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One interesting data point: I popped over to SF for a week, taking with me my UK 3g iPhone. At no time did I have less than stellar reception from AT&T. I trav

by axod 16y ago

One interesting data point: I popped over to SF for a week, taking with me my UK 3g iPhone. At no time did I have less than stellar reception from AT&T. I travelled from SF to San Jose or so, it seemed pretty solid to me. Is the US version of the iPhone different hardware? :/ Maybe it's only crappy if you have a contract with AT&T? Maybe 'roaming' phones are given priority? idk...

KirinDave 16y ago
Did you go into the Mission? Or Hayes Valley? Or over by Jtown? And god help you if there is any sort of Event nearby. During the maker faire every iphone read "5 bars" but no one could get their iPhones to do anything. Oh sure, it said it was sending texts and trying to make calls, it said it was trying to load webpages, but it all failed. We Are Not Making This Up; and it's not just iPhone customers.
- risotto 16y ago
  Also did you make calls on your phone much? In the mission my phone shows good signal but on Saturday literally every call dropped. 15 dropped calls in a day. Do you know if T-Mobile is any better in the mission?
  - yosh 16y ago
    T-Mobile is fine in the mission in my experience.
- axod 16y ago
  Yeah good point, I mainly use my phone for SMS/data rather than voice calls. So I probably don't have enough data there. I probably only had 3 or 4 voice calls. All of them were fine though. Also I was at Google I/O, so there were probably 10,000+ phones all trying to get signals etc And you're right, perhaps I'm assuming that my phone showing 5 bars actually means it has a strong enough signal to do stuff (Which is certainly the case in the UK) :/ The whole communications industry in the US seems like it needs a massive shake up from government to me.
  - KirinDave 16y ago
    Data is just as bad as voice in these regions. I don't now why people think it'd be much better.
mikeryan 16y ago
These issues are very SF specific so travel between South City and San Jose don't count. I live in SF proper and get dropped calls in my house..
gojomo 16y ago
Are you sure your roaming provider was AT&T? (I suppose there's a chance that for voice and edge data, your UK carrier partners with TMobile rather than AT&T.)

by axod 16y ago

KirinDave 16y ago

Did you go into the Mission? Or Hayes Valley? Or over by Jtown? And god help you if there is any sort of Event nearby. During the maker faire every iphone read "5 bars" but no one could get their iPhones to do anything. Oh sure, it said it was sending texts and trying to make calls, it said it was trying to load webpages, but it all failed. We Are Not Making This Up; and it's not just iPhone customers.

risotto 16y ago
Also did you make calls on your phone much? In the mission my phone shows good signal but on Saturday literally every call dropped. 15 dropped calls in a day. Do you know if T-Mobile is any better in the mission?
- yosh 16y ago
  T-Mobile is fine in the mission in my experience.
axod 16y ago
Yeah good point, I mainly use my phone for SMS/data rather than voice calls. So I probably don't have enough data there. I probably only had 3 or 4 voice calls. All of them were fine though. Also I was at Google I/O, so there were probably 10,000+ phones all trying to get signals etc And you're right, perhaps I'm assuming that my phone showing 5 bars actually means it has a strong enough signal to do stuff (Which is certainly the case in the UK) :/ The whole communications industry in the US seems like it needs a massive shake up from government to me.
- KirinDave 16y ago
  Data is just as bad as voice in these regions. I don't now why people think it'd be much better.

mikeryan 16y ago

These issues are very SF specific so travel between South City and San Jose don't count. I live in SF proper and get dropped calls in my house..

gojomo 16y ago

Are you sure your roaming provider was AT&T? (I suppose there's a chance that for voice and edge data, your UK carrier partners with TMobile rather than AT&T.)