AT&T's 3G Covers Over 230 Million Americans According to Latest TV Spot
According to AT&T's latest commercial, their 3G network covers over 230 million people in the U.S. Finally they have addressed what they failed to address in any of the other countless commercials.
The last few AT&T TV spots seem to be getting a bit better than the previous ones but still in limbo is the commercial where they boast how they are improving their network similar to O2's network. While I personally have no complaints here in Chicago regarding the quality of AT&T's 3G, I have to ask, how is your AT&T 3G network?
Fire away in the comments below!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
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South Orange County Calif. No problems here!
South Mississippi.. Works fine here too!!
No AT&T 3G in Vermont since they took over Unicel in January 09 & offered the iphone. Newspaper stated 3G was supposed to be in selected cities by end of year. Data service is slooooooow
Asheville us just great
No problems in Miami either. Story is WAY blown out of proportionate by the media because of a few problems is a VERY few cities.
@Russ
Your an affiliate buy-out. Just because the newspaper said so doesnt make it true. It takes a lot more work to upgrade an affiliate market where there was never any 3G. Just have to be patient.
Proportion*
Not reliable in Fort Wayne, IN. Lots of dropped calls or calls direct to voice mail. Has intermittant 3G service. AT&T tech says dropped calls may be caused by the fluctuation from 3G to EDGE and back.
Visiting NY for the holidays, 3G here is reAlly wacky. Sometimes the phone will report full service but you can't send or receive any data! I'll also completely miss calls, and only get the voice mail a few minutes later. But- the 3G in NY is way better than EDGE in VA where I live!
Spotty in Pittsburgh. It's nearly impossible to chat on the phone while driving or to use data. Some "drop zones" don't have Edge or even "the Dot" but the network is VERY fast where it's available.
As I've been saying, the complaints about ATTs data / 3G coverage issues are those of a very vocal, very small minority. I've had no issues up and down the east coast. DC has great overage, even in the metro now.
Seems to me that the issues are worst for those in SF CA and anytime there's a tech conference.
Not very reliable in L.A, Canyon Country, or Palmdale CA. However Edge is great but SLOW!
I've had no problems in Minneapolis
@Andrew I had no problems in Brooklyn a few months ago. Where were you?
I visit my parents in Youngstown Ohio, and the 3g speed is awesome. Dropped calls and lost data connections rarely happen.
No problems in Metro Atlanta.
It's mostly fine here in Cleveland, Oh. Some areas outside of the city struggle with the network though, but thats all across the board (Verizon, T-Mobile, ect) if there is a dead zone here, it's dead to all carriers.
No Problems here in Atlanta. I drove from Pennsylvania to Georgia and oly switched to edge when I was in the mountains of North Carolina. 3G coverage for me has been great. I like ATT and hope they improve Atlanta to the 7.2 speeds soon.
No problem in Atlanta.
Verizon 3g is slower. I hooked up my verizon 3g Netbook and downloaded CNN.com. I then tethered it through AT&T and th page loaded 8 seconds faster.
You CANNOT urf and talk at he same time on Verizon. The very reason why they will never have the iPhone.
Finally, AT&T is exposing Verizons bs ads.
No problems here in Miami Fl. I don't know the number to customer service or how the inside of an AT&T store looks like. No dropped calls or any of the foolishness others always complain about.
In Boise, home of the soon to be 2010 Fiesta Bowl Champions! Go Broncos!, I have no problems. Recently travelled to Florida, South Carolina, and Arizona. No problems what so ever. I agree with the thought that it's a minority of people having the problems.
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20091201/att-ranked-last-in-consumer-reports-best-cell-phone-service-survey/
No problems in west L.A area.
In Boston, the 3G is fine
Michigan is aweful!! I had a first gen iPhone and was very happy with it. Until it needed repair recently and would have cost too much to fix, so I got a 3gs. I love the phone and the cell coverage is the same as the first gen phone. What pisses me off is my data plan is $30/mo instead of $20/mo and the nearest 3g coverage area is over an hour away. So I am now paying for improved data that I have no access to. With my wife having a 3g also, that is $240 extra money AT&T is getting per year from me. I wonder if I can write that off as a cheritable donation when I file my taxes? AT&T won't reduce my data plan either. When verizon gets the iPhone, either next year or 10 years from now, I am jumping ship. Their network may be slower, but at least it exists in my neck of the woods.
