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Xaneth · 01-29-2009, 11:57 PM

I've had my Bold since launch, and I'll have to say that the 3G service I've seen so far is terrible. It's not any faster, even slower than edge. Also, dropped calls? More drops in one day than I even take in a week!

Jai.Mac · 01-30-2009, 12:10 AM

That's strange, I'm assuming it's really dependent on what area you live in and how high your 3G coverage is. I believe the AT&T website has a map showing the strength in your particular area. I live in Miami and I really have not had any big issues with 3G service. It's pretty quick and reliable here. I have the occasional dropped call but that's a reality with any cell phone really.

Hope your service improves!

-Jaison

bigbda1 · 01-30-2009, 12:43 AM

Very strange. I've had the Bold from the day it came out in Southern California. Pages load up much faster with 3G than with my previous Pearl on Edge. No comparison with 3G to Edge here. 3G screams in most metro area I visit.

Dubdub · 01-30-2009, 08:01 AM

Do you have 3G service available where you are using it? Anyone else have the same device and get 3G in the same place that you do not - side by side comparison?

jmaddr · 01-30-2009, 09:03 AM

I'll second the response. It all depends on where you live.

I live in Tampa and 3G was introduced around the timeframe when the original Samsung Blackjack was introduced. During that time, the Blackjacks 3G service was spotty and when the service would change from EDGE to 3G. If I was in the middle of something data, I would get LONG pauses and most times had to resubmit. Since then, ATT 3G abolutely ROCKS. It's lightning fast and highly reliable here in Tampa. I tether the Bold to my laptop and get perfectly acceptable speeds to do just about anything I want, even things like youtubevideos and such.

IS300_TRD · 01-30-2009, 09:22 AM

Dallas here and 3G is great.

dwella · 01-30-2009, 09:57 AM

New Mexico here and 3G is great in the cities Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and Las Cruces. Gets a bit spotty outside the cities and specially when you leave major hiways.

d

scaevola · 01-30-2009, 09:59 AM

Its gotten better in here(in WDC) since they moved edge to the crappier band here. I get consistent non dropped 3G calls in my basement now. Before it took an average of 5 attempts to make a phone call from my home(was on 3g/edge barrier)...running .190 here afraid to move up due to the wifi/gps issues with .210 and up.

What OS are you running? .167 original att launch was very slow to recognize drop outs. 190 is slow to show drop outs (and will show phantom 3g for a minute after entering a dead zone). But reconnects way faster to both the server and GPS imho

audit · 01-30-2009, 10:00 AM

My bold get's 3G from Oxford Michigan all the way to Troy Michigan where I work. I've never had a dropped call and have watched it to see if it drops 3G. So far everything's working great.

mjbanks · 01-30-2009, 10:39 AM

I get great 3G service in Saratoga Springs, NY. I frequently travel to Albany, NYC, and Philly and all get great service. The only time I ever drop calls is in one area of my house where every provider drops calls. Still trying to assess that one...

fuat · 01-30-2009, 11:44 AM

I'm in Toledo, Ohio... and mine works great. To add, it works even better than my iphone 3G did, on all levels.

mjbanks · 01-30-2009, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuat

I'm in Toledo, Ohio... and mine works great. To add, it works even better than my iphone 3G did, on all levels.

Same here. I went from the original iPhone (which worked great) to the iPhone 3G where I had a ton of dropped calls. Hardly any drops on the Bold.

UptownGirl · 01-30-2009, 12:28 PM

I live in New York and the coverage has been great so far. In uptown Manhattan where I live, the 3G coverage is solid as a rock, not a single dropped call and awesome call clarity. I work in midtown and surprisingly I can't get 3G reception at work, only EDGE. Maybe that's because I'm surrounded by 50+ floor buildings?

Personally, I haven't found 3G to be much faster than EDGE. It's a little bit faster, but I wouldn't say it's like night and day. But I haven't had a single dropped call since I switched to AT&T in Sep/08. I was on T-Mobile earlier and the frustration was that while coverage was good in Manhattan, you sometimes got spotty to no coverage in the surrounding areas - Brooklyn, New Jersey, etc. By contrast, AT&T has really good coverage everywhere I go. And their customer service has been really good - I was concerned about that, as T-Mobile had great customer service which made up for the sometimes spotty coverage and I had heard mixed reports on AT&T's customer service. But they have been really good so far - calls answered fast, and the reps have been pretty helpful and knowledgeable, like T-Mobile.

audit · 01-30-2009, 12:40 PM

Well no sooner then I type out my reply earlier, all Bolds in the office went to searching for signal and then to EDGE. Battery pulls did nothing. After 20 minutes everything came back to 3G. Odd.

