Another slap in the face for iPhone beta users

Was wondering when this would make it's way to Consumerist.

I got a BB Pearl for Christmas...too bad I only use Wifi for net connection. I was thinking about upgrading to a data only plan but not if ATT decides to degrade the service I'm sure many businesses rely on.

I really don't think ATT needs to push their lackluster 3G network considering Gizmodo's 3G card test a week or so ago. They need to expand 3G reception without filtering out 2G when so many users have no need to upgrade [let alone the means].

decreased quality indoors and in rural areas

Most rural areas only have EDGE service. 3G is usually in more urban areas so what good does it do for AT&T to downgrade EDGE service where that's all that's available? I can see if the changes were only made in urban settings, but where there's poor or no 3G available, the phone will drop back to EDGE or even GSM...

Honestly, I don't see it as being much different than any other old technology being phased out. It sucks for those still on Edge, but if that's what they have to do to move forward, then so be it.

I would think the average cell phone user does not know the difference between 2G and 3G. If they have poor coverage they usually just blame it on their current company, complain to their friends, and then choose a different company when their contract is up.

Downgrading 2G service is a bad move for AT&T.

AT&T not caring about their customers once they've locked them into a contract is a surprise, why?

The only problem I see with this is that ATT still sells a ton of 2G phones. I could understand if they sold pretty much exclusively 3G phones. At least if they do this, they should offer 3G phones for free with contract for upgrade. Right now all the phones I see that are free are 2G only and the cheapest 3G phones showing for me are all at least 50$.

@Jayrom Acorda: Agreeded, however like 10 of the free phones are all 3g, i think only a couple of the BB are still 2g, most phones now are 3g.

Does voice traffic go over edge or 3g? For some reason, I'd thought it was only data traffic that went over those networks.

As to rural being primarily served by edge instead of 3g, this simply means that the current frequencies in those rural areas will be transitioned to running 3g. It would be good if you've got a phone capable of 3g, but bad if your phone is not capable of 3g and you don't want to buy another phone soon. (or are stuck without getting another phone subsidized for 18 months)

That brings up another question. If you recently bought a phone, and AT&T changes your network coverage, does that provide reason to break contract without paying penalties?

@Ryan Duff:
possible that these areas will now get 3G ... but unlikely.

@Jason Asylum:
Yes, but I don't see how it can possibly COST them money to leave it in place ... except maybe in electricity ... so why not just leave it?

Another material change in service?

At the very least they should offer free 3G phones to the affected customers. Other than that what are they supposed to do? We want faster networks, but only if they keep the old one? 2G is close to 20 years old now, about time it went.

@kman13: Huh? From what I understand this isn't about cost, its about increasing the speed and size of their 3G network. In order for them to do so (apparently), they need to free up resources... in this case moving 2G to a different band.

If I'm wrong, please correct me... as I'm no expert on the matter. But if that's the way it is, it seems logical to me. Not a whole lot different than the transition from analog television signals to digital, a little smoother even.

My in-laws have AT&T in a very rural area. They currently only get two or maybe three bars inside their house. So now they'll likely get even worse service. And being the tech person in the family, I'm going to have to explain why their existing phones suddenly stopped getting a good signal. Joy.

I throw my shoes in the general direction of AT&T.
I don't want to upgrade to a 3G iPhone, I don't want to be locked in another 2 year contract, and I don't want to pay more for data than I do already. Thanks for nothing. If T-Mo's 2G service is decent and they make any kind of official promise to support 2G for a while longer consider me a lost customer.

I am thinking about suing them in small claims court. That should cover my bills for about a year.

Apple releases a $600 phone with EDGE. Then they brought the price down, and now they're bringing the speed down. And this is why I will never be an Apple early adopter.

Time to finally hack my 2G iPhone and go to T-Mobile

Well honestly, if you're an Apple user you should already have upgraded to the next version, and if you haven't this is just another little nudge along the way.

How long has anyone been an Apple customer and not realized you 'must' upgrade at least every two years or you become second class scum? The only people with any excuse are the ones who got sucked in by the iPhone and had never owned a Mac.

The fun bit here is figuring whether AT&T learned this from Apple or would have done it anyhow. Makes it hard to tell who's the sith lord and who's the padawan.

@Jason Asylum: Increasing their size and speed of their 3G customers at the cost of their 2G customers.

Read the source article and you can see the only "solution" is for the author is to upgrade his phones at his cost and commitment. 2 iPhones and a RAZR would have to be upgraded and his contract extended. The only offer was a $200 credit in exchange what what he calculated to be a $907 annually increase [not including the price of new phones].

Phasing it out yes will be necessary but over half of ATT's phones are 2G/EDGE. They should stop selling 2G phones as of this "announcement" [they have not officially I do not believe] but they cannot because the only BB they have that is 3G is the Bold. All of the RAZR's are 2G I think I read in the article. Everyone in rural areas depend on that signal. Why not extend their coverage first then phase 2G out.

