Sometimes a good title is all it takes. Take, for example, the title of a recent post over on CNET. It read-

“AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone“.

The title intrigued me. Better still, turns out the title was perfect for the piece. In it CNET’s Elinor Mills discusses the trials and tribulations of trying to make a phone call using a 1st Gen iPhone and AT&T’s service. It is, as she put it and far too many other know only too well, a hit or miss proposition.

What I most appreciated in the post was the she called out AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel when he tried to (once again) place the blame for AT&T lousy coverage on the data demands iPhones are placing on AT&T’s system. She writes,

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel blamed the problem on the increasing amount of data traffic iPhone users are creating, which CNET News and others wrote about earlier this month.
“We lead the industry in smart phones,” he said. “As a result, we are having to stay ahead of what is incredible and increasing demand for wireless data services.”

She wasn’t buying what he was selling and pressed on…

I wanted to know specifically why my problems haven’t been resolved nearly one-and-a-half years after getting my iPhone and why my voice reception would be impacted by data traffic on a different network. “Well, it wouldn’t,” Siegel conceded.

Initially, he had suggested that my problems were related to the fact that the first-generation iPhone uses the EDGE data network, which is slower than the 3G network. However, not only am I on a different data network than the 3G data bandwidth hogs, but there should be no connection between general data usage and my voice reception.

The whole thing makes for a good read. And as one who is currently using his iPhone more as a data-connected MID than a phone I have to say… “Elinor I feel felt your pain!”

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