“In an act affecting owners of 2G cell phones on AT&T Mobility’s network, including the highly visible, and originally highly expensive first generation iPhone, Open for Business has learned that AT&T has been quietly sacrificing 2G signal strength in an effort to speed up the build out of its next generation 3G network,” Timothy R. Butler reports for OFB.
MacDailyNews Take: Good! AT&T’s speeding up their 3G buildout!
Butler continues, “Cell phones, like other wireless communications devices, have certain radio bands they communicate on. While previously the company had been primarily relying on the 850 MHz band that offers a more robust signal, including superior indoor reception, company technicians confirmed to OFB that transmitters for the 2G signal used by the original iPhone and most other handsets, including most AT&T offered BlackBerry and RAZR models, have been shifted to the weaker 1900 MHz band in some areas.”
MacDailyNews Take: Great! Yet another reason why AT&T customers should buy an iPhone 3G when it’s time for a new phone!
Butler continues, “Reports suggested the problem started to appear as AT&T ramped up its 3G network in preparation for the iPhone 3G in early 2008. Each AT&T technician OFB talked to concerning this problem offered the same solution: that the customer should purchase new, 3G-enabled equipment at the customer’s own expense. This has created a troubling situation for many owners of the original iPhone, a device that was as recently as May of 2008 selling for $400. These users are being told their expensive phones should not only be replaced at the subscriber’s expense, sometimes less than a year after purchase, but also at an increase in the monthly service rate of $10 for data and $5 for text messaging.”
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, how will people who bought $400+ smartphones ever be able to upgrade for less than half the price and where on earth will they ever find an extra $15/month?
Butler continues, “While the iPhone is the highest profile device impacted by the network change, other high profile… phones, including all but one of AT&T’s BlackBerry phones, feature 2G GSM/EDGE radios that could be impacted by this switch. In all, nearly half of AT&T’s phones available on its web site are 2G models incompatible with the newer 3G technology.”
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, that’s not so excellent, but, again, it is yet another reason why AT&T customers should buy an iPhone 3G when it’s time for a new phone
Butler continues, “AT&T’s executive director of analyst relations, Mark Siegel, ‘categorically’ denied to OFB that AT&T was advising customers to dump 2G equipment such as the iPhone for 3G versions. In a follow-up message, Siegel added that the company was not requiring anyone to switch to 3G equipment. “
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If true, progress marches on. It’s good to hear that AT&T is looking for ways to speed up their move into the future, but they should at least notify 2G customers about what’s going on.
[UPDATE: 3:36pm ET: We have added to and rewritten certain “Takes” after reading reader feedback, reading the article again, and thinking about the situation for more than 30 seconds. Our initial intent was to offer tongue-in-cheek praise AT&T for finally doing something to improve 3G, not to dump on original iPhone owners. We are Mac users. We are used to being told “upgrade or be left behind.” To us, “backwards compatibility” means “retarding progress” (see: WIndows). That is the perspective from which our “Takes” to this article were made. Think iMacs without floppy drives. We understand the comments from original iPhone owners (implicitly, as we actually own original iPhones that are still being used) and will try to take a breath or three before bashing out rapid-fire “Takes.” We apologize if our “Takes” came/still come off as flippant towards original iPhone owners. That was/is not our intent.]
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dirty Pierre le Punk” for the heads up.]
that paid $600 on day one
not happy
drop calls, and i go
this iphone sucks as a phone
thanks att
Sounds like ATT and Apple are a match made in heaven afterall.
Hey – I don’t want to HAVE to upgrade my iPhones after just over a year. And yea it was $400. In fact I have two in the family.
MDN – your editorial comments are very biased. The responses that the underhanded sneaky reduction in ATT services is good and great is wrong.
MDN’s take on this story is bullshit. There are hundreds of thousands of us who bought 1st gen iPhones and all you can do is piss on them. Thanks for nothing. And no, I can’t afford to buy yet another iPhone 11 months after buying the first.
Your response was juvenile in the extreme… and their will be many, many iPhone owners who’ll be pissed too.
Pretty damned elitist attitude there, MDN.
Suppose ATT Motor Company sold you a car last summer that got satisfactory gas mileage. But now they’ve developed a fuel that provides better mileage and performance, but only for our newest model car. Oh, by the way, the new fuel makes your older model run crappy. In fact, there may even be times that it won’t run at all. Nevertheless, you have to use the new fuel, unless you want to buy our new model car. Thanks for your business, indeed.
Your attitude about this, not to mention the endless pop-up ads that your site generates, really pisses me off, and it’s driving me to look for other sources for my Apple info besides MDN.
Happy New Year!
Honestly MDN, I still have an original iPhone, and have no plans to upgrade. I don’t need 3G nor GPS. AT&T;cutting signal strength is not a good thing. Right now, that extra $$$ a month is a lot.
First day iPhone user. Never have regret the purchase. Glad to know when I get a new one that they are expanding the 3G.
People mourned the transition to digital and they will so as any change is found to effect there lives, but for me- GO for it. Faster, better, and a new iPhone coming!
Thumbs up!
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Another MDN take that could have used 30 seconds of quiet, sane reflection before posting.
