Apple Genius says 30 percent iPhone call drop rate is average in New York
By Donald Melanson 
posted Sep 30th 2009 12:29PM
posted Sep 30th 2009 12:29PM
To be sure, a certain number of dropped calls are to be expected when you're dealing with the wonders of cellular communication, but some phones do seem to fare worse then others when paired with certain carriers in particularly congested regions. Apparently fed up with such problems in New York, Gizmodo reader Manoj decided to stop by an Apple Store to see if something might be wrong with his iPhone -- this, after apparently being assured by AT&T that everything was all right on its end. After a few tests, the Apple Genius determined that Manoj's phone was dropping 22 percent of its calls, which turns out to actually be "excellent" compared to most iPhone users in the New York area, where a dropped call rate of 30 percent is said to be average -- according to the dude at the store, anyhow. The Genius further went on to confirm that the phone was indeed "fully functional," and that the problem is "consistent with the service provided by AT&T." So, nothing to worry about, folks -- everything is "normal."
[Thanks, Canis]
[Thanks, Canis]
Are you serious?? If I dropped 2% of my calls I would leave.. On Sprint I drop maybe twice a month... That's ridiculous.. Might as well not use it as a phone..
AT&T is a horrible network! They can't keep up with the internet traffic caused by the iPhone! I find it hilarious that a lot of iPhone users have actually purchased the Sprint MiFi card to get internet service! I also have a lot of friends that have AT&T in NYC and i can't stand talking on the phone to any of them because they are guaranteed to drop off at least once during the conversation, then I'll try to text them and they won't get the text for up to 3 hours! How does AT&T get away with saying they have a reliable network! They have a re-LIE-able network! Sprint saves you tons of money and the service is 100% better and now with the new ANY MOBILE ANYTIME, forget about it! Calling circles???? garbage! GO with Sprint! YOu wont be unhappy!
cough...cough...switch to pre...cough...cough
I did and then returned it after I dropped 25+ calls a day on average in Vegas. They switched my pre for a new one and the same thing. Switched to ATT for Iphone and its better (hardware wise) but I still drop about 2-5 calls a day. Sadly T-mobile and my blackberry 8320 was the best service I have had here. The Pre was by far the worse, and that keyboard sucked!
Philthy-
You're saying you dropped 25+ calls a day with Sprint in Las Vegas?......The same flat city where Sprint has already unleashed their blazing 4G Network and where your new magical iPhone works better?
Nice try, but we're not buying your story.
We all know that the iPhone just entered the 3G world......and it'll be awhile before you begin to think about enjoying the benefits of a 4G network....in the meantime, please stop trying to pull our leg.
That's a load of BS! I have the iphone 3GS and I probably have dropped 1 call in 2 months. AT&T service is superb out here, 3G everywhere and signal is strong. I have no problems.
I actually left verizon cause i barely had signal! haha
You are in NYC?
I don't have problems with dropped calls on AT&T (when I had Winmo and now with an unlocked Dream)... unless I'm talking to an iPhone user. The call is guaranteed to drop at least once.
JPZ and Big Sam - what part of the country are you in? I still drop all the time. Apple checked the 3GS - No issues with the hardware.
From PGH,
I had a tilt and dropped many calls, since I've switched to Iphone in June....not a one dropped call! Excellent here in Pittsburgh!
d
I do not for the life of me understand WHY people are so in love with the iphone that they are willing to pay sooooo much a month, for dropped calls and terrible 3G coverage and speeds.
GET OVER THE HYPE!! Switch to Sprint...you will save over 40% per month and have MUCH less dropped calls and the fastest 3G service.
Just makes no damn sense!
I switched from Tilt to iPhone. I do drop about 25% of my calls at my condo. The drop rate on my Tilt was 0. I don't think it's AT&T. I think it's the iPhone.
Let me get this straight...I'm in NY and have an unlocked Nokia E71 on ATT. The only time I drop calls is when I am in the basement of a building working on electrical systems. With my iPhone, I got dropped calls all the time. Please, explain to me how this is an AT&T issue as I hear so often. My E71 is blazingly fast on 3G, and I pay $10/month (since it is unlocked) for data. Apple seems to think that they are great at making cell phones, and want to blame AT&T for it. Just my $.02.
