I’ve been an AT&T customer for over 10 years. I can honestly say that I’ve had extremely good service for a majority of that time period. I never really thought about switching service providers completely. I did switch one of my lines over to another provider for a year or two, but I always maintained at least one line with AT&T.
Here recently I began contemplating a complete switch of all my cell lines to another provider. Over the past year or so I began to notice more dropped calls and poor reception. I’m not sure if this is indicative of the major stress on the AT&T network due to a large number of people switching to iPhones, but it very well could be the case.
While those few issues were important, there were also a few others. The AT&T rollout of 3G coverage was also very alarming. I work in the technology field and many of my fellow colleagues would regularly joke about AT&T 3G. “Yeah, I heard we’re getting 3G this year”…followed by a few snickers. The 3G implementation for our area was very, very behind the initial schedule they were told. Again, another point of concern when you’re considering locking yourself in for two more years to a provider. You can also do a Google search for AT&T 3G and run across a wide range of actual tests done by various outlets like PC World and Wired. The results of more than a few of those reports show that even once their 3G was implemented there have been numerous issues. Combine all of these 3G issues with the fact that many competitors were already talking about 4G, and it just added to my reluctance to stay onboard.
The next issue that arose during this same time period was equipment related. The only outstanding phone from AT&T was the iPhone. Sure, you could get a Blackberry if you wanted, but I had a Blackberry a year or two prior and was unimpressed. Plus, I’m a big web user/surfer, and Blackberry phones aren’t exactly known for those sorts of tasks. The biggest merit of a Blackberry are the corporate functions like email and messaging. The iPhone would be great, but there was no way I’m paying $200 for a phone, AFTER the contract extension discount. In addition, I’m not a Mac user or an Apple fan boy, so I wasn’t in the “I’ve gotta have it” crowd when it came to the iPhone.
Around the same time I began contemplating the switch, the Motorola Droid entered the market. Google had already launched major Android players like the Nexus One, but the Nexus One never really grabbed my attention. The other Android phones on the market were also much lower key than the Droid, and AT&T never really seemed to jump into Android until it was too late for me. The Droid was a real game changer in my eyes. The Droid really showcased what an Android phone could do and it had big-time marketing punch from a major carrier (Verizon). In fact, many of the great Droid/Verizon ads were snarky towards AT&T and the iPhone and were quite funny. I also love Android’s open platform as it aligns with my views on open source software/community, which I love, and also use for web development.
To recap – here were the major issues that I used to guide my process:
- Quality of service
- Long-term infrastructure (3G/4G upgrades, etc)
- Available Equipment
Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be posting more about this very soon. Please feel free to chime in if you have gone (or are going) through a similar process yourself.