AT&T's network down in parts of Texas
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Feb 25th 2009 5:59PM
posted Feb 25th 2009 5:59PM
We've gotten word that AT&T's airwaves in Texas are a bit spotty today due to some sort of "equipment issue" that's causing handsets to be unable to authenticate to the network. Good news is it should be resolved later today, if it hasn't been already -- anyone out there being affected by this? Follow the break for AT&T's official statement.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: AT&T tells us that everything was patched up and good to go as of 7:15 CST.
"Due to an equipment issue, some AT&T mobility customers in Texas may be experiencing authentication issues with their wireless devices. AT&T technicians are working to resolve the issue at this time, and we expect service to be restored later today. We will provide more information as it becomes available. We apologize for the inconvenience."
Seems fine in Dallas.
Down for me in Dallas in the Uptown area.
ever since the 3G iphone launch the AT&T network has been less than average
So, with so many outages, tell me again why AT&T has ~60 million customers??
No joke - I think besides c&p and MMS, this is the biggest complaint about the iPhone. And as you read around the web, lots of folks love the iPhone but hate the service.
lol
they have like 60,000 towers and every time 3 go out, everyone wants to "wonder why they have so many customers"
[yes im exaggerating a little, but u get the point]
with such a large network, there are outages every single day
thats just this thing called probability
dont get me wrong, im no att fanboy,
but they do maintain over 99% reliability
so ur question is actually ur answer.
its not "why do they have 60mil subs"
but rather... because they have 60mil subs,
a percent of affect users is larger in number
than the same percent of a smaller carrier
@youngcalihottie
Your theory would seem to make sense until you realize that Verizon has more subscribers and you rarely hear about their network going down in large regions or with the same frequency as At&t. Sprint still has close to 50 million subscribers and you don't hear about it there either
Verizon works on a completely different technology then AT&T, so your comparison is off. If verizon has down towers, they will route everyone onto the existing towers. This makes for more uptime, but weaker single strength.
Ive had both Verizon and AT&T, with Verizon youll get a period of few hours/days with 1bar, with extremely poor data rates.
Whereas, the 3G AT&T will just drop off all together and youll either have nothing (or maybe edge).
I saw this issue on twitter yesterday, there are 1000's of pissed off AT&T customers... but probably 1%. :)
Having trouble just west of Houston. Seems the trouble is first handshaking with a tower, once your connected it works fine, it just takes a while sometimes to connect to a tower.
3G connection has been shady today in places where it's usually fine. Hmm..
Grapevine, Texas.
having trouble in Austin
Find me all the articles about the VZW outages...I'm sure it happens to them too, but c'mon...not this much.
this is where Verizon and Sprint rock
TMO the worst in coverage
ATT is good bt just the 3g ifone problemos
Still down in Dallas. have 3G iPhone. Normally AT&T has always been great, but then I've only had an iphone for 2 weeks. Been AT&T customer for years.
no gmail on my phone in Fort Worth
boo hoo
Haha, I'd hate to be the guy who first caught this...
"Umm.. Sir, we seem to have a few outages."
"Where about?"
"Texas."
"Texas? Like second most populated state in America Texas?"
"yahhh... that one..."
Dallas, Wylie, Garland areas have been out since 2p, its now 7:15 and its still down!
Woodlands and Pearland (Houston) seems to in and out with no HSPDA while authenticated. Glad I'm not on-call this week or I'd be screwed. Aircard for remote support is ATT and so is my Blackberry. I love you big blue but get this fixed ASAP.
2 outages in Michigan and crap for coverage made me switch back to Verizon and a BB Storm.
Now I went from hating the service and loving the device, to loving the service and hating the device.
There is no way to win.
But I will say I am happier overall. The BB Storm is 90% there and AT&T's network (I am only speaking for MY AREA) is absolute garbage. Worked fine in many other areas I went to, but not here.
Crap for coverage in michigan? Should be great with the Dobson and Centennial buyout. Even before the Centennial acquisition completes, you can roam on Centennial everywhere.
But we have always had access to Dobson and Centennial systems. The acquisitions will just mean that it will cost AT&T less for us to use those systems as they will be integrated into their own system.
The areas of coverage I had the most issues with were the Northeast LP and the thumb (specifically in between the thumb and mid-Michigan). As for my home town, we have half decent coverage (lots of spots with no service in town), but the main problem is actually that even where you have a full signal (in the -60 dbm range even) we have tons of problems, presumably due to capacity issues.
I know that AT&T works great in some areas, but mine isn't one of them :) And I know Verizon is far from perfect too. Not trying to be a fanboy or anything, I hate lots of things that Verizon does, but if you compare the maps of the Michigan LP you'll see the difference, even including Dobson and Centennial.
It will all be fixed eventually. I was being a troll to even comment. I totally understand if you are happy with them, it worked GREAT in and around my office. The area around my home was the problem. But the area around my parents home 20 miles north of here used to have marginal signal and crap coverage with Verizon, so it's hit and miss.
Use what works for you, I wish AT&T worked great here for me because I'd much rather use them then the evil V :)
- NE Houston
I got home and my wife had 3G. I didn't get signal until about 30 minutes ago. That is over 3 hours without signal. I actually restored my iPhone and still had the same issue. BAH!
Down in East Texas all day long. Handshaking issues, and I also have a Sidekick that roams on ATT in area's, and it's trying to authenticate, gets barred from using the ATT tower, then tries again.....repeating over, and over.
3g has been fine all day here in san marcos
GOOD JOB AT&T....YOU'RE TEH BESTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know - ATT is purposely letting the network degrade so they can sell a crap load of Microcells when they come out......Route that traffic through the broadband pipe!
All carriers have outages.
The difference is while Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have remote outages here or there, ATT has huge regional, state or even entire seaboard outages that seem to affect lots of people at once.
And to make things worse, they seem to happen on a weekly or semi-weekly basis.
ATT does have decent coverage and cool phones, but they overcharge for such unreliable (low quality) service.
They aren't even allowed to say they have the best domestic coverage. Now they just confuse people with their ads claiming to have the best coverage worldwide. How ambiguous is that? Just because you have a lot of phones that operate internationally and just because you have lots of roaming agreements doesn't mean your coverage is the best.
Still not working out in West Texas.
I am still down on 2/26/09 at 6:57 am CST.
Sorry...the outage I am referring to is in Houston.
AT&T = Satan.
No wonder! I was driving on 30W towards Fort Worth and noticed that my signal went in and out, and for a few minutes, NO COVERAGE at all. I thought that was weird, esp. on a main highway; go figure!
1st gen iPhone user in Austin. "No Service" on EDGE for about 24 hours now. Sigh.
I live up Denton, TX. I'm able to connect, but my calls are constantly being dropped, even though I've got 5 bars on the signal indicator..
I have been fighting with AT&T to get what I am paying for and get one lie after another. I am told they never promised me coverage everywhere. I then asked the snippy tech if she had lousy coverage at her home, would she renew a contract for 2 years with that company? I have a phone less than a year on the market that drops calls only in the area where I live. Never had this problem until I purchased this Motorola phone, now getting the shit treatment from AT&T personel. And when they told me I could get an exchange of phones, I go to the store to look and the phone I purchased and the phone my daughter bought are no longer sold online or at the AT&T stores. This is the z9 Motorola phone, not a cheap phone by any standard. And I hate to waste time on the phone trying to fix a problem I cannot get fixed.
I am ready to call the BBB and get the heck out of this lousy contract.