AT&T 3G in Anchorage Alaska
Posted on August 3rd, 2008 in Alaska Business, Technology |
A little birdy told me that 3G should be coming to Anchorage in August 2008. Doing a little reading between the lines and based on some subtle hints, my estimation is that Anchorage and perhaps several other areas around Alaska will have 3G by August 11, 2008.
Enabling 3G will provide a much needed boost in AT&T’s arsenal of connectivity options for Alaskans. It will also mean for travelers to Alaska that their experience will be more like home. While I am usually fairly critical of all things connectivity in Alaska, having 3G implemented gives me a glimmer of hope.
Now that I have talked up AT&T and shown them some appreciation for rolling out 3G, I look forward to the decoupling of Apple and AT&T. I still believe some strong competition for the iPhone 3G would benefit everyone. Sure, the device is cheaper, but the plans are extremely expensive in my opinion. I’m still hanging on to my old CellularOne $60/month unlimited voice plan - that’s the number one reason I don’t have the iPhone.
So, hooray for Alaska and AT&T - let’s see if my predictions are correct! In my next post, I have a little more information about the number of available WiMax sites around Anchorage. I love the potential for WiMax and hope it can really create a competitive environment in the ISP market.
That is all for now.
-Kevin
22 Responses
So if we have a 3G phone (tilt) then will we just automatically be able to access the 3G network? I am guessing that instead of Edge we will see a little 3 or something. Is this correct or do we need to contact customer service and add any features??
If your phone is 3G capable, a symbol should automatically appear whenever 3G is available. There’s a good chance my prediction was off, or that the 3G is really limited to urban spots right now. I’ve not been able to confirm that 3G is live yet. I will post a new story as soon as I have confirmed 3G is active!
Yeah not live yet - sitting right downtown and was looking for 3G coverage this morning. They do a real crappy job in the AT&T store by not telling you there is no 3G coverage here yet (just got the phone). If you go to the coverage map online it looks like we have 3G in Anchorage, but both Edge and 3G is marked by blue shades so impossible to tell……
Well, I guess my predictions were off. No doubt, 2009 is a more realistic target date, but I have to think that AT&T will start rolling out some 3G sooner than that. I’ll keep my radar going for news on this topic.
Just talked to an AT&T CSR in AK (took forever to get through to a real person btw) on 8/14/08. She informed me that 3G would not be available in AK until Feb ‘09 at the earliest. She also informed me that AT&T informs all their customers the 3G isn’t available as of yet. NOT TRUE! I had no idea. I thought, with all the prevalent forum posts, I had received one of the faulty 3G iPhones. I probably could have stood to wait on my purchase had I been aware of the lack of 3G in AK. Live and learn.
They do not state anything about lack of 3G. They didn’t say a word about only being able to use EDGE for quite awhile. Then they ask (when they sold you the phone)– what can we do to get a 5 in customer satisfaction….. well first of all don’t deceit me. I hadn’t actually expected 3G up here, but the coverage map online is impossible to use (blue for EDGE and blue for 3G…) and they sell 3G phones without saying a word…
Just came back from Seattle, I see why 3G is such a big deal. After using it for a week the EDGE network seems unusable. Come on AT&T, hurry up and get us 3G.
Are you guys having issues in Anchorage with voice mail being SUPER slow? I have the original iPhone and everything worked great until the 2.0/.1 updates. Voice mail access is painfully, ridiculously slow even in stellar coverage areas in Anchorage. I have no problem talking on the phone, no problem receiving the message on the phone, just retrieving the audio…it’s KILLING me! Going to give youmail a shot (Thanks Dex)
J
Kyle, I’m in Dallas this week, I know what you mean. Wanted to get a 3G iPhone, but knew it would be full of fail again when I came home. Can’t wait for 3g.
