AT&T

If you live in the U.S., you've probably seen one of Verizon's holiday themed TV commercials knocking AT&T's 3G data network. It probably doesn't make much sense to non-techies. But, techies and iPhone owners probably caught the humor (as painful as it might be for those of us who have had AT&T network issues). AT&T had to respond, of course. They titled their response...

AT&T Sets the Record Straight on Verizon Ads

I'll try to make it a bit straighter. Here are AT&T's main points. Remember that this is in response to Verizon's criticism of AT&T's 3G wireless data network...

- "AT&T offers the most popular smartphones in the industry." Well, AT&T does offer the iPhone, a couple of BlackBerry devices, Windows Mobile devices and a Nokia smartphone or two. But, what does this have to do with AT&T's 3G network issues?

- "AT&T customers have access to more than 100,000 applications". This is simply misleading. It should read "AT&T customers with iPhones have access to more than 100,000 applications. People using other phones on their network can't use any of the iPhone apps." And, again, what does this have to do with the AT&T 3G network?

- "AT&T's 3G network lets wireless customers simultaneously talk and surf the web or do e-mail". OK, this is very true and important. But, this is a side effect of the network protocols used. And, T-Mobile USA's customers can also talk and surf at the same time. But, hey, you can do this on EDGE or even GPRS. Again: What does this have to do with their 3G network?

- "AT&T has the nation's fastest 3G network." OK, finally AT&T said something about their 3G network. But, um, I don't think that's what we've been seeing in various speed tests conducted on behalf of Wired.com and CNET in the past year. And, while I understand network performance varies greatly from place to place under various conditions, this is definitely not what I find in my neck of the woods where Verizon's 3G network is 55% faster than AT&T's. You can see my results in this blog item...

Droid Not an iPhone Killer, But Check Out the Killer Verizon 3G Speedtest Result

So... According to ComputerWorld...

Tethering to iPhone still coming, AT&T says; no date set

...um, ok...yawn... Did somebody say something? The article notes that it has been a year since AT&T announced that tethering would be available for iPhone subscribers. A week ago, I was still interested in iPhone tethering despite its "Duke Nukem Forever" like delivery schedule (the game was announced in 1997, promised for years, and never delivered). However, now that I've seen the difference between AT&T and Verizon 3G services in the area I live and work...

Droid Not an iPhone Killer, But Check Out the Killer Verizon 3G Speedtest Result

...I'm waiting to see if Verizon delivers a tethering service for its Android-based Droid phone in 2010. I just hope it is affordable.

YouTube video courtesy of AT&TBizSolutions

Unlike the AirGraffiti project mentioned in the previous blog entry here, this AT&T Research project sounds novel and interesting...

Laser tag with mobile phones or help for disaster victims w/ network down. AT&T researching GeoCasting

Mobile devices (like phones) that support the GeoCast protocol developed by AT&T can receive and propogate messages without cell towers serving as an intermediary. In the example described in the video embedded above, a first responder with a command device (like a notebook) with the authorization to send out a GeoCast query could request information form GeoCast capable phones to get position location of disaster victims.

YouTube video courtesy of ShareATT

Hmm... Interesting... But do we really want virtual tagging?

AT&T researchers testing AirGraffiti concept. Leave a location-based message that others can find in air

AT&T's research project lets people attach media (video, photos) to a location that can be accessed by other people who may be in that area at a later time. It doesn't sound much different from many other location based services such as Yelp that lets you see what other people may have said about something in that area.

Note to AT&T: Could you please spend some research time to figure out how to get your network to the point where iPhone tethering service can be turned on for a reasonable price?

iPhone 3G with 3G Enabled

iPhone 3G with 3G Disabled (EDGE only)

AT&T Wireless decided to play network games in Honolulu on Wednesday (Nov. 4). Early in the morning I called AT&T Wireless customer support and spoke with a very courteous and helpful representive trying to figure out why I did not have any voice or data access on my iPhone 3G even though I saw reasonably good signal strength and a 3G indicator on my status. We fussed about a bit turning off my iPhone while she de-authorized and then re-authorized my phone. That didn't seem to help. I performed another soft reset for good measure but that didn't seem to help. On a whim, I decided to disable 3G. Guess what, that re-enabled voice services and web browsing/email over the slower EDGE data network. Enabling 3G shut down all services again. Disabling it once more restored it. We left it at that with the rep leaving a system note to contact me at the end of the week to see how things were going.

At this point, I started checking with other AT&T users (all of whom were also iPhone users). By early afternoon all 10 people I spoke with or emailed with confirmed similar problems. They also confirmed that disabling 3G restored voice/data service.

Nearly 12 hours later, my iPhone still exhibited the same behavior. So, I ran its hidden Field Test Mode (see my blog item below about this topic)...

