Apple and AT&T Being Sued for Slow 3G Speeds (Again)

If Apple is not being sued over iPhones with cracking cases they are usually being sued for slower than advertised speeds. Lets not forget AT&T, they are involved with this latest lawsuit as well.

This suit has been filed in the good state of New Jersey by Damone Dickerson. Dickerson claims Apple misrepresented the speed, strength and overall performance of AT&T's 3G network. The lawsuit also claims he could only connect to the 3G network periodically. Can we say "possible fringe area"? According to Macworld the charges against both companies include the following:

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blockquote>Negligence, Breach of Express Warranty, Breach of Implied Warranty of Merchantability, Unjust Enrichment, Negligent Misrepresentation, Violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and Other Similar State Statutes, and Breach of Contract.

Dickerson is seeking to recover compensatory, statutory and punitive damages. What's next? Will it come down to all of Apple's TV commercials for the iPhone being yanked off of the airwaves?

[Via Macworld]

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38 Comments
  • I want to be part of this law suit :)
    AT&T needs to increase the speed on it's network or decrease the cost of the data plan.
  • New iPhone will come with better 3g chips and I agree $30/month for sprinkled 3g service is ridunculous
  • If 3G service is bad in your area you have 30 days to return the device and get a full refund. Not that difficult. Past 30 days, it's your problem. Nothing to sue over...
  • I have pretty good speeds in my area. No complants. My average speed is 1.2 Mbps according to mobilespeedtest.com
  • Doesn't att have a coverage map ? Why would you buy a plan from a carrier that does not have good coverage in your area ?
    I think he just brought the phone and service to sue the companies. If he got the phone without checking the coverage map at the store then it's his fault.
    I hope he loses.
  • @Omari
    I totally agree. People need to have some common sense.
  • 3G speed was excelent during the first month, later on it started to get slow. And as advertised 3G speed should be dubble then edge.
  • what does apple have to do with AT&T coverage. I don't hear people during blackberry for slow speeds. I guess people see howmych money apple has.
  • because noone uses blackberry LOL
  • Mine's actually pretty good (FL)
  • Speed and coverage is great up in my neck of the woods.
  • Even if my 3G sucked, I'd still keep my iPhone and I'd appreciate the hëll out it. I grew up, and was educated, without internet (or even computers).... and I had to pull over and deposit dimes into pay phones when I wanted to communicate on the go. People today are so spoiled and unappreciative of what they have. If you can't access the internet as fast as you'd like, get your information (or communicate) another way and shut the f*ck up.
    $30 a month is well worth having mobile internet, regardless of it's speed. :roll:
  • @Steve
    Steve! Steve! Steve!
  • My whole issue with this is, if it's too slow for you take it back and get something else? How can you sue someone for this unless they say you are stuck in a 2 year contract and can't return you phone? Just stupid.
  • Amen amen amen
  • @Steve
    Exactly ! Sometimes my 3G varies I speed but I don't complain because the phone it self is a bargan !
    It's just that there are people out there who have too much time and money on their hands to hire lawrers and file lawsuits. SMH.
  • This is just another way of
    Income for ppl who are lazy and sue rich companys because they will prolly give him a out of court settlement to shuup
  • Hopefully stuff like this will spur ATT to improve their network. I don't remember the last time Verizon got sued for coverage issues.
  • You only have 15 days to evaluate, not 30. That's really not a long time at all to evaluate something as expensive as an iPhone+plan.
  • I live in a high 3G area, but sometimes my phone stays in Edge for a day or more, it's really annoying, this never happened within the 30 days.
    Also I have not heard Blackberry claim speeds in it's commercials. It does say the device is quick, but never about the speeds.
    I don't think people should sue, maybe go back to a store and complain about it. If that doesn't work then call them, if that doesn't work then proceed to call corporate and move your way up.
  • @ terry
    While that might work if you had hundred's of customers from a similiar geographical area, one individual is going to get written off. But a lawsuit accomplishes something big: it gives power to the individual to get attention and draw other disgruntled users together while at the same time shaming the one being sued (here it is Att and apple). And hopefully this stirs ATT to beef up their network.
    But since their there is already a lawsuit ( and I'm sure ATT is getting tired of it) get every person you know to write, call, perform a mime, whatever to hit ATT on as many fronts as possible, to complain about the coverage.
