spent, not just by AT&T but all the cell phone operators. One can easily forget how big the country is and how many cell towers it takes to cover it all. Even then, a lot of areas out west are not covered by cell service at all.

Quite frankly if AT&T had 2x the towers they might be close to having the capacity they really need. I wonder how long it will be before they get full use of the abandoned TV stations operational. It is working at the problem from a different direction. They can either use more towers at lower power to divide up the load, or use more spectrum at every tower to spread the load out.

 

[grydlok]

I must say on my trip from Northern VA to Oxford MS and back thru TN I never lost signal using my laptop with USB dongle and my iPhone. Granted, it was often Edge, but we had a great experience.

I don't know which way you went but it's you touched 64w or 81s you hit some dead spots. Especially 81 after you leave the Roanoke area.

 

[navychop]

Not on 64, just 81 then 40. Of course 64 & 81 run together for a few miles, as do 81 & 40. We weren't on constantly, but certainly most of the time.

Nashville area was 3G all the time, and fast.

I must admit, that at our office we get a strong signal, then low or nothing. It seems it's not the tower, it's the capacity of the tower. I don't think it can support as many users as there are in that industrial area. The AT&T signal availability there is better than Verizon and Sprint, but not good enough. The remaining Nextel users hate that part of town.

Regarding the video- why would they use this guy? Do they think the only folks concerned are fellow nerds? Maybe they're using other methods to get to the common man/customer.

 

[TheForce]

Digiblur is right. It is the GSM network that will continue to give AT&T fits. This technology is just not designed for expanding populous. Verizon and Sprint will have far less problems adding an iphone to their line with CDMA. Also, Sprint is the most progressive in new technology by already moving ahead of the pack with 4G. AT&T will still be upgrading their 3G as Sprint expands 4G around the country.

The actor in the video didn't bother me as much as parts of the script that was just inaccurate. Fact- It was actually T-Mobile that pioneered the first data phone in the US. If we count the Motorola Flip phone with the modem adapter to a laptop, then I'll concede that it was Cellular One who was first with a 100 baud dialup that worked with text e-mail only. I used this in 1994.

 

[mike123abc]

If we count the Motorola Flip phone with the modem adapter to a laptop, then I'll concede that it was Cellular One who was first with a 100 baud dialup that worked with text e-mail only. I used this in 1994.

AT&T bought Cellular One, maybe this is how they are making their claim.

 

[Stargazer]

With Sprint having 4G now couldn't they take a lot of AT&T and Verizon's customer base with the better network?

 

[TheForce]

4G on Sprint is just a startup. For anyone who needs faster than 2.3 Mbs in Las Vegas such as EVDO Rev A Verizon, Sprint is the way to go. Somebody had to be first with 4G and I'm not surprised it was Sprint. This, however, will not make any sort of impact on customer base.

mike- That was what I was thinking but then I said to myself, Nah! AT&T isn't thinking that far into it. All this is is advertising hype. FYI- The old flip Motorola system was nothing more than dial up from your computer to a cell phone. You could use it for FAX or computer modem. It ran on the old analog cell phones.

 

[digiblur]

Just watched the video.... lol... calibrate base stations for MMS on the iPhone. LOL

 

[mperdue]

Instead of AT&T saying they oversold their network, they instead blame it on to many people actually using their smartphones. Imagine that people wanting the use the service they pay for.

And imagine how much you'd have bitched if they said they had reached their quota so you can't buy an iPhone.

 

[navychop]

I'm sure AT&T looks at Sprint's tiny network and quakes in their boots. Last I read, odds were favoring Sprint Nextel being acquired.

 

[IcEWoLF]

4G will be coming out soon.