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story category People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3G Launch
Just playing catch-up with the other companies
(old news - 12:29PM Sunday Nov 18 2007)
tags: competition · business · wireless · AT&T Midwest
Tipped by Randy See Profile
AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been in tight competition for the Illinois market. Earlier this year, AT&T announced system upgrades in the Springfield and Bloomington areas in an attempt to make their network comparable in speed to Verizon’s existing system. They’ve now announced that their 3G system is in place and ready for use in Springfield. But not everyone in the state thinks that AT&T is able to really compete with Verizon’s footprint.

One of our readers reports that the buzz in IL is that Champaign will be the next area to see 3G deployment. However, he also asks “why would AT&T deploy 3G in Champaign if there is no other competition there right now?” The suggestion here is that AT&T has been one step behind Verizon in development of their network all throughout the state. Essentially, some people feel that the company is just playing catch-up and that the only deployment areas to be seen in the near future are those where Verizon already provides service.

Illinois isn’t the only state with these feelings about AT&T. A recent report on their network launch in Honolulu points out that although it's “welcome news” for AT&T’s customers, it’s three years behind Sprint’s 3G network in the region.

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Forums » People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3G Launch
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netwire
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Mooresboro, NC

Same in NC

I'm in NC, 28150 area and at&t has yet to bring 3G here even though Sprint already has, and so has VZ.

mindfrost82

join:2003-04-19
Cortland, IL

Re: Same in NC

Same in the 60115 area of Illinois. Sprint is the only one that has 3G here, they've had EVDO for close to 3 years now and its in most areas around here. Verizon and AT&T stop their 3G network about 15-20 miles east of here. I don't use any broadband cards, but I do have a PDA Phone, so I use the internet quite a bit on it. The lack of 3G in my area has really been the only reason I haven't considered another carrier.

davoice

join:2000-08-12
Saxapahaw, NC
And oddly enough, I think so has Alltel!? Looks like AT&T is the last cow into the barn in may areas, including ours.

}Davoice

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: Same in NC

I don't think T-Mobile has 3G there yet.
--
Canada = Hollywood North
benc
Premium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
·Charter Pipeline
·Future Nine Corpor..
·Callcentric
·AT&T Midwest

Re: Same in NC

said by en102 See Profile :

I don't think T-Mobile has 3G there yet.
T-Mobile doesn't have 3G anywhere in the U.S.

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: Same in NC

Exactly my point. It _should_ be up soon, on AWS spectrum.
--
Canada = Hollywood North
tcasdorph

join:2002-10-05
Boulder City, NV

People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3g Launch

I don't understand the problem. I've just spent the last month testing both Sprint and AT&T mobile broadband in over six regions/cities and AT&T has never fared any worse than equal to Sprint. In fact, I just returned from two weeks in the Honolulu area, and could not even find a Sprint signal worth working with. The AT&T 3g signal was only present in the Honolulu proper area (airport/West and Diamond head/East), but it made Sprint look sick. Likewise comparisons in areas that are both listed high speed (3G) and otherwise, AT&T matched up quite well. Well enough to return my Sprint PC card and cancel my trial period. I have used the cards also in the SF/Oakland area, Las Vegas, Quad Cities (RI, Davenport, Moline, and Bettendorf), San Antonio, and Washington, DC. Come to think of it, I have also tried it in the Memphis, Chicago, SLC, and Atlanta airports. But let me add this footnote, I'm not overly impressed with any of the mobile broadband (and I've tried Verizon too), its just a means of trying to stay connected. I would not want to work or live with any of the three efforts on a full time basis.

gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall

join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA

edit:
November 18th, @01:37PM

Re: People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3g Launch

At&t, initiative, take. The omen of doom is upon you.