Had all the reported problems on recent trip to NYC (no coverage on native 3G so had to resort to Verizon MiFi unit). AT&T just lit up 3G in VT, where I live. Looking good so far. I'm seeing 3G in Burlington, Essex, parts of Colchester, Newport Town, Jericho, to name a few. And it performs well. And, it is slightly stronger so better signals in home. For example, my house in new north end of Burlington used to fail but no gets 3 bars. I'm pleased.
No 3G coverage in some parts of NW Pennsylvania yet
AT&T rocks in Georgia
3g is just fine here in Annapolis Maryland.
AT&T coverage rocks in Massachusetts!
AT&T (3G) was spotty here in the I91 corridor of Western Ma when I first got my iPhone, but much better now. My wife and I listen to pandora in the car all the way up from eastern PA with no problems. I was also getting an excellent signal the other day in Brattleboro, VT.
Greenfield, not so much.
No problems here in Milwaukee,WI. Never has been any problems.
GOOD HERE IN HOLLYWOOD LOS ANGELES
Oklahoma city - Dropped calls when switching from 3g to edge
Biggest complaint is at any large event like a concert, or even the AT&T sponsored cotton bowl my phone shows full bars of 3g but I cannot even send a text message let alone make a phone call or get on the Internet. Mass populated areas like these and downtown NYC seem to overload the system. Pisses me off something fierce
It doesn't exist in Fort Walton, FL...
Never had any major issues with AT&T throughout Nevada and California. Unfortunately AT&T completely lacks service at my workplace in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip. T-Mobile's service rules at my workplace. Perhaps I will have to leave AT&T and go to T-Mobile. Is Nexus One in my future????
I live in salt lake city and I do not have any complaints about AT&T 3g service. One of my friends has sprint service and they are always with one bar in my area whereas I go about with full bars.
Indianapolis Indiana works great. No issues or dropped calls.
In my part of Southern California, reception is good in terms of bars, but dropped calls still are frequent.
My AT&T coverage is great in the Phoenix/ Surprise area. No complaints here
Works great in Bee'eldííldahsinil.
Crappy 3g in central Illinois.
Anywhere AT&T has 3g in the southeast it works wondefully. I'm a truck driver I know. Ny sucks Vegas sucks. Anywhere else I haven't paid attention but I will be taking note in other cities
ya but to many of that number live in huge metro areas. can't get AANY deceant service when I leave 2 miles from town.
3G just got turned on here in Vermont Wednesday. So far signal has been better for me than on Edge.
Here in Hell, there a lot of hot spots with no service. But when I catch a 3G signal, I get blazing hot speeds.
Nothing here in southern Wisconsin.
Ok in Houston, occasional drop, but overall pretty good.
Great service in the Denver metro area. AT&T used to be really terrible here, until we got a significant upgrade to 850MHz. If you're still waiting for an upgrade, try to be patient because it's like night and day. I never drop calls and, even though my office is like a concrete bunker, I get consistent five bars with speeds almost like wifi.
Even with upgraded service, you still have to remember there are bandwidth limitations in crowded environments. Downtown NYC/SF, ball games, concerts, etc. are going to be problems. Getting good signal isn't the problem there. It's the congestion on the network.
No problems here in Oklahoma city. @Chris being that the Cotton Bowl is in Texas I fail to see how that relates to Oklahoma City.
Nothing at all in northern MN. I was told by thanksgiving or the end of the year at the latest. Both dates are long past EPIC FAIL!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent 3g coverage out here in the hick town of hollister, ca. Spend most of my days on the bay area at work, great coverage there too.
No problems here in El Paso TX. Signal is pretty much between 4-5 bars always and getting in the lower 2000s kbps.
The only place where there's no 3G signal is at work, but neither do Verizon nor Sprint, dunno for T-Mo. It gets fixed just switching to EDGE
Agree w/ Tony (#24)...3G does not even exist in Kalamazoo, MI. AT&T store keeps saying next quarter or the quarter after that, but it keeps getting pushed out. Was waiting to buy an iPhone for 3G coverage, but finally did anyway.
Here in Milwaukee, WI.... works great
Miami - Fort Lauderdale - West Palm Beach > no issues whatsoever. However, a major east-west highway across the southern part of Florida (I75 connecting Ft Lauderdale and Naples) not only loses 3G half way across, AT&T loses ALL service - no signal. "Alligator Alley" is not somewhere you want to get stranded with no cellular service. I had Verizon before the 3GS and I75 is covered all the way across.
IVE BEEN ALL OVER ARIZONA AND NEVER HAD PROBLEMS
Great service here in Central Jersey.
Montana = no go for AT&T 3G. Like many around here, I'd love an iPhone but it's not an option. Verizon is the only 3G game in the region. Sure we don't have large numbers of people regionally, but this is still a vast, non-trivial geographic area of the US that AT&T has pretty much ignored.
