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Study: AT&T Still Leads In Dropped Calls
1 out of every 22 calls dropped, leading all other providers, says survey

Recent AT&T earnings report slideshows have contained no limit of colorful slideshows (pdf, note page 8) that use graphs that highlight improvement for AT&T's voice network performance -- without getting into pesky things like specific data on how this is being accomplished. AT&T's most recent earnings report claims AT&T claimes that dropped calls are down 6% in trouble markets like Manhattan (9% across NYC). But a new survey by Changewave Research says that AT&T continues to lead all major carriers in dropped calls -- and in some cases it's getting worse:

quote:
In a poll that asked 4,040 smartphone users in March how many dropped calls they had experienced in the past three months, AT&T — the exclusive U.S. carrier of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPad mobile devices — came in dead last among the country's four largest carriers. . . AT&T customers, by contrast, reported 4.5% of calls dropped in the last three months. That's one out of every 22 calls — three times as many as Verizon's and the worst percentage ChangeWave has ever seen.
According to Changewave, AT&T ties T-Mobile for the least satisfied customers, with just 22% of AT&T wireless users saying they were "very satisfied" with service. While some other surveys have indicated that AT&T's efforts to improve wireless network performance are paying dividends, it's still pretty clear that AT&T has some work left to do.

Update: An AT&T spokesman dropped us an e-mail saying this about the study:

quote:
The opinions compiled in this survey are dramatically at odds with actual quantitative results derived from millions of calls made during extensive drive-testing of the AT&T mobile broadband network by a highly respected outside firm.

Those results, from GWS, show that, on a national basis, AT&T is within just two-tenths of a percent of the industry leader in wireless call retainability. That's a difference of just two calls in a thousand, a virtual dead-heat.

In fact, the statistically valid drive test shows the AT&T network continues to deliver the nation's fastest 3G network and near best-in-class call retainability nationwide. AT&T's network dropped only 1.44 percent of calls nationwide, within two-tenths of 1 percent of the industry leader and a difference of less than two calls out of 1,000.
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ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

1 recommendation

ropeguru

Premium Member

Hey...

At least they are good at something..

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: Hey...

*rimshot*

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
Asus RT-AC66

MovieLover76

Member

It's a fact

When I first got my iPhone 3GS in Sept 09, I only noticed a small increase in the numbers of dropped calls, over the past month my dropped calls have increased noticeably, in central NJ.
I'm having more issues in my apartment itself, with the signal dropping out it seems.

Oddly enough you know when my calls are most likely to drop, when I'm on the phone with my mother who is also an AT&T subscriber, guess we double our odds of disconnecting because we have two ends on a buggy AT&T wireless connection.

I hope they fix it soon, I love my IPhone, but the dropped calls are getting tiresome.
MovieLover76

MovieLover76

Member

Re: It's a fact

The increase I noticed after getting my IPhone, was compared to when I had Verizon wireless, I realize I didn't specify what I was comparing it to.

aztecnology
O Rly?
Premium Member
join:2003-02-12
Murrieta, CA

aztecnology to MovieLover76

Premium Member

to MovieLover76
said by MovieLover76:

When I first got my iPhone 3GS in Sept 09, I only noticed a small increase in the numbers of dropped calls, over the past month my dropped calls have increased noticeably, in central NJ.

It's not the phone or the network. It's New Jersey...

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ

MovieLover76

Member

Re: It's a fact

Yea, yea NJ sucks, but just remember
North Jersey isn't the entire state, most of it is nice.
Though the taxes and car insurance do suck all over NJ.

Tweak
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Colonial Heights, VA

Tweak to MovieLover76

Premium Member

to MovieLover76
I agree with this survey. I have an iphone 3gs and my neighbor has an iphone 3g. We are a building apart and we have lots of dropped calls . I know its not an issue with the iphones themselves because my friend from Canada has no problems with dropped calls. AT&T network stinks.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion to MovieLover76

Premium Member

to MovieLover76
said by MovieLover76:

When I first got my iPhone 3GS in Sept 09, I only noticed a small increase in the numbers of dropped calls, over the past month my dropped calls have increased noticeably, in central NJ.
I'm having more issues in my apartment itself, with the signal dropping out it seems.

Oddly enough you know when my calls are most likely to drop, when I'm on the phone with my mother who is also an AT&T subscriber, guess we double our odds of disconnecting because we have two ends on a buggy AT&T wireless connection.

