My Digital Life

AT&T Upload Speed Issue

Users are reporting 100KB upload max on MacRumors in major metropolitan areas. MacRumors link I can attest to that. Here is my Speedtest.net history.


You can see a 1586Kbps on 6/30 and starting 7/2 100Kbps is the max I can get. Is this a cap or a technical problem? I think it has to be the latter given that before iPhone 4, I was getting 150Kbps. If it is a cap that would not be too cool. -- Post From My iPhone

AT&T “Mark The Spot” App is Brilliant

Yesterday, AT&T released (or should I say Apple) a customer service application for the iPhone called "Mark The Spot". It is brilliant on several levels.

• It allows frustrated customers to easily vent
• It provides AT&T network engineers with additional data to map issues
• It shows leadership in utilizing crowd sourcing to gather customer service data
• It shows its customers that it is trying to listen, the next step fix the iPhone (new chipset!) and network

From my experience in Washington, DC the AT&T 3G network has gotten better and better (the new cell tower down my street clearly helps), but when I was in midtown Manhattan last weekend I can vouch that 3G data sucked (awful latency) on both the iPhone and the Verizon HTC Eris.

The Mark the Spot app is available in the App store for free.

Hurray! After 6 Months AT&T Finally Turns Up 3G on a New Cell Site Down My Street

3G signal strength inside my home has been terrible until yesterday. It has forced me to use 2G while at home (iPhone did not switch bands effectively and caused too many dropped calls), which has been a real pain since on the iPhone it takes 4 taps and I have to remember to do it.

Back in early 2009, I heard that AT&T was about to put a new cell site down my street and I was quite excited. Little did I know it would take so long to activate. The antennas were put up back in May, but apparently there were issues with Verizon (the local phone company) installing the appropriate backhaul circuit and Dominion Power installing a dedicated power feed. Even after all the regulatory and contractual hoops AT&T has to jump through to get a cell site approved, they then have to deal with the local phone and power companies taking their sweet time to deliver critical infrastructure. Especially Verizon who has no real incentive to give AT&T any slack when it comes to building out their 3G network, I know this is cut throat business but…

Anyway, it looks like yesterday was the magical day when all the stars aligned themselves and now I have 5 bar 3G coverage even the depth of my basement. And look at that dslreports speed test result…

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3G Coverage by Population

After the Verizon ad attack against AT&T 3G footprint, I thought it would be interesting to find out what the four major carriers 3G coverage is by population.

1. Verizon Wireless 284 million (source: mocoNews.net)
2. AT&T Wireless 233 million (source: AT&T)
3. T-Mobile USA UMTS/HSPA 200 million by the end of 2009 (source: Business Wire)
4. Sprint EVDO Rev A/0 170 million (source: Sprint)

The Sprint number seems low but it came from their web site, and the reference to 2006 looks like this page has not been updated for a while. I guess that is par for the course for Sprint…

Verizon Has a Point with Their 3G Ads

I have been travelling this weekend and had the opportunity to borrow (not from Verizon) a Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200. The drive south from Washington, DC on I95 shows how far AT&T has to go before they provide the level of 3G coverage Verizon currently has. That said it does not mean that AT&T does not have coverage, they do but at the slower EDGE speed. This is where the Verizon ads are slightly misleading; I think most individuals don't make or understand the distinction between 2G and 3G. AT&T 2G coverage is as good as Verizon's.

I have no issues when I am in Washington, DC with AT&T, I love my iPhone and 3G speeds are good. Although I do have the occasional dropped call, overall the service has been getting better and better. My biggest issue is in my home office, my 3G signal is lousy and I have to manually switch to 2G. After talking to friends who have seen results of carrier network performance tests, they are convinced there are two major issues with the iPhone. First the chip set that Apple uses is just not very good and the AT&T base station configurations do not handle data bursts very well. The base stations are designed to provide high quality real time voice processing; data packets seem to arrive in burst and overload the base stations causing dropped calls. The bottom line is that there is plenty of blame to go around between Apple and AT&T. The iPhone issues are not AT&T's alone as many pundits claim, the problem are shared between Apple and AT&T; that is clear to me when my iPhone does not switch between 3G and 2G in my house. Apple controls the network programming on the iPhone and AT&T controls the network. Both have to work well together to provide a good user experience.

What is great about the MIFI 2200 is that I can use it with my iPhone on Verizon's 3G network even if I am in an AT&T 2G EDGE area.

The Verizon MIFI 2200 unit on my dashboard.

The Verizon MIFI speed test result via a WIFI connection on the iPhone in South Carolina.