Jeremy… I thought I was the only one with that problem! Seems like it’s buffering or streaming for like 20/30 secs. I don’t even bother with VM now. I want to call and complain, but I don’t think they’ll care. Wonder what we can do…. Makes me afraid 3g will be as bad, bet thyre hella oversub’d with the new iPhone out…
Don, they will indeed care, but will not be of use to fix the problem. Both my 3G and the wife’s 2G do this. Didn’t always–just the last few weeks. (it’s Sept 17, BTW, and I’m in Wasilla) I called and after a series of restarts and a network reset, the tech stayed with me until we got one to play normally then she “was glad to solve the problem”. The very next message had the delay. Come to find my wife isn’t using her VVM at all and hates her iPhone cause of this and slow Edge….
Well, it’s at least somewhat comforting knowing others are having the same issue. Complain as we might, I’m sure that any solution would take awhile to implement… Not like they can throw up a bunch of new cells/trunks over night. I will try and see if I can get a credit of some kind. If I have any luck, I will let everyone know. I’d love to just cancel the data plan for a few months or until the problem is fixed, but its just so damned handy, slow as it might be…
Oh, Im in Anchorage, BTW….
There is 3G I in the Goverment Hill area in Anchorage, just drive down 3rd ave
I wouldn’t be surprised. AT&T’s main office is located on Gov’t Hill, so I bet they have a tower with 3G equipment for testing/training in preparation for rollout.
FWIW, I’ve noticed voicemail has gotten better. There’s no longer a 20-30 second wait for the message to start playing. It still often pauses up and ‘buffers’ during playback. The voice quality is tinnier too, like they switched to a lighter weight codec to save on bandwidth. EDGE speeds still seem slow as well.
Ive talked to AT&T support about the slow edge data speeds. AT&T tech said I should be seeing 70-140k/sec and i have a few speed test applications and im running at around 13k/sec. I called best buy and asked if others were having the same issues and one guy said its because AT&Ts data system is overloaded. Im not paying $$ for this crap much longer.
ACS EV-DO Rev A any good??? Talked to Cservice at AT&T and got the stock “Soon” answer on 3G coverage for Juneau. I am seriously considering breaking my contract with AT&T to go with ACS which has the service in place for half the price. Gonna cost me $$ to do it tho. Only reason i really want this is so I can go completely wireless with my Internet and drop my home phone/DSL completely and I am buying a HP 2133 soon to utilize wireless broadband and so I can listen to my favorite radio station anywhere (Pulsradio). So any thoughts are welcome.
Now i just discovered that WIMAX is maybe available in Juneau. Any thoughts on this???
There are a couple posts here about WiMax. I’ve used it in beta form here in Anchorage and was relatively impressed. I’ve not tried in the final retail configuration, but I’d like to!
WIMAX is a dead end no coverage and not really portable. ACS wanted me to pay a $500 deposit that I would not get any of back until I ended the service. So, I will prolly be waiting for G3 in Juneau. A little bird at AT&T told me G3 might be up by early next year. Might see if I can go the ACS route thru my GF.
Got ACS’ 3G today and it seems to work OK. XP installation was flawless. Now I just have to wait till my HP 2133 gets here to see how it does with Linux. Not getting the kind of speed out of it I was expecting 730/112 but still much better than EDGE and still half the monthly.
Was in Anchorage two weeks ago. Stopped in the Dimond ATT store, they said 3G was active on at least one tower in Juneau. Well got back to Juneau and have yet to be able to detect a signal.
Ran into an ATT rep, and unless he misunderstood me, he indicated Juneau was up with 3g and running. Having used the iPhone in the lower 48, I can attest it is day and night in terms of difference in voice quality and data speed.
One caveat, although my phone indicates “E”dge, the data speed seems much better after I set my phone to 3G - I’d had it locked out previously. So maybe it’s here, but my phone won’t display it?
Stopped by ATT Juneau this morning (11-06-08). I asked a salesperson if 3G was in Juneau - at first she said no. Upon further questioning, she said there was testing underway, but no specifics other than that. I stopped questioning her then.
It seemed to confirm my earlier observation regarding increased data speed and improved audio clarity notwithstanding E being displayed on the phone rather than 3G as when in Washington state a while ago.