iPhone 3G Alaska
30 Apr
The iPhone is no doubt a great device and will only get better with the expected hardware update. Anyone who already has the iPhone will most likely tell you how cool it is, but the wireless Internet browsing is painfully slow. Well, there’s some good news for those who waited!
Hardware updates
First, the iPhone update will definitely be 3G capable, which means faster Internet over the cellular network. While it’s pretty easy to find free WiFi in many Alaska coffee shops, this improved capability will be a great addition for those times you find yourself hiking across a frozen lake in the middle of winter and still manage to find one or two bars of cellular connection. As for all the recent rumors about GPS, touch feedback and so on – who knows for sure. But I’m 100% certain that 3G capability will be there.
3G is available throughout Alaska Update: 12 June 2010
Many people ask whether or not their iPhone will work in Alaska. The short answer is YES, there is AT&T service most towns around the state of Alaska. AT&T 3G service is available in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Wasilla.
Original post | April 20, 2008:
3G in Alaska
Currently, Alaska has no 3G option for cellular service. Here comes the not-so-good news, I seriously doubt we’ll see at&t roll out 3G until late 2008 (at the earliest). Hopefully they will surprise us and get things rolling sooner. Just don’t hold your breath.
Buy or not to buy
So, if 3G is not coming until next year and the new hardware will be the only improvement…should you jump in now? For me, that will be a yes. I suspect the new hardware will be here sooner than predicted (before June 2008) and my gut tells me it will be worth the buy. Plus, the latest rumor has it that at&t may be offering some great promotional deals (with 2-year contracts of course).
Final thoughts
Disclaimer: I’m a fully converted Mac user and certainly admire Apple products.
Until now, I really felt fine with my Motorola RAZR and couldn’t justify the leap to the iPhone. Buying the 3G enabled iPhone will at least “future proof” the expense (or investment) to some degree.
So take that government freebie* and run down to the nearest at&t store as soon as the new iPhone hits the shelves!
/kk
*More on the “stimulus check” when I muster the energy to take on that FUBAR situation.
ACS has had 3G since 2004.
Hi Ryan, True, however ACS uses xDMA technology which is only used in the USA and Korea. The 1x EV-DO available from ACS is pretty good, however GSM (used by AT&T) is more of a global standard. The latest version of GSM 3G will outperform ACS’s implementation of EV-DO…it’s just taking forever to get here. Most important to this article is that the Apple iPhone cannot be used on any of the xDMA providers such as ACS.
Kevin,
I’m bringing a group up to north pole Alaska this summer for a mission trip. I was hoping to be able to blog via my iPhone. How is service up there? Thank you. I
My father works for AT&T here in Anchorage, and he said they are working feverishly to have 3G coverage up here by the July 11 release date – here’s hoping!
Brandon, cool, I certainly hope they roll 3G… but I’d be willing to wait for better than 3G at this point. Either way, more is more and that sounds good to me. Thanks for the comment.
Steve, re: North Pole – I’m pretty sure you can get cellular service, but if you do get any blogging done, I’d be looking for some open WiFi access instead of cellular.
I’m not a walking wireless knowledge base, but as an iPhone user (early adopter) I’ll give big credit to AT&T for their reach! More bars, more places is right enough! I’ve used ACS for years and have wished they “were there” when I needed them.
In regards to 3G, my understanding is AT&T dumped all future investments developing 3G and focused on their own 4G wireless broadband services, however that’s not due until I think 2010. So a better 3G here in Alaska may only be as good as it already is today.
There’s a lot of reasons as a content producer that I want a solid 3G connectivity – Let’s all say together Qik.com, which is available on iPhone
As for my purchase of the new iPhone… I’ll be waiting for Kevin’s review of the new Alaska 3G from AT&T before I buy.
Good reading as always and thank you!