  • AT&T claims to have the best 3G network. This is simply not true. Verizon has better network.
  • iam being hact an thay just let it happen hum should i keep them thay lied about my re_ baits thay owe me two $50 gife cards for getting high speed internet high my___so whatch yourself we have
  • My 3G now compared to SPRINT is OK. My calls drop more than with any other carrier I've had.
    Nothing to sue over...some lazy people just like to get something for nothing.
  • This is stupid. In every iPhone commerical, it states that "3G not available in all areas"..........if you live in a 3G zone, yea it is fast. If you don't, well....Now what happens if yo have 3G at home, but drive somewhere and don't?? Do you sue because it is not nation wide?? They (ATT) never claimed that it was nation wide.....
  • A lot of you sound like idiots...Hes suing because of false advertisement so maybe he did check his coverage map and it FALSELY ADVERTISED it would work. And whether he has 30 days to return it or not for that price it should still do what it says it will. Get your head out of your asses. The mans fighting so we stop getting screwed over by these companies. It shouldnt take a minute to open an sms or type a message because the phone runs as slow as it does... And with 3.0 os the phone is damn near unusable because companies to release what works, they release what sales. So I hope he wins and the rest of you who thinks he's wrong can take one up the a**. Thank You
  • A lot of you sound like idiots…Hes suing because of false advertisement so maybe he did check his coverage map and it FALSELY ADVERTISED it would work. And whether he has 30 days to return it or not for that price it should still do what it says it will. Get your head out of your asses. The mans fighting so we stop getting screwed over by these companies. It shouldnt take a minute to open an sms or type a message because the phone runs as slow as it does… And with 3.0 os the phone is damn near unusable because companies dont release what works, they release what sales. So I hope he wins and the rest of you who thinks he’s wrong can take one up the a**. Thank You
  • you sue apple then they lose how could they plan to invent for upgrading? or say itunes close forever? huaaa.. no more free apps?
  • Sorry to tell you guys, but it's not so much AT&T as Apple. I have a moble net card as well as well as an iPhone 3G. The net card is much more reliable than the iPhone. Both in service and reliablity. If you do a download test I usualy get about 1.6 kb per sec. Pretty good right. The problem is you don't get that with net on the iPhone. The iPhone slows that number down. Some say the iPhone has a problem putting the codes in a readable form. So it seems to be some programing flaw on apples part. Something we should not have to put up with for a $400 phone.
    PS Don't run out and get the 3GS. Yes it does everything a little better. Also the camera is much better, but in a year the 4G should be out. Plus people seem to be having some issues with new hardware. iPhone 4G will be faster and they should have the hardware issues fixed.
  • I would like to add, that a friend of mine and myself have had both the 1st gen and 2nd gen and Internet speeds used to be suffice. I work in the heart of Midtown NY where I used to get about 756kbps on my 3g and a little slower where I live in Putnam county (but still acceptable, around 300kbps). Recently like about 3 months or so, the speed has decreased significantly to about 60kbps in both areas (my friend also having the same issue). This is totally unacceptable for I switched to ATT from verizon for the faster 3g service. I just got off the phone with a support rep who told me the 3g service has been having problems in that area and will be getting updated on August 1st. I was like well what about my Putnam Count and he could not answer me. Don't get me wrong, I love my Iphone and cannot give it up, but cmon we are all paying for something and that is an advertised speed (3g). If I wanted edge service I would go back to tmobile. (Just my two cents)
  • I wish my phone just operated as fast as the one on the commerical. The apps alone. The 3g is kinda like a bonus when it works.
  • I switched from the iphone to the iphone 3GS. At first the browsing was good and fast and I could get to sites no problem. Now after 3 months that has changed. Service has become slower every day and at times it will lag out and at times I can't even get to the web site I was just at the day before. On top of that I get dropped calls almost daily. I love the iphone for many reasons. But I switched for the touted "3G Speed" and well it has been anything but fast. Apple needs to open up the phone to other carriers and introduce competition, then perhaps AT&T will get off their behinds and fix this apparent issue. But paying for something that is not working as advertised is getting old and is common theme to anyone I talk too who has the phone. The iphone has overloaded the AT&T network. AT&T needs to fix the issue or lower the cost! Iphone=good! AT&T=bad!