A speed test result on AT&T EDGE network in the same Hilton Head Island, South Carolina area.

The bottom line; if you need 3G outside of major metropolitan areas then Verizon is currently the way to go, and for iPhone users a MiFi 2200 may be an excellent option. If you need only occasional 3G access Verizon has a day pass for $15; however you do have to purchase the MiFi at the full price of $269.99 vs. $79.99 with a 2 year commitment with a minimum $39.99 per month plan.

My International Roaming Experience – Today’s Cruise Ship = Connected for a Price

I have taken 2 cruises in the last 3 years, one to Alaska and this recent one in the Mediterranean. The cruise in Alaska was on Holland America, a cruise line owned by Carnival Corp. and this recent cruise was on Regent Seven Seas owned by the Apollo Group. Both cruise ships had internet and cell phone service. Both services are offered via a satellite link provided by SeaMobile, although the cellular service (Cellular@Sea) is managed by a subsidiary called Wireless Maritime Services which is joint venture with AT&T Mobility.

The cellular functionality on Regent's Seven Seas Navigator provided GSM/GPRS and CDMA/1XRTT voice/data services. As I remember it the Holland America ship only had GSM service, but by now it probably has been upgraded to handle CDMA traffic as well. The ship's cell site only operates when the ship is out of range of local cellular service. It is a roaming service where your cellular carrier bills you for all voice and data. The costs seem to be fixed across all US carriers at $2.49 per minute for voice calls, $.50 to send an SMS, $1.30 to send an MMS, and $.0195 per KB for data. The fact that all carriers are charging the same seems like price collusion but who am I to say. The Bottom line it is expensive, but much cheaper than using the wired phone in the cabin at $6.95 per minute. Also carriers offer data plans which can be very beneficial for heavy email users, Verizon offers a global unlimited email plan for $69.99 per month and includes cruise ships. AT&T International Data plans do not include cruise ships which is a real shame. I talked to both AT&T and Verizon customer service before I left. They gave me detailed information, provided me with alternatives and more than once warned me about the costs. Given the articles that have surfaced about surprise bills (especially with the iPhone); it is clear that carriers are going out of their way to educate consumers. The catch you have to call them. Even if you think you understand it all, I strongly urge everyone to call their carriers before leaving on trip abroad. AT&T emailed me an FAQ about the iPhone, and Verizon emailed a detailed rate chart with the list of countries I planned to visit.

On the internet front, both cruise ships I have been on had Internet cafes with workstations, the Regent Seven Seas Navigator even had WIFI throughout the ship. The service is run by another arm of SeaMobile called MTN Satellite Services. They charge by the minute and the cruise line can offer several different plans to its guests. On the Seven Seas Navigator I had the option of 250 and 500 minutes. As part of Regent's loyalty program, after you cruise 21 nights you get free internet which is a very nice benefit. The 250 minute plan was $87.99 with a first time registration of $3.50. The 500 minute plan was about double. Additional minutes on the 250 minutes plan were $.35 and $.25 on the 500 minute plan. I find it interesting that they charge by the minute rather than the Kilobyte, but given all the activity I saw in the Internet Café I can understand why; minutes should get people off of the workstations faster but I was amazed how many people seemed oblivious and where typing email tomes in web based editors. I was told by the Internet Café manager that the average speed is about 65Kbps per user. Unfortunately I neglected to run a speed test, but from an end user perspective it was not broadband but response times where decent. If you want to see the world and have some IT skill they are looking for people, here is the job description.

I ended up purchasing the 250 minute plan which over 11 days gave us about 22 minutes a day. Since I had problems with my Sony VAIO P's wireless drivers, my wife and I ended up using our iPhones. We would connect to download email, disconnect, respond off line, then connect again to send. One of my major pet peeves with the iPhone's email application (ActiveSync/Hosted Exchange) is its inability to deal with deletions offline (you get an error message). I would love to know how Apple thought that was a good idea…Anyway, the plan worked out well and I even had some minutes left over to go to the Internet Café to check in with United Airlines online and print our boarding passes. I also tried Skype on the iPhone using the $2.95 per month unlimited subscription plan to call phones in the US and Canada. It worked well, the person on the other end heard a little breakup (I would expect that with constrained satellite uplink speeds), but we heard them very clearly. This made calling much cheaper ($.35 per minute on our plan) than using the in cabin wired phone or on board cell system, but still more expensive than the calling card (although you need a dry land wired phone!). During the entire 12 day trip we only had a couple hours one evening where we could not get connected. The default web page told us that interference was blocking the satellite signal.

