AT&T to Verizon: We're improving cell coverage in SoCal [Updated]

As Verizon Communications Inc. and Motorola Inc. hype their new Droid phone, AT&T Inc. is firing back with a response -- improving its cell service.

AT&T announced today that it's rolling out six new cell sites in Los Angeles County as well as five new sites in Orange County and one in Ventura County.

The new sites should improve cellphone coverage and 3G Internet connectivity in those areas. AT&T is set to add 200 sites in California before the end of the year and upgrade 320 existing ones to 3G.

AT&T still has Apple Inc.'s iPhone, one of the most desirable wireless devices, exclusively in its arsenal.

But with Verizon releasing the Droid, a worthy iPhone competitor, on Nov. 6, AT&T will have to strike back by making sure its phones can actually make calls and keep them connected.

IPhone owners often complain of dropped calls and unreliable 3G connectivity. Verizon has been capitalizing on the stigma with an ad campaign for its network, saying, "There's a map for that" -- that being reliable national wireless coverage.

Updated, Oct. 30, 9:52 p.m.: Verizon wrote in to tell us that it has added nine local cell sites to its network in October.

-- Mark Milian

Photo credit: Sean Masterson / European Pressphoto Agency

Comments

[H8 NY $pankees]

I'm an AT&T customer, and when my calls get dropped with family and friends, I always respond, with the new call, "fewest dropped calls my ass!"
Where I live in LA county, I get spotty internet service, with connectivity ALWAYS a problem. (Researching bank info or other work-related stuff and the connection says "searching for signal," meaning the internet connection's dropped.
Searching the 'net or checking email on my phone? HA! Connection failed, page taking too long to load. The TV? You can only get it in certain places, and not even in certain rooms in my house.
I'm constantly calling and complaining about the internet and cell service, but their claim of 3G? It's more 2G with Edge network crap.
Upgrading the existing towers to 3G is too little, too late. These chuckleheads should've done this when the iPhone came out, knowing that people were going to use it as a mobile mac. Now they have all of these other "smart" phones and the service is horrible.
It's notably better than Sprint and T-Mobile, that's for sure. As far as metro PCS, I don't know anyone with that service, but I do know that Verizon offers my employer discounts on cell and wireless internet service, so I might as well just take my service to the one that "has a map for that," and get better phones, better service and fewest dropped calls.

[suman]

The sure thing about luck is it changes.Now it's time for Verizon to rock with android phones.Sumankumar danapuneni

[Christopher Eaton]

I'll believe that the Droid is a worthy competitor to the iPhone when I see it. Meanwhile, I think that AT&T should start an ad campaign that centers on the idea of, "Oh, how do I solve this problem with my Verizon Droid phone? There's no app for that."

[Bill]

If the Droid phone sells well, I hope that Verizon will maintain coverage and add bandwidth to accommodate the additional traffic, something AT&T failed at miserably.

[george]

I quit AT&T the day I could not get any basic phone service driving on Van Nuys Boulevard in the middle of the flat Valley. Was so disgusted I couldn't wait another three months for the contract to expire. Since then they are the only reason I haven't yet bought an iphone. The moment it will work with verizon is the moment i buy an iphone. Are you listening, apple?

[Kevin St. Clair]

Wow...SIX new cell sites in LA County? Really? That changes EVERYTHING!

Uh...not really. Considering our devotion to all things Apple, especially the iPhone, you'd think the LA market would be a top priority for AT&T. Instead, we $500 iPhone users apologize to our friends for all the dropped calls while they remind us that they have more reliable service on their $50 Verizon phones.

Verizon + the iPhone is the solution we long-suffering AT&T/iPhone users are waiting for. Can you hear me now, AT&T?

[Michael]

This is good news, assuming they finally cover my area near Palms Ave. & Jasmin Ave. I have no signal in my condo. I have to go outside to make phone calls. What really brought home how absurd the situation is was when I was in the middle of the volcano forest in Hilo, Hawaii and I had a better signal than I did in the middle of LA...

[lowrydr310]

I never had an issue with Sprint. I've been with them for over 10 years, even having tried other carriers in between to evaluate service. I've tried AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and have to say of those Verizon was significantly better than the others, but Verizon can't compare with Sprint's rate plans.

