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So, uhh, what's with the voice on the commercial that sounds like it was recorded by Thomas Edison himself in a basement about 80 years ago? Or is it just this crappy Dull I have to use here at work?

Oct 06, 09 - 09:15 am Comment from: Brian Allen

@ Kevin: It was recorded with a camera pointed at a television.

I don't know if Verizon is any better, but AT&T;coverage here in Dallas is awful. Very slow speeds and I have had to hang up and recall my partner, we both have iPhones, it goes garbled.

I saw this commercial last night. I thought it was pretty good and is a clear concession that the iPhone is killing them. The music and pacing is clearly intending to associate with the iPhone and exploit it's one weakness - AT&T;. If I worked at one of those firms, I would do the same thing.

AT&T;'s coverage area is lousy - you say it is faster, and i will agree that it occasionally is faster, but only at times when the network is not too busy (late night) and they drop calls all over the place.

I think it is a fair ad, but if falls short because the iPhone is so good that even using it on Edge is better than their 3G offerings. But it is a good plan always attack at the weakest point for Apple, that is AT&T;.

Oct 06, 09 - 09:24 am Comment from: Steve516

Well, all I can say is that it's a far better ad than those Microshit ads we had to endure... Of course it ignores many facts we know to be true as stated above....

Bobby Skinner, thanks for that dose of intelligence and perspective.

Well, yes ATT may be faster but I teach in a rural area with that is about 50% Amish (yes, I did say Amish) and I get excellent 3G coverage with Verizon and no coverage at all with ATT. I would leave my BlackBerry in a second if ATT would extend their coverage but for now ATT is just way too old fashioned with their coverage, even here in Amish country.

OT, but no iMacs again today? Weird, next Tuesday I guess.

I live in Dallas and I have never had any issues with dropped calls or slow service. AT&T;Service in Dallas works very well.

@Kevin - he's just really smart is he not?

Oct 06, 09 - 09:41 am Comment from: pastrychef

I actually think this commercial is very good and I think it will be successful. I hope it serves as a wake up call to AT&T;and they upgrade their network faster.

Oct 06, 09 - 09:44 am Comment from: ajdowntown

Best MDN take in awhile. People forget that "3G" means something entirely different to Verizon than it does ATT, as they are using different technologies. This entire commercial is FUD, and they are trying to fleece people that don't know any better. For shame, Verizon, for shame!

Oct 06, 09 - 09:46 am Comment from: iSteve

Verizon, ATT & Sprint have fairly equal coverage in St. Louis. I had Sprint/Nextel for a decade before going to ATT for the iPhone. If I lived in a place with poor ATT coverage I'm not sure what I'd do - move?

Oct 06, 09 - 09:47 am Comment from: qka

Of course 95% of mobile phone users live in 5% of the US geographically. Those maps don't explain why AT&T;is so poor in many cities

Still, for those of us in the hinterlands, the coverage maps tell the story of why AT&T;is so spotty and why Verizon works under every rock.

Oct 06, 09 - 09:49 am Comment from: iPhoner

While I totally agree with MDN's take, if I was in charge of Verizon's marketing department I would run this video as well. The majority of consumers don't know that the iPhone is what is causing the ATT sluggishness.

Oct 06, 09 - 09:50 am Comment from: XJMPasadena CA.

VERizon is trash they mickle and dime the hell out of peeps and they have the WORST line up of handsets ever!

Oct 06, 09 - 09:51 am Comment from: TowerTone

It doesn't show the area of Arkansas where I live as having 3G, even though I have it.

Old map, maybe?

To Verizon,

Why aren't you on 3G?

You would have had the iPhone by now if you were.

So now users wanting iPhones have to wait until you put 4G in place - you having admitted your mistake...

Get on with it, rapido!

Oct 06, 09 - 09:58 am Comment from: aaplsaur

Nothing Verizon offers compares even closely to the iPhone experience. Still, when is AT&T;gonna step up the service? Aren't we giving them enough money to buy some more tower gear?

Brilliant commercial. I love my iPhone, but my 3G coverage in St. Louis stinks. If Apple would open the iPhone to Verizon, I'd jump over to it ASAP.

I have great AT&T;3G coverage in L.A. and SoCal where I live. Also no problems when traveling to Seattle, Mammoth, and even SF. When I was with Verizon, I didn't like how they charged for everything, forced manufacturers to limit handset features, and their plans were more expensive than AT&T;. BTW, where's Zune Tang these days?

I live in Dallas too, and don't have the same problems you have. You must live in some unfortunate dead zone.

