Consumer Reports: Verizon Best, AT&T Worst

If US District Court judge Harrold Greene would have not been brave enough to break up Bell System, they would probably have a monopoly on cell phone service as well.

This is correct info that few people know. Several other big companies were in the same boat but won their cases. The AT&T name was bought by the baby bell SBC for PR reasons after AT&T went bankrupt.

I suppose "PR" is the short of it.

But SBC re-branded as AT&T, then bought Bellsouth on the heels of the AT&T buyout.

I wonder how much customer's perceptions of AT&T are just because they're called AT&T.

I don't mind seeing AT&T at the bottom though. It keeps them in check.

I agree - make them work for their cudos.
AT&T's HSPA+ LTE network in Santa Clarita is pretty fast (I've hit 14Mbps), and in general, my complaints are more with their PR than their network (throttlegate, Facetimegate).

I agree - make them work for their cudos.
AT&T's HSPA+ LTE network in Santa Clarita is pretty fast (I've hit 14Mbps), and in general, my complaints are more with their PR than their network (throttlegate, Facetimegate).

I wonder how much customer's perceptions of AT&T are just because they're called AT&T.

I wonder how much customer's perceptions of AT&T are just because they're called AT&T.

I wonder how much customer's perceptions of AT&T are just because they're called AT&T.

Considering the fact that the real AT&T was once the premier TelCom provider in the world, I'd say the current thing's placement at the bottom of the pile is purely a result of SBC tarnishing what was once a highly-respected name.

VoLTE isn't looking too promising yet. Current attempts drain the battery 50% faster than CDMA. Apple just needs to put in the same CDMA radio as Android phones, which allow voice/data even on 3G.

VoLTE isn't looking too promising yet. Current attempts drain the battery 50% faster than CDMA. Apple just needs to put in the same CDMA radio as Android phones, which allow voice/data even on 3G.

The LTE chip doesn't control it. The phone has to have enough antennas for both LTE and CDMA to transmit and receive at the same time.

SVDO requires two CDMA radios, one for Data and one for Voice, each of which require their own antennas AFAIK.

Nailed it. People forget that AT&T is just a brand and that their business is SBC, ...

for US Cellular on here?

We think it's fine with our Android Galaxy S phone.
BTW, US C turned down the IPhone last year...Said that it didn't make $ sense for them.

Notice AT&T says simultaneous talk and surf. When you are on a call your speeds are now capped at 1mbps down and 25kbps up. At these low speeds you may be able to surf to a low graphics website, but forget about any meaningful internet access or apps such as Facebook. I no longer even try to use the internet while on a call. They snuck this cap in around last April. Galaxy S3, no LTE here yet.

You see, an MRAB (Multi-RAB - Radio Access Bearer) call (technical term for a simultaneous voice and data call) is much more prone to dropping calls. Many handsets are very bad about dropping these MRAB calls. To help prevent these dropped calls, which helps customer satisfaction, AT&T made some optimizations to still provide useable data speeds while on a voice call, but provide more robustness to the radio connection and reduce the drops.

AT&T was, and is, simply looking to help customers and prevent dropped calls and other issues, yet they still get bashed. They can't win, unfortunately. Especially when sites like this one are seemingly on a mission to paint them in the worst light possible.