AT&T has a new campaign advertises how it “works in more places like,” and then lists a fictional place that’s a mashup of three cities. The ads are appearing in the tunnels and trains of Washington DC Metro, a real place, where AT&T really doesn’t work. Only Verizon works down there. Commenter XianZomby writes, “I think before ATT works on getting their wireless network in places that don’t exist, they should focus on getting their cell phones to work in places where they advertise cell phone service.”
(Photo: Robert Dubois)
More From Consumerist
-
T-Mobile Doesn’t Really Care That Your House Burnt Down
-
T-Mobile Gives Us 1 Bar Of Service At Home, Still Charges $600 ETF To Leave
-
T-Mobile Signal Finally Fails On My Unlocked iPhone
-
AT&T Telling DSL Customers They Have 45 Days To Upgrade To U-Verse
-
T-Mobile: Sorry You Lost Your Job And Had To Move, Here's Your $500 ETF Bill
I think this problem is universal and has gotten worse since the switch back to ATT. While still Cingular, they put a tower in my town of pop. <600, so I got a phone because they were the only company that worked here. Now, they’re telling me that I can’t add another line to my account because “they don’t provide service in my area”!!!!
Verizon Wireless works in the Metro ‘cuz it was the only company willing to invest in a network there when WMATA invited carriers into the subway tunnels many years ago. Verizon’s deal is NOT exclusive and others have always been free to negotiate their own. Any cell phone that works in the Metro is working on the VZW network. BTW – DC is still the only city in the US with cell phone service virtually throughout the subway underground.
@neophiliack: i was going to say the same!….except…china isn’t a city…so apparently the title is a mashup of ONE COUNTRY and two major cities, nice.
as an employee of at&t i will admit our service doesnt work everywhere but i will say this in regards to the dc metro. verizon has a monopoly on the metro which has been allowed by the local government . at&t has lobbied for equal rights in the metro but has found this is an upward battle. and though i dont always love my employer i will say this our digital network is superior to verizon’s. and if you spend anytime in dc you will realize evdo2 never works at the speed which it advertises and i know that personally as i have a verizon phone also.
All depends where you are standing, I suppose. My wife and I live in a borough of NYC, and we dropped Verizon when we couldn’t get service in our area.
We went back to the store after getting cell phones a couple weeks after purchase, and they told us “oh yeah… there’s no tower near there.” Wow, thanks for telling us after signing a contract. In all fairness, we should have asked around the neighborhood, but we have a verizon landline so…
Long story short, we called customer service to cancel, they said they would send someone to the area to test- whether they did or not, I don’t know- but they let us drop our contracts penalty free. The clerk at the store actually recommended AT&T (completely off the record I’m guessing) – and we have been connected since… I’m just one guy in one place- but if AT&T covers more of NYC than Verizon- well I think that’s saying something.
@Maude Buttons: Because apparently other cell phone companies are too stupid to realize that there are customers of theirs who might want to make cell phone calls while going to/from work. Or because T-Mobile is too busy staring at its competitors’ 3G service and drooling and thinking that maybe it ought to get one of them newfangled widgets…
I have a Sprint Treo and my plan comes with free roaming. My phone works fine in the metro because I roam on the Verizon network. I’ve always wondered why At&t phones don’t do the same.
I would have to comment on this one for one simple reason. Subway = Tons of concrete.
CDMA and GSM 1900mhz (the current standards) cannot penetrate that much concrete. So getting coverage in a subway really depends on if a carrier has 850mhz towers near that subway. (and even then you are not guaranteed coverage…you might only get 1-2 bars.)
Numbers wise (population coverage) Sprint has the largest network. (Mind you it’s only a 1900mhx network.) at&t Mobility (The New at&t, not to be confused with the old AT&T-which was baught by Cingular Wireless LLC.) comes in second place in coverage, and uses both 1900mhz and 850 mhz.
T-Mobile comes in 3rd, but only operates 1900mhz. Verizon wireless, due to the recent shutdown of AMPS (from what we can tell, that was about 60% or more of their actual coverage area) comes in last on this ranking. Once again operating 1900mhz and 850mhz. So Verizon getting coverage in that subway simply means they have 850mhz towers near that subway. If at&t Mobility steps up and puts in 850mhz towers near that tunnel, it can work in there as well.
Considering the northeast is primarily Verizon Landline territory, that would also help explain the decent Verizon Wireless coverage in the DC Area. This would also explain the larger number of VZW 850mhz towers, which do not get heavily used anywhere else in the country. (That was AMPS 850, which is now gone.) However, at&t shows decent coverage in that area as well. Perhaps at&t only has 1900mhz towers in that area. (Possbily because of a lockout from Verizon.) Telcos and wireless service does, to some degree go hand in hand. (Maybe why theres rapidly growing Sprint Coverage in the Qwest states.)
As for CDMA having more coverage than GSM. That is only as true as Sprint having more coverage than at&t, which has the second largest coverage area nationwide (which means they have the largest GSM network in the US.) Not to mention CDMA’s dying support. Sprint is switching completely to WiMax and iDen, whereas Verizon is now scrambling to begin a replacement plan with LTE (which is the 4th Generation GSM Network.)
-Drako’s Wireless Review-
@aVZWguy:
As for your statement:
“Verizon Wireless works in the Metro ‘cuz it was the only company willing to invest in a network there when WMATA invited carriers into the subway tunnels many years ago. Verizon’s deal is NOT exclusive and others have always been free to negotiate their own. Any cell phone that works in the Metro is working on the VZW network. BTW – DC is still the only city in the US with cell phone service virtually throughout the subway underground.”
You negated yourself when you said that all cellphones in the Metro works only on VZW’s network. Proving that The deal is VZW exclusive.
“Any cell phone that works in the Metro is working on the VZW network.” = All cell phones in the Metro must work on the VZW network, or they will not work at all.
@webdoyenne:
Sizable metro area = Alltel does not work there. Alltel roams onto the national networks Sprint and Verizon if you are not in Eastern WA, Idaho, Montana. Sizeable metro areas I know of there are Spokane, WA.
Spokane isn’t really that size able, considering if you really want something and they don’t have it, they send you across the mountains to Seattle.
We ourselves state on our site, that if a regional provider offers service in your area. Use them because they can give you better coverage than the nationals in your area. The nationals are good at providing decent service among major cities (AKA cities with tons of skyscrapers) and along major freeways. Regional providers offer better service in the smaller areas they cover. (BTW, Alltel is a Regional Provider.)