Can start with fiber to my house, its right in the street!
matrix3D

join:2006-09-27
Deep River, CT

Re: People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3g Launch

Thank you for that uninteresting and uninformative gibberish.

gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall

join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
·Cruzio Internet

Re: People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3g Launch

said by matrix3D See Profile :

Thank you for that uninteresting and uninformative gibberish.
Yo, when the ONT is installed on my house, I will try to be more informative and interesting promise

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI
·Comcast
·WOW Internet and C..
·VoiceEclipse


edit:
November 19th, @12:58AM

said by tcasdorph See Profile :

I don't understand the problem. I've just spent the last month testing both Sprint and AT&T mobile broadband in over six regions/cities and AT&T has never fared any worse than equal to Sprint. In fact, I just returned from two weeks in the Honolulu area, and could not even find a Sprint signal worth working with. The AT&T 3g signal was only present in the Honolulu proper area (airport/West and Diamond head/East), but it made Sprint look sick. Likewise comparisons in areas that are both listed high speed (3G) and otherwise, AT&T matched up quite well. Well enough to return my Sprint PC card and cancel my trial period. I have used the cards also in the SF/Oakland area, Las Vegas, Quad Cities (RI, Davenport, Moline, and Bettendorf), San Antonio, and Washington, DC. Come to think of it, I have also tried it in the Memphis, Chicago, SLC, and Atlanta airports. But let me add this footnote, I'm not overly impressed with any of the mobile broadband (and I've tried Verizon too), its just a means of trying to stay connected. I would not want to work or live with any of the three efforts on a full time basis.
One thing to say..

»www.forumspile.com/Shit-Meter.gif

xeno

@spcsdns.net

Coverage comparison

ATT is only at about 150m maybe more by now. Sprint is at 215m and plans to it 230m by end of this year. Verizon has at least 210m covered based on last report.

Ignite
Premium,VIP
join:2004-03-18
UK
clubs:
·Be There
·UK Online

EV-DO?

Perhaps your telcos should consider joining most of the rest of the world and investing in GSM / UMTS / HSDPA technology instead of CDMA.

Economies of scale, cheaper deployments, better peer review of technologies as you actually have peers to review them, all good! Yes it does mean not keeping it in the USA by handing money to Qualcomm but surely a good thing.

Yours, with love from a 3.6Mbit/s HSDPA network.
CurGeorge8

join:2005-05-02
Pittsburgh, PA

Re: EV-DO?

The ironic thing with your post is that the company playing catch up is using HSDPA. The companys with the most widely deployed EVDO are both using CDMA services.

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: EV-DO?

Only in the U.S.
CDMA subs = +377million, 75 million EVDO
GSM subs = +2.5 billion, +138 million UMTS/HSDPA
--
Canada = Hollywood North

anonnie

@sbcglobal.net

said by Perhaps your telcos should consider joining most of the rest of the world and investing in GSM / UMTS / HSDPA technology instead of CDMA.

Economies of scale, cheaper deployments, better peer review of technologies as you actually have peers to review them, all good! Yes it does mean not keeping it in the USA by handing money to Qualcomm but surely a good thing.

Yours, with love from a 3.6Mbit/s HSDPA network.
[/BQUOTE :


said by music4praise See Profile :

Another ironic thing is that HSDPA uses a version of CDMA as the air interface (W-CDMA to be specific). The particular version of CDMA was not developed by Qualcomm but a number of Qualcomm patents are involved.
What is more ironic is that ATT uses GSM and NOT CDMA.
music4praise

join:2006-02-22
Big Rapids, MI
Another ironic thing is that HSDPA uses a version of CDMA as the air interface (W-CDMA to be specific). The particular version of CDMA was not developed by Qualcomm but a number of Qualcomm patents are involved.

huntml

join:2002-01-23
Mullica Hill, NJ

As has been pointed out HSDPA *is* a CDMA technology, just not one that is part of the CDMAOne/CDMA2000 evolutionary path.

That said, though, from what I've read, I get the idea that most of the chipsets that have been manufactured in the last several years, and will be manufactured going forward, are or will be physically able to support most popular air interface standards. What standards they are actually able to access are determined by how the software controlling the radio functions is implemented on the handset.