Look, I can understand if this sort of thing needs to be done, but at a bare minimum ATT needs to notify its current subscribers who are using 2G devices. I’m quite satisfied with the speed of my iPhone right now, but I need to know when or if I should expect that to change, so that I can make a sensible purchasing decision.
Why does the 3G build-up have to be at the expense of millions of 2G customers?
My mom’s recently been having horrible 2G service at her house with her original iPhone. Dropped calls like mad. Just started a month ago, and ATT blames it on Apple and Apple blames it on ATT. It’s very frustrating.
MDN –
I didn’t think you would so readily rejoice in the obvious reduction in quality and service of such a large portion of the Mac faithful. Perhaps not every original iPhone owner who did take the risk of supporting a, at the time untested product, should be screwed before their original contract is even up. I mean come on, my “original 2G iPhone” isn’t even a year old yet. I’m not impressed with your “class” attitude toward the 2G versus 3G iPhone owners.
“Gee, how will people who bought $400+ smartphones ever be able to upgrade for less than half the price and where on earth will they ever find an extra $15/month?”
I had to save up so my wife and I could both get 1’st Gen iPhones for Christmas last year. And the monthly bill is already DOUBLE what I was paying Verizon. For me to upgrade 1 year later, and scrape together an extra $15 a month, plus shell out another $400 for 2 phones is not as easy as MDN suggests. For some of us, we are still trying to defend the money we have sunk into these toys already, so to suggest that everyone can afford it and shouldn’t complain is snobbish and pompous. Maybe if I had half as many advertisements hanging off me as MDN does, I could afford not only 2 new iPhones and the hike in service charges, but I could get also buy a high horse and spout off to the plebeians about how I should or shouldn’t be spending my hard earned wages. To top it all off, I don’t get 3G service in Portsmouth, NH. Go to hell MDN.
I have a mixed feelings about this.
I to have one 2G phone for a year now and buying 3G for my wife in few days.
I was planning to upgrade mine but decided to wait until father Steve introduces new one.
Oh well, early adopters get the kick as usual.
Wow, MDN. I’m glad you have no problem wiping your ass with $400 and flushing it down the toilet. Some of us aren’t that wild about the idea.
——RM
MDN = FOOLS
Ah, the MDN take reminds me of the iMovie article:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/14613/
I wish I had a company to buy me all the latest gadgets from Apple…
that explains it then…Edge on my phone has gotten real slow lately
moi
Obviously MDN couldn’t be more hopelessly wrong in their assessment. “less than half the price” initial upgrade + an extra $15/mo over a two year contract makes the 3G device more expensive, not cheaper than the EDGE version:
2G = $399 purchase + $1,416 (24 mos of service) = $1,815 two-year cost
3G = $199 purchase + $1,776 (24 mos of service) = $1,975 two-year cost
Sneaky AT&T;/ Apple tactics, as usual.
Typical juvenile and childish MDN responses.
FU MDN – I have two 1st Gen iPhones in my household and after shelling out $1,200 (and getting two $100 Apple Store credits months later) I am NOT AT ALL happy to learn that what I thought was a perceived loss in quality and reception of EGDE is actually something tangible.
AT&T;provides a SERVICE and when I purchased the phones, the Service was at level A – now it is at level B – but I still pay for level A. The solution is NOT to go buy something else that doesn’t use EDGE. The solution is to honor service levels or adjust pricing for Level B service.
@PC Apologist..
Not to mention, you lose all of your roll over minutes when you upgrade..
Very phucked up take MDN. Very immature.
@me
Very well said.. I’m all for forward progress, but At&t;is the one who requires a 2 year contract, if they are going to cut the quality of service within that 2 year contract, then they should price it accordingly.. It’s just good customer service and business sense..
For MDN, to reward behavior like this with comments like, “Good, great, excellent,” is just, well, like I said, childish, but also very typical of Mr. Steve Jack.
MDN’s takes here are absurd. I bought an original iPhone the day they dropped the price to $400. At the time, I agreed to a 24-month service contract. During those 24-months, the service should stay at the same level (or get better). If lowering the quality of service is the best business decision, AT&T;should offer incentives to upgrade to the new device or release subscribers from the data plan contract.
Knowingly reducing the quality of service in an attempt to force users to upgrade devices at their own expense (and a significant expense at that) is a dirty tactic, plain and simple.
As a Launch Day purchaser of iPhone 1.0, I gotta say that MDN needs to go back and rethink its take on this. I understand that technology moves on, but to cut the service quality for a product that was still being sold as state-of-the-art just eight months ago is unacceptable.
I am all for improvements in 3G, but this shouldn’t be a zero-sum game – why should 2.5G customers suffer?
In short, MDN, your “take” on this needs some mature reflection.
LOL
MDN’s attitude is the same one Steve Jobs would take if you asked him how he felt about it. He’d laugh in your face and tell you to update your phone or shut the fsck up. I’m sure Apple gave ATT their blessing as they want more capacity for the iPhone 3G and its future iterations and couldn’t give a shit less about 1stGen owners who refuse to upgrade.
MDN essentially issued the Apple press release on this matter. The company shits all over us like this all the time and you’re upset because MDN told it to you straight up?