Suspicious Coincidences

[Lucky1]

As a truck driver I speak with many other drivers daily. We use our phones in some truly remote places and consider ourselves signal testers quite often.

However, recent discussions have proposed a suspicion that AT&T wireless is randomly sending firmware coding ( instead of a true update ) that causes signal reception to be extremely poor or non-existent. Thereafter, when a customer calls AT&T technical support they are told a new update will be sent to correct the issue. When that doesnt work and the customer is upset, AT&T customer service reps will say they can replace the phone for free and they apologize for any inconveniences. . . .

Later, customer support calls the customer and discloses that they couldnt issue the replacement phone for free without initiating a new contract period of 2-years!!

Many truck drivers have now openly discussed this and are growing extremely wary and suspicious of this uninvestigated proposition about AT&T's practices.

I just wanted to share this and ask if anyone else has experienced this with AT&T or any other provider. Really. I'm looking forward to any and all responses to this.

[Yankees368]

I have never heard of anything like this before. What type of phone are you using?

[RJB]

I am a little lost as well what phone like Yankees said are you using?

[Lucky1]

I'd rather, at this point, keep the micro-details mute and focus on the primary discussion. As I stated, it is an uninvestigated proposition. I'm trying to acquire a sense of merit with the concept "in general" ok. I have no other way of assessing other's experiences other than reviewing reader's feedback.

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by Lucky1

I'd rather, at this point, keep the micro-details mute and focus on the primary discussion. As I stated, it is an uninvestigated proposition. I'm trying to acquire a sense of merit with the concept "in general" ok. I have no other way of assessing other's experiences other than reviewing reader's feedback.

I am a little confused as to what you are saying here. I would like to establish the fact that your phone includes GSM 850, and not just 1900. As for ATT secretly uploading data to your phone to, for a lack of a better term, crap out...I really doubt that. What exactly happens? Does your phone not work in places it once worked?

[Quint101]

i can't speak for AT&T, but I have gotten replacements due to reception problems in the past on Sprint and Verizon all with no contract extension. The replacements were for the same model of phone.

I have had AT&T only for prepaid in the past... Any phone issues I had came up during the refund period and it was simply an exchange that took place. After the period, I was directed to the phone manufacturer since I was on prepaid at the time.

[RJB]

I have noticed sometimes with my signal it can go in and out and I am near a tower. Not sure if it has to do with what you are saying. If you and fellow truckers are so concerned with this why not go to another carrier? There are options.

[spleck]

I think a conspiracy like that is a bit far-fetched. If that was an actual policy at AT&T, it would have leaked out by now--its too large of a company to do something like that (unethical) and not have someone come forward. AT&T employees are people like you and me, most of them probably don't like their job, and wouldn't be that loyal to AT&T. They're not REALLY the Death Star manned by storm troopers.

[Lucky1]

The bizarre nature of this proposition is NOT bizarre at all to truckdrivers that travel the same routes, year after year, and can quickly and easily state where there is excellent reception and poor with all service providers and their respective equipment.

Each year these drivers experience, first-hand, the expansion and addition of towers and performance nationwide. Thus, when things occur, out of the nature of the norm, the drivers will recognize and discuss them. However, numerous instances of a situation need occur before drivers will begin aligning and agreeing on an abnormality. This has occurred with the subject of my mention.

Of course, as some have mentioned, switching providers is an option. This is understood and is not the point of interest or concern.

My curiosity is benign. Just curious. That's all.

[RJB]

Now with all these truckdrivers does this happen all over the country or does it only happen in certain places??

[Lucky1]

OK. Thank You for your responses. I'll allow this beast to quell.

[Eric47]

this is probably one of the biggest conspiracy theorys ive ever heard in wireless...

and one of the dumbest

[bobolito]

When you call customer service, they are not able to do anything whatsoever to address a signal inconsistency issue. There's nothing they can do to boost the signal or make it worse. That's up to the network people. The only thing CS can do is open a ticket and have a technician sent out to check the problem, which might take days.

Of course, the average customer thinks that the CS people can simply wave a magic wand and fix the problem instantaneously!

In order to ease the pain of some customers, the CS representative simply sends a registration update to the phone. This data is already on the phone because they do that when the phone/SIM is activated and it contains certain configuration parameters that have nothing to do with the RF reception ability of the phone. So this so called "update" really doesn't do anything at all. Actually, power-cycling the phone can sometimes be more helpful. So they only do this to make the customer feel they've done something about it. Unfortunately, some people think that this "update" is actually making some improvements or changes to the phone which is usually incorrect, and that's probably the origin of these rumors.

Any changes that may degrade or optimize RF on a phone are mostly hardware based and cannot be changed via firmware. Depending on the model, there might be things that can be changed on the firmware to alter the RF capabilities of the phone. However, even if this was the case, AT&T doesn't have the ability to do that over the air. You have to connect the phone via USB cable and load the proper software to make such changes.

So needless to say, the topic originating this thread is pure and baseless speculation, or a false rumor created by some unhappy customer.