I would have lovd to get th iphone, but the boss (my wife) didnt want to go with at&t ue to rumos of slow internet and lack of coverage headaches. Can any at&t subscribrs inlighten us on the matter?

sorry for the grammer. crappy new microsoft keyboard i bought 2 months ago. I guess the opend box should have been a clue.

FYI... Verizon Wireless is rolling out 20 markets by the end of THIS year with LTE. Their trials are complete. They expect to see a complete rollout out by 2013 of their total network (now including AllTel's major holdings).

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347797,00.asp

yawn.. ill stick with everything for $50 a month (including unlimited internet). Yay Cricket for the win!

AT&T, and its Cingular acquisition, and T-Mobile are the major GSM carriers in the United States; with Sprint (which merged with Nextel), Verizon and Virgin Mobile as the chief CDMA carriers

From personal experience, go with CDMA. You'll actually be able to make calls then. GSM sucks arse.

CDMA is worthless where I live. ATT dominates the southeastern US in terms of coverage. I have heard CDMA is better than GSM in other places but certainly not here.

Now if ATT would take this attitude with DSL services and we could get rid of all this bandwidth capping...

it's too bad we can't motivate them as easily as the risk of loosing their precious iphone could... stupid att...

been with att/cingular for several years now and in south texas, south of san antonio, their service is as good as any other provider. we get 3g service and web browsing is relatively quick. i travel to san antonio, austin, bryan/college station and houston a bit and have yet to have any issues there or inbetween either. i think talk of bad or spotty coverage depends on several factors not simply just who the provider is. the fone, how you hold it, the time of day and your surroundings have a lot to do with cell phone connectivity and performance. i think a lot of people either don't know or don't care to find out much about the frequencies these new phones use and how their environment and the way they hold their phones cause many of their issues.

Ready...set ....go! And they are off!

Dropped calls is the issue. I had Verizon and drove up and down IH-35, Mopac, and 183 in Austin talking on my cell phone and rarely, if EVER, had a dropped call. Switch to AT&T and the iPhone 3g I can't make it across town without a dropped call, even once. There are spots where I know my call is going to fail and I prepare the person on the other end of the phone. There are times where it is completely random and the call just fades. Times when the call doesn't drop but the person on the other end is hearing an echo or static. All sorts of problems.

Same problems apply to big events. Go to a University of Texas football game good luck sending a text message or making a phone call with AT&T. Those exact same seats with Verizon were not a problem.

Either the iPhone has a problem getting and holding a connection or AT&T has spotty coverage. I don't really care what the answer is all I know is that the EXACT same places I used to get great service with Verizon I now get spotty service with AT&T.

They should be working on providing BETTER service before trying to provide a faster service. What does it matter if I can get up to 7.2 MBP/s download when I lose the connection anyways? I've said it many times before but I would be much much much happier with my iPhone 3g if Verizon was the network providing it instead of AT&T. Apple would have to be either stupid or given a TON of incentives by AT&T to remain exclusive.

LTE technology incorporates MIMO technology. This will allow for much better reception for any and all carriers that switch to it. Not just an increase in data speeds.

It all depends on your location. Someone mentioned ATT having good coverage in the South East and I can verify that. I have never had any connection issues anywhere with my iPhone on ATT in Florida or Georgia. I can go from coast to coast crossing the Everglades, or from Miami to Tallahassee to Alpharetta, GA and back and not have one call dropped with my phone tethered to my laptop for the entire trip.

4G is a lot of hype. Look at all 3G service right now - on average customers are getting 1/3 of the bandwidth promised (if you have faster than 400 down consistently - you are the lucky few). I've tested TMobile, Verizon, and Sprint 3G services from FL, IL to South and North California... on average 275 down and 120 up using Palm Treo 755s. Tethered to my laptop with USB cable on average 425 down and 130 up. 3G is great for general surfing but deficient for all the things they hype - multimedia, video, and streaming audio. Overall pretty spotty. So 4G will roll out but the speed you will end up getting will be closer to what 3G is supposed to provide. Note that I am stating everything as "Average". I have had 700 down and up to 200+ up at times but it's rare and short lived. I'm sure there's going to be someone who didn't read this all the way and cry foul because they get 700+ down all the time.

100% agree. I bought 2 iPhone (pre-G) and noticed slow service and dropped calls. Reception was generally good but it was odd how both phones in several locations (FL, CA, IL) just dropped called unexpectedly. Reminded me of service back in the early 90's... So now I have reverted to Sprint's Palm Treo 755 - while pretty lame compared to the iPhone, it works consistently and very very few dropped calls. YMVV

4G is a lot of hype. Look at all 3G service right now - on average customers are getting 1/3 of the bandwidth promised (if you have faster than 400 down consistently - you are the lucky few). I've tested TMobile, Verizon, and Sprint 3G services from FL, IL to South and North California... on average 275 down and 120 up using Palm Treo 755s. Tethered to my laptop with USB cable on average 425 down and 130 up. 3G is great for general surfing but deficient for all the things they hype - multimedia, video, and streaming audio. Overall pretty spotty. So 4G will roll out but the speed you will end up getting will be closer to what 3G is supposed to provide. Note that I am stating everything as "Average". I have had 700 down and up to 200+ up at times but it's rare and short lived. I'm sure there's going to be someone who didn't read this all the way and cry foul because they get 700+ down all the time.

Your right I'm calling foul. You did not mention trying at&t and maybe that's because you didn't, I don't know. Although it does depend on your area I have used at&t ALL over southern California and typically average between 700Kbs and 1.5Mbs down and 200Kbs up (There are places however that I know to only expect 400Kbs down with about 50Kbs up but they are few and far between). The fastest peak speeds that I have witness were several bursts of about 2.7Mbs. They happen sporadically although often enough to be worth mentioning.

Do not think you have the market cornered. In Dallas its the same thing with AT&T. It's funny that you talk about certain areas that you already know it will drop in. The wife and I go through the same crap daily. I am about to just pay the stupid ripoff fee to end the contract and go somewhere else. We had TMobile in Austin and it was an absolute dream. Never a dropped call and the service department was 5 stars. If we could get the same results here in Dallas we might be going back.