AT&T's data network down for the iPhone?
By Ryan Block 
posted Jul 2nd 2007 6:08PM
posted Jul 2nd 2007 6:08PM
Having problems with AT&T's data network on your iPhone? Or any phone for that matter? We are too, and so are other people up and down the west coast. It's been spotty for about the last 45 minutes, so far as we can tell -- let us know in comments if you're having issues (and where you're at)!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: Looks like we're back up (as of about 4:30PM PST, anyway).
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: Looks like we're back up (as of about 4:30PM PST, anyway).
Edge is down in central Washington.
Can somebody explain to me why EDGE is down? Isn't EDGE only a system that connects ATT users to the internet and not the system that actually routes the calls?
Thanks.
Anyway, San Jose/Cupertino is slow (realllllllyyyyyyyy slow) at 1531 PST
'cause it is easier to say that "EDGE is down" instead of the "AT&T data routing system is down." ;)
I am not a sadist, but posting this on BB Perl over T-mobile EDGE network has never been so satisfying!
Its down here in Tucson, AZ on my Samsung blackjack,
Internet down in Chicago on my Cingular Blackjack as well.... from 4pm. But I am back UP when I just checked it now!
It has been spotty for me in Los Angeles (Koreatown) since 11:00 PST and down completely since 12:30.
Big discussion here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1022569&tstart=0
Ryan, I sent this to you guys awhile ago. It's been down for the past 3 hours now. I get no credit :(
Sorry, but a TON of people sent this in! Thanks for letting us know!
No EDGE at 4:15p in downtown Denver, CO.
Down in Seattle.. all day. Called AT&T and they said the edge system is down and won't be back till 4pm PST.
yeah i'm having trouble too, in north county san diego. havent been able to connect all day!
In different parts of northern San Diego county, all heavily populated along I-5 and I-805. It was near impossible to connect either to get my email or access a Website. Had 5 bars and the E icon showing, which should suffice for getting a decent connection. I tried my AT&T BlackBerry (8800), which uses the same network and it worked fine.
Spoke to AT&T tech support who said as long as there's a strong signal and an E for EDGE it's not their responsibility and to try calling Apple. Spoke with Apple and after moving up three levels of support they said it was likely the AT&T network. Tried it with a second iPhone I managed to borrow and the same problem.
I have Verizon... haha. Can you hear me now?
At least our bluetooth isnt crippled while the network is down... 3g is out in Houston.
But the iPhone bluetooth is crippled too...
Classic.
Who said anything about the iphone? You've been reading too much engadget. I said 3g was crippled. And we all know the iphone doesn't have 3g. HMMmmmm... Classic Genius.
Yeah, I'm sure the Verizon network is running quite smoothly now that a huge chunk of its customer base just switched to AT&T over the weekend.
Let me explain it to you since you don't seem too fast. You talked about crippled Bluetooth on Verizon and yet the iPhone bluetooth is also just as limited with it's bluetooth features and it is on AT&T. Get it now?
Dear Old G,
Bluetooth is crippled on EVERY verizon phone, purposely. The iphone is a 4day old device with many revisions to come. Besides, I dont think this "bad apple" should ruin the bunch... Just sit back in your rocking chair, and come to the realization, that *&^$#%*&^)(&%$
its been down all day in Dallas.
Here in Dallas, all is working ok.
Long Island, NY (specifically Huntington) has no problems, I just hit up engadget on the iphone with no issues at all
been down from 9am until 2 pm for me here in los angeles
Yes, down in Northern California too!
Plenty of problems exist after the Cingular/ATT merger. I still get disconnected while jumping from a 3G tower to a non-3G tower in the middle of a call.
Works here in SF..3:24 PDT.
Just tried using Google Maps in SLC, Utah and no luck - I'm getting network connectivity errors.
Down all day in sacramento.
Down all day in west Los Angeles
Edge is down in Honolulu Hawaii since 9:45 am Hawaii this morning.
not here (orlando florida)
Saint Louis. Up,Down,Up since earlier today. Did the EDGE Upgrade rolled out last Tuesday cause this?
from bakersfield to vegas its been down. Thank you for wifi, Venetian!
fine in chicago 5:22cst and all day for that matter
Data is a no-go in Phoenix. Damn Apple Hippies.
Official ticket:
Customers who are homed out of the Allen NDC may be intermittantly unable to pass data. This is also impacting Enterprise APN customers based out of Allen. This is also impacting SMS/MMS messaging out of Allen. It also appears to be impacting some prepaid resellers, such as Tracfone
Reno, NV has no coverage since 9:30 or so.
Faster than ever in New York, still having problems people?
Could this be part of a grand apple masterplan to upgrade EDGE to some obscene level to boost even more iphone sales?