Scott
7/7/08 There is no iReady process in place in Anchorage if you’re thinking of preparing to get an iPhone on July 11 you have to do it when they go on sale. I went to AT&T’s main customer service center today around 11:30 and they said they are not equipped to do that. No apology, no nothing. Too bad AT&T is the only carrier in the U.S. for iPhones.
I’m on my iphone right now wishing i had 3g. I guess i am just lucky there is wifi where i park my truck during lunch.
When i call at&t about 3g in alaska, they tell me it’s not available here in anchorage, or anywhere else in alaska, for that matter.
It is really too bad apple doesnt just let all carriers in the US sell and service iphones, if they are capable of doing so. One would think that would increase sales for the unit, and at the same time, force carriers to compete, thus motivating at&t to implement something faster than GPRS.
Speedtest.com app reports that my best GPRS speed was only 30 kiloBITS per second! Thats right, i said BITS! My dialup was much faster than that! My latency is around 2500ms, compared to dialup’s average of 160 in alaska.
What the hell, at&t. You make me sad. No compitition makes you forget about your customer? And you, apple. Why do you hang out with at&t?
Ok so I just talked to AT&T customer service in California and they said that there already is all the towers that support 3g they just need to run more tests still. If you go to government hill you will see 3g on your iPhone becuase that’s where AT&T’s main office is. But for the rest of Anchorage outside the little bubble of their office 3g will be rolled out at about mid summer. Maybe even a little bit before that. Who knows? This will be awesome cuz it should come out soon after the new iPhone os 3.0!! Yay! Apple is sure to crush any hopes that the Palm Pre will be a major success.
AT&T csr told me that Alascom is working on the switch and equip at Govt Hill and some 3G will be visible – as Ryan noted above – by the of march/early April and the whole system for the Anchorage area should be live by the end of April.
So I’m on my iPhone right now right in front of the AT&T building here at govt hill and no 3g!! What a suprise!!
has anyone got any new news on a 3g rollout date for anchorage? i am eagerly waiting…..thanks
Still no 3g and plenty of broken promises. What a suprise. I have had this phone for going on 6 months and still no light at the end of the tunnel. I have never seen the 3g symbol on my phone, but my ACS aircard for my laptop is screaming fast.
anything new? anybody?
Still no 3g! I’ve tried it all over town, including right by the AT&T building on government hill. My company’s AT&T rep says it will be available anytime, but so far no more promises as to the date. I think they’re tired of breaking them.
I just want my phone to work a little faster than GPRS. This is ridiculous.
CSR told me the other day “May 15.” I told her I had heard May 18 and she said no, May 15.
Can anyone else confirm this? Thanks all
I can confirm the May 15th date. It is planned as the soft launch date. The official roll out and advertised date will be June 1st (i’m guessing that’s when they will say that they have the fastest network in Anchorage).
I subscribe to both ACS and ATT (for my iPhone) Hand’s down ACS beats ATT, but ACS sadly doesn’t have the iPhone. I keep telling ACS employees about Verizon’s potential and encouraging them to contact Apple.
Also, I suspect as ATT adds the newer faster HPDSA (or whatever that acronym is} down south, we’ll be getting any equipment ATT doesn’t sell of to Mexico or other third world countries. Hey we’re in Alaska, what can we expect?
We can expect to be ignored. After all, there are only 650,000 people living in one of the most expensive deployment zones in the country.
Folks, I know everyone has been waiting for 3G to hit Alaska, and have been given such a run-around about a solid launch date or whether or not it will even be here. Well, I will say that 3g is closer than you think. As much as I’d love to tell you all the official launch date and the specifics of the official “locations”, yeah, “location”s”, of the launch, I can tell you all that it is about to make it’s mark here in Alaska! We’re about to surprise you all! Get ready!
When, I say, WHEN?! I can’t take this GPRS anymore!!
If someone knows what this “AT&T surprise” knows please share. Thx
FYI, the soft launch date in Anchorage just got pushed back from May 15th to May 18th again.