  • Its funny you have haters and defenders on this subject. At&T clearly states they have the largest and fastest network available during there ads. They mislead the public by allways showing there voice coverage during the same ads making you think that includes data coverage as well. Verizon ads are clearly showing the true 3G coverage that At&T has which is very sparse to say the least. Clearly all factual information but still you have some people blaming it on the person that purchased the service. Have you talked to a cell phone sales person lately. Worse than a car salesman dealing in snake oil, with poor product knowlage. Regardless Verizon has far better coverage and they have all ready started the upgrade path to 4G, were At&t doesn't even understand they you have to expand and upgrade the network to stay on top. Not by subjecting end users to false claims and promises. If Apple and Verizon didnt have a dispute on who will control the apps, the iPhone would have been on the true largest and fastest network.
  • I was reading these and I also grew up prior to mass cell phones and internet classrooms. I don't think framing an iphone as something to be appreciated is really too reasonable. Many of these companies are making record profits without actually delivering on what they're promising in their advertising. I agree that petty litigation run rampant is a bad thing but even more so are massive corporations run rampant with no recourse to the consumer when a product does not meet advertised claims. Back in the day when you had to pull over to use a pay phone you also didn't need a cell phone for work and you didn't need an email address to register with companies or the internet to pay bills. Apple has a track record of not honoring their limited warranty and requires you pay extra to even warranty their products for a year. In times of planned obsolesence engineering and fine print overriding verbal product claims someone needs to stand up to it.
  • Morgan hit the nail on the head with this one. This generation was brought up mostly on the idea of "well we didn't have that luxury in my day". Well it's no longer their day and they are far from luxuries any more. Granted many people could do without cell phones and laptops, but you know what? So could half the people telling them they don't need these things. People could live without 90% of the things they have but there are few people who would ever give the idea of trying it a second chance. This lawsuit shows something I haven't seen in a long time though and that is someone standing up for what they believe is their right and there is nothing shameful about that.
  • I for one have noticed a significant slow-down on my iPhone since the latest iPhone osx update. Went from insanely fast 3g speeds, to being barely able to browse at all.
    Come to think of it though, the iPhone osx update pretty much was released with the ipad.
    Could be the ipad to blame.
    Regardless, my "3g" is now useless. If I had money i'd sue.
    A loss of service is a loss of service, regardless of any "30 day test"
    are we really to believe that technology is constant, and that 30 days of good service equates to 2 years of good service?
  • I absolutely love my iPhone... BUT am also a bit peeved about AT&T's assertions of speed. I never noticed in the beginning because my iPhone had been using my wireless router (connected to Comcast cable internet) most of the time (I work out of my home) and I had no idea that the speedy internet work I was enjoying on my iPhone was due to Comcast. Not until my router died and I had to rely on AT&T's "3G network" and it was SLOW. Couldn't even update my apps because the phone was "too slow" to download (!?!?) them. So you tell me, how should I have known 30 days after buying this phone that it wasn't performing up to their claims?
    Not enough to sue them over this, as I do appreciate having some ability to connect to the internet when I am out and about. Plus, I do love this phone...
    But will I renew my contract with AT&T? Perhaps not.
  • Let's put it like this.
    When the iPhone first came out it was a succsess right!
    When the IPhone 3G came out it was even better, matter of fact was to good, super fast and everyone was getting it.
    So what did AT&T did or thought?
    This is a gold mine, let's go to the next step, let's get apple to create another iPhone but before that we need to do something.
    Let's came out with iPhone firmwares that slowly decreasse speed in a way that people won't notice, because after a bunch of updates you actually start realizing that your phone is much slower that it was when you first got it.
    Do you realize that you iPhone 3G is much slower from IOS 3.1.2 to 4.0?
    And why is that?
    Because many months after you get used to your slower iPhone, now they can came with the new iPhone (IPhone 4) and give it the original speed of the old iphone3G making it look faster and better, and the best part is.... Did not spent 1 penny in upgrading they're network and be able to charge clients even more money because like I mention on the biggining everyone is getting iPhones.
    But don't listen to me this is just my opinion right!