This being the case, the technical impediments to cross-interface roaming are not insurmountable, and Sprint and ATTM (just as an example) could roam on each others' networks in the U.S. even right now, if they wanted to spend a relatively small additional amount to add such capabilities to the software in their handsets.

According to this view, the fact that such agreements don't exist is at least as attributable to business decisions as it is to technical limitations, and all the wrangling about evolutionary paths, etc., isn't anywhere near as significant, really, as it's played up to be.

(This seems to make sense to me, especially given the fact that CDMA/GSM handsets have existed for sometime, e.g., Sprint's Samsung IP-830w smartphone, which will roam on GSM 1900 internationally, but not on T-Mo or ATTM.)

Can someone with the requisite technical knowledge weigh in on this?

TransitMan
Premium,MVM
join:2000-09-05
Dayton, OH
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner VOIP
·Earthlink TrueVoice
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
·AT&T Midwest

3G Rolled Out In.....

....Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio recently.
I normally stay up late and had been watching my cell phone go through a series of reboots or attempts to obtain a signal over a 2 week period recently.
Just after that settled down, my phone started showing me the I had 3G service.
Took a trip to Cincinnati at Halloween and got 3G most of the way there and back, with exceptions in a couple of outlying areas that were not populated densely.
And there is yet to be any announcement about from ATT/Cingular publicly about the availability of 3G service.
I got into a heated exchange at a local Radio Shack over 3G phones, and they told me it was not available. Showed them my phone and they said, "ATT has not even informed us of the availability of this."
And at a corporate ATT/Cingular store, they too were taken by surprise when the 3G service went live. They had no warning and are still awaiting word from HQ about the availability of it.
--
PROUD TO BE THE DIRECTOR OF THE CRUNCHENSTEIN ASSOCIATION AND THE HOST OF CRUNCHENSTEIN #2

MarkyD
Premium
join:2002-08-20
Oklahoma City, OK
clubs:
·Cox HSI
·AT&T FTTP
·AT&T DSL Service

this is nothing new

AT&T follows, as usual. When is the last time they innovated? It's all about cautious deployment. Can't spend too much, or the stock holders will throw a fit!

The funny thing about that is...last time I looked AT&T stock was not exactly booming.
--
MCSE, ACSA, and a lot more
CurGeorge8

join:2005-05-02
Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh area

AT&T still does not have any EVDO coverage in Pittsburgh PA. VZW and Sprint are the only two choices here.

ilikeme
I live in a van down by the river.
Premium
join:2002-08-27
Houston, TX
clubs:
·Comcast

Re: Pittsburgh area

said by CurGeorge8 See Profile :

AT&T still does not have any EVDO coverage in Pittsburgh PA. VZW and Sprint are the only two choices here.
I dont think At&t will ever have EVDO coverage there or anywhere else. They use UMTS/HSPDA.
--

Fiber Optics is the future of high-speed internet access. Stop by the BBR Fiber Optic Forum

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
·DSL EXTREME


edit:
November 18th, @06:04PM

Re: Pittsburgh area


Actually, AT&T does have 3G UMTS/HSDPA coverage in Pittsburgh PA, according to their coverage maps.
They've had 3G here in So-Cal since July/August, but have only recently updated their coverage maps. I had many issues with 3G on my Samsung ZX-20 - tons of dropped calls in 3G mode only. After going through enough escalations, I've received a Motorola V3xx, which works much better.
What a lot of people don't understand, and why 3G/UMTS has been so slow to deploy are at least the following:

1. UMTS requires a minimum of 5MHz of clean spectrum (vs. 1.25MHz for EVDO) - large chunks are not always easy to come by w/o a significant buildout of sites
2. UMTS handles both voice and data traffic AND has to handoff voice traffic to GSM. EVDO is data only