I think bringing your own computing device makes a lot sense so you can perform tasks off line to save your minutes, and then connect for data transmission. I saw a couple of Dell Mini notebooks, and a Mac book. On the mobile device front, the BlackBerry was king (looked like mostly corporate types), although iPhones were around. I did see one bulky satellite phone (it reminded me of early cell phones), why someone would think you need one on today's cruise ship intrigued me, maybe they owned it or their company wanted them to have failsafe communication. The gentleman had to stand outside on the pool deck to make a call. I also thought that newer satellite phones could switch between cell and satellite.

The bottom line is that staying connected on a cruise today is possible and easy. You just have to do a little research on plan options with your cell phone carrier or purchasing an on board internet plan (I suggest bringing your WIFI enabled smartphone or netbook) make to cost manageable if you need to stay connected without needing to be online 24/7…

My International Roaming Experience - What I Took With Me

My goal when traveling is to minimize what electronics I need to take with me to ensure some level of connectivity for voice and data. Since this trip was a vacation my computing requirements where email, basic multimedia entertainment (no HIDEF video playback required), basic photo editing (EXIF tag management), surfing, and flash media backup/storage. I also brought a Verizon HTC Ozone (thanks to the folks at Verizon Wireless for providing me the device and service) to test international roaming for an upcoming pocketnow.com article on how well you can travel with a Verizon Windows Mobile device.

Here is what I decided to pack:

1. Sony VAIO P 1.6GHZ Atom/128GB SSD. My experience was disappointing. For some reason the network drivers failed early on and I could only get connected in safe mode. I tried using a restore point but that did not work. I ended up just using it as my flash media backup and EXIF editor. I am now rebuilding it. I will be very happy to get the production Windows 7 drivers from Sony (hopefully they will release them on 10/22).
2. PowerBright XR100/12 mini power inverter. I have never been a big fan of power inverters, I would rather purchase the correct power supply for the job, but Sony does not seem to care about providing traveling power chargers for its notebooks so I was forced to purchase one. That said I actually used it more as a USB charger for my iPhone in a rental car (used Navigon) and on the United (EmPower plug required) flight back home. On our Lufthansa flight over to Europe we had 110V plugs (very nice touch).
3. iPhone 3GS 32MB
4. Jawbone BT headset. I never used it but it was good to have and small enough to carry just in case.
5. iPWR battery backup iPhone charger. This battery backup has been a life saver in the past but with email push turned off on this trip, I never used it but it is small enough to carry as insurance.
6. Griffin PowerBlock Dual Universal Charger. I bought this at BestBuy for $20. It is small and charges 2 USB devices at once. It worked great and worth $20.
7. Sony HDR-CX12 HD Flash based video/still camera. I love this camera for the good quality 1920 HD video, the 10.2MP still pictures, the great 12x optical zoom and its diminutive weight in my hand.
8. And of course the Verizon Wireless HTC Ozone CDMA/GSM Worldphone.

The one item I did not bring and missed was my old D-Link Travel Hotspot device. Our hotel in Athens (AVA Hotel, by the way it was very nice) had wired internet and all my devices were WIFI only. Our remaining accommodations had WIFI.

On the services sides I signed up for the following before I left:

1. Boingo Mobile $7.95 per month. This was a total bust, never found a Boingo HotSpot I could use. I cancelled the service since with my Verizon FIOS WIFI feature (Verizon/Boingo relationship) and the iPhone's AT&T data plan I get plenty of WIFI coverage in the US. Bottom line check locations before leaving and look into iPass, I think they are more popular in Europe.
2. Skype Unlimited US/Canada landline/cell calling plan for $2.95 a month. It worked well (more on that later).
3. Verizon/Costco $30 international calling card. Worked well when we had access to a land line.
4. AT&T 50MB international data plan. I used the same iPhone strategy I posted about before and it worked well for me. I think this strategy along with Skype is a winner for getting around high roaming fees. I will update my post.
5. Verizon International plans (article on pocketnow.com coming soon).

The only connectivity service I purchased while on the trip was 250 minutes of Internet on our Regent cruise ship (more on that tomorrow).

AT&T Implements A-List to Call Non AT&T Numbers Without Using Plan Minutes

The AT&T A-List feature is now live, but you must add the feature to your account to use it. The A-List feature allows you to call non AT&T numbers without using you plan minutes. You can list 5 numbers on an individual plan and 10 shared numbers on a family plan. This is a free feature for eligible plans which consist of a minimum of $59.99 (900 min) per month for individuals and $89.99 (1400 min) for family plans exclusive of data charges.