I have an AT&T blackberry as a business phone at the moment, and all the claims about coverage problems are absolutely true; this is a welcomed improvement for AT&T but it may be too late.

[Mattapoisett in LA]

Note to LATimes Editors: There are no cell towers in the picture provided. Those towers are FM, Microwave and TV antennas.

[Robert]

I'll believe A T & Terrible when I can make a call on my iPhone in the remote village of West Hollywood. When their iPhone contract is over they are dead to me.

[Wolfy]

I Can't Wait for VERIZON to pick up the iPHONE so I can dump my landline and my tape answering machine@!@!

[Raymond48]

I love my AT&T service. I live near Culver City. I can drive from Culver City to Fountain Valley and drop no calls!

[HD Boy]

AT&T does need to improve its pathetic, nationwide network. While the AT&T network actually is pretty reliable up here in Sacramento, it is the iPhone's biggest (and only real) drawback in larger cities and wide swatches of rural America. I don't see how a meager six towers is going to make a significant difference across the entire LA Basin, but we can hope.

However, Verizon, Motorola and Google also have a significant Achilles Heal that has the tongues of Silicon Valley programmers wagging. While the Droid is advertised as a 16GB device, it only comes with a meager 512MB of built-in, flash system memory. This is the limit that the Android 2.0 OS currently supports for Apps. By and large, the vaunted 16GB SD card (user upgradable to 32GB) only can be used for storing text, video, music and other computer data files. So, the Android OS can't really access that extra 16GB (on an SD card) for App storage or use (to prevent App piracy).

Perhaps Google will address this shortcoming with OS 3.0 or 4.0, but version 2.0 was just released, so it may be some time before this issue is resolved. Worse, right out of the gate, Verizon's marketing already is misleading — and this is erqually disappointing.

The limited system memory available for Apps on the Android OS is absurd — and a deal breaker. It ensures the Droid will be DOA as a product once hopeful customers figure out this flaw.

Practically speaking, it means there will be real limits to the number of Apps you can load and store (much less open and use) on this (and other Android) phones. And it probably means gaming initially will be somewhat crippled. So apparently, while Android phones do multitasking, they don't have adequate memory to support Apps in the same brilliant way as the iPhone, which can utilize all its flash memory for the 95,000 Apps that are available. In spite of what competitors claim, Apple's product does do multitasking with several key, built-in Apps AND, on the AT&T network, users even can surf the Web and talk on the phone at the same time. You can't do that on CDMA (Sprint/Verizon) phones.

What good is a 10,000-App catalog with such limitations? Motorola and Verizon executives are kidding themselves if they think these first generation Android products will be competitive with the iPhone.

So, everyone please take a breath. Competition for the iPhone will come, but it will be an evolution. Apple changed this industry and it really is three-to-five years ahead of everyone else in a new game. In the meantime, Verizon better update that silly Droid commercial to add...

"iDon't have adequate memory and storage for the OS and the Apps."

[Jeff D.]

I think it's funny how the iSheep come out and want the iPhone on Verizon. I have been standing next to iPhone peeps who are complaining about AT&T. I pull my Tilt (and now Tilt2) out of my pocket and say "I have ATT and I have bars).

Not one of you actually consider the fact that maybe...JUST MAYBE, the iPhone sux as a PHONE. There's no app for that.

[Cass]

AT & T is a joke! I have NO cell signal in my house in San Gabriel. On my drive to work on the Miracle Mile, there are three spots my call will--without fail-- drop. Counting the days to the end of my contract.

[SmartAssProducts.com]

Oh, dear...I probably shouldn't even get started.

Before moving back home to California I was living in Dallas. I've had AT&T for so long that I've watched it go from AT&T to Cingular and back to AT&T! In my north Dallas suburb I had PERFECT reception at my house; I never used long distance on my landline because of all the free minutes on my cell plan. I used my cell phone to talk to family and friends thousands of miles away, and virtually never had a dropped call or poor signal.

When I was getting ready to move back here [to the LA area] I not only checked AT&T's coverage map online--right down to my exact address--but I also called and spoke to a human being to verify coverage at my new address. Both the coverage map and the human being assured me that coverage would be GREAT!

And then there's reality.