--
Canada = Hollywood North

ilikeme
I live in a van down by the river.
Premium
join:2002-08-27
Houston, TX
clubs:
·Comcast

Re: Pittsburgh area

said by en102 See Profile :


Actually, AT&T does have 3G UMTS/HSDPA coverage in Pittsburgh PA, according to their coverage maps.
But they dont have EVDO and never will lol.
--

Fiber Optics is the future of high-speed internet access. Stop by the BBR Fiber Optic Forum

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: Pittsburgh area

Exactly... I don't suspect Sprint or Verizon would ever have UMTS either.
--
Canada = Hollywood North
kirk1233

join:2003-08-15
Pittsburgh, PA

I am in the Pittsburgh area and just switched from Sprint to ATT. ATT does have 3G using HSPDA, EVDO is a CDMA technology (hence vzw and sprint.)

I am very happy with ATTs 3G. The best I did with Sprint was about 450-500 kilobits per second. With ATT I have received about 1.7 megabits per second and I can talk on the phone while data is transferring at the same time.

Not to mention I am much happier with AT&Ts network compared to Sprint's in this area...

KSUJace
Golden Flash

join:2001-12-01
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·AT&T Yahoo


edit:
November 18th, @06:36PM

I am impressed with AT&T 3G

I've used Sprint & Verizon EVDO Rev.A and recently was offered a test HSUPA card the Sierra 881 from my internal wireless support. I've been traveling frequently between Chicago, Boston, and driving all over the state of Ohio (consistent 3G coverage across most of the state: Dayton, Cinci, Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo)

The speeds with ATT seem to be superior to equal that of both Vz and Sprint, the latency is an improvement averaging around 80-90ms. Speeds are averaging 1.2m down and 400-600k up. I did however notice that Chicago consistently sees slower download speeds (around 800-950k) perhaps Chicago's network has a little heavier use or over subscription.

After being impressed with ATT mobility's broadband service I have decided to leave my 5 years with T-Mobile and move my Windows Mobile device over to ATT. I'm now using 3G internet connection sharing. I remain impressed.

recent test


ignore the myvzw.com domain, ATT is using the same IP block provider Verizon is, and DSLR has not updated this in their dB.
wayne8888

join:2005-10-16
Baltimore, MD

Re: I am impressed with AT&T 3G

Yep I get 1.2-1.5 mbps down/350 kbps upload speeds in Baltimore tethering my ATT Tilt (8925) to my laptop. Far more than the consevative estimates of 400-700kbps down.
Wayne

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
·DSL EXTREME

Re: I am impressed with AT&T 3G

I'm sure once there's a lot of congestion, 400-700kbps will become a bit more normal. Typically, some have noticed better speeds in the more rural areas due to congestion (i.e. only so many users can download at any given time).
--
Canada = Hollywood North
mjbuzby

join:2004-12-11
Cockeysville, MD

said by wayne8888 See Profile :

Yep I get 1.2-1.5 mbps down/350 kbps upload speeds in Baltimore tethering my ATT Tilt (8925) to my laptop. Far more than the consevative estimates of 400-700kbps down.
Wayne
what is your latency like

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: I am impressed with AT&T 3G

When I used a Samsung ZX-20 here in Los Angeles, I was getting ~120ms
--
Canada = Hollywood North
wayne8888

join:2005-10-16
Baltimore, MD
·Cavalier Telephone
·ViaTalk
·Comcast

Re: I am impressed with AT&T 3G


I believe that the popularity of the IPhone which is not 3G (and operates only on the Edge (sludge )network) brings down the ATT average big time. I am always in the 1.3 plus mbps range whether using a Cingular/ATT 8525 (HTC Hermes) or ATT 8925 (HTC Kaiser)to tether to my laptop.
Wayne
xenophon

join:2007-09-17
·Sprint Mobile Broa..

Here are test results...