AT&T 3G coverage for the iPhone here in NYC is just horrible. In some areas, when I called, they said cell towers were down and they were "attempting ot fix it". This "attempted fix" went on for 4 straight years and still hasn't been fixed.
sorry, 3 years... 3G has been spotty since I got the iPhone 3G...
Graham, NC
3G mostly great except on south side of town near Swepsonville near my house...need another tower here AT&T! Otherwise great!
No problems in Dallas except 3G is still slow compared to Chicago speeds. ATT missed their promised end of 2009 turn-up of HSPA 7.2 though. @Chris, there were 77k mostly bored to sleep fans at the Cottonbowl game until the 4th quarter so they had to use their iPhones to kill time. That said, since ATT sponsored the game, you'd think they bring in sufficient temporary cell sites to ensure the fans had a great user experience at their signature event.
Very inconsistant on Long Island. Plenty of dropped calls. Usually can't go more than 25 minutes while in the car without a dropped call. It's frustrating as all hell but what am I gonna do. I deal with it because the iPhone is my 3rd child.
I travel alot. Works great in Seattle, Portland, SoCal. Not so good in Montana, Idaho. No 3G in Montana. Central Illinois has poor coverage West central Wisconsin is poor to fair. Northern Wisconsin is pretty shaky. Little 3g. Had data failures in NW Milwaukee. Chicago area is fine. Michigan is a crapshoot. Edge works. 3G in some areas. Dropped calls in Midwest. Frequent direct to vmail.
Superb coverage in San Diego. I get a fine signal throughout the inside of my residence, and everywhere outside. An occasional data dropout, but rarely. I was concerned when I switched from Verizon, but now with iPhone/AT&T I have no complaints.
Still many dropped calls in the places I live/travel: San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, and New York City. Signal strength doesn't seem to be a issue.
Dropping to EDGE solves the dropped call problem. Of course, this completely nullifies any advertised speed advantage AT&T is attempting to tout.
No 3G here in Danville, VA. I don't even get coverage about 3 miles away from an AT&T tower. It's crazy.
Albuquerque, NM has great 3G but still get dropped calls once in awhile but not as much as other cities.
Where I'm living (Houston Texas area) AT&T is the best. Bar none. Don't give me any crap about Big Reds network. It is second place here. And it is the same for all of Texas.
San Jose...Silicon Valley, within 4.3 miles of Apple Headquarters in Cupertino. I switched to AT&T from Sprint at the end of November and I do notice some signal issues. The odd thing is watching my phone all of a sudden dip to no bars and than say it is searching for service and than come back full barred and 3G without even moving. I cannot say I have had much of an issue with dropped calls, only 4 I can speak of for now so thats not to bad. I would say the data is a nightmare for speeds though, Sprints network smoked AT&T but I am hoping this will change. I love my iPhone and that's why I switched. I just hope AT&T gets their act together! It is pretty sad to be in the heart of technology, right by the birth place of this device and have it be mediocre.
Basically great coverage in Cincinnati and also Dayton Ohio. Verizons coverage is good in cinci but no good in Dayton
I used to work in a mid-sized East Texas town that had no coverage. Recently relocated to South Arkansas with spotty coverage and no 3g within about 90 miles. Although my verizon Ethernet card works great here and most places I've traveled; faster than my connection at work.
I understand that this is a rural area but Verizon has had high speed wireless in these parts for over a year now. Whats the hold up AT&T?
Just got it in Tupelo, MS. Nothing outside the city. Don't know how good it is because I love 7 miles from the closest ATT edge tower and barely get service at all.
AT&T is only service that works on our mountain in Alaska. And many other places in Alaska, as well. Everyone else who uses the other services can't get a signal in the out of the way places.
@Drake
We have nothing South of Wilkes Barre, PA either. No 3G and in some areas, no EDGE.
I really miss Saratoga Springs, NY.
Miami, fl. No problems here. I do have one spot where I always drop a call. Besides that. Everything is good.
Rocks her in NOR CAL....
Great service from Orlando to daytona beach Florida. Only issues at theme parks and out in the boonies but that happens to everyone. Switched from g1 on tmobile.
I'm in Dallas Texas getting 1.8mbps download and 240kbps upload. It's fast but I was expecting 2.5mbps - 3mbps average on my 3GS since the promised HSPA 7.2 was announced!!!! But it could be worse. I could have verizon running at 300-400kbps. Lol !!
Spokane washingon top notch.