Serkle K · 01-30-2009, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjbanks

Same here. I went from the original iPhone (which worked great) to the iPhone 3G where I had a ton of dropped calls. Hardly any drops on the Bold.

there has been documented reports that the 3G iPhone had issues with it's radio chip set or something of that nature.

While I don't have as many issues as other that I have read on here, I am begining to think that the 3G icons are made to give people a false sence of security. I know in my GFs development, and according to ATTs maps, they have EDGE, yet my bold shows mid-level 3G (to sometimes full 3G strength), to full EDGE at times. When I used my 8525, I would always get EDGE only.

Just a thought...

mista_twista · 01-30-2009, 01:17 PM

I'm in Indy. 3G coverage here is great. I have yet to have a dropped call on my Bold.

ATLSport · 01-30-2009, 02:09 PM

Downtown Atlanta here and I'm getting way too many dropped calls. Had a Curve before, seldom dropped a call. I've had the Bold since Jan. 12th and pretty much any call over 5 minutes is going to get dropped. I usually get a 3g signal, but sometimes Edge. But I've been at home with a strong 3g signal and the phone just sitting on the counter (with bluetooth headphone) and had a call drop after about 5 minutes. I haven't traveled outside the city (to Edge-only Land) so not sure if it's better out there, but in Atlanta, it's not great. Sucks, and not in a good way. Is it the phone, or is it 3g?

Phone came with .167 but I updated to .216 right away.

mobrien118 · 01-30-2009, 03:59 PM

Saint Louis, MO:

Can't stay on a call for more than 30 minutes without getting dropped, sometimes shorter than that. Some MMS and SMS messages showing as sent successfully on the Bold are not being received by some Verizon and T-Mobile subscribers. Frequently (every other day) getting "Congestion!" message when trying to place a call, and not being able to dial out for 5 minutes.

Combine those issues with a MAJOR billing issue that I won't go into here and to sum it up, it took me 2 months to go back to T-mobile, where i didn't have a dropped call (other than on rural interstates) in 4 years.

T-Mobile FTW!

Xaneth · 01-30-2009, 04:44 PM

I've been staying up on the latest software, but may not have the "latest" on there now. Currently running 4.6.0.190 (Platform 4.0.0.172).

This is my third Bold. I dropped the first on in the toilet and got it replaced under my hand-set protection (that I had to fight tooth and nail over, but that's another story). Replacement came, and that one went in the sink (all within a month!)

. This is the third one, but all three have seen the same grief, so I know it's not a hardware issue. Bathroom is off-limits to the new BB of course

.

Live in Everett, WA, about 25 miles north of downtown Seattle. Work on the eastside in Bellevue, which is where I have most of my dropped calls. Happens consistently on the commute home on I-405 around 70th, right before getting in to Kirkland, and then the signal picks up again, known dead spot. I was just on the phone with AT&T to find out about this issue, and the call dropped while I was on hold. Their default answer was to replace the phone, and I just wanted to talk to a tech, but since I was on the phone they couldn't.

Getting more frustrated by the moment. I had a Curve 8310 prior to this and I rarely had dropped calls, except for the Kirkland dead spot, which was consistent, even on the Curve. I thought these phones had better coverage too since they are a quad band phone. I also understand that AT&T coverage has gotten worse since they bought out Cingular, who had agreements with T-Mobile for sharing towers, which are no longer shared in some areas/cases.

All in all though, not impressed with 3G at all, really disappointed actually. Now that the Bold does full browser browsing, I really miss the speed of WAP pages, and have to type them in manually to get to them any more.

mobrien118 · 01-30-2009, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaneth

AT&T coverage has gotten worse since they bought out Cingular, who had agreements with T-Mobile for sharing towers...

Don't mean to split hairs, but Cingular actually had the controlling position in the "merger". They only used the name AT&T Wireless because it had a stronger brand identity overseas and in other markets (land lines, most notably).

Sorry, I just thought that was a good FYI.

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