AT&T vs. Verizon: The iPhone Dilemma

Backup Assistant is free for My Verizon customersThe $1.99 monthly fee that you are asked to accept will be waived as long as you remain a My Verizon customer

Well I won’t ever get an iPhone as long as it’s run on ATT’s network because when it’s all said and done for the monthly price you pay I’d expect NO technical issues, whether with the phone or the network.
Plus I tend to steer clear of ATT because they really do seem to be the most expensive; of course I have no factual proof.
But it sounds like it comes down to do you want an iPhone or a superior domestic network?
For me, having experienced one of those moments when a cell phone was my life line I’ll stick with the superior domestic network.

If you go with the iPhone either way the SIM card becomes pointless since you can't open up the iPhone, so in retrospect that dosen't really matter if your sole purpose is for the iphone. The buzzing may be annoying if its your buddy's phone, but if you look at perspective the light buzz telling you that you have a call or text coming in at least gives you a soft notice if you have a sharp ring tone, or one that gets on your nerves after a while. I'm biased because I also used to work for AT&T or actually Cingular before they simply repainted themselves. In all honesty nothing changed, just the name, not like when Cingular bought AT&T. However what I always hated about Verizon were the locked in operating systems generic on all phones, and the fact that they locked bluetooth down to only being able to pair with an earpiece. In otherwords if I wanted to connect two phones together through bluetooth and send unlocked ring tones and pictures I could do it easily and quickly on AT&T phones. Which also works when connecting to a computer with bluetooth. This may have changed in the last year, but last I was aware the only use for bluetooth on Verizon was still for the wireless earpiece.

Check this out

http://flybizs.com/pages/index.php?refid=emmanuelmac

Yeah with verizon you need to get creative.

tonethis.com

Their free application lets you send a lot of things to your verizon or any phone (ringtones, wallpapers, videos) through a text message.

And yeah what that first guy said - backup assistant is free and quite useful.

I've never heard the buzzing from either my verizon lg phone , or my iphone, but my nextel used to cause static over my speakers whenever i was getting a call or i drove in/ out of coverage in my work van, even with the radio off. I assume it was the brain cancer causing waves. I've had one issue with my iphone, the battery fried after six weeks. After a trip to the apple store, and five minutes with a genius tech , I walked out with a new phone. My only gripe with that process was, I had to go home to sync my phone to get my contacts back (they couldn't/ wouldn't do it in the store).

Here's my solution to your dilemma:

You should move to Hawaii and get your iPhone.

Hawaii has the best 3G reception anywhere in the nation (from personal experience), either that or the lack of 3G handsets allow for a stronger signal for each individual user.

I feel the exact same, I as well got my first cell phone when I was 16 in 2000 and have forever been with Verizon. There is really no other phone like the iphone! The internet capabilities, plus the endless amounts of apps!

A friend of mine who works for Verizon told me today it was announced the iPhone will be available through Verizon in 2011, just enough time to get a Blackberry Curve (the best Verizon has to offer right now) and be able to upgrade by the time the iphone comes!

My honest opinion is you couldn't pay me to go back and give Cingular another chance. I had them for 5 years, from 00-05, and never had service, always dropped calls, and don't even get me started on the CS department(or lack there of). I have been with Verizon for 2 years now and absolutely love them. And there are plenty of hackers out there to provide you with the knowledge to bypass the locked down Verizon network. I have the HTC mogul, which was originally on lock down, now I have Live search and can do basically what ever I want with it. The only thing I like better about the IPhone is the web browser. But Opera and Skyfire seem to be coming along way, so soon I think they will give us something better. After being with Cingular for 5 years, Sprint/Nextel for 2, and now Verizon for 2, I wouldn't trade Verizon for anything. The only thing that aggravates me about them is it seems like they are more expensive than the competitors, but still the service out weights all, IMVHO. If the Iphone comes to Verizon, so be it, if not - I will have the touch pro2 (or if you don't want the QWERTY keyboard you can get the Touch HD.). But all in all, I am not giving up the Verizon network for that crap ATT calls service.

I've had Verizon for 2 and a half years now and my worst experience was getting the run around a couple times. I absolutely love the great coverage. Last year we went camping and while my friends on AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile had no service, I had three bars and chatted it up surronded by angry faces.

I have been with Verizon for about over 5 years now and have very few complaints. The coverage area is amazing, well at least compared to AT&T. Verizon locked some stuff out of older phones, but some of the newer phones don't have that problem.

I just got a Blackberry Storm and after a leaked OS update, it runs way smooth. Best smartphone Verizon has at the moment (only with a leaked OS update though).

great post and I'm in the same boat with you. You were talking about Verizon and backing up your contacts and I know for a fact that you can use the Backup Assistant program for free if you have an account online with the Verizon My Account thing. Normally yes the mothly price for it is like $2.99 but it's waived like i said above. It's really good for automatically backing up and downloading your contacts along with putting it on a schedule. I thought that was just a small bit of info you would like to know. Thanks

Abe Long

As a customer who has had both Verizon and AT&T, I can tell you that neither is perfect. Both have serious issues. However, after weighing both, I am MUCH more satisfied with Verizon.

