In defense of ATT’s 3G network for the iPhone.
Posted by The King on June 12th, 2008 filed in mobile, rantI just wrote this email to Windows super-guru Paul Thurrott in response to his blog posting from this morning that was titled iPhone 3G’s Achilles Heel is still AT&T.
Hi Paul - I’ve been listening to you on Windows Weekly pretty much
since it started.
I wanted to make a real quick comment on your recent blog post about
ATT’s 3G network. I hesitated in writing you because we don’t want to
give ATT more reasons not to continue building out the 3G network in
size + speed, nevertheless I wanted to bring a statistical/map-reading
fallacy to your attention.
To the point, your comment suggests/implies that the big gaping holes
on this map:
http://www.tnl.net/editor/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/att3g.jpg
represent big deficencies in network quality or are in someway a
foolish business oversight on ATT’s part.
I disagree because that map almost exactly coincides with the
geographic population distribution across the US.
This is from Time magazine in 2006:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/20061030/where_we_live/
and this is from NASA 1994 data:
http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/116/population_density.tif
ATT’s 3G network isn’t a public service like the original telephone
system, they have no mandate to blanket every inch of the US, in fact
they’d go out of business pretty quickly if they did. Willie Sutton
robbed banks because thats where the money is. ATT puts up towers
where they do because thats where the people live. Like Darwinian
evolution ,if they get enough customers in a given area that find the
service to be poor then the network will change or go away.
If you or I don’t like it, we can use another network, nothing is
stopping us. Yes I want more 3G towers! But to look at that map and
call it the weakest link of the iPhone I think is a mistake.
I tested a Nokia N95-4 (US HSDPA model) in and around Chicago for
about a month earlier this year and had almost continuous 3G
connectivity. Trust me, the weakest problem was the battery! Even on
the newest firmware/hardware N95 it is not going to defy laws of
physics. . .count up the radios on a modern smart phone: WiFi, 3G,
GSM/Edge occasionally, Bluetooth, GPS, oh and their big beautiful
screens. . .a balls out session of outdoor photo shooting (w/
geotagging + 3G uploads straight to Flickr) depleted half of the
battery in 90 minutes.
You’re a real treat to follow, thanks much,
Ryan
