Thoughts About My iPhone and AT&T

I recently read this TechCrunch article about how AT&T Is A Big, Steaming Heap Of Failure.

Update: I’ve been experiencing lots of dropped calls, voice mails that arrive even though the phone never rang, and so on. (I actually wrote this post almost a week ago, but scheduled it to be published today. Maybe AT&T knew about it and is just getting back at me.)

I have mixed emotions about this. I totally agree with the commenter that said:

So, it’s pretty obvious, each carrier has its faults and each one has its positives. I could write the same article you did about Verizon where I am (and was very tempted to do so, but though, what’s the use, it’s not going to change).

Rants and raves will go on as long as there are different carriers, of that I’m sure.

–Hudson, E. (2009, July 18). Comment posted July 18, 2009 at 5:30 pm PDT.

But, I do think that AT&T could have handled it’s iPhone deployment much better. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Better activation. Every time Apple launches a new phone, AT&T’s activation isn’t up to the task. Thankfully I haven’t ever tried to buy or upgrade an iPhone right after they were released, I always waited. Though to be fair, you design your systems for the upper limit of normal, not the 1-5 days of the launch. But still, after failing the first time, and seeing all the bad press, you’d think you’d get things worked out.
• Network Capacity. I too have experienced the delay in Visual Voicemails, mysteriously dropped calls, voicemails arriving with current timestamps even though my phone never rang. This one is the most likely one that everyone can complain about. I’m just thankful I don’t live in NYC with an iPhone, all the stories are that it hardly works there.
• Network not feature ready. Uh, you knew Apple was going to release the 3GS this summer. How is it that AT&T’s network is not prepared for MMS and tethering?
• Upgrade Policy. Really, can you try and squeeze some more out of your customers? If I was offered the $199/$299 upgrade price, I’d likely would have upgraded to the 3GS this summer. But I have to wait till January for the lower price because apparently I spend enough money on my plan, and can upgrade after 18 months for the “low” price. But if I have to wait till January for that lower price, why wouldn’t I wait to see if Apple picks a new carrier in 2010 or adds additional U.S. carriers?

Earlier this week, a friend asked if I was planning on upgrading my iPhone 3G. My answer, probably not. For both pricing reasons, and longer term service reason, I won’t be upgrading until January 2010 at the earliest. And given the speculation that Apple might add another carrier or even switch carriers I might just wait till Summer 2010 to see what the next version brings. I hope this business strategy was worth it for AT&T.

Perhaps this is all just an example of “the grass is always greener“.