Many applications means large amounts of data.
(Credit: Matt Hickey)
There was a lot of talk lately from AT & T customers - especially iPhone users - fed up with the quality of service they receive from AT & T. These include dropped calls, shoddy coverage and slow data rates. People are upset that they have a fancy device, which loses much of its usefulness, when the network drops out. I can feel their pain.
Moreover, I saw myself this effect over the weekend. Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), one of the largest conventions in the world game, was held in Seattle, where I live. Thous. nerdiest of nerds of the world were here, and, as expected, many people use IPHONES, that is, many people use 3G AT & T’s service.
PAX, which opened Friday, also had a wonderful guide to the Convention expojunkie.com viewers made specifically for the iPhone. It features maps, programs and other background information to quickly make PAX best experience. A side effect was thousands of visitors, using the 3G coverage in Seattle at the same time - in addition to thousands of local residents, who are already using it. Service slowed to crawl.
On Saturday, backup services up to speed for most of Seattle. AT & T, may have hit the switch and turned on more towers. This team, which controls the areas with major events and network settings, when one causes problems. Whatever the company did it fixed.
Blessings and curses
But the question is: what can we expect from AT & T, which Apple sells millions of units of a revolutionary product that relies on its network, and then provides millions of applications that put enormous pressure on the same network? Do we really expect, AT & T, to be able to handle such a large amount of data?
Easy answer: “Yes. We pay for the services we want to work properly.” Which, of course, an excellent response. IPhone users pay more for their data than other customers AT & T Smartphone (we leave our regular customers from telephone discussions, even those who use the data for simplicity).
But iPhone users can also use much more data on the device than other users, even those in the same network. One technology analyst, Chetan Sharma, reckons that while the typical wireless subscriber consumes 120MB per month, iPhone owners typically use four times. It is 480 MB, or almost half gigabytes.
So let’s assume that the data at face value, and then consider that AT & T has 11.8 million users of smartphones and more than 9 million users of iPhone. Thus, there is almost as iPhone users as standard users of smartphones, but each of them uses four times more data than users of smartphones.
Of course, there are other smart phones there. And most of them downloadable third-party applications. And many of them are data-intensive. But here’s the thing about the iPhone users: They actually use their applications. Smartphones have been around for quite some time, but actually iPhone users to stream video, browse the web frequently and receive direction. It could be argued that nobody has ever done so much with a device like the iPhone users. And this is a blessing and a curse.
Simply put, because of iPhone users, AT & T just much more demand for data than its competitors. AT & T currently has a great potential, and that’s why IPHONES work at all. If not for the rapid deployment of updates - it has spent billions over the past two years to try to cope with 350-percent increase in traffic - a million IPHONES from AT & T will simply not work at all.
The problem as I see it is not AT & T, which apparently works just as fast as it can. I blame directly on the users themselves iPhone. And I am one of them.
no other network could keep pace with the demand that we iPhone users are asked to better than what AT & T does now.
From the frying pan …
You can find many entries on forums, where people are shouting: “Forget AT & T, I’m going to Verizon!” or something equally angry. But they do not get big picture: switch you will lose your beloved iPhone, but you will also be on the network, which, if it gets immediately rumored iPhone may eventually having the same problems AT & T is now, perhaps even more worse.
Think about it: if the other networks are much better service-wise, but AT & T has a large amount of data, why is there a problem? This iPhone.
One unanswered question is: Apple I consulted with AT & T on bandwidth considerations before starting the App Store, which is undoubtedly responsible for many of these AT & T in alliance?
If yes, then yes, AT & T must increase its network to compensate, which he does. Any communication network can be overloaded. Sometimes I wish my boot loading will be quicker, but when my neighbors also loading, it affects me. But I do not blame Comcast.
If, however, Apple did not consult with AT & T to launch App Store, it’s hard to blame AT & T not being able to cope with the massive amount of unexpected information. And it is definitely not true.
Another option, and one that connects these two responses, and the one I think most likely that she might as AT & T and Apple had underestimated the amount of data intensive applications that will be provided in such a short time.
Indeed, most in the industry were surprised by the success of App Store, which is about a year delivered more than 1.5 million applications for the iPhone and IPod Touch users. If Apple and AT & T had expected such a reaction, it would be reasonable to be angry at AT & T for not able to keep pace with demand. But if not, then, again, it is the users themselves, who are bogging down their own networks.
Imagine, AT & T’s 3G for All-you-can-eat buffet. Say this buffet has 110 customers a day. Now imagine a normal person will make three trips to the buffet, and then come to users of iPhone. There are 90 of them - in addition to the 110 clients already served - and they make the equivalent of 12 flights a day in the canteen. Each. This is because they are data gluttons. Suddenly, not enough food to go, because gluttons (again, I’m one too) eat more than anyone expected. Will this wine in the restaurant, it was because of the ribs, as well as Prime mashed potatoes?
AT & T: We worked round the clock
I do not think so. Especially when you consider that iPhone users sticking around from day to day. AT & T representative Seth bloom, “the company Blogger guy,” says the buffet orders over prime rib and mashed potatoes - the amount of $ 17 billion to $ 18 billion this year.
He also said, AT & T expects that the throughput of 3G networks will meet the growing demands of consumers to the data in the near future. “Crews are working around the clock to carry out more than 1,900 new cell towers nationwide and the doubling of its fiber backbone to address increasing volumes of client:” He told me instant messages.
This line of thinking will not quiet the critics, of course, easy and quick to scold your carriers cell in the Internet. This is simply an insult to me, too (I’m sure I get my share Slam on this post), and I do not want to calm the people down. I do not think that anything can.
If AT & T expect this amount of demand? Perhaps. But it’s iPhone users themselves, which cause the problems they are experiencing. In the near future the situation will be rectified, according to Bloom, and jumping ship is not going to help your situation any.
