SXSW to AT&T: Free our iPhones

Credit: Mike Hedge via Flickr.

For all practical purposes, the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, is a de facto iPhone convention. People who don't have the white-hot Apple device often feel left out.

But not this year. With so many iPhone users descending on Austin, the convention center has become an almost impossible place to make a call or get a data connection -- on AT&T, the only U.S. network providing service to iPhones. People with Sprint and Verizon Wireless won't stop gloating.

Scott Beale is owner of Laughing Squid, a Web hosting company in San Francisco, as well as a blogger and photographer who's popular with the Web 2.0 crowd that populates SXSW. He says he tried updating his status on Twitter and Foursquare (a new mobile service), but he couldn't connect to the network. He had to walk a mile back to his hotel to get onto the Wi-Fi network there.

"If AT&T was smart, they would come in with a big antenna. It would be a huge PR opportunity," Beale said. "Some day, we will have choice on our iPhones. And will we choose AT&T?"

AT&T actually heard the complaints, and it's seizing the opportunity.

"We apologize to customers who have been inconvenienced due to this surge in local demand," AT&T Mobility spokesman Mark Siegel said. "To accommodate this demand for mobile data and voice communications at SXSW, we're actually working [Sunday] afternoon to add capacity to our cell sites in downtown Austin. We anticipate that customers should see improved performance this evening and for the remainder of the event."

-- Dan Fost

Comments

[Michael]

I'm at the SxSW conference and have seen the problem.

The saturation of iPhones is overloading the local towers. AT&T can bring in a portable cell tower, known as a COLT (Cell On Light Truck), but the deployment and set-up is non-trivial.

Mr. Beale is disingenuous in his story of having to travel to his hotel for wifi access. The Austin Convention Center has wifi that has been working well throughout the conference under heavy assault from the connected crowd. All iPhones have wifi capability and no iPhone user should be disconnected at SxSW.

[M. Allison]

The iPhone is the greatest. No problems here

[Dane Jay Deasy]

I have noticed the same problem at events like Lollapalooza. AT&T was even a sponsor there too!

I think I might start working for them soon. Hopefully I can help with some changes.

[Chad]

I live in Austin, and the 3G network here for AT&T is pathetic. I consulted with AT&T for several years, and have experienced their 3G network in Dallas, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas and NYC. Every one of those cities had a network at least one order or magnitude better than Austin's.

In several areas of downtown, one can't even GET a 3G signal, let alone use it. The problem is that the 1900mhz 3G network does not carry as far or penetrate buildings as well as the lower 850mhz 2G network.

AT&T was supposed to complete a 3G to 850mhz project here, like they have done in almost every other large market, in December '08. They haven't even turned on one 850mhz tower yet, as far as I can see, and it's March.

Seriously, AT&T, what on Earth are you doing with your 3G network?

[Scott Beale]

Michael, I know you are eager to discredit me, but you should get your facts straight first. I'm well aware that the convention center has Wi-Fi and I have been using it all week (I'm not sure why you would think that any attendee wouldn't know that). What Dan is referring to is when I walked back from the Digg party. The Hilton was the first place that I came across where I could pickup an open Wi-Fi network. If you look at a map you'll see that the Hilton is between Stubbs and the convention center.

[Victor]

The AT&T network in Austin is horrible to begin with. I think the public statement by ATT is misleading in that it assumes that there was sufficient capacity for 3G in Austin to begin with: "due to this surge in local demand".
Truth be told that Austinites have been struggling with the 3G network in Austin long before SXSW "surge" in demand.
This city has worse 3G than Lubbock, Texas.

Maybe Austinites should find legal recourse for this problem. Why are Austinites paying an extra $40 for 3G service every month but only getting 3G service half the time? And why are their iphone drop calls so often so as to make their iphone unreliable?

Welcome to the "beta" society, where technology is so unreliable and corporations hold absolutely no responsibility since their products are "beta" after all. As for those visitors who are here for SXSW, perhaps a new idea for a video, movie, or short next year should be the absolute lack of corporate responsibility and misleading ads regarding our new "beta society". Here's a start: My friend just bought a new Sony Blue Ray player, but it doesn't work correctly w/out the updates. Why are we now buying technology that doesn't work out of the box? For the latest gadget? I don't think its worth it. I think there a lot to be gained from old-fashioned reliability.

[Victor]

I think its important that customers not get sidetracked by whether the venue has a wi-fi connection. The real problem here has nothing to do with wi-fi; it has to do with the lack of care for customer satisfaction. The problem is that ATT probably did not adequately plan; it's not like SXSW is a big secret or the city or other businesses for that matter, do not have estimations of how many new phones will be using the network. Lack of planning, lack of caring = lack of service and a horrible PR situations for Austin and ATT. I'm glad I have a 2g phone. : )

[Michael]

Scott, I'm not trying to discredit you, just to bring clarity. The article mentions the convention center issues, then in the next paragraph mentions you walking a mile. There is no mention of the Digg party or anything else that might not lead a reader to assume the convention center is not the reason for your walk. Sorry for any confusion on this point.

And, yes I'm aware of Austin geography. Stubbs is 3 blocks from the Hilton. I haven't mapped it, but I would doubt 3 Austin blocks makes a for a mile.

[Scott Beale]

Michael, you'll notice that Dan did not use a direct quote from me. I never once said that I walked a mile back to the hotel in any of the interviews I did on this issue and I always referenced the Digg party. You should take things like that into consideration before throwing around words like "disingenuous".

It sounds like you were the only person not having problems with AT&T here, but trust me I was not the only one. A simple search on Twitter will tell the story.

[John B.]

I live 3 blocks from the convention center in Austin, have an iPhone using the 2G network, am high up, my home office FACES downtown Austin where all the downtown buildings are where you'd think a couple of cell towers would be located on top of some buildings, and STILL, my calls will drop on AT&T as I'm sitting in my office not moving a millimeter. Frustrating.

AT&T's service has always sucked downtown near the convention center, and continues to do so after SxSW. If the iPhone weren't so cool, I would have dropped them long ago. I can't wait until I can use it on Verizon, the best network I've ever used.