AT&T Responds To Verizon With EDGE Coverage?
This honestly made me smile. And bear in mind, today pretty much sucked from the time I woke up this morning. AT&T knowing it is in deep with the power using base, is pointing out that it has a wide EDGE network and that its 3G network is faster than Verizon’s. Okay, faster could be cool if it was DEPENDABLE enough to use. Just a crazy idea I have been kicking around.
For myself personally I have found that AT&T’s 3G is usable under the following conditions.
- You live in a metro area while being inside or are outside in smaller towns.
- You have no problems with calls being dropped or waiting 10 hours or more to receive text messages.
Yes, as you may have guessed I have since turned off 3G for the most part and stick to EDGE out of the home and Wi-Fi here at the house. Something about carrying around a useless appliance unable to receive calls that made me take this approach. I am clearly a radical.
T-Mobile, formerly VoiceStream, used to be considered the laughing stock of the wireless world only a few years ago. Today, T-Mobile has since stopped trying to be the “best” and instead, offers great rates with reasonably okay service.
Sadly, I have watched in disbelief as Cingular became the spawn of AT&T’s mismanagement. What used to be a fairly decent company to own a phone through became a mess as 3G was mismanaged from the beginning and the company took on the iPhone responsibility for which it CLEARLY was not ready for based on my own experiences.
Today, I sadly remain with the company only due to the fact that I own the iPhone 3G and so does my wife. Bundle that with a contract and other family members using my plan and you can see the migrating is no easy task.
Someday though, likely later than I might like, I will be making the switch to another carrier. And it will not be based solely on the phones being offered either.
- Thomas the Tank Engine Peel-and-Stick Appliqués
- Cuttlebug Die Cut Machine
- My Community
- Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2607 Wifi 802.11g IP Network Camera with built-in Web Server, Microphone, IR and Moonlight Color Night Vision
- Sharx Security VIPcella SCNC2606 Wifi Wireless 802.11g Security Network Camera
- 8 Channels Standalone H.264 CCTV Security DVR system with 240FPS, Support I.E, 3G Phone-WinCE, Symbian. Network CMS Software, 4CH playback simultaneously, USB Backup/VGA output/8 Audio input, Support USB mouse control
- Belkin A3G002-01 1-Feet DB9 Straight Through Y Cable
- Belkin A3G002-04 4-Feet DB9 Straight Through Y Cable
- Belkin A3G023-01 1-Feet Serial Splitter Cable
- Netgear 3G Mobile Broadband Router (Black)
- Cradlepoint MBR900 Mobile Broadband N Router 3G/4G Ready
- Cradlepoint MBR1200 Mobile Broadband Router
- Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2
- Intellinet, 4-Port Wireless 300N 3G Router with Integrated USB 2.0 port for UMTS/HSDPA and EVDO 3G modems, 524681
- NexConnect 3G Broadband Wireless AirCard Router
- Oakland Athletics Iphone 3G Faceplates
- New Digital Antenna PowerMax DA4000MR Mobile Repeater For Boats Home Office Wirelessly Easy Install
- FURUNO FS-1503 SSB W/ ANTENNA TUNER
- House, M.D. – Season Two
- 24 – Season Two
- iPhone: The Missing Manual: Covers All Models with 3.0 Software-including the iPhone 3GS
- The Book of Wireless: A Painless Guide to Wi-Fi and Broadband Wireless
- 3G Wireless Networks, Second Edition

10 Comments
Brad
November 14th, 2009
at 5:18am
Lol, well AT&T has to respond to the advertising as it very well could mean that it will lose lots of customers.
Plus Verizon isn’t playing completly fairly.
Curtis Matthews
November 14th, 2009
at 7:18am
I agree with you. I have sold cell phones since 1986 for all the major wireless carriers and I have gone through the good and bad. AT&T coverage with 3G is a joke the Verizon ads are true. My Verizon phone always has 3G coverage in South Florida but my AT&T phone drops calls and has bad coverage in 3G. I sell AT&T services now and wished they would change back to the old days with Bellsouth Mobility which had the best network.
JonathanPDX
November 14th, 2009
at 8:03am
Sadly, I had to go with AT&T (Antique Telephone & Telegraph?) as I wanted an iPhone as well…not necessarily for the telephone aspect of it, but other usability features.
What gets me are these ridiculous “contracts” that you need to agree to to get their service. That immediately tells me that something is wrong with them and their service and that people tend to jump ship before that period is up requiring the need to “lock” their users in. Either that, or it’s such a ridiculously lucrative profit-making scheme that the Fed has not yet cracked down on.
Add to that the insult of “minutes”. I can get an unlimited data plan for $30 a month, but can only talk for 500 minutes a month and it costs $50? Please.
Then to add injury to that insult, you pay for so many minutes and amazingly, if you don’t use those minutes they “vanish” forever. Notwithstanding AT&T’s “rollover” minutes, it’s a big windfall for the cell companies. Someone’s raking in the bucks and the public hasn’t woken to the fact that their money is being vacuumed up and they’re getting the proverbial shaft.
savedR
November 14th, 2009
at 11:49am
Hahahaha, EDGE. I pulled down this webpage over EDGE on an iPhone 3G just now and timed it; with 4 bars of signal, it took THREE MINUTES.
David Banther
November 14th, 2009
at 7:18pm
I have the iPhone 3GS and I keep it on EDGE. I live in Tampa Bay, usually getting full 3G signal, but will have trouble receiving calls. I have had this issue on all AT&T 3G phones. So funny that I carry around my 3GS and rely on EDGE, but I do!
Scott Salbo
November 14th, 2009
at 10:02pm
When I read these stories about AT&T’s 3G coverage and dropped calls, I alway wonder: “where in he’ll do these peaple live? I have an iPhone since it was 1st introduced, had AT&T/Cingulat for 7 years prior to that, and use my cell extensively for work. In all that time, I’ve never had a dropped call. And I text about 1300 times a month (50% work related) and almost never experience text lag.
So again, I ask, where in he’ll do you people live? And what makes you think Verizon’s network won’t take a hit from the heavy iPhone network usage?
Smarty pants
November 14th, 2009
at 11:41pm
You know there is a tutorial somewhere (I think its Maximum PC) where you can make the iPhone over to verizon. (So I was told) Never looked into it.
Smarty pants
November 14th, 2009
at 11:54pm
look at this about verizon and at&t.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/verizon_talks_end_atts_iphone_monopoly
Bob
November 15th, 2009
at 2:32pm
I have an LG Xenon GR500 and I have found that call reception is no different on either Edge or 3G, but since I turned off 3G, my battery life is almost double!
Don
November 16th, 2009
at 7:56am
On Friday I had NO internet access on my iPhone 3G over the 3G network but when switching to EDGE, had full access. Calls still worked as did texts on 3G but nothing internet related would work at all. Not even the APP store! After a few hours of trying and failing the 3G internet finally worked again. Suburbs of Baltimore, MD area here. Wondering if any one else experienced the same problem.
And yes, I do expereince dropped calls where the call drops and when the screen comes back on I appear to have 5 full bars of coverage. Dosent happen daily but does happen, mostly when in a moving vehicle.