(Ignore results over 3Mbps as it is a proxy problem)

»/archive/spcsdns.net
»/archive/myvzw.com
»/archive/mycingular.net

Looks like Sprint is winning in performance, and definitely ahead in coverage.
manhole

join:2000-09-12
Modesto, CA
clubs:

TDMA

I think that once AT&T shuts off TDMA next year you will really start to see the 3G deployment take off. Right now (at least in California) they have only deployed the 3G network on the 1900MHz spectrum, which is not all that great since the towers are spaced for 850MHz. Once they shut off the TDMA/Analog (which runs on 850MHz) they will be able to have the 3G run on that spectrum and things will be much better (for me at least )

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
·DSL EXTREME

Re: TDMA

Most of CA/NV under AT&T has GSM on both 850 and 1900 MHz, but shutting off/freeing up the TDMA/AMPS spectrum will help for deployment in general. Here in Los Angeles, GSM is 850/1900 (Cell A, PCS D) and 3G is on a piece of PCS B (B3). San Diego County runs 3G on PCS D, and GSM on 850 (cell A) and PCS F1 and C3.
--
Canada = Hollywood North

fancydancer
Premium
join:2002-08-28
Springfield, IL
clubs:
·Comcast
·Insight Communicat..

Sigh...

I had Cingular/AT&T until June when my company furnished a Sprint PDA (PPC6700) for me. At that time it was just Edge and now that I have Sprint its 1x only!
And there is no ETA on Sprint upgrading to EVDO around here.
--
Thank you for keeping this a work-free environment!

typhoon87

join:2007-03-05
Buffalo, NY

Re: Sigh...

3g went live in buffalo last week much faster than edge but still not overly impressive. Also some smartphones are having issues when they have to fall back to edge if you leave service area.

RR Conductor
'Boarrrd
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast

3G in Mendocino County, NW CA

We have three carriers here, US Cellular, Edge Wireless (AT&T Affiliate) and Verizon. Currently, Edge Wireless has their 3G (HSDPA) up in the Ukiah area, but still no EVDO from either Verizon or US Cellular here, though Verizon says by the end of the year or the first of next year.

Boomerang86
Got FUD?
Premium
join:2002-10-18
Walden, NY
clubs:
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
·RoadRunner Cable
·FrontierNet Intern..
·Vonage

big bucks

Considering the billions the globe just spent to acquire Dobson (and the need to upgrade pretty much all of that territory to 3G), I would hesitate to see a more rapid deployment.

When it comes of course, it will be a welcome improvement over EDGE.
--
Don't pay ME back, pay it forward.
bugabuga

join:2004-06-10
Austin, TX

Even slow is good

Also remember, that even slow 3G is better than GSM/EDGE -- with UMTS you can have an incoming call while data transfer is in progress. With GSM you're out of luck.
Of course if you only browse wap sites on the phone it's not a problem. But if you actively use SSH/VOIP/Whatever you may have calls rolling into voicemail

RadioDoc
Sortofadog
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
Chicago, IL
·AT&T Midwest

Re: Even slow is good

Yep. With my LG CU500 connected to my laptop I routinely get over a megabit in ATT 3G areas and I can place and take voice calls while online too. EDGE sort of works but only as an ISDN-like last resort.

Not sure what people are expecting, really. Nobody has really decent mobile speeds yet.
--
Toolmaster of La Grange.
netnerd

join:2007-04-14
Oakland, CA

not impress with 3g, but impress with EDGE! haha

people arent impress with ATT 3G?

this just to shows you how f.up people really are!
u not impress with 3G, but impress with iphone 10years old technology EDGE!

huntml

join:2002-01-23
Mullica Hill, NJ

Re: not impress with 3g, but impress with EDGE! haha

But, you know, it's an *iPhone.* That's different. ::rolleyes::
mdembski

join:2001-04-04
Washington, DC

sprint vs att

I am not sure how Sprint could have more high speed access than at&t. Those I know with Sprint are always having their voice connections drop because of bad reception.
Forums » People Aren't Impressed with AT&T's 3G Launch


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