Effing a!! This is getting ridiculous
DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING?!?!?!?! i hear may 15th……..AND NOTHING. I hear may 18th, june, july. summer 2010!!!! this is f*%$ing ridiculous. we are paying for something that at& (f*&%king) t is NOT providing. please someone put me out of my misery. note to at&t: do it or dont. if you are going to do it F&^%CKING DO IT ALREADY!! IF NOT, THEN TELL US SO THAT WE MAY SWITCH TO ACS
Do what I do and bitch and complain to ATT customer care and make them refund you the 30 dollar data plan. I ended up getting not the full 30 per month but the extra 10 per month I pay more than the 1 Gen iphone people pay. I said that I bought a 3G in the lower 48 because its a 3G phone and thats its amazing almost a year after the 3g launch alaksa’s largest cities does not have 3g, but a small town of 80,000 have it in BFE lower 48. Sick!
Demand your money back for the data plan. On top of all that complain that visual voice mail is slow, that the edge is slow for F#cking edge, and that a smart phone is useless with 30 data plan that doesnt produce.
Fight the system.
oh by the way, its may 18th and there is no 3G.
And if your wondering I got 10 dollars off for every month since the 3g launch. Its not much but its something.
Think about this, would you pay 20 dollars per month to download at 5kps if it wasnt for the iphone. HELL NO YOU WOULDNT!
So it’s “the magic day” (May 18th), and I still have no 3g. Calls to AT&T result in no solid answers, does anyone have 3g, or know what the deal is?
So does anyone have a 3g connection yet?
NO. STILL NOTHING! i called and got three months at $10/month for my two iphone 3g’s. not much but got a credit of $60. call and bith, you can get yours too. maybe if enough of us bitch they will get their sh&t together…
Okay. Just spoke to a csr and she said that 3G coverage is scheduled for anywhere between may 15th thru the 21st. Something tells me that it’s gonna be the 21st. So only 3 more days allegedly.
I just read on another site that 18 May is the first day of testing the 3g network for ATT.
http://penkapp.com/2009/04/02/3g-alaska/
I think all alaskans with this gost 3G service should get together and sue ATT for services not rendered.
After pulling teeth and 3 calls later I got $30 credit. Ehh better then nothing.
this sucks
yeah, this really sucks. I should call them for a credit too, because i’m sick of this crap.
ATT must have been testing last night the 18th because my BlackBerry Bold was insane. Hope they launch soon, I travel down south a lot and use 3G all the time and am disappointed with the cell service every time I come home. It can’t happen soon enough……..
Yes, I had the same thing for about 30 mins. last night at about 10:30. The 3G symbol was showing on the phone. This morning it was gone. This week!!
Well it’s the 21st and I still don’t have a 3G symbol on my phone. This is pathetic.
Does AT&T even know that all the ACS customers are laughing their heads off at us fools that paid for AT&T?
damn maybe i shuld bitch too i didnt even want a new iphone i was happy wit my old one until i accidently downloaded 2.0 firmware. then we upgraded to a family type plan and found out it was 10 dollars more a month then two seperate plans at first. not even a f**kin break on anything. and that jacka** brown hair guy that works at 5th avenue mall cant wait to see him in a dark alley. all this crap after being a costomer for more than 5 ears.
N e thing new???????
Official 3G launch tomorrow, May 25th. 9:30am in Palmer/Wasilla. 11am in Anchorage. No joke this time. Apparently, 3 of the towers in Anchorage are not getting upgraded, and last week calls were getting dropped when transitioning from a 3G tower to a 2G tower. They had to install a software fix and now everything is good to go.
today is may 25th. Do you mean tomorrow as in may 26th?????
I’ve given up asking. Anyone know anything other than they don’t have 3g yet?
okay. It’s 11:10 AM and still no 3G. I’m not expecting instantaneous but yeah.
Next to providence and still no 3g… Would be nice if they would hurry up with this.
So is anyone sucessful in pulling a 3g signal. I don’t have it and I am in anchorage