I have two problems I've experienced in the last couple of days. The first was very annoying... After having a solid 4 bars of edge I got a message that said NO SERVICE and I was without service in the middle of Minneapolis for half an hour (about midnight Monday). Anyone else have this problem?
Also, today (and several times in the recent past) I had 4 solid bars and an important call was suddenly dropped and I tried to re-dial 7 times, each call failing. Finally, I powered down and restarted and was able to complete the call. I have never seen problems like this with my Razor.
This is a common problem with AT&T's network. As I had mentioned in a previous post, their network is rated very poorly. One critic said "if Verizon's slogan is "Can you hear me now?" At&T's slogan should be called "I'm losing you"
A recent article called "Ten Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy An iPhone" mentions AT&T's network. Here is the link:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288701,00.html
And a link to CNET's user opinions and experience with AT&T:
http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/at-38-t-formerly/4852-6454_7-32137726.html?tag=uoavrg
Stuck With AT&T
One of the worst things that Apple ever did was to sign a five-year exclusive agreement with AT&T to be the
wireless provider for the iPhone. Five years!
So if you use Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile or some other provider, you can't get an iPhone unless you switch to AT&T.
To date AT&T doesn't seem to have all that great of a reputation as a mobile service provider.
I can't speak from experience because I've never used them, but isn't it odd how a fossil from telephone-service days gone by (AT&T) ended up in bed with Apple, a company that likes to pride itself on being "cutting edge"? It's the telecom marriage made in hell!
What exactly was Apple thinking here? Did it deliberately decide to screw over customers on other services?
We'll never know what on earth was going through Steve Jobs' head when he made this wacky decision (was his turtleneck so tight it cut off the blood supply to his head?) but anybody on a different wireless carrier will have to live with it unless they want to switch to AT&T.