Better iPhone service in O.C., L.A.? AT&T completes upgrade
May 27th, 2009, 8:01 am · 27 Comments · posted by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
UPDATE, 5/27/09: Thanks for the comments about AT&T coverage in your neighborhood. While some readers scoff at AT&T’s upgrade, others are grateful. All of it got me thinking… is everyone getting better service or just people indoors and 3G Internet users? AT&T responded to further questions about this. See updates below in bold…
Got an iPhone? Its reception indoors and overall Internet service quality should be tons better than last year, thanks to a major upgrade by AT&T in the Orange County and Los Angeles area. If you’re an AT&T user and you haven’t noticed this, you could be out of luck.
That’s because AT&T says the upgrade is completed. It spent the past several months adding the 850 MHz spectrum to all cell sites in the area to complement the existing 1,900 MHz spectrum.
“This new spectrum adds significant capacity to the network to support ever-growing demand for 3G mobile broadband service, and provides improved in-building 3G wireless coverage for customers across the metropolitan area,” says the company.
The 850 MHz is a frequency that has been reserved for analog cell phone users since the 1980s. The newer 1900 MHz started in the 90s and is used for digital service (Sprint uses just 1900 for its all digital service). Over the years, the technology has been tweaked so service and features have improved. While most cellular carriers use both frequencies, they may use different ones depending on region. AT&T has now chosen to offer both here in parts of OC.
The main point is 850 Mhz penetrates buildings better.
AT&T isn’t alone in the upgrade. Verizon Wireless recently announced that it, too, was spending millions to upgrade its 3G service with the 850 MHz spectrum. (Read the earlier, “Verizon spends $90 million improving 3G, indoor coverage.”)
AT&T has been upgrading all cell sites in our area for the past year. According to the company, in areas that received the upgrade, there have been “significant increases in total 3G data traffic.”
The rest of the nation is expected to also get the 850 MHz boost this year.
UPDATE, May 27, 2009 @ 2:07 p.m.: AT&T responded to more questions about who actually will see better cellular service and who won’t. I’ve bolded all the new stuff below:
The 850 expansion adds more room for voice and data so customers in general should see an overall improvement everywhere, but especially indoors. Tests have also shown that Internet service is better, so more people can use the 3G Internet service.
But, says Deborah Lieberman Rapoport with AT&T, “As with all wireless communications, real-world experience will vary throughout the area.”
What else? The company continues to search for areas “where coverage isn’t optimal.” So, it’s not that those with poor service are “out of luck” forever. But just for now until the company upgrades that area. So post the locations and hopefully AT&T will take notice. As Rapoport recommends, “Any feedback provided is actually very helpful to us in our continuous network improvement.”
In the Orange County and Los Angeles area, AT&T is adding 90 cell sites this year.
Is your AT&T cell phone getting better reception indoors? Share your story by leaving a comment below.
More on cellular reception in Orange County:
More on cell-phones:
Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local cell phone services
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IMy service is worse than ever. I constantly have calls going direct to voicemail with no missed call notice. I drop calls all the time and the reception is now worse than before. Safari is never connected. I live in West Hollywood.
Cell phone signal on iPhone is impossible. I got a signal booster from zBoost after hearing about it on G4. It gives me signal inside my house and my wife and I have seen a lot of improvement in our indoor signal. We’ve found it help with internet and phone calls on our cells.
Good alternative to bad signal
AT&T in north OC is still horrible. My wife has Sprint- and despite their horrible customer service and features, she get’s great reception.
I am so tired of looking at the ‘call failed’ message it makes me sick. I have calls fail when I’m 20 yards away from the person I’m calling, and they have ATT also. I have at least 7-10 failed calls per week. All ATT does is say, ‘that they are looking into it’. Then I read that they upgraded their towers, what a crock!!! I was a loyal Verizon customer & my husband wanted to switch to ATT(he pays the cell bill). Screw that, I’ll pay my own bill over at Verizon!
Good to know. I was considering switching back to AT & T from Verizon, because they have better phones.
I guess I’ll sit and wait it out. I got no signal in Anaheim Hills from AT & T. Verizon is much better, but still spotty in areas, especially near my kid’s school.
Serrano and Canyon Rim.
I live in Santa Ana, CA. and my service is horrible!! there is no signal in my house nor can i check my emails on my Iphone. AT&T needs to really step it up before i go with a different phone company…
AT&T reception suck!!
there is never signal, i have tons of dropped calls, no incoming calls going thru and random voicemails.i called several times to complain and they claim that the service and coverage is are is good, what a bunch of bull!!
Service is definitely NOT any better in the OC…… Guess I’m one of the oens whose “out of luck”. Although I’ve always been with AT&T recently I’ve been thinking about making a switch to someone else just because I can never get good reception!
Very disappointing
I have an iPhone and things are greatly better. I get consistently faster network speeds and I never get dropped calls.
This is the third article I have read in the past year that states ATT has improved it’s cell coverage. How come nobody ever sees better coverage? Is this just some bull they feed the OCR reporter to get some free advertising? Luckily us posters keep the story FAIR and BALANCED.
Yes Bugsy, readers who actually share their experience give reporters better insight into what is really happening beyond the press release.
In Cypress, service has really improved. Last year I couldn’t get reception at all in my house or where I worked. Now I get full bars (3G) in both places.
My service has improved significantly over the past year (Irvine). When I first bought the iPhone I took it back because the coverage was so spotty.
