Think Positive: July 2009

By George Edward Green III

Welcome to the first Think Positive column in… well a very long time. As some will recall this column began in a pretty bad time for Apple, hard as that is to conceive today. Shortly after the demise of the Newton, and in the midst of continually abysmal and backward reporting on Apple myself and the Editor in Chief of ThessaSource noted that it’d be really nice to have a column that focused on the good even though there wasn’t much at the time. While Apple has met and surpassed most of the dreams that Mac acolytes had at the time, and doesn’t really need an outlet to put spin on the good in the midst of imposing odds, it is still refreshing to be able to write something that isn’t a rant; something that calls attention to the good in a situation. So after some thought, and my recent experience with them, I’ve decided to look at AT&T, as well as their relationship with Apple.

I’ve been an AT&T customer since I bought my Treo 650 shortly after they became available in November of 2004. I choose AT&T for a few reasons. My last experience with Sprint was them telling me that the CDMA phone I had purchased but which work paid the monthly bill for could not be moved to a separate line unless I paid the company’s several thousand dollar outstanding balance during their bankruptcy. I used Verizon briefly but the lack of features in their phones and their insistence on crippling the inherit features of every phone offered was depressing. Also, as I travel a lot, I really wanted a phone that could ideally be unlocked so I could use a local mobile company when I travel overseas, especially in Russia where foreign companies are not present. AT&T had GSM, didn’t cripple their phone, and seemed reasonably affordable.

Soon after signing up, folks I know uttered things like ‘Aw AT&T sucks, their coverage is junk’. To this day I have not found that to be the case. Even in my steel-reinforced concrete basement in rural upstate NY we get coverage. The Treo 650 could rarely get it but my wife’s 700w gets it fine. I have always laughed over the years that these same folks plunk down premium fees for Verizon or Sprint phones and then try desperately to find hacks on the internet to enable the settings the manufacturer designed them for. I’ve always been pretty happy with AT&T’s coverage, and available phones. I was pretty happy Apple choose to do business with them on the iPhone.

I have to say also their customer service has been pretty good. Though they couldn’t help me when my Treo Warranty was up and my bluetooth had disappeared (the instructions never said you couldn’t update firmware over bluetooth btw even if it wasn’t a bright idea!), because I’d waited about 8 months to call them, they were very polite and really tried to figure out what the heck went wrong. Recently when I purchased my new iPhone 3G I was impressed also. Typically when I go to purchase something technical I know more than the sales folk. I remember vividly walking into Staples and asking where to find the white printable CDs for the Epson printer, and being told they don’t sell that kind of CD or printer anymore; I found 2 Epsons that printed on CDs and about 4 brands of printable CDs within moments. That’s unfortunately the state of things for most customer service when it comes to cutting edge tech gadgets and I’m used to dealing with it. I was pretty surprised that the courteous Agent Cedric, from the ‘Southie’ AT&T store in Boston knew the answers to all my questions, and was spot on with regard to the differences between the iPhone 3G vs the 3G S. I remember his name since a couple days latter I got an email from him asking to make sure I was enjoying the phone and offering tutorials and leaving his number in case I had questions. Granted it was a boiler plate email I’m sure AT&T sends every customer, and I live 4.5 hours away, but it was nice that AT&T cared to send it, and I’m sure if I did give Cedric a buzz he’d know where to point me or the answers to my questions.

As is no secret, AT&T has been a bit late to the game offering features iPhone supports, and a bunch of folks are again bemoaning AT&T. As the store agent admitted tethering has been vaporware since the iPhone 3G was new. Also the 3G speeds aren’t as fast as Sprint or at least C|Net TV says so. I don’t think however that a lot of people appreciate what AT&T has had to do to support the iPhone. Yes all these features work great in Europe. That’s the thing though; until AT&T came to the table with GSM phones, and modified their whole network to enable features like visual voice mail on the iPhone even before a single unit was sold America was pretty well the worse place to buy a cell phone. I am very confident that AT&T is working very hard to get these changes up and running (I’m sure they are aware that iPhone has given them record sales), the fact of the matter is the US networks have never been setup to deliver the way overseas ones have and upgrading a cell network while providing quality service isn’t exactly trivial.

While I’m not holding my breath about tethering necessarily being supported I am looking forward to it when I upgrade to whatever insanely great iPhone Apple comes up with next. As for Apple’s recent subtle jab at AT&T for not being ready when the iPhone was released Apple might want to go finish Mobile Me before lamenting other company’s inability to deliver in time. While Mobile Me does work great with the iPhone the amount of configuration and dumb issues like duplicate contacts (1 set from Mobile Me 1 set from address book) aren’t something I should have to deal with. Mac stuff is supposed to just work. Sometimes complicated systems involving multiple devices and network architectures are challenging even with great products, great service, and a sincere desire to provide the best. That’s true whether you AT&T OR Apple.