iPhone – thanks, AT&T – no thanks
It’s been 2 years since I started to use an iPhone in the Santa Fe area. Two years is the usual contract-lock-in that a provider (AT&T in my case) asks for, which means we have reached the point where I need to evaluate whether to stick with the current phone/provider or switch to something else.
The are tons of things I like about this device, most importantly that I can easily get to all my email accounts and access most of the mobile content I’m interested in. The multimedia capabilities (iPod) are also nice and well implemented.
However, it’s still a phone and I’m afraid to say that you are not very good at it.
Rewind two years and you find me raving about it: I was happy in the beginning. Saw 4 out of 5 bars as far as signal strength was concerned. No dropped calls.
Fast forward to the present and things are different: The phone’s cradle has been in the same spot for the last years and the 4 bars have been reduced down to a measly 2, sometimes 3. When I have to pick up a call on the iPhone at home, I rush outside, climb up the ladder to the roof, ascend the wooden tower that I built up there and then press the button to get the call (ok – I’m exaggerating a bit).
I also catch myself parking on the side of the road (which is actually a good thing) when I receive a call in the car, because I’m afraid I will fall into one of the many AT&T black holes during my ride. Signal strength and performance have actually decreased over the years, which makes it hard to justify staying with AT&T any longer.
The device is great, but choosing AT&T as the exclusive carrier was a big mistake.
December 4th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Hi Tobias.
I use an iPhone too – bought in the UK through O2 PAYG. I unlocked it on day 1 and have run it on Vodafone and now TMobile with no adverse effects. Can you unlock and switch to a better network in the US?
December 4th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Hi Trefor – good idea. My iPhone was actually jail-broken for the first few months. It turned out that this also broke access to my company’s Exchange servers and thus killed one of the main reasons why I got the phone in the first place (being able to access company email).
I just switched over to a Droid and while Verizon’s network is a huge improvement, I’m having a love/hate-relationship with the phone itself. Will post more details about it in a while.
Cheers – T
December 22nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I super-love my Blackberry with Sprint. I don’t know how reception is over there, but with unlimited data, texts, and a paltry 800 minutes a month (I really hate talking on the phone), I pay only $60 a month, I think. Maybe $69? Let’s average it to $65 a month.