After going from AT&T;to Verizon and back to AT&T;I will probably never go back. Verizon has OK coverage (Verizon and AT&T;are about the same in the region where I live but AT&T;'s 3G is WAY faster) but they intentionally cripple their phones and require all services to go through them resulting is absolute crap experience.

If you're waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon you may be waiting a long, long time - AT&T;exclusive or not I don't think Verizon will want the iPhone as it will require them to let go of their complete control of the device on their network.

My prediction - AT&T;'s exclusive will end and Sprint and T-Mobil will get the iPhone... Verizon will not.

Oct 06, 09 - 10:17 am Comment from: Mr. Reeee

So, MDN, what exactly would you rather have?

SLOW service...

... or NO service?

It's a pretty effective commercial.

AT&T;was a compromise to begin with, but from what I understand, they had more advanced technology than all the other cell service providers, except for T-Mobile.

Breaking the AT&T;iPhone monopoly can't come soon enough!

Oct 06, 09 - 10:21 am Comment from: Escaport

@robert

I have to agree with @jay. I'm in Dallas as well and we have some of the best AT&T;coverage around. Mainly because the CEO lives about a mile from me. I think the saying goes... "Don't crap in your own backyard." I have had an iPhone since the first release day two and a half years ago and been all over with it. Dallas has it nice.

Oct 06, 09 - 10:26 am Comment from: Big Als MBP

@ TT,

You live in Arkansas?

That explains a lot.

So I guess this means iPhone won't be coming to Verizon any time soon...?

Oct 06, 09 - 10:40 am Comment from: chaz

I agree, the iPhone isn't coming to Verizon any time in the near future. They are a very stubborn bunch over there, and they don't make mistakes.

I'm hoping Apple will surround them when they go to more than AT&T;, i.e. sprint, everyone but Verizon.

In the mean time, all I can say is I'm still on the original iPhone, and the service has gotten better every year since I've owned it. Calls are better and drops are fewer. Verizon blackberry, still drop calls in the same places for the last 3 years!

Verizon agreement with Google is meant to stick it to Apple. As I said, they are stubborn bunch over there.

Oct 06, 09 - 10:42 am Comment from: Dick

I'm sorry. I think that it is a great ad. I live in a Verizon RED ZONE - that is an AT&T;DEAD ZONE.

There is no chance for me to get a working iPhone here - and I am 7 miles from the center of a Big Ten University.

AT&T;sucks. They have built no new towers anywhere near me.

I would buy a Verizon iPhone in a heartbeat - and all I want it for is to run iCal so that I can see my calendar when on the road.

Great ad, Verizon.

AT&T;'s network sucks and MDN knows it- stop being a whore for AT&T;. I use Verizon for mobile 3G internet (on a real Macintosh- not a toy phone) and it works just fine.

Oct 06, 09 - 10:46 am Comment from: praus

I don't think anyone is giving AT&T;credit for the work they have been doing. I know AT&T;is working in Sacramento, CA to up their coverage. I used to have crappy 3G coverage in my house and even outside near my place but in the past few months it's shot up to 5 bars.

This stuff takes time.

MDN writes, "No network could handle what iPhone dishes out." That should be amended to, "No SINGLE network could handle what iPhone dishes out."

This highlights one of the problems with having an exclusive deal with one carrier. Spread the iPhones over many carriers, and then maybe they wont bring any of the networks to their knees. So rather than talk about how Verizon would suffer just as much as AT&T;if it were burdened with all of iPhonedom, lets acknowledge that an exclusive deal is a bad idea.

Verizon's CDMA is better, more reliable, works further from individual towers, and much much higher in the air, verizon's the is only service I can get to work over 1000' or so in the air, the top end data speed will go back and forth, but the bandwith spectrum of CDMA has more potential 'room' for more data, AT&T;is trying very hard, but they are greedy, and while they have the highest customer base this is ONLY because they purchased cell companies one after the other until they had a significant base, it is good there is significant competition, but apple needs to get off of att's tip and move onwards and "upwards"

How can you claim ATT doesn't limit phones? What about MMS and tethering support? They delayed MMS for months, and tethering is still a no-show.

Oct 06, 09 - 11:04 am Comment from: alansky

All together now: "AT&T;bites the big one!"

And so does Verizon.

Oct 06, 09 - 11:09 am Comment from: Cowboy

I too would take Verizon on the iPhone (open it up Apple). Verizon's coverage blows ATT in my area (Central WA).

@ Tt -

the bandwith spectrum of CDMA has more potential 'room' for more data

Um... you do know that this supposedly superior CDMA network can't handle voice and data at the same time, right?

