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Hey, AT&T! What is this? 1997?
Monday, Aug 12, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller * I spent several hours at the Illinois State Fair over the weekend. The grounds looked great and we had a fantastic time, except for one problem. Both days, after 5 o’clock in the afternoon, AT&T’s mobile phone service wouldn’t work. Calls in or out were sporadic at best, and texts took numerous attempts to work, if ever. Internet? Fugetaboutit. And when the nightly concert started, everything completely shut down. No calls, no texts, no nothing. The AT&T system was obviously totally overloaded. * My friends who use other carriers said they had no problems at all. It was just AT&T, so there’s no excuse for the giant corporation’s lousy service. * I missed a chance to meet up with some folks. While a serious bummer and extremely frustrating at the time, it wasn’t a huge deal, I suppose. But what about the kids who needed to reach their parents, or parents who needed to arrange a time and place to pick up their children? Pay phones? Yeah, right. This is 2013. There are no pay phones. We’re supposed to have cellular service now. * I’ve been meaning to download the SJ-R’s State Fair iPhone app. It looks pretty good. But I’m glad I didn’t get it because I would’ve been even more frustrated. Yes, people talk and text on their mobile phones way too much, but, whatever. They pay good money for the service and they have a right to expect that they can use their expensive communications devices at large annual events, where people get separated all the time. Fix this, please. Thanks.
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- Anon - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:05 am:
No alternative to Verizon. I haven’t had a dropped call or bad reception on my end ever.
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:09 am:
Same thing happened to ATT service when Lollapalooza was in town in Chicago. Just walking down Michigan Avenue nearby and you couldn’t get a phone signal or internet until you got far away from the event. They really don’t care.
- Anon - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:10 am:
I second the Verizon endorsement. I’ve had sprint, Nextel (before it was sprint), and Verizon. Verizon worked everywhere in the state. Nextel was worthless, and sprint wasn’t too far behind. Sounds like AT&T is no better.
- estubborn - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:10 am:
I have Sprint and couldn’t make a single phone call and text messages people sent me came in hours later. I had the same problem with AT&T at music festivals and crowded public events too.
- SangamonRetiree - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:11 am:
My wife and I had the same experience as Rich. Might have service for a minute or so and then Nothing! Received some texts on the way home in downtown Springfield sent hours earlier!
- Leatherneck - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:13 am:
But AT&T must care about one thing–UVerse, that is, and their advertisements/solicitations for the product. Hardly a week goes by without at least one letter in the mail from AT&T trying to get me to switch to U-Verse (and I had dropped phone service from AT&T 2 years ago).
- Commonsense in Illinois - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:20 am:
Thank you for calling…all lines are busy but your call is important to us. Please hold for the next available operator. Your wait time is currently forty-five min…CLICK
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:21 am:
Related: why is there no cell phone service out at Lincoln’s New Salem? Like — none! Especially given all the tourists (and school buses full of kids.)
- Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:21 am:
At one point yesterday, I finally got through to a friend who was on her way back to town, but in the middle of our conversation the call dropped.
Ugh.
- Leatherneck - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:22 am:
Anonymous,
It’s the infamous Menard County cell phone “dead area.” Although not as bad as about 5-10 years ago, at least on my cell phone (I have Verizon).
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:24 am:
Good point re: parents with children, Rich. Very troubling, especially since my kid is out there with the grandparents and the phone was at least providing some sense of security.
- Mr. Jim Lahey - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:30 am:
I spent the better half of last week off the grid by Verizon’s and T-Mobile’s standards. Not even enough signal to get it to ring. Friends with AT&T had 5 bars.
Thank God for small miracles?
- 47th Ward - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:37 am:
I was going to make a joke about this being a 1st World problem, then it occurred to me that the 3rd World has invested heavily in cell phone towers/connectivity and therefore probably has better service.
- Cincinnatus - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:38 am:
Would be nice if you could get this sorted out before I get down there tomorrow evening, Rich…
Thanks in advance!
- MM - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:38 am:
I had the same problem with AT&T this weekend.
- Roadiepig - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:39 am:
Uverse also went down “region wide” (according to their website, accessed via my Verizon phone) for a little over 8 hours during the day Friday. I know people wh dropped their wireless service due to dropped calls or lack of service, but this was a first for the Uverse service (had a little over 2 years). No explanation from them, and forget about talking to someone on the phone or getting info from their online chat system (the person in India I “chatted” said they had no information about any outage. Only found out about it by surfing the web and getting a short note from AT&T on their home page).