I just tried it out here in OKC and it's SUPER slow right now. I tried going to Gmail.com and where I would have accessed the page instantly, I now was greated by a 15 min wait.
Way to go Former Southwestern Bell / Lucent Technologies / Avaya Communications
I have had issues since about 11am this morning - Northside of Chicago. I get a 3g icon on my blackjack, called CS, checked settings, and they told me there was a network issue.
Damn the iphone. And pants for that matter.
Well, I'm not sure if you guys JUST got ATT like many others when they got the iPhone... but as a former CingularTT user, you have many more days like this to look forward to ;-).
This actually isn't news, it's just how the ATT network works. How are you all liking undecipherable phone calls thanks to half-rate too?
No EDGE in the south west corner of San Francisco right now.
(Hopefully not a doublepost)
Dang... Steve Jobs must be pissssed. I'd love to hear the conversations going on between Apple and AT&T right now though.
To me though, especially after working with Sprint for over a year (far more evil than Cingular, and no one is less evil than AT&T) is that... what choice would have been a good one? Sprint sucks. AT&T Sucks. Verizon sucks (and not available in many areas). The little companies suck. Everyone in this industry sucks. And yeah, I'd have loved Apple to have made the iPhone network generic - but we all should know better than this, Apple doesn't leave variables open.
But.. heh... it does look like AT&T sold them a big load.
In Oklahoma, at least, I've not had any problems with the Edge network yet. Working as of right now.
Verizon has probably the most available (and most reliable) network in the U.S. The only problem with Verizon is that they cripple their phones, but again, the service is unmatchable.
Try using O2. I've rarely ever had problems with them. I really like their home-zone feature, which gives me a separate, low-cost number for a small geographical region around my home. Coverage is great (generally only unavailable when a store is jamming GSM). Never have dropped calls. Wait! I forgot, they aren't available in the U.S. Too bad!
Which would I rather have: reliable service, or the iPhone? Europe's reliable service probably (and I even have a pitiful Sony phone with the world's worst interface).
i am using t-mobile in the US right now - there seems to be no real explanation as to why the U.S. carriers suck so bad - they are some of the most profitable operators in the world, yet they just don't seem to be able to build out their networks enough so that there's ubiquitous coverage.
and i am not talking about the countryside here - this is in the SF bay area, home to over 6m people and half the high tech companies in the U.S.!
i didn't have problems like this in 3rd world countries, let alone in europe. it's mystifying.
as for the article: umm... i am not really surprised that adding 500,000+ users to the EDGE network will bring it to its knees. no one was using that before iPhone b/c it sucks and it was expensive.
The reason why Verizon is reliable is because they use CDMA which has been in use since WWII and has a 46 year advantage over GSM which AT&T and many other cell companies use. GSM has only been around since 91 and hasn't been the widely accepted cell format like it is in Europe. Because of its history CDMA has been approved upon over so many generations of the networks life while GSM in the States is still in its infancy.
I dunno about that... Sprint is using CDMA as well... and Sprint sucks. There's more to it than network tech, much more.
Although I enjoy using Apple's products from the iPod to Final Cut Pro, I think picking AT&T was the worst choice for their iPhone provider. Why they picked AT&T? Maybe it was the one that offered them the most money. But still, it was a bad decision for customers.
I'm not here to discuss if the iPhone is a good choice or not, as I can't afford, or choose not to get, the phone or its service plans. I'm pleased with my current regular cell phone.
I didn't like AT&T 5 years ago, and I don't like them today either.
I'm betting it's because they had the largest network in the country and the phone would work overseas.
It fits with the whole "make it easy to use" mantra of the iPhone. People don't want to think about how, why, or if their phone will work in a place, they just want it to work.
That said, you need Quad band GSM to work anywhere in the world, and ATT has the largest GSM network in the US. That makes it pretty easy to pick a carrier doesn't it?
Today's at&t is not the AT&T from 5-years-ago.
man, hate when this happens, the provider should just refund people the day's service fee.
San Francisco is working fine.
San Diego - Having Problems here as well
I was told by a Att rep that they are upping the speed.
If they keep upping the speed for edge, does that make 3G faster?
Down in Tulsa at 7:26pm - been down most of the day
Also why not make the title "AT&T's EDGE network down?" since is obviously affecting all other EDGE devices. oh that's right Sensationalism. I'll say it again, the iPhone is to Engadget what ParisHilton is to CNN. Shame on you.
this is perhaps one of the best posts of the day. now i know what to name my phone.
i'm in dallas and have had difficulties since lunch.
my cingular cell works fine in dallas, but my verizon land line isn't working at all. my dsl has been spotty due to all the rain, but down? that's wierd. maybe some switch got flooded.