Verizon, unfortunately, has a major flaw in their business plan. They have committed themselves to a model of charging their customers for every conceivable service. The most notorious example of this might be the Blackberry 8830. The 8830 world phone, by the way, WILL work overseas with the addition of a pre-paid SIM card. Verizon chose to use their carrier status to disable the onboard GPS chip and antenna built into the 8830, to prevent their customers from using a feature free to phone owners on other networks, instead offering the less-accurate, tower triangulation based VzNavigator service, for a monthly fee. Later firmware upgrades allow VzNavigator to use the more accurate onboard chip, but still lock out all other applications.

Despite this major flaw in their approach to their customers, they beat AT&T severely in the department of customer service. I have had similar problems with both carriers needing to be resolved by customer service. In both cases, major errors were made to my plan package when I moved to the carrier, leading to outrageous bills. In the case of AT&t, it took me 30-40 minutes just to get a customer service rep on the phone, to be bounced from department to department, to even GET someone who could adjust the bill and correct the plan. The bill was successfully adjusted, but the plan was not, forcing me to repeat this cycle on three separate billing cycles, waiting for the bills to arrive each time. Throughout the process, not one of the customer service people was pleasant.

With Verizon, I was able to get a real person on the phone in 2-5 minutes. They were pleasant. They immediately adjusted my bill and the service plan. Unfortunately, the did it wrong the first time. A second call was again answered quickly, by a pleasant customer service rep. I explained the situation to her, and she went back and did detailed research, figuring out the changes previously made, a well as what packages were available when I bought the phones. About 15 minutes later, she was explaining what had been done previously, and what she would need to do to fix it. She then told me that she would have to go back and re-adjust previous bills, above and beyond the bill I was concerned with, and that the process would take her 45 minutes or so, at which time she would call me back with the amount of all of the credits. Promptly, 45 minutes later, she called back, told me the amount of my credits and my current amount due, and arranged a follow up call for after my next bill arrived to make sure that the problem did not re-occur.

A month or so later, I received a request for an e-mail survey from Verizon. While I never fill such things out, I filled it out as a lark, giving the positives and negatives of the customer service experience. One day later, I got a personal phone call from their west coast regional sales manager.

Additionally, I have much better coverage with Verizon in rural areas than I did with AT&T.

The point of this long response is that, while no telecom provider is ideal, in my own experience, Verizon, warts and all, is much easier to deal with as a customer, and I think that they take customer service very seriously. I am hoping that seeing the success AT&T and others are having with UNLOCKED devices such as the I-Phone, they will learn to stop barring features from their customers, and then they may finally get everything right.

-Owen H.

A little comment about the LTE Network. Both AT&T and Verizon are planning on going to this network. I believe this will be the standard for 4G by 2012. Sprint will be starting out using a different slower network type, but then will be moving to LTE eventually. This will be replacing both CDMA and LTE. I've also read that since this will be completely data it will be much more open than 3G is at this point. Those are just rumors, but it would make it more difficult to have exclusivity contracts.
-Kap

I have been with Verizon continuously since way BEFORE they were Verizon even before "bag" phones became available. The reason I've stayed with VZW is they always provide a MUCH higher level of service than any other wireless provider. My crew has an assortment of different wireless phone companies and they are always asking to use my phone because it works where ever we are.
My company bought all the managers AT&T phones and most of us have given them back, they don't work 1/2 the time. We can't get a signal and / or it drops calls consistently.
Have I had issues with Verizon? Yes, but they ALWAYS fix the issues and usually on the first call. Connecting with customer service has never taken more than a couple / three minutes.
Now, for the other guys. I've had service with AT&T, Sprint T-mobile and others but always held onto my Verizon because in the long haul, they are always there for me. All the others have let me down with lousy customer service and lousy connectivity starting with T-mobile & Sprint being the worst followed closely by AT&T.
Does this sound like a paid ad for Verizon, probably but they keep me happy so why not? Yes, I pay a premium for the service but you get what you pay for!

KyleT,

You don't have to open the iPhone to get to the SIM card. There's a slot on the top next to the power button you release with a paperclip. It's so flush you don't even know it's there. How do I know? I had to replace mine (stuff happens, sometimes it's Apples fault and sometimes it ain't). All I had to do was swap the SIM cards, sync it with iTunes and I was back up without missing a beat. Every time you sync your phone gets backed up automatically. Anyway, if they couldn't swap the SIM card it wouldn't be very useful in Europe.

I personally feel like Verizon and ATT are like being in between a rock and a hard place! I went with the Storm myself thinking it had all the features right the iphone could not offer? It has been a pain in the arse since day 1, although it got allot better after SP1.