You know that AT&T slogan, "More bars in more places"? Perhaps they're talking about bars as in establishments that serve drinks, because--at least for *MY* cell phone--they're definitely not talking about bars as in indicators showing signal strength. My typical number of bars inside my house? Zero to one. NEVER more than one. On a good day--like when the moon is full, mercury is rising, I'm standing on my head, and the temperature is exactly 78 degrees--if I stand just in the right place under the lemon tree--all the way at the back of my backyard--I MIGHT get 2-3 bars.

My whiz-bang cell phone with all the latest and greatest features has been reduced to nothing more than a pretty little knick-knack. I now have unlimited long distance on my landline because my cell phone is absolutely USELESS when I'm at home--and I'm at home a lot.

[kamran]

AT&T should fix its reception along Highway 14. There are 3 or 4 dead spots between Santa Clarita and Palmdale that cause tens of thousands of dropped calls every day. I never had that problem with Verizon. I would drop AT&T in a minute if it wasn't for the iPhone.

[bradley tuck]

AT & T's coverage SUCKS. From my house, I can rarely call. From the entire three blocks south of my house, I have 'No Network Coverage' We're talking about Sunset and Fairfax here, not Topanga Canyon. Pull it together AT & T.

[thematch]

Good luck. AT&T definitely needs a number of upgrades.

[SoLong]

I plan on switching my 5 lines to Verizon next friday. I have the iPhone, and not one of the phones on my account can place a call. It stupid to pay the money we do when we can't even use it! Were getting 2 Motorola Droids, 2 HTC Droid Eris, and 1 BlackBerry Storm 2. Maybe if enough people leave, AT&T will figues it out. And if youre not going to Verizon because of your iPhone, use it as a iPod Touch. That's what I am doing. And that's what It seems like I HAVE been doing...

[Dirk]

Who said a cell phone is supposed indoors? There are too many whiners that don't understand the concept of line of sight.

[frank]

I live in the middle of HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA. I live not in the hills but in the FLATS. There are one story houses all around me, and I cannot get ANY cell service on my AT&T iphone. After having fulfilled 1 year 11.5 months of my 2 year contract, I bought the Palm Pre and switched to Sprint (the day the Pre came out). AT&T is now trying to charge me $250 because I canceled my service 2 weeks early. AT&T, you are scum.

[Loren Price]

More bars in more places, except where I am.

[Dick Bacon]

love my iphone and have no problem with my ATT service. it's the best phone i've ever had and the best reception i've ever had (better than sprint or t-mobile).

[EAD]

Well, everyone posted some great comments. Unfortunately, people often complain more than they compliment. It takes 10 rights to get one pat on the back but, if you do one wrong a person will tell 100 of their friends.

I used to work at Verizon and made great money for a while but, I can't say they are "better" than AT&T. They do have a better network (CDMA) and more extensive coverage but, if you're getting an iPhone the bottom line is you're probably an Apple loyalist (and if you don't know if you are do your research but, you'll be pleasantly surprised that its the best phone on the market).

To be honest, I enjoy the iPhone more for its data and software services than using it as a phone. Even though Verizon is pound for pound stronger on paper I'd still have to say my AT&T coverage is comparably good. And when I'm at home I just use wifi anyway. One thing I do remember about Verizon phones is almost all of them would not allow wifi so that meant if you were using a phone like your Blackberry or Palm you had to subscribe to the data service or be screwed which basically makes having a big bulky phone like that pointless. At least with an iPhone you can opt out of the data and just use wifi. I remember one time I couldn't pay my bill quickly enough so the phone was shut off but, at least I could still use the wifi...hahaha!

To my knowledge, Apple actually approached Verizon first but, Verizon turned down the deal because there wasn't enough in it for them.

Let's not forget some things. AT&T was first to roll out the Motorola Razors which everyone loved. They were first to have rollover. They were first to have free minutes to ANY AT&T phone - landline or cell. They have the exclusive contract with iTunes. And they really sealed their future by having the iPhone, the greatest phone on the planet!

And one more thing, almost every Verizon phone does not work internationally unless the country you're in happens to have CDMA (rare). So if you're a traveler and you have AT&T you pretty much don't need to worry about anything.

The only real issue I have with the iPhone is that AT&T does not offer insurance so if you lose your iPhone or it gets damaged you're looking at a $700 replacement. Sucks!

In the end, you have to research and choose between your needs, your wants, and your budget.