How long did it take for VHS to get phased out. It still lived on in VHS/DVD combos forever. I have a hard time believing forcing customers to eat the cost is the way to go about bringing in new technology only newer more expensive phones will be able to take advantage of. I personally would rather use my phone to make calls rather than get online and surf horribly slow internet but that's what phones are for now right?

[Text is very hard to read with emotion. Do not imply I have a sarcastic chip on my shoulder. I have a very real issue with ATT so drastically switching the spectrum in which a majority of it's customers use.]

@jrlcopy: I see two NEW phones that are 3G and free on contract.

The LG CU515 and the Samsung A737 [though the refurb price for both is free also...weird] the Nokia 6555 is only free if it is refurb as well as the Samsung A727.

The only BB that is 3G is the Bold.

@Quatre707: Sorry to burst your bubble, but T-Mobile's 3G implementation is on a totally different frequency than AT&T's and a second generation iPhone won't work with 3G.

Unless you mean a first generation iPhone, with EDGE. In which case it would be fine. In fact, that's what I'm doing.

@oldtaku: That's funny! Didn't the iPhone 3G come out less than a year after the original? Or at least quite close to a year.

I own a mac. A Powermac G5 that has never had an OS update because I cannot find a reason to pay $80 for widgets and a search bar. I also have owned 2 iPods over the past 4 years. My trusty 30gb 4th gen and a new nano for running with.

If you believe you must get sucked into every new product expect to get screwed around every corner. I wait and advise others to wait on new tech. I know a few that dropped a ton on the iPhone when it was released...just laughed and laughed when they got those giftcards.

Sigh...good times.../sarcasm

@oldtaku: I'll give you credit for trying to troll, but just trying doesn't cut it. The first generation iPhone didn't even come out until June 2007.

@Jason Asylum: Old technology? 12 months ago it was the ONLY technology for their most popular smartphone, as well as the only technology for the millions of Blackberry users on their network.

Sorry, but EDGE is not old for AT&T, and phasing out 850 EDGE support is just plain mean, then again, it IS AT&T we are talking about.

@Mr_D: I am totally serious here. As a Mac user, and an Apple ][ and IIgs owner before that I am well aware of how Apple treats its users. Do not assume that everyone who disagrees with you is trolling. I am just realistic about it and don't drink the kool-aid.

No you do not have to update, and old Macs can still work quite well, but Apple itself has disowned them and doesn't care if new updates break them horribly.

So in this case AT&T is just accelerating the schedule.

Someone fill me in, when did cell service get good. Crappy service, with crappy contracts, marginal hardware. I figure this is what it was like to own a car the first 30-50 years of car mfg.

@Mr_D: 2G means second generation wireless, not second generation iPhone.

@outinthedark: "I personally would rather use my phone to make calls rather than get online and surf horribly slow internet"

WTF. You just said it right there. This isn't crippling Joe Sixpack's RAZR or LG or whatever. They will continue to "just make calls." People with RAZRs, for example, have no need for 2G, 3G, 4G, etc. because these phones for all intents and purposes DO NOT HAVE THE INTERNET. Have you ever browsed the web from a RAZR? I have and it is beyond painful at any speed. Seriously, I think this is a non-issue for most people.

Rural BlackBerry users? OK, maybe...even though most BB users and iphone2G users live in the urban 3G coverage area... You do realize that most higher-end users do upgrade their phones every couple years, right? I mean, these devices wear out etc. When they get new devices in the normal course of replacement, they will have 3G capability on their next phone.

"Why not extend their coverage first then phase 2G out[?]" Because it takes spectrum to do that, which doesn't grow on trees.

/I'm no AT&T apologist. But they're not being evil here.

What does this mean for areas without 3G and only edge? Will they be experiencing the same kind of downgrade? I'm in a city with over a 100,000 people and have no 3G or even hint of 3G coming anytime soon.

@Chris Stone: Yeah! That'll teach them a lesson, to keep the prices high forever like an honorable company should! Woooooohooo!

As for the speeds, do you really think one handset manufacturer, or any handset mfg's for that matter, dictate issues of spectrum usage at AT&T? I know it's hip to hate Apple at Consumerist, but do you really believe what you're saying or are you just trolling?

@outinthedark: And the Bold costs even more than an iPhone. The vast majority of customers who either own or are purchasing a Blackberry, at least that I see on a day to day basis, go with the Curve or the Pearl. These aren't just teeny-boppers looking for a texting phone, either. I think AT&T's going to start seeing a rash of really angry Blackberry business users when this plan starts to really hit the fan- and speaking as someone who sells this stuff, I'm certainly not going to hesitate to show my customers this article when the subject of which phone/carrier they should go with comes up.