I believe it, I will be at my cousins appt and he has a iPhone and I have a blackberry bold on AT&T, me and him will be on a call and he will get dropped but I wont I sit with 4-5 bars on 3G no problem, sometimes his phone drops to EDGE. I don't know, but I think there is a weak RF radio in the iPhone honestly.
well, sence were talking about drop calls let me put it this was i had sprint and i would drop at least 20 or 30 calls at day =( they said it was a hardware issue change phone still same prob....
switch to verizon and sooo far i havent had 1 single drop call, on elevators, LAX, undergroundparking, or my apartment =D
i have a bbr curve, live in souther Cal, i had at&t and sprint and they both suck regarding dropcalls =P
i say switch to a different network...
if you drop more thank 5 call a day is not wearth it, its not the same for every 1, and no im not a vzw fan im just stating a fact if you drop so many calls change cause its more expensive in the long run...
I call BS, I live in SoCal, have Sprint, and I haven't had a dropped call in ages. I have had 3 phones since I moved out here, and all of them have been superb with reception. I travelled all over every day for work using about 2700 mins a month generally
incoming shit storm
It is incredibly humorous to see people's reactions and how they seem to state all of their experiences as basically fact. I have a Sprint Palm Pre. I do not drop calls, but have some reception issues in many places. There is a home-brew application that allows you to force roaming on the phone, basically jumping to Verizon in my area. I basically have two cell phone networks to choose from. I had an iPhone for six months, and got rid of it. I had a bad experience, and a majority of people whom I know have iPhones unilaterally complain about their service and their experience. It is a fad, and is uncomfortable just like many other fads, in my opinion. People will get over the phone eventually.
As for 30 percent dropped call rate averages, you seem to get what you pay for. Unless you are a heavy international user, and need a SIM card based phone to travel abroad, switch to Sprint. Their customer service has vastly improved over the past few years.
I wonder if somehow the new iphone "S" has less dropped calls? My carrier sucks less.
It gotta be the radio in the phone, I have expierenced on My Nokia N97 perfect signal and it operates perfect on the 3.5G 7.2mps. Although standing next to my friend with his Iphone 3GS, it dropped calls consistently, whenever we were on the phone at the same time. I have other unlocked phones, iphones, HTC Touch HD's, AT&T branded phones, but the iphone has always had a problem. Not enough people seem to get that its not AT&T service. Its the radio in the phone. You will notice that some phones you have are better than others for signal. Hopefully apple will make a much better radio, and it will defiently help that AT&T is moving to the 850mhz spectrum
I had a blackjack before I had an Iphone 3G when I had my iphone and I had never dropped a call on ATT until I got an Iphone. I would drop at least 5 calls a week. It drove me nuts. Before I got my Iphone I could literally count on one hand how many times I had ever dropped a call. The 3G service in Nashville is superb. It was literally my iphone. I don't have either the service or that phone anymore.
I had the first gen iPhone until I upgraded to the iPhone 3Gs. I have used both devices primarily in Los Angeles, Chicago, South Florida and Honolulu and have negligible dropped calls. In Chicago on the 3Gs there was a lot of dropping into Edge. Otherwise all has been good.
I promise you I hate ATT but because I think the plans are unnecessarily expensive and it took a million years to activate MMS and get a top five program.
The beauty of the phone is its integration. Nothing else compares when you want to integrate your music, pictures, movies, email and web.
Phones I was using prior to the first gen iPhone was a Nokia E61i and a Nokia N95. Solid phones, but not even close to the iPhone for ease of use and integration. I've looked at the Pre and HTC devices, but none of them seem to have the integration down as well plus you get 75k apps. IMO, it's no contest.
Yawn. I work in NYC and live in Westchester have been an AT&T/Cingular customer for over ten years, purchased a first gen iPhone on the first day availability and did the same when the 3G S became available.
30% dropped calls? Try less than 1%.