I hope they fix it soon, I love my IPhone, but the dropped calls are getting tiresome.
It's the iPhone not the network in a lot of cases, problems are caused by the infineon chip in the iPhone itself, my LG EXPO doesn't have any 3G problems like my iPhone.

Tweak
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Colonial Heights, VA

2 edits

Tweak

Premium Member

Re: It's a fact

Untrue there are none of these reports worldwide. Other nations get much better 3g performance with the iphone . I took my iphone to Vancouver Canada and did not have any problems with dropped calls.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

Re: It's a fact

said by Tweak:

Untrue there are none of these reports worldwide. Other nations get much better 3g performance with the iphone . I took my iphone to Vancouver Canada and did not have any problems with dropped calls.
Google the O2 issue and the infineon chip. It's widely known the iPhone has poor network RF performance.

HappyBunny9
Hi. Cram It.
Premium Member
join:2001-06-23
Long Beach, CA

HappyBunny9

Premium Member

Re: It's a fact

said by iLive4Fusion:

Google the O2 issue and the infineon chip. It's widely known the iPhone has poor network RF performance.
Not true at all. I have T-Mobile and a jailbroken iPhone and almost never have a dropped call.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

Re: It's a fact

said by HappyBunny9:

said by iLive4Fusion:

Google the O2 issue and the infineon chip. It's widely known the iPhone has poor network RF performance.
Not true at all. I have T-Mobile and a jailbroken iPhone and almost never have a dropped call.
You don't even have 3G on it. The issues all revolve around 3G.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
Asus RT-AC66

MovieLover76 to iLive4Fusion

Member

to iLive4Fusion
it's a widely known rumor, while O2 did have some similar issues, that is mostly due to O2 being the crappy carrier or AT&T equivalent in Europe, many carriers have the iPhone in other countries without the issues that AT&T and O2 have had, also my mother and father are AT&T customers, they don't have an iPhone and they have the same issues with dropped calls that I do.

The question I have for them always is if you don't have an iPhone why do you have AT&T in NJ lol. Verizon offers superior service for the same price and Sprint offers almost comparable service for less. lol

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

2 edits

FFH5

Premium Member

CDMA vs GSM

The chart shows Verizon & Sprint doing the best with T-Mobile then AT&T pulling up the rear. Maybe the CDMA technology just works better for Voice than GSM, especially when doing the handoffs as you move from cell to cell. I know my brother has AT&T and calls from him are fine, unless he is in the car moving or a train. Then the call will be fine & all of a sudden it will just drop away.

Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium Member
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

Subaru

Premium Member

Re: CDMA vs GSM

said by FFH5:

The chart shows Verizon & Sprint doing the best with T-Mobile then AT&T pulling up the rear. Maybe the CDMA technology just works better for Voice than GSM, especially when doing the handoffs as you move from cell to cell. I know my brother has AT&T and calls from him are fine, unless he is in the car moving or a train. Then the call will be fine & all of a sudden it will just drop away.
want something crazy.. back in 2001 a hand-off went really wrong... I was at home in CT and my mom was crossing over the GWB and all of a sudden the line got silent and the phone switched over to a women saying hello hello?
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

1 recommendation

xenophon to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
I don't have the source on hand but I recall reading many times over the years that CDMA does a better job sustaining a call with a lower signal level.

I personally usually don't have issues with just 1 bar on Sprint. I'm surprised data still works well with just 1 bar (RSI around 100).

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec

Premium Member

Re: CDMA vs GSM

said by xenophon:

I don't have the source on hand but I recall reading many times over the years that CDMA does a better job sustaining a call with a lower signal level.
I have read that as well. One bar with Sprint/Verizon will sound just as good as full bars.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

Re: CDMA vs GSM

said by swintec:

said by xenophon:

I don't have the source on hand but I recall reading many times over the years that CDMA does a better job sustaining a call with a lower signal level.
I have read that as well. One bar with Sprint/Verizon will sound just as good as full bars.
Typically AT&T and T-Mobile can too when they are running AMR-Full Rate, but when they have Half Rate running the call quality is pretty bad at any signal level. Especially while moving.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

said by FFH5:

The chart shows Verizon & Sprint doing the best with T-Mobile then AT&T pulling up the rear. Maybe the CDMA technology just works better for Voice than GSM, especially when doing the handoffs as you move from cell to cell. I know my brother has AT&T and calls from him are fine, unless he is in the car moving or a train. Then the call will be fine & all of a sudden it will just drop away.
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So ··· handover
»Dropped Calls: Why this happens on a technological level

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

en102 to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
3G (AT&T/T-Mobile) is based on CDMA technology and carries voice.