2304kbps download and 325kbps upload on speed test just now.
Here in Glen Burnie Maryland At&t works fine here as well !!!!!!
I dont have many probs here in western CT, i have 3g for the most part but will switch to EDGE sometimes
3G works fine in Hagerstown, MD but no 3G from Peyton, CO to Kansas City, KS on a recent trip even along I-70. Then again there's no one out there. That's why I like the prairies! If you want to be alone and have 3G, you may want to check out Verizon. If you live in a metroplex, AT&T 3G works great (except for areas where it's overloaded with iPhone users with data polling turned on...)
Im in beacon ny it's ok most of the time I get 3g my sis inlaw gets 3g sometimes but new years eve from 11:30pm till 2:15am no calls or text I could text people on verizon but not Att then at 12am when the ball droped no service at all everyone I know on verizon no problems at all it was not just iPhones the whole network crashed it will be pushed under the carpet becouse of the network fight I think they need to fix some things and fix it fast
Sorry sis inlaw gets 3g sometimes
For some reason it won't post right my dis inlaw gets 3g plus
Nothing here in southeast Iowa....closest 3G coverage is 90 miles north.
in the chicago burbs and would say its ok for the most part...only when i go visit family do i have BIG issues in the far noth burbs
No 3G in west virginia in my area. Cant wait til they do because i wont ever switch carriers. ATT has done great for me.
230 million = 77%.
This ad attempts to minimize the effect of the coverage map in the Verizon ads by appropriately pointing out that, essentially, most people live in major cities and are therefore covered by AT&T's 3G network. The U.S. population is approximately 300 million. While I believe I saw another AT&T commercial indicating that they cover 97% of people in the U.S., that might include EDGE. Regarding 3G, even though the Verizon map ad is accurate, AT&T is countering with the statistic that about 77% of U.S. residents are within their 3G coverage area. However, 230 million sounds more impressive than 77%. Most people in the U.S. probably don't know how many people live in the U.S.
However, just because that percentage of residents live in the 3G coverage area, that doesn't mean anything about the quality of the network in all of those areas. We know that wherever the AT&T 3G network has to provide data to too many iPhones, especially if the iPhones moving around, the whole network gets swamped. Obviously, the AT&T network couldn't handle anywhere near 230 million people; no existing network would be able to do that.
As far as not being able to use data and make calls on Verizon: that's just a technological choice in making their network. The alternative, with AT&T, is that when the 3G network gets swamped, the iPhone 3G can neither make calls nor use data while on 3G.
Boston has become better over time. For about the first year, 3G was impossible to use in Harvard Square, so the iPhone would work only on EDGE. There are a lot of people in that area though.
In fact, I would bet that the fact that the calls and data are not kept separate on AT&T increase the impression that AT&T's 3G network is unreliable. Intermittent data outages are problematic and repeatedly dropping calls are each annoying; the two together render your phone practically useless for communication with people or with the internet.
The real problem is not that one carrier is better than all the others, it's that no carrier can always cover where someone lives and where they travel. Especially for someone who lives or travels in sparsely populated areas, AT&T 3G will probably not be accessible for a while.
3g in Chicago is spotty at best. Dropped calls and service constantly on the L. For months I couldn't make a call or use data in river north. I have coworkers who live in Logans Square and West Town who have no service period in their apts.
It blows on eastern NC. No coverage in Greenville, New Bern, or Wilmington!
Elyria, Ohio outdoors 3g is faster than my wifi and I rarely have a dropped call. Indoors is a different story, in my house I can't even complete a phone call without it being dropped and 3g is spotty. When I go into any store you can forget even trying to make a call because all the phone says is searching for signal.
To me, coverage is not the issue. Throughput is. In my area (Wilmington, DE) I often have 5 bars of 3G but can't get data or the data comes in painfully slowly. The 3G towers are overloaded.
No problems in Richmond, Virginia. No problems in Virginia Beach, Charlottesville, or Washington, D.C. As I remember it was spotty in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Sprint is too as I have one of their cards for a laptop. Family reports it is good in Western Kentucky as well.
Great 3G coverage here in Central and Eastern Massachusetts. Although we do a lot of skiing in VT and there is nothing but terrible coverage up there. Can't even get on the Edge network half of the time. Most of the time all I see is the dreaded No Service!
All good in Miami fl
It's good here in the midwest except for the occasional full signal and no data problem...
Reading these replies seems to back up what a lot of us have been saying all along. For those of us in metros, 3G signal coverage is acceptable.
The performance, however, (dropped calls, no data) leaves a lot to be desired.