4G fog thickens as AT&T upgrades vocabulary–A Response

In Saturday’s Washington Post posting entitled “4G fog thickens as AT&T upgrades vocabulary”, Rob Pegoraro speaks about marketplace confusion with the term “4G”.

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In a comment posted with that article, I offered my own thoughts…..
Rob,

From my point of view, AT&T’s “4g” announcement is really a capitulation of the marketplace. The “deal was sealed” when tMobile began to call its HSPA+ network “4G”and few in the media called them on it.

What is getting lost in all of this is a fundamental question. 4G, 3G what does it matter what it is called. The real question is, “What network provides the best environment to accomplish a persons goals?”

It seems to me that AT&T has embarked on a pathway that is focused on an ecosystem of networks, devices and support that are enablers of people doing what they need to do. Something that often gets lost in the shuffle is the wifi network that AT&T has deployed and continues to deploy. They maintain the largest wifi service included in the cost of their data plans and this is available right now with many at&t devices including all of the iPhones, android, windows7 and many Blackberry models.

This means that more people with more devices have access to a network that allows them the ability to get more done faster and without a need to upgrade or change their device. As the deployment of HSPA+ AND LTE continues, the device mix will continue to evolve. However, if you are with AT&T many of your present devices will be able to take advantage of faster access speed and unlike Verizon (or tMobile, Sprint, etc.) can be accessed with many, many devices currently available like the existing 3G iPad.

So all in all, I say AT&T has the best and most consumer friendly strategy. They may be a bit slower in rolling out a specific technology, but they are in the active midst of creating the best overall network experience that will become clearer and clearer as time goes on.

#attemp #4G

What would you do if you were AT&T

As an employee of AT&T, I woke up this morning and was deeply disappointed with this report from Consumer Reports.  I felt a little sad and very frustrated.  It puzzles me.  When I see people post comments about how we should spend more on the network instead of advertising, I feel hurt because I know that as a company we invested over $18 Billion this year AND $18 billion last year to improve the network.  I see our internal data and the unbiased, scientific data shows our network performance on par with the best in the industry, both voice and in the case of data, there is nothing faster or more reliable.   With the exception of San Francisco (and to a degree LA and NYC) I am told that our performance has improved a lot.  These areas (San Fran, LA and NYC) should see improvement within the next few months as the equipment needed to complete those areas upgrades have finally come in.  So it is difficult to fully understand the CR results.

It is clear that at&t has not fully met the expectations of our customers but with independent, scientific studies showing parity of performance, I am led to conclude that our customers expect more from the user experience.  As an iPhone user personally, I can say that the way I use my phone now is very different than when I had a Blackberry.  I am on it all day long using it in ways that I NEVER used my Blackberry.  So I am wondering if using the iPhone shifts the demands and expectations of the user.  (BTW, I have been having an excellent experience, very few dropped calls and excellent download performance, with my iPhone both here in San Diego and my home area near Washington DC.)

So readers, I have a challenge for you.  Assume you were me (or at&t) and you accepted as true that the independent studies are accurate, that our network actually performs at least as well as our rivals, what could you tell us that would help to explain the CR results.

PS, insulting us and just repeating "fix the network" is not very helpful.  Again, I ask you to assume that independent studies tell us that our dropped call rate is on par with the best and our data performance is actually faster and more reliable is true.  Then help us to understand why the CR results are what they are.

Thank you in advance.