BTW- my Verizon service has only had a few dropped calls in the 14 years I have used them. No way I would switch to the AT&T wireless system, no matter what kind a bundle deal they offered me….
- Anonymous - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:39 am:
Had the same problem last night. The bad part was it looked like you had service and it looked like texts were going thru many times when they were not. Saturday night my stepson and his mom were frantic for 45 minutes because they could not find each other and thought the other one was ignoring the others texts. I don’t remember this problem last year so I am not sure what has changed.
- Old and In The Way - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:39 am:
At&T as a total s ervice provider, cellular and Internet, is really second rate in much of Illinois. If you think that the cellular service at the fair was bad you should experience their broadband offerings in most of downstate Illinois. It’s pitiful and if you follow their “service upgrades” it is not going to get better anytime soon. So much for the telecomm rewrite, the AG’s oversight and former AT&T exec Bill Daleys efforts. We all know that illinois’s road and bridge infrastructure is failing but few realize that a large portion of the states telecomm infrastructure is also failing to keep up. BTW if you have experienced U-verse you know why they have to hype and discont it……it sucks! I went back to my cable provider after just six frustrating weeks. Just terrible! Lets ask Bill Daley for his take on this!
- Angry Chicagoan - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:40 am:
As more and more spectrum is auctioned, and as licenses come up for renewal, we need to get far stricter with the cell phone companies about how they build out their networks. European networks are far cheaper to use, and work far better, in large part because they have been required by the terms of their licenses to build much denser networks than here. Example, Telefonica in Spain, same approximate land area, terrain, climate and number of customers as AT&T in California, but more than five times as many towers. “Use it or lose it” needs to become part of every wireless carrier’s license. And when a company has that much broadcasting hardware on its hands, it naturally gets much more aggressive about getting people to use it. No chance of a European firm making the 50 percent plus profit margins of Verizon and the like, but they’re still profitable, and they’re carrying a far higher volume of calls and data, and that puts pressure on the landline operators as well. More competition, better service, and better for everyone except the shareholders of the phone companies.
- Tony - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:43 am:
Ran into the same problem in Door County, Wis on vacation a couple of weeks ago. Drove me freaking crazy. Up there with a big group…made it really hard to stay in touch and meet up. Not to mention read capitolfax and my email! The locals said they get coverage but the system is overwhelmed in July and August when all the vacationers come to town.
- Farker - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:49 am:
I gave up on AT&T about five years ago and switched to Verizon. I have had absolutely zero issues with Verizon and constantly had dropped calls or terrible call quality when I was with AT&T. Sometimes you have a pay a little extra for a better quality service and no matter what AT&T says in their commercials Verizon wins hands down for me in every instance.
- BehindTheScenes - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:51 am:
I guess I’m old. I remember when A T & T had a major exhibit at the fair at the 4-way stop, sponsored the high divers next to it, sponsored the technology center in the permanent building next to that, and brought in small trailers with 6 pay phones on them to give the grounds more lines. I think they even put up a temporary cell tower over in the campground area in the early days of cell service, again to increase coverage on the grounds. Then they moved to Texas…
- Willie Stark - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 10:58 am:
Hopefully, by next year’s fair there will be some improvements to help manage the higher than baseline call volumes. While not meaning to hijack the thread, do want to give AT&T and its competitors some credit for their new anti-texting short documentary, directed by Werner Herzog, and sent to 40,000 high schools. It is powerful. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch and send it along to the people you care about. It’s aimed at younger drivers, but it made a big impact on this older driver.
“From One Second to the Next”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0
- b - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 12:03 pm:
If the Govt would just deregulate ATT, all of our problems would be solved. /snark
- Way South of I-80 - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 12:18 pm:
We were at the Head East, Styx and REO concert Saturday night - and couldn’t use my AT&T phone - hate it. This happens at every Illini game, etc - anywhere there are a few thousand peeps. My son was at Lolla first weekend in August - he didn’t have phone service the entire time. Pathetic.
