AT&T Service Woes

CFI Group has released its most recent figures for smart-phone providers.  The list includes AT&T, Sprint/Nextel, and Verizon, among others.  According to the survey, Verizon smart-phone users ranked the carrier positively 79% of the time; Sprint/Nextel smart-phone users liked their service 74% of the time.  ATT iPhone users, on the other hand, scored only 69%.  The biggest complaints are dropped calls, slow 3G service, and other network problems.  This is the first time AT&T has been at the bottom of the list.

But I have to wonder, are these figures misleading?  After all, AT&T has the lion’s share of the market with the millions of iPhone users out there, while Verizon and Sprint/Nextel have a much smaller customer base.  One of the reasons Verizon and Sprint/Nextel’s network has such good uptime for smart phones could very well be that the load on their network is much reduced from the monster load that is trying to make its way through the AT&T network.  It is likely, and probably inevitable, that should the same high traffic hit the Verizon and Sprint/Nextel networks, there would be as many, if not more, complaints. The fact is, none of the wireless networks are truly able to handle the load that iPhone users require.

Is it possible the world wasn’t ready for the iPhone?  Or at least, the providers’ networks weren’t ready for the iPhone?  Even with massive, billion-dollar spending to upgrade existing networks, it may be some time before wireless networks are truly ready for smart phones in everyone’s hands.  I don’t suppose that’s much of a consolation for those with iPhones in their hands but no decent network to run them on.