None of the major carriers are angels, and most treat their customers like dirt, but this one is really beyond the pale. In a lot of AT&T stores, the salespeople will outright refuse to sell someone a Blackberry- *any* Blackberry- unless they agree to opt into the $30/month data plan. I'm sure they're "forgetting" to mention that these phones could become next to useless for data in the next few months.

@Telekinesis123: Sounds like it to me. And I think most companies have to let you out of your contract if you can demonstrate that you don't have a signal in your home (or primary place of use)- that's why they won't let people whose primary address is in a roaming area sign a contract. It'll be a good laugh if AT&T suddenly sees a mass exodus of customers to other companies, sans early termination fees, because of their own idiocy. Whoops!

@Jason Asylum: Truly moving forward would have been sticking to a 3G frequency band used by non-North America countries.

@West Coast Secessionist: Um... everyone kinda needs 2G. 1G would be analog, which is already gone.
And spectrum? How about only focusing on making one band 3G instead of using both 1900 and 850? 850 3G is also used outside North America; AT&T should use that one and make 1900 solely GSM.

@William C Bonner: Voice+data over 3G, data only over EDGE.

The link to the Gizmodo article isn't working. Was it disproven and pulled or what's the story here?

@FaustianSlip: Much easier material justification is the fact they are raising unlimited data and texting costs by a total of 15 a month as of a few days ago.

@outinthedark:

All very good points, outinthedark, but I have to say... those in Rural areas are already depending on partner deals that AT&T has from what I understand. Unless you are just talking about suburban areas, then we are looking at 3G expansion into those areas, most likely.

Also keep in mind, they will be rolling out "4G" in the next couple year or two as well.

---

Please understand, I don't necessarily *like* that AT&T is doing this, but its all the nature of the beast. I have to assume the company analyzed the reaction to this, before making the decision... this isn't an easy one. More and more customers are looking for mobile devices that do more than make calls and send txts. More and more customers are requiring data plans. The smart phone and smart-dumb phone market is ever increasing, while the entry bare bones market is decreasing... they need to have the capability to match the trends in their sales.

It's really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

If they sat on 2G resources instead of reprioritizing, with the ever increasing multi media demands by customers, do you think that would have went well?

@Jason Asylum:

Should read "...in the next year or two"

I need to learn to proof before I post. :)

@scoobydoo:

12 month old technology *is* old technology! Is it usable? Sure, very much so... but in technology measurements, 1 year old, is as good as ancient unfortunately.

Like I said in my other post... the iPhone and devices like that are becoming increasingly common. ALL providers have to do what they need to do to meet the demands of their new devices.

It's a crappy transition, but it has to happen.

Depends on what kind of a deal they're giving, if you recall when AT&T switched to GSM you could get $99/mo unlimited everything on 2 year contract, sacrificing coverage however. But when GSM became prevelent that $99/mo went away, but people who locked into contracts still got to keep it. Of course now most wireless companies have unlimited plans, but it took several years to get to that point.

@outinthedark: They don't all advertise it in the copy look at the network mhz that they use.

This seems to me to be a pretty clear reduction of service, and thus, a get-out-of-contract-free action. You signed up for one service, and they dropped it for a lesser one. Either they honor their original agreement (and original claimed speeds of whatever bit rate it used to be), or they're in breach and must let you out of the contract.

If a normal rep gives you flack about it, remain calm and ask to speak with a supervisor. If they say no, ask for their manager. If they say no, ask for them to create an "urgent case", which is AT&T-speak for a customer service-oriented trouble ticket. and to refer the issue to the Office of the President. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

They don't give a crap about their customers. Let's all email the CEO of AT&T wireless and complain. His name is Ralph de la Vega. He can be emailed at ralph.delavega@att.com. Be careful though. You might get a letter from an attorney at AT&T just like I did.

@oldtaku:

That's a bit harsh.

I guess I have a legitimate reason to upgrade to a 3G iPhone.

@outinthedark:

You must not do much product research. The OS updates had more to offer than "widgets and a search bar". Your G5 has a 64 bit processor that is being squandered by your choice to remain on a 32 bit OS. Since you've allowed yourself to totally miss the boat on Leopard, you'll really be out in the cold in Snow Leopard releases this year. Happy days for you! As for the people who bought the iPhone from the start... That was their choice. Everyone who has been a long time Mac user knows that the price of everything that Apple makes drops over time. I was working at an Apple retail store when the first iPhone released. We sold over 2000 of them -- most were the 8GB model. There's nothing wrong with being an early adopter. Don't feel like you're so high and mighty because you insist on using an aging OS and aging iPods. That was your choice just as much as it has been my choice to upgrade my Mac roughly every 2 years. If I followed your example, I would be on a 1.5GHz 12 inch PowerBook right now. I loved that little laptop but, I needed something with a lot more power.