The true story? All of these blogs and comments reflect the fact that as of today, 40% of online mobile browsing is accessed using Mobile Safari. Does anyone actually believe they would have a sustainable platform for growth without mentioning Apple countless times a day?
Google, MS, Verizon, Nokia, Palm, Sony, et al, are so scared that Apple will transition from sucking all of the air out of the room to owning the next paradigm, they can't spread the money around fast enough to spread this BS.
The iPhone + App Store + future innovation (wireless tablet = game + content + service subscription platform) = game over.
lol 1st if the iphone had good reception then i believe you, but u can't even use the phone as a phone dnt make me laught, 1's that gets fix maybe maybe i believe that is the best phone ever, get 1 thing right fist then do the other million things that they wnt the phone to do.... oh and by the way my phone dosent over heat after 1 hour on the web or just talking, or catches on fire....yea
Yawn to the Apple iPhone lore.
Why are iPhone people so defensive about their choice of wares? We've all met these people and their laughable!
I happily own an iPod, but NOT an iPhone because the of the simple fact is that the gotta-be-fashionable-pop-trendy iPhone is easily NOT the best SMART phone on the market.....and ATT is FAR from the best provider of cellular service in the US (ATT is however, comparably the most expensive cellular provider in the US market).
Also funny is when iPhone people laud about the 30,000+ apps....and are silenced when they admit to having only a few useful apps out of those 30,000.
Apple has made a LOT of money with the App Store....all on the backs of lemmings.
If you take a close look at HTC, then you'd quickly learn that HTC is the least bit worried about any possible world-wide domination by the iPhone.
75k apps
4 good ones
forgot to mention that you work AT the Apple store.
planty mcplanterson
@Ted: You must be one of the countless posters who believe that by creating the impression that you are choosing not to purchase/use a certain product, you somehow attain some level of superiority. Yeah, yeah, yeah... yawn.
I must of forgotten that mobile phones were so cool, and cell service was so great before the iPhone, that everyone loved their service and phone. You're kidding, right?
Oh, and HTC. Another joke, right. One day they'll put it all together. Sure they will.
Lucky for you, there are blogs like Engadget where they make a mint elevating mediocrity to 'hero' status. For a price ;).
This doesnt surprise me. I live in Louisville, KY, and there are AT&T deadspots all over I-64 and I-71. My AT&T friends are kind enough to warn me before they drive into the deadspot - its funny - they have them all memorized. I have had Verizon since before it was Verizon and haven't dropped one call. I don't understand why people switch to a terrible network for a fancy phone. I read somewhere on some forum that AT&T customers expect to drop calls, whereas most Verizon and Sprint customers would call tech support and raise hell if they dropped ONE call. I would. I remember last year at the Kentucky Derby, my AT&T friends had to take turns calling people on my phone because AT&T was "jammed" because of the traffic. Verizon wasnt. How do you guys deal with that??? I would go insane if I couldnt make a call, or dropped it!
No dropped calls for me (wait nevermind i just got my iPhone 2 days ago).
I can say my old blackberry still with AT&T was horrible i did have some dropped calls even if i didn't drop calls the call quality was not good.
iPhone seems much better but its too early to tell need to give it another week or so.
Everybody is missing the point. Great service and dropped calls totally depends on your location. Here in Fresno, CA. my iPhone has superb 3G coverage. I might drop a call once every 2 months. I hunt and fish all up and down this state in some remote areas and have experimented with all 4 of the carriers and by far Verizon has the best signal and then AT&T. Sprint and Tmobile were horrid but sprint will roam on Verizon in some place not all and that's what sucks about them. As far as phones, I had many, NokiaN95, tilt, bold, storm, 8380, N97 and returned the Pre after 2 weeks. The only thing some phones have over the iPhone is a much better, or louder speaker, other than that they come second in every other aspect. And please don't even come with that lame multitasking argument. You can't even recieve HTML email or download music while your on the phone using a Pre, thats not what I call multitasking.