Find Your iPhone's Signal Strength Using the Hidden Field Test Mode

...and you can see the results at the top of this blog entry. With 3G enabled, my iPhone now indicated now service at all and the GSM Serving Cell information was literally unknown. Disabling 3G resulted in the second screenful of information. The -107 dBm signal is at the bottom of the weak signal range. But, voice calls and slow Internet access (through EDGE) was possible.

18 hours later, voice and 3G data service comes and goes with no apparent rhyme or reason if 3G is enabled. We'll see how this plays out at the 24 hour market later.

ADDENDUM: 22.5 hour mark. Service w/3G enabled appears restored. Getting -99 dBm from same spot where I got "No service" last evening and -107 dBm w/3G disabled (EDGE only)

I rarely feel pity for AT&T Wireless as I sit looking at my iPhone 3G displaying a "No Service" status because I'm in an AT&T dead zone. However, after looking at the information reported by TechCrunch in...

How The iPhone Is Blowing Everyone Else Away (In Charts)

...I can appreciate how AT&T network engineers might have been caught off guard by the immense increase in data traffic after the first non-3G iPhone was introduced in mid-2007 and then accelerated even more after the iPhone 3G became available in the summer of 2008. It looks like the EDGE-only 1st generation iPhone caused wireless data traffic to triple. Then, the iPhone 3G and the introduction of iPhone apps created an even larger increase in data usage. The result is a 4,932% increase in data traffic over a 3 year period that includes 2 years of iPhone driven growth.

Could anyone have predicted that kind of growth in wireless data use? Even I have to admit that this would have sounded far fetched back in 2005 or 2006. But, here we are today. And, though I don't actually pity AT&T Wireless, I do have some sympathy for their network engineers.

I know I said I support AT&T's decision not to rollout 3G tethering service for the iPhone until their network is robust enough to handle it. But, still reading this item in 9to5mac.com made my head ache and throb a bit in pure annoyance...

AT&T: Tethering is probably going to be a 2010 thing

9to5mac gives a rundown on the sequence of interpreations that lead many of us (including me) to believe that AT&T stated that tethering would be available by the Fall of 2009. This assumption is apparently based on assumptions and guesses.

I hope AT&T's network engineers are working on getting their network into a condition where it can support iPhone users tethering netbooks and notebooks. In the meantime, I'll guess that Verizon and Sprint MiFi sales are doing quite well and that many of those sales are to frustrated iPhone owners.

T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 internet sharing app

I was amused by this item in the Wall Street Journal...

IPhone Tethering Still Unavailable, AT&T Says

Why? Well, having spent much of the past year being disappointed with AT&T's wireless coverage in my area, I found that T-Mobile's 3G service is even less available than AT&T here (though its voice coverage is better). To compound the irony, my T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 fully supports both wired (USB) and wireless (Bluetooth) tethering but doesn't have a viable 3G network to use it with. AT&T's 3G coverage is larger here but I can't tether anything to my iPhone 3G. And, oh yes, as far as I can tell, T-Mobile doesn't charge any additional fee to tether.

But, guess what? I agree with AT&T's decision to keep tethering off the table for now. AT&T freely says that their network is ready for an onslaught of tethered iPhones. I'm not happy about the situation. But, I'd rather have a stable network ready for tethered iPhones than a slow unstable one. I just wish AT&T would give us some kind of timetable.

Yesterday, I asked...

Why Does Apple Let Vonage Make Voice Over Network Calls Over 3G But Doesn't Let Skype Do the Same Thing?

Of course, I should have asked "Why Apple & AT&T" does this. But, no matter... Based on what I could see the iTunes App Store early yesterday morning, the Vonage app was allowed to make VoIP calls over either 3G or WiFi connections while Skype for iPhone users are limited to calling only when connected to the net over WiFi.

However, the Silicon Alley Insider reports that...

iPhone VoIP Apps To Run On AT&T's 3G Network

Here's AT&T's press release on the subject...

AT&T Extends VOIP to 3G Network for iPhone

So, what does this mean? I'm not exactly sure since apps like Vonage's apparently already have the permission and ability to do so. And, the press release doesn't indicate any time frame for this change.

As usual, I ask AT&T, where's the 3G tethering service for the iPhone?

Windows Mobile 6.5 launches tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 6) and AT&T announced two old-new phones for the occasion...

AT&T and HTC Debut HTC Tilt 2 and HTC Pure Windows Phones

The HTC Tilt 2 is sold as the Touch Pro2 by other carriers. It has a big 3.6 inch LCD, 3 megapixel camera and slide out QWERTY keyboard. AT&T, like T-Mobile priced it high at $299.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate ($349.99 at the register).

The HTC Pure is sold as the Touch Diamond2 by other carriers. It is a touch-only deviced (no physical keyboard), 3.2 inch LCD and a 5 megapixel camera. It is priced at $149.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate ($199.99 at the register).

You can probably guess which one AT&T is trying to push towards their customers. AT&T says that the Pure is available now on their website. But, I don't see it there at the moment. They say that the Tilt 2 will be available in the following weeks.