at&t less bars in more places

I think it just depends on where you are...

 

It's obviously a US or global average of 'in more places' but not to any particular area. Any wireless carrier can fail the 'local' test.

 

T's claim of more places is purely their ad campaign. It's well accepted that Verizon has a superior network in the US. As far as global they're on equal footing with both Verizon and T-Mobile since both have roaming agreements with just about the same operators as does T.

That and least amount of dropped calls. Just because you say something doesn't make it 100% truthful.

 

Also, keep in mind the "bars" is an entirely unreliable term. Different makes and models of cell phones have different numbers of bars and their software use different methods to determine how many bars you have. Since they don't explain how they calculate the number of "bars", they can be telling the complete truth and it still be meaningless.

It's like how the maker of a company will trademark a name and then claim that only their product has it (e.g. Certs with RETSYN or Scope with T25). The claim is meaningless, but it sounds good in a commercial.

However, just to be sure have you verified that it's not your phone that's the problem?

 

Hey, I'm living in a place with more bars in more places than you can shake a stick at! One just opened in the next block and there are at least five or so in a four block radius! What more could you want! :cheers:

 

Don't know who this is "well accepted" with. Both companies have holes in their coverage. I left Verizon for AT&T because of Verizon's poor coverage and continuous dropped calls. So that is not a "well accepted" fact to me. As for global coverage goes, Verizon uses a proprietary chip, CDMA, that is only used in parts of Canada and parts of South Korea, whereas AT&T uses the universal GSM chipset that is used in every country in the world that has cell phone coverage. I've used my AT&T phone from Scotland across the European continent to Russia. When I had Verizon I had to rent a phone from Vodaphone in order to have a cell phone when I went overseas.

So yes, if you look at the world AT&T does have more bars in more places. Verizon's coverage is limited to the U.S.

 

For you Verizon works not so well. On the whole though if you look at polls, surveys and statistics Verizon has the best network.

As to AT&T, they are only in the US as well. If you're going to get into that then T-Mobile has almost as good coverage as AT&T since they have practically all the same roaming partners. AT&T has no networks outside the US. T-Mobile and Verizon don't either. Verizon probably has the most coverage of any of them because they have more domestic coverage and they also have the same roaming partners as AT&T and T-Mobile. They also roam on other CDMA networks such as Telus and Bell Mobility in Canada. AT&T isn't being totally honest when they say they have the most coverage "everywhere" since they only have coverage in the US.

Look at my avatar if you think I've got an axe to grind.

 

I've seen polls that can favor one carrier over the other, depending upon the questions asked, and the audience asked.

In the end of the day, if your standing next to someone who can use their phone, and you cannot, you are not going to feel much better because they are using a roaming partner and you have native coverage...but not just here where you are standing.

Likewise, having international coverage will not do you much good, if the US spot you are standing in doesn't have a good signal.

Verizon's cdma system has always been a big bone of contention between Vodaphone (part owner of Verizon) and Verizon. Especially years ago when Verizon only offered one phone that could do GSM and CDMA. Business travelers had to rent a phone, as mentioned above. Hence for 4G, Verizon abandoned it's planned path and is now going to an LTE platform...they finally got the message (but unfortunately it will be a hybrid CDMA/LTE for a long while).

Today, Verizon has more dual mode phones to offer, but few have them. And not all AT&T phones are tri or quad band GSM either. But I suspect, if a survey was done of all the current Verizon and AT&T users, and the current phones that they have, the majority of AT&T users would have a phone and could work internationally as opposed to Verizon users.

So for that kind of survey, ATT can claim to have more bars in more places for their customers than Verizon. Probably Tmobile too, but I think ATT has better coverage in the US than Tmobile.

Like a lover's quarrel, "he said vs she said" will never end in these kind of comparisons. In the end both can be right. Actually, many of the polls and surveys are only a few to 5 percent point different in the results anyway. So t here is little point in arguing these things anymore...IMHO.

 

Well said, Viewfly

Advertising is always about making any product seem better than it is. This is often done by using generic terms that can be interpreted in a variety of ways, some of which may or may not be relevant to the potential customer.

