On August 23rd, Wired.com reported that an employee leaked information that AT&T would be quietly dropping its claim that they have the “Fewest Dropped Calls”.

Following a Better Business Bureau investigation into Cingular’s (now AT&T’s) “fewest dropped calls” ad campaign and a protracted legal fight with Sprint over the issue, AT&T is reportedly dropping its claim, according to an employee.

Turns out, the assertion was never really true, and was based on only a small part of a larger Telephia report. As a whole, the report notes that AT&T Wireless did not have the most reliable network in places like New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, according to Broadband Reports. Recent studies from Consumer Reports and JD Power mirror these findings, and have placed Cingular/AT&T at or near the the bottom of their rankings for reliability and satisfaction.

According to JD Power’s website, Verizon Wireless has taken the right to the claim that they have “the fewest dropped calls” in just about every region of the U.S..

I was warned that AT&T’s network wasn’t one of the best and I’ve found that to be true since moving over from Verizon after getting an Apple iPhone. There are a couple situations I regularly run into:

1) There’s not enough bars (signal) to even start a call; The iPhone displays a nice “Call Failed” message.

2) I’m in the middle of the call and it drops.

Of course, walking two feet in any direction can completely change the signal strength. Overall, I’m quite disappointed with AT&T’s network, although I still love my iPhone.

About the author

Kevin Michael Reed
Kevin Michael Reed (Google+, Facebook) is a fashion & beauty photographer and producer/director based in New York City and Los Angeles, CA. He is the President/CEO of RedFOG Visual Media, a production company in New York City, and a partner in Passion of Photography, Inc, a company dedicated to teaching photographers and sharing our passion through charitable causes. Kevin has lectured and hosted workshops throughout the United States and the world teaching photographers the business and creative sides of photography. (Kevin's Fashion & Beauty Photography Portfolio can be seen here).