AT&T buys T-Mobile

[Ch2tf]

As an AT&T customer I will probably be least affected by the change. As an 8 year customer I have no complaints about customer service. I was with Cingular before AT&T bought them out and the transition was beyond smooth. I have little to no issues with my account and when I do they are handled with ease.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Ch2tf

As an AT&T customer I will probably be least affected by the change. As an 8 year customer I have no complaints about customer service. I was with Cingular before AT&T bought them out and the transition was beyond smooth. I have little to no issues with my account and when I do they are handled with ease.

I agree. I never had issues with AT+T customer service (also during the Cingular transition). I would still be with the company if I didn't get a voice/data discount for Sprint.

[Ghostwriter]

The problem with AT&T is that they have such sorry reception and have so many dropped calls. My wife and kids have AT&T and I have Verizon. The difference is night and day. Customer service for both is pretty good but quality of product is completely different. Poor T-Mobile customers. Expect the worse and pray for the best.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

The problem with AT&T is that they have such sorry reception and have so many dropped calls. My wife and kids have AT&T and I have Verizon. The difference is night and day. Customer service for both is pretty good but quality of product is completely different. Poor T-Mobile customers. Expect the worse and pray for the best.

I never had any issues with AT+T dropping calls when I had them. I really only started hearing about issues when the iPhone came out.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I never had any issues with AT+T dropping calls when I had them. I really only started hearing about issues when the iPhone came out.

Yeah, AT&T's problems are highly regionalized, because it's an infrastructure issue. Ask people with iPhones in San Francisco or NYC about their issues - it was brutal for a long time, and AT&T kind of threw their hands up and said "nothing we can do."

Other places had exactly zero problems. AT&T's reactions are pretty telling, though.

[ZTAngel]

I have T-Mobile and my reception completely sucks. It's not like I live in the boondocks. I'm in a major metropolitan. I constantly lose signal and have dropped calls. I will say that T-Mobile's customer service has always been helpful in solving any of my issues. On the other hand, I use to have Sprint. Their coverage in Atlanta is excellent and I never had any issues with dropped calls. Their customer service though....ughhhhhhhh. Abysmal. I truly think Sprint has an HR policy where they're forced to hire only miserable people.

[excelblue]

I get a feeling that the authorities aren't going to let this happen. Here's why:

The merger creates a monopoly on the GSM market. GSM is the cell phone tech that is almost exclusively used everywhere in the world. There are two other common technologies: PHS, common in east Asia, and CDMA, only used in the USA (Verzion and Sprint) and China (Unicom). That means, if anyone from anywhere outside the US roams, they are restricted to roaming on this new "AT&T/T-Mobile monster".

I actually left T-Mobile because I was just tired of the contracts and nonsense, but AT&T is far worse in that regard. In fact, ever since I ended my landline and DSL service with AT&T, they've accounted for 40% of my junk mail and have outright lied to me to try to get me back.

These days, I'm with a MVNO called PagePlus Cellular which resells Verizon. Minutes are like candy: I can stop purchasing them when I don't want any more, and the vendor has no business in knowing any of my personal info; they don't even know my name .

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Yeah, AT&T's problems are highly regionalized, because it's an infrastructure issue. Ask people with iPhones in San Francisco or NYC about their issues - it was brutal for a long time, and AT&T kind of threw their hands up and said "nothing we can do."

Other places had exactly zero problems. AT&T's reactions are pretty telling, though.

They really are at capacity in NYC though, there just isn't the bandwidth, it's a huge city full of huge buildings with cell towers on your average apartment building and the network's just absolutely overloaded. If anything Verizon getting the iPhone could ease their pain a bit.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by ZTAngel

I have T-Mobile and my reception completely sucks. It's not like I live in the boondocks. I'm in a major metropolitan. I constantly lose signal and have dropped calls. I will say that T-Mobile's customer service has always been helpful in solving any of my issues. On the other hand, I use to have Sprint. Their coverage in Atlanta is excellent and I never had any issues with dropped calls. Their customer service though....ughhhhhhhh. Abysmal. I truly think Sprint has an HR policy where they're forced to hire only miserable people.