- RNUG - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 12:59 pm:
I’ve had Verizon for about 25 years and normally had service everywhere in the county I’ve gone, including some well known ‘dead’ spots like near the N/S Towers by Mechanisburg, Beardstown, New Salem, Fulton county, and a bit north of Chatsworth, CA in the Mojave Desert area. About the only places I’ve had problems are way underground or inside metal buildings with lots of metal scrap piled up. Occasionally a call gets dropped, but not very often … nothing like the complaints I hear from people using other companies.
- Will Caskey - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 1:05 pm:
Count yourself lucky. I was in River North in Chicago yesterday and was on roaming with Sprint.
- Spidad60 - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 1:14 pm:
I was at a very crowded Busch Stadium a couple of weeks ago and very pleased with the AT&T service in the stadium. It was even LTE, not 4G. Quincy has LTE for crying out loud, but not in the State capital!
- Bluefish - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 1:21 pm:
Your phone’s not for callin’
Your phone’s for footballin’
Darn you Manning brothers
- PoolGuy - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 1:25 pm:
I work the state fair every year for the past 10 years for a state agency. I also have AT&T. I’ve been having this same problem for at least the last 5-6 years. yesterday it was hit or miss… get Verizon
- Judgment Day - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 1:31 pm:
You want to solve the problem? Not simple, but possible.
First off, realize that the goal of all the wireless providers is to get us all on data plans. These guys aren’t stupid. They know that for them to stay as profitable as the currently are, they have to get us all switched over onto data plans. That’s where the big bucks are.
Were these ‘network exceptions’ deliberate? Probably not. But put money on the fact that having more wireless users switch to using ‘data plans’ will increase reliability. How? Well, just wait for that spin. And spin. And more spin.
Want to know how we beat it? Real simple. Have our ‘Accidental Governor’ and the four tops get together and go pitch Google to put Google Fiber up and running statewide. Have the State give Google complete rights of access/use to (a) all State owned buildings, and (b) all State owned right-of-way for $ 1.00 for 30 years, not subject to any additional permits and/or related permit fees. In exchange, 50% of the State has to be configured/lit for fiber within years 01-07, and the remaining 50% configured/lit for fiber within years 08-15.
You want to straighten this whole mess out? That will do it.
But it means we’ve got to get some technically astute political leadership in this state.
We’re probably doomed.
- Proud - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 2:37 pm:
I always have this ame problem at Wrigley Field and the Cubbies are even packing them in these days……..
- G.I. Joe - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 3:31 pm:
I have had trouble with AT&T for several months. Poor quality of calls, dropped calls and no service. Every time I called AT&T thay had a different excuse. It was my local tower (several miles SE of Springfield) and I was in Springfield and couldn’t even have a quality call with the AT&T Rep. They tried several ‘fixes’ to no avail. They finally told me their service was not good anywhere in Central Illinois and would not hold me to the contract cancellation $. I went with Verizon and have been more pleased with their service. IT SHOULD BE BETTER! How can they hold you up with poor service and charge what they do?
- Anon - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 7:08 pm:
AT&T users suffered through 20+ days of limited to no service in Brown County in July. Daily calls to tech support simply yielded the pat answer: ‘Tower Issues’ No duh?
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 9:40 pm:
Verizon service/coverage is top notch. AA was one of the first 500 subscribers to the old Ameritech Cellular back in the 80s and never have been tempted to switch.
Now their prices, calling plans and customer service-meh.
Not to change the subject, but Comcast/Xfinity is one lousy cable company. Internet/phone not bad at all, but not cheap. Cable TV pricey, buggy, and you are basically stuck with using (and paying for) their cheap remotes.
- Reformed - Monday, Aug 12, 13 @ 9:57 pm:
ATT reception is nearly non-existent on the north and east side of SPRINGFIELD every day.
- KurtInSpringfield - Tuesday, Aug 13, 13 @ 7:23 am:
To switch topics, I downloaded the SJR state fair app, and it did not work very well at all. I have an iPhone 4s. Any time I tried to search for anything I could not scroll. As soon as I touched the screen to scroll, the app, instead of scrolling, would take me to the page of the link I touched. I never could get it to scroll all the way to the bottom of any list it displayed. I have no trouble scrolling through other apps with lists of choices (links). I tried using it twice. It was useless! Needless to say I will be deleting the SJR app.