The biggest problem, with AT&T (not sure about T-Mo), is the use of spectrum.

GSM + 3G both carrying voice + data consuming spectrum on separate spectrum. Essentially having AT&T split their capacity between legacy GSM and more current UMTS/3G.

CDMA has voice 1x and data and EVDO. Voice is all 1x, data is mostly all EVDO.

I.E. for ~40MHz of spectrum in a place like L.A.,
VZW would have ~25MHz of voice on 850MHz cellular, and ~15 MHz of EVDO data on 1900 PCS
AT&T has mixed 25 MHz of 850/1900 GSM voice + data and 20 MHz of mixed 850/1900 for 3G voice / data.
Until AT&T cuts GSM spectrum for 3G, this will continue, and possibly get worse.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion to FFH5

Premium Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

The chart shows Verizon & Sprint doing the best with T-Mobile then AT&T pulling up the rear. Maybe the CDMA technology just works better for Voice than GSM, especially when doing the handoffs as you move from cell to cell. I know my brother has AT&T and calls from him are fine, unless he is in the car moving or a train. Then the call will be fine & all of a sudden it will just drop away.
3G on AT&T is W-CDMA, this survey is coming from a company nobody has heard of till today. And it's all market based, Sprint you can't even get a signal here to even begin to drop a call.

DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey

1 edit

DaveDude to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

The chart shows Verizon & Sprint doing the best with T-Mobile then AT&T pulling up the rear. Maybe the CDMA technology just works better for Voice than GSM, especially when doing the handoffs as you move from cell to cell. I know my brother has AT&T and calls from him are fine, unless he is in the car moving or a train. Then the call will be fine & all of a sudden it will just drop away.
The calls drop because of capacity issues, not because of technology. Plus ATT uses UMTS in NYC which can talk to 3 towers at once. Its all backhaul issues.

LLPOF
@sbc.com

LLPOF

Anon

Surveys

You have to always keep in mind how the survey was conducted...before you give any credence to the survey results. In the case of ChangeWave, they selected from their members…and that is not how you run a survey if you want a statically unbiased sample. I might as well just ask a few of my friends…how many of you have had dropped calls and then pump out some graphs to prove whatever point that I want. Bogus survey methodology leads to bogus results.

Tweak
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Colonial Heights, VA

Tweak

Premium Member

Re: Surveys

Are you an an employee of At&t? If not why on earth would any one defend such a crappy network?
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: Surveys

said by Tweak:

Are you an an employee of At&t? If not why on earth would any one defend such a crappy network?
Maybe because it's not crappy and it's not crappy everywhere?

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Re: Surveys

Well, their network is fairly robust here (SBC Home territory before then expanded and bought out everyone and became AT&T) and yet I still witness and hear users complaining about dropped calls.

Tweak
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Colonial Heights, VA

1 edit

Tweak to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05
From Austin to New York to Miami I hear complaints from friends and family over dropped calls.

All over the nation people complain of dropped calls . This survey just reflects what a poor network At&t has. Sometimes the truth hurts people that work for that horrible company.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: Surveys

said by Tweak:

From Austin to New York to Miami I hear complaints from friends and family over dropped calls.

All over the nation people complain of dropped calls . This survey just reflects what a poor network At&t has. Sometimes the truth hurts people that work for that horrible company.
In my experience where I go most (N.NJ/PA) I have no issues with the quality of AT&T's network. For the past 6 years while traveling for both business and pleasure I also have no issues with the quality of AT&T's network. It equals and in many cases exceeds Verizon's.

And BTW I don't work for AT&T; I work for a utility company.

MareMare
join:2007-08-02
Washington, DC

MareMare to itguy05

Member

to itguy05
I'm not an employee - mostly not even a fan of ATT, but they do a great job around here... might be why they're the high price tacking on all the fees on the planet leader?

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion to Tweak

Premium Member

to Tweak
said by Tweak:

Are you an an employee of At&t? If not why on earth would any one defend such a crappy network?
Try this on Verizon. Wait you can't


Tweak
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Colonial Heights, VA

1 edit

Tweak

Premium Member

Re: Surveys

Lol are you using wifi?

