AT&T's Q1 results: earnings down thanks to one-time charge, NYC seeing 'solid improvements'
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 21st 2010 5:03PM
posted April 21st 2010 5:03PM
At least the financial numbers are looking good, but what about those dropped calls? AT&T claims that Manhattan -- one of the hardest-hit areas in the country, if not the hardest -- saw a 6 percent improvement in the first quarter, with the New York metro area improving 9 percent overall. The promised third carrier rollout is claimed to be well underway, and as proof of all this noise, AT&T helpfully provides a pair of graphs -- graphs with no perceptible Y-axis units, mind you -- showing bigger bars and higher lines in the first quarter than in last. Of course, we still don't appreciate AT&T bringing its extensive WiFi network into the equation here; it's still totally non sequitur to the matter at hand, as far as we're concerned, since even the most extensive WiFi coverage is a drop in the bucket against WWAN footprint. Besides, if these guys can actually meet their proclaimed goal of offering both the fastest and the most reliable 3G data around, it's a moot point, right?
Watch that graph points downward with the iPad 3G and the rumored iPhone4.
@metaesapuet
Oh, sorry ."rumored".
@metaesapuet I can't tell, what is your icon peeing on?
That "one time tax" was about $1 billion going towards healthcare reform if anyone wanted to know.
@cobjones Love how they just glossed over that. I guess we see which side of the ideological fence Engadget sits on
@cobjones Love how they glossed over that, considering it was a pretty big news story when the healthcare legislation passed. I guess we see what side of the ideological fence Engadget sits on.
Maybe (hopefully) that was just a subtle political joke by the author. I expect biases in other news venues, but it is out of place in a pure tech article. Anyway, here in Houston I cannot recall a problem with 3G on iPhone except in the week after Hurricane Ike, which is understandable.
@Shivv
Lol.. if you couldn't tell before this post. I hope it was a joke, but I doubt it. Anyways...
+1
"AT&T’s first-quarter integrated-device growth included 2.7 million iPhone activations"
Well now... that is interesting.
Been an iPhone 3G user for almost 2 years now. At this point, AT&T's "fastest and most reliable 3G coverage" slogan is about as true to me as Fox News' "fair and balanced." In other words, I'm praying for news on the iPhone coming to Verizon.
@Center Such true words
@Center
I respect your honesty. It backs up what many have known for a long time (and what independent network comparisons showed). AT&T relied on the hype of the iphone craze to drive sales. They enjoyed major gains in customers and raked in the profits but did nothing to scale their network infrastructure. The bottom line here was profit maximization at the expense of network quality. It simply became overloaded. The result was very poor service for many iphone users across the country. They are fixing this now but I find it very ironic that it took a major public outcry for AT&T to actually do anything. The soccer moms and iphone fanbois deserve nothing less.
Personally, I find Sprint's network and EVDO Rev. 1 data speeds to be stellar (I'm in the midwest). For the price, I find it hard to beat Sprint in terms of plans. The EVO phone and 4G push make Sprint all that much more appealing to power users. What will AT&T do when people wake up and realize the iphone is no longer the greatest phone around or it becomes available on other networks? They will be left with an inferior and overloaded network and a pricing structure that is far from competitive.
@Center
I've been with AT&T four years and in three different cities: Oakland, Los Angeles and Atlanta and my coverage has always been great. I've maybe had 4 dropped calls in all that time. The reception problems in New York and San Francisco don't affect everyone.
@Center
I've had great luck in the NYC area of Jersey with an iPhone 3gs and now a Nexus One. I listen to streaming music and browse the web pretty much everywhere I go, no complaints so far. I've even streamed Pandora (high quality setting) over 3g in Time Square without issue.
@Center
My speeds have doubled TWICE since last summer on AT&T:
http://i42.tinypic.com/2hhouc8.jpg
@g00n
"They enjoyed major gains in customers and raked in the profits but did nothing to scale their network infrastructure. They are fixing this now but I find it very ironic that it took a major public outcry for AT&T to actually do anything."
you think these things happened overnight?
I've only ever seen a continual speed increase since last year.
I used to drop my 3G connection whenever I got in the elevator at work.
Now this NEVER happens.
even the 3G dead-zone by my office park (ironicallycaused a massive AT&T building) no longer makes me drops calls anymore.
