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iPhone? Android? It’s All Irrelevant when you Can’t Get a Signal

Will iPhone users move to Verizon? – goes the speculation, based on a study published @ Fortune showing AT&T drop calls 3 times as frequently as Verizon.

From my vantage point even dropped calls would be a luxury – meaning you can get a strong enough signal to place calls in the first place.  Apparently I live at the end of the World.  Sometimes I tell friends if Friedman is right and the World is really flat, this is where you fall off the edge. 🙂

But it’s not really the “end of the world” – Pleasanton is (was) was hometown to software giants like  PeopleSoft, Commerce One,  Oracle, Workday, or to name a few more traditional businesses, grocery chain giant Safeway, or mega-HMO Kaiser Permanente.  Yet this is what AT&T’s coverage map looks like:

at&t coverage map

Ad no, we’re not even talking about 3G data, this is for voice calls.  Now, being in the “good” (on the boundary of moderate) zone may not look so bad, until we look at how At&T defines good voice coverage:

Should be sufficient for on-street or in-the-open coverage, most in-vehicle coverage and possibly some in-building coverage. This AT&T owned network provides GSM, GPRS, and EDGE service

Possibly some in-building coverage?  Calling that good?  How pathetic.  But let’s look at other carriers’ definition of “Good”.  T-Mobile:

You will likely be able to place calls outdoors, in a car, and occasionally indoors.

Occasionally?  What are they smoking calling this “good” coverage?  Hm, let’s check Sprint, home to the uber-super HTC EVO 4GS and the superfast Overdrive 4G hotspot:

You should generally receive a signal strength sufficient to make calls outdoors, in a car and in some buildings.

How Pathetic.  All these companies must speak a different version of English, where “good” means “no can do” in most buildings.  Insanity.

That only leaves Verizon, which has solid red (best coverage) in my entire area.  Which makes my choice easy: all those comparative reviews of the iPhone 3G and 4G, HTC Incredible, Nexus One, HTC EVO 4G are so irrelevant, if I can’t get a signal.  HTC Incredible (Android) and Verizon, here I come.  By default.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

Comments

  1. This is what I posted in my blog in May of 2005:

    … Can you hear me now, Verizon? Verizon's CEO said, "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house? The customer has come to expect so much." Well, we know what he thinks of customers now. What a prick. Gee, I guess Cingular doesn't subscribe to that attitude. On top of that, I get Vonage VOIP phone service, via my Comcast broadband … and now have a phone number in the Florida Keys (I live in Texas) … just for the heck of it. $25 a month and unlimited long distance. This is what my Verizon connection looks like now. (photo of wall phone faceplate with no phone). …

    Now, it's 2010 and I still have Vonage (and the number in the Florida Keys) and the faceplate is still blank. But, I have abandoned AT&T after 17 years to switch to Verizon's service so I could get a Motorola Droid. I'm no fan of Verizon or any of the carriers, but I'm happy for now.

  2. This post attracted a few more comments over here – all I can say for now, I can't tell about Verizon .. just yet.

  3. This post attracted a few more comments over here – all I can say for now, I can't tell about Verizon .. just yet.

  4. Yep, I see what you mean … I'll repost there, if you don't mind.

  5. Great post, rang true with me. It's such a shame that such an excellent device is ever sold on a network that has such poor signal, it was same in UK when it started on O2 but now is also available on networs with bigger coverage areas such as Vodaphone, so now I dont have to hang out of bedroom window every timw I want to use it!

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