Two articles about AT&T that tell you everything you need to know about cell phone carriers and their concern for those of us outside the big cities.
Coverage just keeps getting better in heavily populated urban areas! AT&T completed a major upgrade of the network in New York City and is working on a similar upgrade in San Francisco, according to this article. The network will have better voice quality and be able to carry more data for heavy users (mostly on iPhones).
Meanwhile, out in west Sonoma County, AT&T cell phone service went dead without notice around Freestone, Occidental and Sebastopol a couple of weeks ago. After being pressed a bit, AT&T finally acknowledged that it had dropped its support for service provided through an agreement with T-Mobile and unapologetically said it has no plans to do anything about it – it’s not going to renegotiate with T-Mobile, it’s not going to build a tower. AT&T cell phones just won’t work in those areas, now and for the foreseeable future.
People who bought expensive iPhones in the area? “We’re going to work hard to satisfy them.” In every way except providing them with cell phone service, apparently.
If you live in a rural area that does not currently have cell phone service or broadband Internet connections, don’t hold your breath. All the money is being spent in big cities. And if you happen to catch me on my cell phone in my Sebastopol office, forgive me if I ask to call you back on the land line – the Verizon signal is pretty weak, too.
