ATT to NYC: No iPhone for you... | Hacker News Reader

ATT to NYC: No iPhone for you...

consumerist.com

46 pointstelemachos27 comments

My wife was trying to look at prices online today and noticed that the iPhone wasn't available for our zip. After trying a handful of zips in NYC, we gave up (figured it was a temporary glitch), and checked at an ATT store.

They're still selling them in stores here in the city, for what that's worth. Apparently, get them while they're hot...

Or, y'know, at the Apple store.

There's a special relationship between NYC and inept telecom. I spent tens of years in DC, and never have had as much trouble with phone and internet service as one year in NYC.

Is it the infrastructure? All the buildings? Or just a sadistic local telecom culture?

In the linked article a commenter says that they were told by ATT support that the iPhone is unavailable in NYC due to "massive fraud".. Seems like the story people are getting is inconsistent.

Can any HN'ers shed some light on this?

Perhaps a ring of stolen credit cards were used to purchase these, and they were shipped to New York? That's more believable than the reason this story puts forth.

I can't imagine AT&T's failure to sell them online to New Yorkers will help much if their towers are overly congested. I would imagine most people either buy iPhones from Apple or an AT&T store.

Anyone who didn't find one online but knew they wanted one would get one from another channel. And if there are people who are actually unsure of what phone they want and browse around online to figure it out and who would have chosen an iPhone were it there, those people will probably end up on some other data-consuming phone as well which doesn't really solve AT&T's problem.

I really just can't picture this conversation:

Exec 1: Hey, our service sucks in NYC because too many people are using data. What can we do?

Exec 2: We could stop selling the iPhone to New Yorkers on our website. That should solve the whole problem.

Exec 1: Brilliant!

(Execs toast their Guinnesses)

Someone should try to buy an equally expensive non-iPhone. If online fraud is the problem, it should apply to all expensive/high demand products, not just the iPhone.

Unless the fraud is directly related to the iPhone - as in people buying the iPhone using fake credentials, unlocking them and selling them at a premium.

Honestly, wait for the google nexus and see if that might be a better choice, if you're just getting an iPhone now in NYC. With over 50-60% dropped calls, it's really the worst phone to have if you actually plan on calling people.

Who calls people? My iPhone is a wireless Internet device, which comes with a hugely inconvenient tax of 400 unused voice minutes every month.

I cannot WAIT until somebody releases a good phone with a data-only plan (maybe the Nexus?)

Really? A downmod?

As uncool and 90's it may be, occasionally I have to call people, and I can't really do that with any consistency.

The fact still stands that phone service on the iPhone with at&t in NYC, is dismal.

edit: Care to explain how I'm wrong? or is this a downmod for fun?

I don't understand how you can be complaining about the plan. Surely you can get any plan you want with your SIM card, and what phone you're using is none of the phone company's business?

If only that were true in the US...

Somebody downmodded you without explanation, but I agree with you -- the telephone "app" is just one minor incremental feature on an iPhone.

If, instead of being bundled with the hardware, the "Phone" app cost > $25 on the App Store, I probably wouldn't bother buying it.

Huh. I'm in NYC, and have had the same iPhone for a year. I don't really get dropped calls. Then again, my average call length is 2 minutes.

How limited is AT&T's wireless spectrum for voice & data? There must be some limit, in a small geographic area, to how much channel overlap you can have. Is AT&T running out of spectrum?

That could be the case for a densely populated but otherwise open area. However, NYC is a concrete (and metal!) jungle. The only way to guarantee consistent outdoor coverage would be to put a cell at practically every road intersection. At that point, you might as well make a municipal wi-fi network, too. Or instead, since wi-fi hotspots are much cheaper and higher volume products than micro cells.

"Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone." I would like to rewrite that part of the phone script to read, ATT is not ready for iPhone. :)

ATT irritates. this only adds fuel to the fire.

how's the service in nyc (esp subways)? can't be any worse than in sf.

Uh, no one gets phone signal anywhere in the subways, on any carrier.

The BART in San Francisco provides some cell service through most of the city.

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2008/news20080721b.aspx

Ah sorry, I meant in NYC.

Are you sure? http://www.switched.com/2007/09/21/nyc-subway-stations-wired... says towers were added more than 2 years ago. After all, not having cell service in the subways seems like an enormous omission that would have millions of people screaming.

On the upper east side, living here for 1 yr, I've never seen anyone talk (on their phones) on the subway.

Hah, the list of things wrong with the NYC subway that would have millions of people screaming (in other cities or countries) is already very long -- dirtiness, lack of punctuality, or even a fixed schedule, no notifications of arriving trains, constant rerouting of lines due to construction, bums and panhandlers, etc.

Lack of phone service is just one more thing to deal with.

The only (slight) benefit of the NYC subway is that it runs 24 hours.

There is some reception at a few stops. Take the 4/5/6 from Union Square heading South, and you'll get a full signal every few stops. It doesn't last long enough to complete a call, but you can send a text.

Should've clarified. Meant with wi-fi

Nope, no wi-fi either, as far as I know.

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