Phoenix, AZ. I get an error on my iPhone saying "could not connect to EDGE"
Er... misspeak.. no one is MORE EVIL than AT&T.
And, for the record.... I've generally been very, very happy with my Cingular service. I've only been defrauded once by customer service... but I had a Windows Mobile device before this, and never experienced any signifigant problems and have been using them for about 3 years now. There are horror stories, there are good stories... but let's not pretend that as far as coverage issues, AT&T is any worse than anyone else. Not signifigantly so, at any rate.
I love Apple products, and I love my iPhone, but I'd never, ever, ever have bought this if I had to use... say... Sprint. We all have our issues with these companies. We must remember: they are all evil bastards.
Down in Tempe, AZ. No data since 10 AM. iPhone without the i is just a phone (and ipod, I guess). I sure wish there was a hotspot in range.
New York City Edge is fine... and pretty fast...
Its working perfectly fine here in Baltimore, MD. Sorry to the rest.
Sent from my iPhone.
EDGE has been spotty in Pittsburgh today with me frequently getting the message, "Unable to activate EDGE." or something like that.
Al cool here in Florida. I know its West Coast, but I wanted to chip in!
Down here in Vegas.
Good to know it's not just me :) EDGE was down for a while... It appears to be back up now!
Down in west LA (90067) - 3:39 PM
...maybe it's a Widows Mobile Hacker Cult group attacking AT&T EDGE servers in an attempt to piss us all off for not being part of their clique?
...or more likely, AT&T wasn't ready to handle the massive upswing in EDGE requests and their servers ate crap
Im in Gainesville, FL and were are running fine on 3g here.
Works fine on my Treo 680 in Palo Alto, CA
Been down all day for me too. San Fernando Valley, CA
EDGE was down a little while but it has been back up since 3:00pm here in Los Angeles.
I haven't been able to get EDGE to work on my iPhone since 12:30 today in St. Louis, MO. AT&T can not pull this kind of shit with this many subscribers...
down again in los angeles with message " could not activate edge"
EDGE is fine here in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm actually commenting on my k790a right now :)
Honestly, it's bad enough taking a ribbing from everybody at work about spending $600 dollars on this, but then when they ask to see the phone and nothing works because the network is down. This just makes all of them sound right. I like my iphone but this has been less than smooth. Oh yeah we are still down in denver (all day).
It's all good as long as they keep the NYC network up. NYC is the nexus of the universe.
Just kidding. I meant the galactic rim.
I hope AT&T is reconfiguring their whole network so all of the United States gets better EDGE speeds. Everyone on the AT&T network will benefit from that.
If that were true (and I wish it were), why wouldn't ATT do that on Wednesday or Thursday of last week? Upgrade before everyone gets their new iPhone. It's quite embarrassing when you come into the office Monday morning to show off the new phone, only to have it take a crap in your hands...
you should be more specific - the corner of 1st st and 1st ave in Manhattan is the precise nexus of the universe, according to Cosmo Kramer...
Please don't feel trapped by less-than adequate carrier just because it runs on GSM. Have you seen the Blackberry 8830 from Verizon??? It's CDMA AND GSM! You get the best of both worlds.
I was having problems in western Canada this morning on Rogers w/my blackberry.. messaging seemed down.
No 3G no Edge here in Downtown Austin TX
Down in central/south-central Indiana. It started around 3:00pm EDT. I went to the AT&T store to troubleshoot as I had just upgraded to an 8GB iPhone. They said everything was fine. It took a call to AppleCare to find out that EDGE was down nationwide!
its working fine in the nation's capitol. i'm on the iphone.
Ok, it's back up...
Skynet has become self-aware
after a number of errors, i am now posting this message via edge network in los angeles
Couldn't connect via my Treo 650 to the EDGE network here in Davis, CA (outside Sacramento), around noon, but it seems to work now (3:55pm).
Heck, I haven't been able to use the YouTube app all day, even when on Wifi.
I was using my blackjack on 3G waiting on my train ride home from Chicago to the Western Suburbs like usual, it stopped receiving data about 12:30-12:45 CST. I figured it was the phone wanting to be restarted since it will just stop loading webpages every once in a while until I turn the phone service off and then restart it. Oddly enough I played with an iPhone at the Apple store and made sure to use it with EDGE rather than wifi and it worked faster than I thought it would based on my old 8125. Apple must just be stealing all the data for iPhone demos :-P
Problems with data in Ohio most of the day...seems to be back now.
Been down since 11:00am in Phoenix, AZ. Called ATT and was credited $0.66 for the day ($20/30days = $0.66), LOL.
anyone notice and increase in speed?