The feature can be added on line by going to manage your features (right side of web page) and selecting the A-List feature. A new link will then be available on the right hand side to manage your a-list. It takes 24 hours for the numbers to become active. You cannot use international numbers or paying numbers like 900, etc.

I think this is great additional value for AT&T subscribers, but it pretty much matches what other carriers are doing. However along with rollover minutes they now outdo the other carriers.

I already have more minutes then I use, I guess this will just add to my rollover…

iPhone 3GS – Battery Weirdness (update 2)

 

Update 6/24/09: Yesterday was good battery day although my usage was light email with one 20 minute charge the 3GS lasted all day.

Notice that the under the "Standby" there is now a status which tells you whether the iPhone was plugged in since the last full charge.

Update 6/23/09: Yesterday, I did use the 3GS heavily in the morning streaming audio to my Motorola HT820 Bluetooth headphones, after about 1 and half of heavy use (setting/usage showed 3 hours 12 minutes of use) I was down to 35%. I recharged using the iPhone charger for about 30 minutes and was back up to 61%. I ended up charging two other times for about 15 min (in the car using the Ridax charge converter) and at about 9:30 I ended the day with about 31%. So at this point I would say that the battery usage is no better than the 3G.

There are scatterings of battery complaints on the Apple forum (search for battery) which I can attest to after using the 3G S this weekend. On my first full day of use, the battery drained within 3 hours of average use (I had fully charged it when I received it). Then the iPhone shut itself down. I tried recharging it in my car with my Ridax charge converter (see my BMW install) and could not get the iPhone to charge at all. I then tried the BMW snap in adapter which revived the unit (I was glad to have it). After about 1 hour and half, I started using it again and the battery seem to drain quickly, however at some point the battery meter went from under 50% to over 50%. I tried using the Ridax charge converter again, and even though the thunderbolt shows up in the battery meter it did not appear to be charging.

After reading through the posts on the Apple forum, I made two changes:

1. I turned push email off and then back on (this has always been a drain, but I need it for work)
2. I turned on the percentage meter (settings/general/usage) to monitor charging and draining.

    

Battery Percentage option displays to the left of the battery meter.

I will see how today goes and update this post.

AT&T Delivery Comes through as Promised and Restore from 3G to 3G S Works Well

AT&T never promised delivery on the 19^th, but said they would try; with the help of FedEx my iPhone 3G S arrived at 11:33am on the 19^th . Thanks AT&T. Setting it up took a little time but the instructions are fairly straight forward.

1. Charge the iPhone (that took about 1 ½ hour)
2. Activate with iTunes (that took about 10 minutes). iTunes asks if you want to restore from a previous backup, I said yes. The restore was very quick and when completed the restore was lacking my applications and music. After some research I found a drop down window which displayed multiple backups from my 3G with the same name (another iTunes rant: why aren't the backup dates displayed?). Instead of trying to figure which backup was valid, I plugged my 3G back in, changed the device name (click on iPhone name in left bar to edit), manually forced a backup (the backup name is the iPhone name). Then I plugged my 3G S back in and did a restore using the backup I had just created (new iPhone name). This time the restore took a little more time but everything went back into place, even the location of the applications on the Home screen. Pretty cool (Hey Microsoft take note).
3. The instructions tell you to check voicemail, my Visual Voicemails where restored correctly. I never checked the real mailbox but everything seems fine.
4. The next step is to activate the phone itself online @ http://att.com/activation or by calling 855.895.1099. I activated online and was told to wait at least 15 minutes. My 3G S screen displayed a message that "Activation could take some time". After about 15 minutes I rebooted the unit and voila my iPhone 3G S was now active on the AT&T network. The iPhone 3G S came with an installed SIM so there was no swapping required. When I activated online the new SIM card was automatically registered (all I needed was my phone number).

This was the easiest Smartphone upgrade purchase and setup I have ever had. Kudos to Apple and AT&T since waiting in any kind of line is not my cup of tea. I drove by the Clarendon, VA Apple store yesterday and there was a line but nothing even close to the last 2 years. Clearly offering pre ordering to customers is the way to go…

My 3G INCIPIO silicon case (which I love), fits the 3G S perfectly. If there are new design cues on the 3G S, I can't see them.

My impression so far; the 3G S is faster but it is not like night and day. As I speculated before this is clearly an evolutionary design and if you are happy with your 3G there is probably no need to upgrade, but if you have a 2G then this is the device you want…Still I do love the autofocus on the camera and the compass is a nice feature. I have not tried the video or the voice control yet…