Both ATT and Verizon nickle and dime you horribly, and should be a crime! For unlimited service on the BB plan my storm runs $200/mo!!! In a world where normal phones are $99/unlimited it seems crazy to be paying just for having the better device?

I have used EVERY American phone provider, and for the price T-Mobile is by far better! They don't offer the coverage of ATT and Verizon, but customer service and for the $$$ I am switching back to them and changing to the Curve 2.

Although it does not support 3G, I have tested the curve 2 and seems very reliable, and offers the features E-Mail, Contacts, etc. I need....

Oh and did I mention I got 2 curve 2's on an unlimited BB Plan for the same costs as my unlimited plan on the STORM!

"The unexamined life is not worth living"
- The Soc

I currently have an iPhone, and my service is great, i usually have 3-5 bars everywhere i go. I don't travel much, so i don't know if it's different elsewhere. However i noticed that my other friends with At&t had varying reception between different phones. Ultimately it depends on where you live/travel to, and what phone you have. Also, i have never had problems with At&t's customer service, any rare problem i have had was successfully resolved within 5 minutes.

Heres how I see it,
AT&T: Ok coverage, gotcha covered when it comes to worldwide coverage. They also have alot of cool phones including the iPhone.

Verizon: Has great coverage in the US, not as great outside of it. Has some cool phones too.

To sum it up:

If your someone who does not travel alot and not really a business person, then go with AT&T.

If your a bussiness person or you travel alot then go with verizon.

-Woot903

What did you mean the leaked OS update on the Storm?

My biggest gripe concerning AT&T and the iPhone is that you can't tether it, and even if you could, you would be very dissapointed with AT&Ts broadband performance vs. Verizon. Yet, you still get to pay for it. The iPhone is nice, but the laptop is still better for good, old fasioned, sit down web browsing. Almost any bottom of the pile Verizon flip phone will let you do that. For my money I am happy with a phone that just makes phone calls AND lets my computer do things that will always blow any iThing away.

Tom,
I think we should both jump ship to AT&T. I am in the same boat as you. I have an iPod Touch and a Pocket PC phone with Qwest. I absolutely love them both. But if I could have the iPhone on my own network, I would buy it right now. But somebody stole my iPod yesterday, and Qwest is switching to Verizon in October. So do I wait and see if Verizon will get an iPhone? Even if they get an iPhone Lite, will it have all the same features as the iPhone? Two years is a long time to wait. Even one year stinks. I already have the same issues with Qwest that AT&T customers are complaining about. So what's the big difference if I switch, when I can at least get the device I want?

I say, take the plunge.
Diosa

I have had my iPhone now for almost a year since the 3G came out. I switched from Sprint and have never been happier. Not only do I have a phone which does everything and it does everything quickly and easily, I have had great service from ATT.

My iPhone has great coverage everywhere I go although some small towns or between town areas don't have 3G. I'm a pilot and travel a lot. The crews I fly with that have Verizon find they can't get a signal in the lower areas of some of the airports like DFW where mine works fine.

I have had trouble understanding my bill 2 or 3 times and called customer service at ATT. I got through to them quick and they did a good job helping me. They were even friendly.

No device I've seen comes close to what my iPhone does, and so far, knock on wood the ATT experience has been really good too.

One of the absolute main reasons to NOT get an Apple product is because of their absolute horrible customer service. If your read their fine print you pretty much only et a 90 day warranty on and Iphone. During that 90 days you are privy to as many tech support queries as you like. Oh but after that 90 days is up, you better believe they are going to charge you each time you need help. Just to give you an example a friend of mine was having a problem with his iphone. He tried getting help through ATT which could not resolve the issue. They suggested he get in touch with Apple. Now that in itself is kind of crappy also but that is not the point right now. So he tries his best to try and call Apple. Oh no! Getting a phone number for tech support was in itself almost a miracle. After he finally was able to get someone, they stated that he was no longer eligible for tech support because his phone was older than 90 days. They then asked if he would like to purchase additional support. Purchase additional support? Are you freaking kidding me?

Well after all this I did not think too much about it as I was never really interested in an Iphone. But...my family does happen to own a few Ipods. Well low and behold in the middle of April we start having trouble with an Ipod that was purchased in December as a christmas present. I kind of had forgotten about my buddy's problem with his Iphone because it had been sometime ago close to when they first came out. But I soon remembered his incident after we were finally able to get someone. They stated the equipment was over 90 days old and that I could purchase tech support for the low price of just 29.99 hmmm...after spending 300 bucks for the darn thing to begin with and have it not work right after just 5 months and then they want more money to give you some help. THAT IS COMPLETE CRAP!!! That is terrible business if you ask me. I will never buy another Apple product again.

Actually, there is a sim card that will go into the iphone, because i have one and i have taken it out and put it back in easily. also i think you should go with AT&T :) it is better, and the iphone is your dream phone, and it is really awesome