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For weeks my iPhone hadn’t logged in any visual voicemail. The only way I knew that there were messages was when my wife called to tell me that my voicemail was full.
For months my phone never rang, with callers going to voicemail (where I would lose them until my wife called to tell me that my voicemail was full).
I persevered, in love with my iPhone.
Then, the week prior to Christmas, all hell broke loose.
My phone wouldn’t fetch data unless I was hooked into wi-fi. One night I stood in the rain for 10 minutes trying to get a simple app to connect so I could get my car. And get out of the rain.
But I loved my iPhone. Sleek, smooth to the touch, a friend indeed. It was more than a phone – it was a constant companion, my alarm clock, my window to Twitter and Facebook, my email client and my music player.
Convinced this was a case of an old phone, I took it to the Genius Bar. Nope, I was told, the phone’s just fine. Call AT&T to see if they can do something on their end with the connectivity.
You’re laughing now. Mocking me. Sit down and hush up – I hate it when proven to be blind.
So I called A&T to see if their network was having unusual problems, especially in light of the fact that I knew they’d pulled the iPhone from their online store for about a day post-Christmas.
Yup, I was told. AT&T has knocked down a bunch of towers in New York City and is in the process of re-building them.
Waitaminit … they’d KNOCKED DOWN CELL PHONE TOWERS IN NEW YORK CITY?
Oh, and here’s the best part.
They had no clue when they’d be ready to go. In the interim, New York City service is marked as “severely degraded.”
So my iPhone was going to be near-bricklike for an unknown amount of time, calling out to cell towers that no longer were and would not be for quite some time.
Was my iPhone awesome? Yes it was.
Is my iPhone now deactivated, costing me an Early Termination Fee? Yes it is.
Welcome to my life with Droid.
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I own both an iPhone 3GS and a Droid Eris, both since the week they came available respectively. I don't have problems with AT&T but I acknowledge that VZW is a better carrier and what happened to the towers in NYC speaks for itself. Having said that, the iPhone is a superior appliance. I'd be satisfied if all I had was my Droid Eris but because I know the difference, especially in UI, familiarity, and continuous SDK development, I plan on relying on the iPhone indefinitely. If VZW picks up the iPhone as predicted by many, I'll be first in line.
I got a new iPhone 3GS because I gave my original one to a family member. The second 3GS seemed to drop calls a lot more and had more Battery drain. Within two weeks of the purchase I tried to exchange at the AT7T store where I purchased it. I was told I had to go to Apple. I went to the apple store and they ran some diagnostics. I dropped around 4 out of 11 calls. They said this was on range. Well my second iPhone is going to Brasil and I am now the owner of a Droid.
of course now you can replace it with a Nexus One.
True, but to get full functionality that means I'd need to move to T-Mobile. Good coverage in New York City, but not so much outside of major cities. If Google had done Nexus One on the CDMA network then I would have jumped on it.
Thanks for the comment. It's good to know that I've got company in my hatred of AT&T. If VZW (or Sprint) gets the iPhone, AT&T is going to be looking at some major losses.
Thanks for the comment, Charles. I agree that Apple changed the game, and nothing that has come out since has done the same. The Android phones rely on the user's frustration with the lack of iPhone, the open source movement and the closer ties to Google products. But aside from that, there is nothing on the Android platform that remakes the world of cell phones as personal communication devices.
I had the exact same problem with voicemails here in Dallas. I have a friend in NYC who had the problem as well. We both lost thousands of dollars in lost clients because of it. Switched to VZW and the Droid, just as you did, and have NOT had ONE DROPPED CALL or ANY problems with data what-so-ever. In fact im getting upload speeds TWICE as fast as i did with my iphone and att.
This is a very common problem, I use iPhone,Generally my calls are being transferred to voice mail if i am unable to pick it up.But your one is something diffrent and strange.
good phone…