I rarely have dropped calls, but I should also mention that I'm not a huge user of minutes. I'll use maybe 200 - 250 minutes a month, and they're usually short calls. The more calls you make, the more you're likely to notice dropped calls.
As for "Why the iPhone when the service sucks?" Well, for me it came down to multi-touch. iPhone's multitouch is so intuitive, it makes the phone easy to use. Of course, since I bought the phone, I haven't shopped around much, haven't checked out the Pre. Are there any other phones that have multi-touch now?
I had no idea that the iPhone logged dropped calls. Must be that it logs calls that were not ended by the handset or the other caller? Without going to the Genius bar is there a way to get at his information (i.e., is there an app for this)? Do other phones track this, I'd love to see what my drop % is on my Blackberry Bold, which has the worst performance of any phone I have owned.
Now I'll tell you my anecdotal story as proof that this posting is factually wrong.
Oh wait, that's stupid.
All the comments from the Apple kool-aid drinkers trying justify why they pay waaaaaaaaay too much for service/equipment is hilarious. You all think you are being hip and fighting the man cause you buy Apple, knowing that they overcharge for everything they sell. Gotta give it to Apple, their marketing team has you all suckered. How'd that Snow Leopard release go?
You are not loyal because the phone and service are great,you are loyal because you spend a small fortune for the luxury brand you purchased and have to constantly everything else down to make yourself feel good about that decision.
75k apps, 4 of them worth anything.
Deep down you know the thing is a sub-par phone at best, and a sub-par media player at best, and a sub-par gaming platform at best. It's just handy to have multiple gadgets wrapped up in one package.
Jack of all trades, master of none.
You have to love the comments by the brokesters and losers who manufacture a seemingly endless supply of BS to justify their lack of owning and using the greatest gadget of the past ten years. Know of one better – name it!
Is the iPhone perfect? No, but certainly heads and shoulders above any other offering from any other platform.
Apps? Citibank, Evernote, Facebook (the real McCoy, not some poor excuse), Google, Amazon, CNN, NY Times, NPR, Net News WIre, 1 Password, At Bat, Bento, Bloom, Daylight, Epocrates, ESPN Score/Radio, Fandango, Expedia, Flight Track Pro, Trip It, Gas Cubby, LinkedIn, Ring Central, Skype, Open Table, Grocery IQ, Weber On the Grill, Yelp.... and on, and on, and on.
In the words of an iPhone owner: "Is the iPhone perfect? No..."
We already knew this to be true. After all, the iPhone JUST recd MMS, 3G, video recording capability, yet still lacks other features already in use on competing smart phones & networks.
Are non-iPhone users happy?
Let's see, I'm very pleased with the performance of my HTC Touch Pro 2, Sprint network, and $98 per month family 2-phone plan (25% discount for medical professionals, otherwise it's only $130) which includes: Unlimited data/internet, unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls, unlimited texting, unlimited voice-guided navigation, 1500 anytime minutes, Sprint TV (which includes NFL Network, Fox Mobile, CBS Mobile, NBC Mobile, SPEED Channel, Bravo, USA, Disney Channel, etc etc.
As far as Apps go, admit the truth many of us already know.
Per a recent cnet article, which analyzed 30 million downloads from the Apple Apps Store, many downloaded apps are gathering dust. For users who PAID for apps, after only 20 days - LESS than 5% of users were using these paid-for apps.....even less actual usage for downloaded free apps.
Again, Apple has made a bundle of money off the backs of lemmings.....or as others have said: 75k apps, just a few worth anything.
And regarding cgpublic's list of apps......FYI: many of these apps are freely available for any smart phone,
I'm fortunate to have the ability to purchase and use any mobile phone and wireless provider in the US market.
That said, I'll take an HTC on the Sprint wireless network.
One of my employees wanted and iPhone. I pay for his cell as a perk - so I replaced his Sony Ericsson...something featurephone with a 5 MP camera and in-built flash with a 3G Jesus Phone.
Jesus! Does the iPhone drop calls. I ham happy my employee can get emails quickly, but I can't talk to him on the road in New Hampshire because every other call is dropped w/in 5 minutes. His SE didn't do that.