The coverage for Sprint in Atlanta is so good because they have a major office in Atlanta.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I really only started hearing about issues when the iPhone came out.

Yep, and mostly from NYC iPhone users. From what I've heard ATTs reception in Manhattan has always sucked so when the iPhone came out and every hip Manhattanite bought one it kind of brought the problem to a head (and into to blogosphere).

I used to be with Cingular and I'll say from experience the transition was unnoticed in terms of service and customer support.

For the people that are concerned about reception and dropped calls-
Since AT&T is acquiring T-mobile, wouldn't they also be acquiring their cell towers and other "infrastructure"? IIRC Cingular towers became AT&T towers during that takeover.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Yep, and mostly from NYC iPhone users. From what I've heard ATTs reception in Manhattan has always sucked so when the iPhone came out and every hip Manhattanite bought one it kind of brought the problem to a head (and into to blogosphere).

I used to be with Cingular and I'll say from experience the transition was unnoticed in terms of service and customer support.

For the people that are concerned about reception and dropped calls-
Since AT&T is acquiring T-mobile, wouldn't they also be acquiring their cell towers and other "infrastructure"? IIRC Cingular towers became AT&T towers during that takeover.

Yes. That's why they are buying them. I'm excited. I've been an AT&T customer for a long time and was Cingular before that. AT&T isn't as bad as hyped. My iPhone works well in NYC everytime I go, and my NYC friends had no complaints. I have dropped calls in very dependable areas in cities (ie. at cell phone tower edges.) I hit the same area in MD/DC or PHX and I drop a call every single time. Who cares? I know it's coming. For me, AT&T offers the fastest data rates and internet coverage for the iPhone. I didn't switch to the Verizon iPhone for that reason since I use my iPhone for data more than talk. Yay for better infrastructure from this merger. I'm not going anywhere anyway.

[Ch2tf]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

The problem with AT&T is that they have such sorry reception and have so many dropped calls. My wife and kids have AT&T and I have Verizon. The difference is night and day. Customer service for both is pretty good but quality of product is completely different. Poor T-Mobile customers. Expect the worse and pray for the best.

I have run the gammut on "types" of phone since I was an AT&T customer. non-smart phones (Nokia, Motorola, flip) and smartphones (blackberry and now iphone) and I have great reception. I can count on *maybe* two hands the number of dropped calls I've had in the last 8 years. I've traveled from coast to coast with AT&T and don't have problems.

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by Ghostwriter

The problem with AT&T is that they have such sorry reception and have so many dropped calls. My wife and kids have AT&T and I have Verizon. The difference is night and day. Customer service for both is pretty good but quality of product is completely different. Poor T-Mobile customers. Expect the worse and pray for the best.

I never have dropped calls and my reception is good...occasionally my phone will have trouble placing an outgoing call, but because that doesn't happen after I turn the phone off then on I suspect that isn't AT&T's fault. And their customer service has been great...the only complaints I hear are from customers in Tuscaloosa....on game days it's near impossible for me to make or receive calls when I head to T-Town. And texts are usually delayed.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Ch2tf

As an AT&T customer I will probably be least affected by the change. As an 8 year customer I have no complaints about customer service. I was with Cingular before AT&T bought them out and the transition was beyond smooth. I have little to no issues with my account and when I do they are handled with ease.

Agreed on this also. I was CLUELESS about plans etc and one of the guys from AT & T went above and beyond to help me out.

The only places I have reception issues are places where everyone has service issues, and I could probably count on one hand the dropped calls I've had in 6 years of being with them.

[ComradesTrue]

I was a sprint customer for many years due to discounts that we could get with them through my employer.

After leaving the work-force and being seduced by the iPhone I switched to AT&T about 18 months ago. I have never had one issue with them. The staff at the local store are exceptional and the phone service has been great too.

My husband, with verizon thru his work, does have better 3G coverage. I will freely admit that. However, I have had no issues with dropped calls, and I find AT&Ts service to be readily helpful.

No need to groan too loudly. It may not be near as bad as people think to be an AT&T customer. I do feel for those losing jobs though.