"More Bars In More Places" doesn't mean much without some standard meaning of the word bars and specifying what places.

Likewise, "Most Reliable Network" depends on how you judge reliability (number of outages, dropped calls, ability to initiate calls, etc.)

 

That's a specious argument. AT&T has lots of phones that are dual band. The claim that one carrier or another has better coverage everywhere just has so many holes in it if you take all things into account.

As I said earlier claiming that you have the "largest" network everywhere (and that includes outside of the US) unless you explain that means that we use other networks to complete your calls you are being deceptive.

Verizon and T-Mobile likely have just as many or practically just as many roaming partners as does AT&T. It has about as much veracity as saying one network or another has less dropped calls (which several networks have claimed.) It's all whose hype you wish to believe. And all of this is moot if supposed "great" networks don't work for you where you need it to work.

 

No, not at all. Let's look at the current phone selections. ATT: 60 of its 63 phones/devices on the web page are ready for international use; 8 of the 10 free phones are ready for international use.
Remember back some years how popular the quad band Razr was?
For Verizon, 12 of the 34 phone or devices are ready for global use; 5 of the 12 phones that 'are under $50' are ready for international use. Go back 5 years, and it was worse then. ATT clearly wins.

I agree, that is why your blanket statement that Verizon is clearly the best is fallacious.

Nonsense, it's not deceptive, but your argument is picayune. When you are calling from point A to point B, no one really cares how it is done, as long as you are not charged extra for it. That was the concern about 'roaming' years ago. Making a call from LA to Paris, may use wireless, fiber, satellite, and coaxial cable and lots of different vendor/owners. Who cares? You only care if you have to pay extra. The little roaming partners that ATT uses need ATT as much as ATT needs them.

The two major US carriers are so close now that any blanket statement about coverage is not to be used by any individual's decision in US phone/carrier selection. If you want a wider choice of phones for price and potential use internationally, then AT&T is the better choice still today.

 

Good post viewfly

I was recently told by a VZW insider that "less than 5% of VZW customers own a GSM capable phone and that is why some of these phones stay in iventory for a long time and just gets junked when technology advances way more than what the handsets can do".

IMHO, over & above the limited availability of handsets, the percentage of people using the dual technology devices make VZW's capability to operate in GSM only countries, rather bleak comparatively.

Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)

 

Rather than risk getting banned I'm not going to respond. You think you have the answer and I guess that's it.

The point is that you cannot make a blanket statement that AT&T or Verizon has the best network everywhere since you can vary in all kinds of factors (whether or not they really apply or not.) The statement is still false if you claim that you have the largest network when it's not entirely your network and it's a network that you partner with.

 

The same thing can be said for Verizon in the US. Alot of their "coverage" map is not native coverage but also includes roaming partners. So the fact alot of what AT&T shows as coverage on their maps is native coverage so technically they could say they have the largest network.

 

Im not sure who has the best service, But owning my iphone for 1 week "and with at&t" I can say my previous carrier Alltel worked much better then the iphone in certain places. I was at a store a few days ago and used my iphone it took over 30 seconds for it to start ringing the number I was calling, and yesterday I was at a bar and used my old phone without any problems there,I couldnt even get it to dial out. I had to walk outside to use it,that sucks big time when your showing it off and telling friends all the cool features then it doesnt even make a call WTF
I love the phone but as time goes on and in this short time I had it and seen so many flaws,Im thinking I might have made a mistake. I could have got a Ipod touch that does alot of cool things also and just got a regular phone that actually works good.

 

Well that is indeed the key. Just because a provider has great overall coverage, nationally, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be right for you, locally. Even if 99% of the people in your town have no problem with the coverage, if a place you're in frequently has spotty coverage, then it's not the right provider and/or phone for you.

I have a coworker who loves his G1 and has no problems with Tmobile. A quick look coverage maps shows they don't have coverage where I go on vacation every year, while Verizon has full 3G coverage. Does that make him wrong for using Tmobile? No, it's just that his requirements are different from mine and there currently isn't any one provider that suits everyone.