I get 100% 3G coverage wherever I am in my office building.
I understand tho, it sucks when there's nothing to hate on.
its all because of those stupid map commercials from verizon...lol
If AT&T no longer sucks, what provider am I suppose to hate on?
@AlienSix Sprint.
@AlienSix dont worry ill open up my own Provider for ppl to hate
Ivan's crappy wireless inc. With 0.1% coverege in NYC & data slower than Dial-up!
@AlienSix
T mobile is the only one that's getting behind.. I expect sprint to take the coveted 3rd place by year's end.
@zeroinfinity2
What area of the country are you in? Sprint is awful in the northeast.
@AltairDusk I'm in boston and sprint is great. If I go into northern new hampshire or maine, sprint isn't the greatest, but if needed I roam onto verizon, but it seems to be about the same coverage as sprint up there
@Evster88 why hate on sprint. They have better 3G coverage then at&t and t-mobile, plus with the EVO and sprints 4G plus best prices around there is no reason to hate on sprint. Don't take the bullshit
that's benn feed to you about sprint they are a great company
I'd sure like to see AT&T's math for their "composite 3G voice quality index"... Otherwise this graph is pretty arbitrary.
@ZekeWeeks
No shit. This is like a dick measuring contest without a ruler.
"Guess we'll just have to set 'em down side-by-side and compare."
@justinpe
Well done, sir
the 6 percent increase was the 10% of people that threw away their cal dropping iphones and went to sprint/tmobile and verizon
Improvement is improvement. Let's hope they keep this up.
AT&T has been incredible since the end of last summer where I live. And it's only gotten better. Websites never hang anymore and the speeds are very fast. I'm very happy with them and if the iPhone comes to verizon I will not be switching.
I have been a Cingular -> AT&t customer since 2001 and I can count the number of dropped calls I have had on one hand. Their data services have been very reliable and usually fast.
I'm not sure where some people live, but around here, they rock (Illinois).
how remarkable that AT&T should meet their own "Performance Objective" on the NY metro area at exactly the same point this graph ends. Of course, we don't know what that objective was. Maybe it was "have chart makers get dark blue line to meet green line, while making the blue line look wiggly to enhance realism".
I guess the light blue line failed in it's green line aspirations.
@wozburger Excellent comment!
For all we know the green line is "still pretty crappy" and the bottom line is "worse than that".
With no numbers and no scale on their charts, and no definition for their terms, these charts are pretty meaningless.
In the Bay area, I'm getting tolerable data rates most of the time, but if I lived in San Francisco I'd want to kill myself. Just driving through the city on 19th avenue you *often* get ping times of 3-4 seconds and often no data at all. And my dropped call rate continues to be VERY high, no matter where I make my calls--south bay, east bay, north bay... I don't think I've seen any improvement in that number at all.
AT&T has almost reached 'polished turd' status! Bravo!
No bad words about ATT .. they pay me for good feed back.
iphone+ipad+wp7+all other AT&T 3g phones will make this graph hit the bottom.
I'm in Central FL and I have had zero problems with AT&T and my iPhone ....yay for me
Well I will chime in here, Verizon had 3G service in Chattanooga 2 YEARS before AT&T. I had to drop AT&T because when they finally did put in 3G coverage, they put their towers only over downtown and the freeways. Not a thing in the suburbs. In fact, most of the time, we couldn't even make calls from our house, much less get a 3G signal. I switched to Verizon when the Droid came out. It has not dropped a SINGLE call since I got it in December. I won't be coming back anytime soon, no matter how much better their service is for the Manhattanites.
When you do decide to leave AT&T (I finally had to because of the dropped calls), they bill in advance for service so:
MAKE SURE you cancel near the END of your billing cycle.
I didn't pay attention to this, and as a result got charged for 25 days of service I couldn't even use as my numbers were ported away. They steadfastly refused to credit me for service that it was impossible for me to use. This cost even more than my ETF's.
BUYER BEWARE. AT&T tries every trick in the book to separate you from your money, in this case while providing no service at all!
Thanks for all the Podunk responses. But as a Native NYer this so called improvement is a bunch of garbage. Im still counting the days till my contract is up, July 11th. You couldnt possibly compare usage and service quality in in comparison to a city that houses over 6 million people within a few square miles.
I don't have an MBA, but that second graph looks a little like bullsh¡t to me.