I have a iPhone with a 2G network connection. That is what is available in my area. AT&T claims everything is fine. I have a ping latency of 30,000ms and speedtest.net shows 0kbps download, 75kbps upload. After about 10,000ms my phone gives up on trying to receive data.

Everyone in my area within 10 miles has the same issue. AT&T says "You've downloaded 200 megs so there is no issue".

When I try to explain the problem, they say "we don't deal with technical statistics".
I said, "Can I speak to someone who does?" They said "You need to talk to apple about those statistics."

I spoke to apple once and they determined that the problem was with the AT&T lines. They told me I should ask for my money back on the internet.

I told AT&T about it and they said "They were not supposed to say that".

So, every month I've asked and every month it gets harder. I spent 2 hours on the phone with AT&T yesterday to get my $25 back.

This can't continue. There is an obvious problem which has not been fixed for at least a year now. I can't use the weather app, or the stocks app, or even the web browser on mobile broadband sometimes. What should I do about this? I, and everyone around me are being wronged.

 

Can you switch to a different network? (I think your other alternative is Verizon?). I'm Canadian and we don't have ridiculous latency issues because our network (yes, there technically is only one) is not over-crowded. Bell is the company that owns pretty much all the cellular infrastructure here and they let other companies, such as Rogers and Telus rent off of that infrastucture so as to create some sort of "competition". We have to deal with over-priced phones and practically mandatory 3-year contracts. In the States, you have to deal with AT&T's over-crowded network. Most of my friends in the States have switched over to Verizon and say it's better, but a few still stick with AT&T. I suppose it's all about location and your provider's infrastucture setup in that particular area.

Have you tried asking some people about their service with another provider? Perhaps you'll get some better responses from them.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DTN @ Jul 30 2010, 09:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>What should I do about this?</div>Sprint. Evo.

 

AT&T is the only service here.

There must be some sort of organization which deals with this sort of thing. I mean, if there is not, then I might start one. It's a complete rip off. We are spending $30 per month and not getting anything back for it. It's manditory with the iPhone to have internet and it does not work here.

I mean really, who do I call? Better Business Beureau? What organizations deal with monopolies which take money for no service?

 

Is T-Mobile available in your area? Check this link out for Using your iphone without at&t. T-Mobile and at&t use the same type of wireless networks so its very likely they are also available in your area if at&t is.

As for your 30/month data plan, why not switch to the 200mb plan that is like 15/month then try and use wifi only for internet.

The required data plan is required by apple since they want your phones usuage and GPS location info uploaded to them every night which happens around 2am. Yes your iphone uploads that info to apple nightly. Since at&t owns the bandwidth and the iphone can be a hog at times on faster 3g connections they went ahead and bumped the unlimited data plan $$ just for the iphone cause at&t's wireless network wasn't ready to handle the data demand. In most area's or in cases like yours the towers havn't been upgraded yet for 3g so you get that less than 56k modem speed internet if your lucky which sucks cause I visit area's like that all the time and my phone is basically useless too.

Have you downloaded at&t's app called Mark the Spot yet? Its an app to report dropped call locations, no data area's and so on directly from that location using GPS coordinates and it allows you to put a description in for whats not working. When i am stuck in an area with no 3g internet I fire that app up and start b*tching to at&t about their internet speeds. That is probably the best way to get your complaints heard by the right ppl. My neighbor works for at&t and tells me that they really are working on the expansion of their wireless network so maybe you can get lucky by sending daily complaints from your phone.

HTH

 

So, seems like you're finding out why so many people say the iPhone is a POS. The hardware is fine, but Apple's and AT&T's customer service suck and AT&T's wireless service sucks.

 

^^ No, I've been complaining about the service and getting my money back every month since I got the phone. It's a great phone, but AT&T is the worst carrier I've ever experienced. I was happy with Verizon and Alltel, I was unsatisfied by Sprint. I am outraged at the service I receive with AT&T.

krazytib: I downloaded the app and made two reports today. I have also texted every one of my friends with the information about the app. Thank you very much.

I do not want to drop my data plan. I have another year left of unlimited data plan. If I make any changes to my plan I loose the unlimited data plan. In case they actually DO upgrade their towers, which have been "under construction" for the last year, I want to have the unlimited data plan.

I don't think changing the service to T-Mobile will change anything... In my research I've found this site which shows the locations of cell towers. http://www.antennasearch.com/sitestart.asp...est=pagehandler . It would appear that most of the cellular reception here is leased from outside sources. It is actually a different address then my home.

Here is the site where you can search on your own: http://www.antennasearch.com/

 

I just thought I'd share this. Here are some traceroutes i performed throughout the day today on my phone.





















that last one shows that there is no news available on THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE!!!

 

and for reference:

on wifi:


my desktop:



I'm going to call AT&T later and start a network quality analysis. Any pointers?

 

That antennae search website is pretty cool. Did not know anything like that existed. Can you upgrade your phone to 4.0.1 then visit http://jailbreakme.com from the safari browser to jailbreak it?? I would do it asap before apple releases os 4.1 and blocks that website. I updated my iOS to 4.0.1 and visited that site and successfully jailbroke my phone. The signal bars are fixed in 4.0.1 and I swear my phone has no signal anywhere now. I see your phone showed full bars which is most likely incorrect since my house used to show full bars now all I see is 1 bar.

Update your phone if you can but the only drawback to this is the terminal app from cydia does not work yet. What I did was install sbsettings so I could quickly disable the att data network so I was only running wifi and then proceeded to install SSH then I ssh'd into my phone and immediately changed the default root and mobile passwords of alpine before I re-connected the att data side back up so I wouldn't get hacked.

After you finish the jailbreak Install the PDF Loading Warner app from Cydia to protect your phone from the exploit that was used to jailbreak your phone.

Can you get 3g coverage anywhere near you?