••••••
mleland
Premium Member
join:2002-12-17
Westwood, CA

mleland to iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

to iLive4Fusion
said by iLive4Fusion:

Try this on Verizon. Wait you can't

Well that is great for you. You must have 3 other ATT users on your tower.

I have an Iphone 3g. I work in Palo Alto across the street from HP's world headquarters and the Zerox PARC facility(They invented the computer mouse). The only way for us to get even remotely decent coverage here was to install our own building repeaters. Even though we had a corporate contract with ATT for all cell phones(in the 4-5k range) they still would do nothing to allow us to use them at the freaking office!

I have been to several SJ Sharks hockey games this year. At every game, no matter how many people were in attendance, I had to force the phone to EDGE only in order to use ANY function. I had no voice, no data and no txt abilities while the phone was in 3g mode. I switched to EDGE during a playoff game on April 29th and suddenly I got 10 txts that were sent to me over the previous hour. Others around me with t-mo,vzw, and sprint had NONE of these issues. Their phones were fully functional at all times during the game. I do understand that I am at an event where there are a lot of uses in a confined space. I have heard that ATT does have a cell "in the building" at HP Pavilion but obviously it still can't handle the load.
Expand your moderator at work
chilibball
join:2008-11-20
Albany

1 recommendation

chilibball

Member

Dropped Calls: Why this happens on a technological level

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co ··· tandards

says it all

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

t-mobile

i love being among the minority for a change.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: t-mobile

said by ArrayList:

i love being among the minority for a change.
T-Mobile is always the minority...

Dial Tone
@comcast.net

Dial Tone

Anon

Hello? Hello? Hello?

I got a new slogan for them.
Tell me if you like it.

Rethink Reconnect possible?
lefty1
join:2002-10-25
Clay, NY

lefty1

Member

Dropped calls

I get a moderate amount of what I call half-dropped calls. I can still hear the person I'm talking to perfectly but somewhere during the conversion they can no longer hear me, no matter how loudly I scream into the phone. I can usually call back and everything is O.K. again, but I shouldn't have to. And sometimes calling back ain't convenient.

Kenny Geane
@optonline.net

Kenny Geane

Anon

1 of 2

I have half of my calls dropped. first call drops most of the time.
AT&T should pay back half of the monthly fee to his customers.
They keep us loosing time and money.

••••••
russotto
join:2000-10-05
West Orange, NJ

russotto

Member

I believe it

Lost a call in Manhattan just today. And it's happened several times previously in the past few months.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Who remembers the # of calls

Seriously, who remembers the # of calls they made and then the # of those calls that dropped over the last 90 days?

I mean really - do you remember every call you made in the last 3 months and then if it dropped or not? I sure don't.

I can say I'm on AT&T with an iPhone 3G and it doesn't drop calls much. It does drop them but so does Verizon so it's a wash.

They all suck and without a statistically valid methodology (call diaries, cell statistics, etc) it means NOTHING

•••••••

shortyd999
join:2008-10-21
Birmingham, AL

shortyd999

Member

Network

Even though AT&T does have issues, I don't understand how everyone can just say they have terrible service everywhere without having any data to support their claim. I have AT&T using an iPhone 3G have great svc in Birmingham, AL. Actually never really had any issues since the the Cingular days. Only time when I really had serious issues is when they switch from TDMA to GSM. So just because I have experience great service does ever AT&T customer does and just because someone has had terrible serivice with them doesn't mean every AT&T customer does.

Exodus
Your Daddy
Premium Member
join:2001-11-26
Earth

Exodus

Premium Member

I switched from AT&T to Verizon because of this.

My wife and I both had AT&T for 10+ years and have had dropped calls. When I cancelled, neither of us could go 10 minutes without a dropped call. Didn't matter if our signal was at full. Didn't matter if we stood in one place, or if we were driving. Calls dropped all the time.

Went to verizon a few months ago. I've had one dropped call.

•••

jimmy faiver

Anon

att Bham

iPhone 3G was always REALLY good here in Birmingham, Al. - UNTIL the first of the year. *Something is going on with the towers here. Just this spring, everyone w/ an iPhone says their dropped calls have gone way up. Same with me, especially calling another att cell phone in Las Vegas, NV. Calls drop dead, redialing hangs with dead air/ no activity.
Really tiring of this...