Now, the only problem I have is when I attend sporting events. Every time I go to the Dodgers game 3G does not work. Granted there are 50,000 people there, but my Verizon used to work fine and if I disable 3G on my iPhone EDGE works fine as well. Clearly the capacity is not where it should be…
I LOVE MY 3G PHONE I CAN PAY BILLS, WATCH YOU TUBE, AND WATCH SPORTCENTER ANYWHERE I WANT RECEPTION IS GREAT EVERYWHERE I GO AND I’M ALL OVER THE OC AND LA COUNTY
I live in the 92649 zip code area of Huntington Beach, the “Harbor Area” as referred to by AT&T. I am absolutely unable to make or receive calls from my home and this has been going on ever since AT&T took over Cinglar. Sometimes the incoming calls will go directly to voicemail and other times they do not get thru at all, just drop I am told by callers. I am unable to listen to my voicemail untill I leave home!!! I have talked with AT&T reps. on several occasions and they are quite aware of the problems in this area and tell me “no upgrades are planned”. My roommate has Verizon and has no such issues! If you have some way of passing this on to AT&T I would appreciate it. I read here a few months ago that AT&T was planning on adding 200 cell towers in the LA/OC area this year. Do you know if any are planned for the 92649 area? Thanks much.
I’m in Santa Ana downtown. Full bars on my iphone 3g all the time and always have 3G signal. Only place in orange county i ever have trouble is the orange circle in the plaza. That place is like the Bermuda Triangle for ATT coverage.
The Northeast part of downtown Santa Ana, on Civic Center drive, just behind the building at the address of 630 N Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701 (Civic Center building 12) gets very weak signal, especially inside the building at 630 N Broadway where there is NO signal.
I have called AT&T and issued a network incident report and have been called back by an AT&T rep who is not an engineer, but seemed to work with the engineers, stating that they have been aware of the problem, but there is nothing yet planned by AT&T to resolve the issue (although in the future it could be resolved).
In contrast, in the same building, Sprint gets full signal strength (6 bars on my Sprint phone… I use two different cell phones, one AT&T and one Sprint)… T-Mobile and Verizon get about 2 bars of signal strength, but still usable.
All of my co-workers who have stayed loyal to AT&T in the 630 N Broadway building have long ago given up on cell phone coverage inside the building and still confirm that they get either no coverage or little coverage (immediate dropped calls) inside the building.
Walking around the Civic Center downtown area, it seems most other parts of downtown Santa Ana do in fact get a decent AT&T signal. It is a shame the building that I work in happens to be in a dead zone.
If I ever get a usable AT&T 3G signal inside the building, I will drop my Sprint phone and rely solely on the AT&T phone.
I bought two iPhone’s last month, but could get a signal in my house in Fullerton. Thankfully I didn’t cancel my Sprint service which works GREAT. I was disappointed to say the least.
They told me they were going to start selling an in home signal booster, but didn’t have it in yet. Another $120!
reception is slightly better in Lake Forest area but I have seen no improvement anywhere else in OC and I have a 20 mile commute to work. I drop calls in places I’ve never dropped them before and I occasionally have calls go directly to voicemail with no missed call notification. Despite these occasional issues I love my iphone and I don’t mind AT&T too much. I imagine things will just keep improving over the years
I’m in Fountain Valley and service used to be spotty in my house, 2 to 3 bars usually. I just checked and I am getting a full 5 bars now. I’m one of the lucky ones!
The iPhone is the best gadegt ever created by man. I have no more words that are suited to describe it. I have a 1st gen phone and I have had no problems with service at all.
Yorba Linda (Travis Ranch area) – Improved indoor, went from Edge to reliable 3G; Corona (Green River area) – good 3G indoor and outdoor; Irvine (Blimp Hangar area) – have always had 3G in that area; Hawthorne (Airport area) – Imrpoved indoor, went from GPRS/Edge to 3G but spotty, I’m guessing during higher usage times, plus outdoor went from Edge to 3G but also spotty. Phone Razr V9.
I am the same Dennis from the 92649 zip code area with the comment above posted on May 27th. On that same day I passed this same comment on to AT&T along with a mention that I had posted it here. It has been over 48 hours since I sent it, asking for a reply, and still I have heard nothing. Guess they want to hide their head in the sand. Everybody I know in the area with AT&T service has expressed the same concerns and issues. What is doubly frustrating is the fact that I am out of work and unable to call out to prospective employers!!!
I live in HB near Edwards and Talbert and the ATT wireless reception inside my home and even on my block is TERRIBLE. I cannot use my BB Pearl to make or receive phone calls inside at all and sometimes can complete only a very weak call outside my house. I would love to upgrade to an IPhone but certainly won’t spend the money with this poor coverage.
AT&T is a bunch of BSers. I still have the same crappy coverage since starting with them last summer.
630 N Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701… No AT&T coverage inside this downtown Santa Ana building. Sprint gets full bars inside building and T-Mobile Verizon get average of 2 bars signal inside building.
South of the building on Broadway, especially past Santa Ana Blvd, signal very strong. Also, very strong West of the building off Flower. However, at Civic Center Dr and Broadway, especially on the Civic Center Dr side of the building (on the North side of the building), the signal is very weak. Also, driving North on Ross St, just North of Civic Center Dr, 3G signal is very weak or non-existent, but EDGE signal is fairly good.
i live in azusa, ca. 91702 and my att service has always sucked. i’ve been here two years and they keep telling me that service will be improving in my area soon. Bull! Service has sucked with no improvements, I’m going back to my old reliable (expensive) Verizon service!