The AT&T Network

I have a theory about the AT&T network, which goes like this: the network doesn’t suck that bad, my iPhone sucks at phone calls.

Aside from one rogue article in the New York Times, which Gruber cleverly refutes, my evidence is all anecdotal and logical deduction.

I’ve been an AT&T customer and a T-mobile customer, and I switched to AT&T in 2008 for the original iPhone On the AT&T network I’ve used the iPhone 2G, a Blackberry 8900, and my new iPhone 4. (and a nokia in 2002, but that’s going back too far). on T-mobile i used some clamshell phone followed by an SDA running Windows Mobile.

Without a doubt, the best calling experience has been with AT&T, using my Blackberry.

Switching straight from the Blackberry to the iPhone 4 has made the difference very pronounced and obvious. In places where my Blackberry made calls quickly and flawlessly I wait 5-10 seconds for my iPhone to initiate a call, whether or not I’m holding the device (I haven’t experienced the kind of signal bar loss that many people have written about).

Gruber seeks to blame AT&T via the logical question: ”

In a word: no. In my experience Apple is not the type of company that would sacrifice industrial design for the sake of making phone calls, especially when they sell plenty of phones anyway, and even Walt Mossberg is blaming AT&T.

The iPod touch is in itself proof that he “phone” component of the iPhone is relatively unimportant. I’ve written this whole post from my iPhone, which is a far more pleasant experience than my Blackberry.

So my point is not “OMG I hatez teh iPhone,” nor is it that I’m going to stop using it. It’s just that I don’t think a Verizon based iPhone is going to solve anyone’s phone call issues.