I very frequently use my iPhone to check something online while talking with someone on the phone - this would be impossible to do on Verizon's CDMA network with their current technology.

The ad is a blatant lie. The Verizon network is not larger. They are not showing any of Cingular's network, for one thing, and they are not showing the ATT network additions since 2005. Total BS ad. I hope people will investigate for themselves and complaint to Verizon.

Although I love my iPhone, I'm so frustrated with AT&T;that I've actually considered going back. Verizon was far from perfect, but for my purposes, it's the better of the evils.

I live in Southern Indiana. (Evansville) I always get 5 bars of 3G, but when I travel it gets worse quick.

Oct 06, 09 - 11:27 am Comment from: TowerTone

Big Al
wasn't raised here but it sure is beautiful.

Oct 06, 09 - 11:59 am Comment from: Elsic1975a

If the iPhone were available on all networks, how would Apple handle this in retail stores? They have to be sold at the discounted rate when attached to a carrier plan, after all. Ideas?

This is a great commercial. If/when Verizon ever gets the iPhone, we'd have the best of both worlds - best phone and best coverage. Unfortunatley for me, despite living in a large Southern California suburb, the AT&T;coverage is so bad I don't get reception in my house, where I do with Verizon. So I'm stuck with a Storm that I can actually make and receive calls with and have an iPod Touch for apps. I'd love to have a single device.

I've had the iphone since gen one and currently use the 3gs, have traveled to a couple dozen cities on both coasts with the different versions of the iphone and have yet to have a problem. People need to learn to be patient and reduce their expectations for network improvement its not like replacing the wireless router @ your parents house it takes months -> years of planning and implementation and millions --> billions of dollars to do it.

Oh yeah and verizon sucks ass!

Oct 06, 09 - 12:15 pm Comment from: LordRobin

Verizon is a great carrier for making phone calls. That's it. Other than that, they're a greedy, nickle-and-dime-you-to-death company, and I'd drop them in a heartbeat if I didn't get a discount through my employer.

I recently decided to upgrade my wife's and my phones. I went to the Verizon store and walked out furious. Everything was overpriced. Everything was pushing this or that bullsh*t "service". It was clear their primary interest was customers who use copious amounts of data, for which they can charge by the megabyte. We ended up going to Best Buy, where we could get the basic flip-phones we wanted for free.

------RM

Oct 06, 09 - 12:57 pm Comment from: zmarc

What? No red-state blue-state comments?

(Per the maps in the ad. Let the political debates begin!

Oct 06, 09 - 12:58 pm Comment from: shen

i have had 3G (on my wife's iphone, i have the 1st gen) coverage in several areas not on that map. how honest is this ad?

it is a "good" ad if by "good" you mean misleading and dishonest, but for those of us that consider a moral outlook as a requirement, it fails.

I have a family home in Arkansas (south of Fayetteville) in a very rural area and, when I visit, I am often surprised by how good my AT&T;connect is. I have a 1G iPhone so I can't comment on 3G connectivity, but Edge is fine.

You are right, TT, much of Arkansas is very beautiful.

I have an iPhone. I love it. I will always love it and defend it until I replace it with a next generation iPhone. I am not going to defend AT&T;3G coverage though. It may be faster, but it is smaller. AT&T;better get on the ball and increase the coverage. Whenever I am in an area where not everyone has phone signal, it is AT&T;that does not have a signal. I am getting tired of that fact. It doesn't happen too often as I am usually not in remote areas, but come on AT&T;...are you in the game or not?

Oct 06, 09 - 02:54 pm Comment from: DeRS

Moving 10 million iPhones to Verison will not diminish their coverage area at all, so MDN's remark is not quite well phrased, suggesting otherwise.

The maps will stay the same for both Verison and AT&T;, Since it is just coverage, nothing more and nothing less.

However, call drops and slowdowns in most cases are not related to coverage area at all, they related to the load which iPhones give to the cell network.

And yes, with this, Version's net will be crashed by getting 10 millions of iPhones.

What is the coverage area for 3G for the iPhone with Verzion?

1. Zero- they have not upgraded yet to GSM.

2. When GSM comes to Verzion what will be the coverage area for this service?

It will not magically light up everywhere.
There will be a slow and steady ramp.

3. When the ramp up starts and two to three times the iPhones are sold, what is the service going to be like.

They sell more iPhones than tower upgrades can occur.

4. When both ATT and Verzion are on GSM, I believe they will share to increase the coverage and ease the cost on each individual carrier.

Better than attempting it on your own!

End result, they both will suffer as the phones become data intensive as the iPhone is. Verizon is lucky, they have weak data phones sipping at the tit on their network!