It really does depend on location and time of day. AT&T has major capacity issues on the network, which is the majority of the issues. I'm in South Florida and for the most part, it's not that bad. But I travel to Central Florida frequently and there it is just absolutely terrible. If I don't force my BB Bold to lock onto 3G (via hack), it stays on EDGE and even sometimes GPRS. Of course, locking on 3G ensures even more dropped calls. Letting it choose automatically kills the battery and ensures mostly 2G service
Oh, I have a Verizon phone from my work and it's a 'little' better, but not significantly. If anything, I miss more calls on Verizon than I ever have on AT&T. The caller just hears it ring 9 or 10 times before eventually going to voice mail, yet my phone never rings once. This happens a lot on Sprint (previous experience) and somewhat frequently on Verizon. (Personally, I don't get all the hoopla about Verizon being so great...so expensive maybe, but not significantly better than AT&T. And I know because I have both providers.)
Funny true story:
A colleague whips out his snazzy new iPhone 3g, punches up Pandora and with music playing from Pandora, smiles and says "Can your phone do this?"
I pull out my HTC, start Pandora, and with Pandora music playing:
Check the status of an incoming flight
Browse the internet for the latest news
Check my gmail and hotmail accounts
Complete and store a document I've written
Attach and send said document via an email
Reply to a new text from my sister
Go back to my gmail and download a photo of my new neice
I then look at my colleague and quietly say, "Yes, I too can play Pandora."
Could we all please act like mature people and stop with the iPhone vs Every Other phone arguments? Havent we ALL had enough of it?
Clearly its less of an iPhone issue and more of an AT&T network issue. I've used my iPhone 3G in Canada, T-mo in the states, 3 and Vodafone in Hong Kong, as well as both China Mobile and China Unicom. With the SOLE exception of China Unicom's crappy network in Beijing, I've had zero problems with my phone and I'm VERY glad I decided to purchase an iPhone. It negates the need to carry a separate iPod and still has the best mobile internet browser. And guess what? Some of us actually use our "75k apps" regularly.
If you're gonna grill someone, grill AT&T. Rogers here drops my call maybe once a month.
and please, don't feed the trolls. Both the Apple Fanatics and the "HTC IZ DA BOMB" trolls.
Question:
Does any of the 75k apps you actually and regularly use, allow you to watch the NFL on the NFL Network on the iPhone?
Last year I was on a fly fishing trip near Bend, Oregon and was able to watch a live San Diego Chargers game....aside from listening to music.
Accept it clearly isn't an AT&T issue. The case I reported above compared experience with a Sony Ericsson feature phone to an iPhone 3G. Both being used in the same geographic area (Hanover, NH to Philly) and both on AT&T.
In the scenario I have experienced (and am still), the iPhone - as a telephone - sucks. Period.
And there's no app for that!
Ted: I don't generally watch sports, especially when I'm on vacation (Might as well stay home). But on those odd times I need to catch a TV show, Orb has been invaluable. Have you tried that?
Richard: It sounds like it's a device problem. Have you brought it into a Genius Bar to see if they can help you out? My uncle had an iPhone with reception problems and it was promptly replaced.
and by the way, while there may not be an app for that, there certainly are peripherals for that!
eum.... I don't get it. if the droped calls frequency is so high only in New York, and not that high anywhere else, I suppose the issue is not related to the iPhone. on the other hand, I live in Paris (France) and many iPhone users I know around here also have this issue.
Note : I don't have an iPh0ne. I have an HTC WinMo device which never drops calls.
I have a lot of phones. Some run on Symbian. Some run on WinMo. Some run whatever proprietary OS they run (MOT) and there is one iPhone.
I live in New England and work around the country. Bottom line, the iPhone - as a telecommunications device (ie, telephone) sucks!
"I live in New England and work around the country. Bottom line, the iPhone - as a telecommunications device (ie, telephone) sucks!"
It's not doing all that well with email either:
http://tinyurl.com/r76dq8
or:
http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/goodbye-iphone-hello-again-blackberry.html