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AT&T 3G Not connecting (San Francisco, CA)

Hi,

Since Saturday afternoon my iPhone 4 (iOS 4.1) will display full bars, 3G, on AT&T but it will not receive e-mail, update twitter or do anything related to data.

If I turn 3G off, to use EDGE, it works perfectly (though not as fast as 3G, of course). WiFi also works fine.

I tried logging on to AT&T community/forums to see if this is a current problem with the network but of course their user experience is so awful that after 20 minutes of lost password changes and attempted logins I gave up on them and came here.

So, questions:

- Is anyone else in SF, or the Bay Area for that matter, having this problem at the moment?

- Does anyone know how to check network status on AT&T?

- Do you think this can be written off as a carrier fault or is there something up with my APN settings (i.e. are the corrupted)? I can't figure out how to get into my APN settings on iOS4 anyhow...

Thanks for your help. 12 days into my first AT&T contract (after 3 years on o2 in the UK) and already seeing why people are so unimpressed by AT&T.

Macbook 1,1 Black ; Apple iPad WiFi 32GB; iPhone 4 16GB ;, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 11, 2010 11:55 AM

22 replies

stoerdi

Level 1

0 points

Oct 22, 2010 3:08 PM in response to spencereholtaway

Same here!
Sitting in the Inner Richmond (SF) with at least 2-3 bars of 3G, but cannot open a single webpage.....
It used to work at my place really good but since a week i have this trouble!
Really annoying....

Oct 22, 2010 5:49 PM in response to spencereholtaway

Anyone else seeing better repsonse time when switching off 3G? Obviously Edge is a lot slower for loading the pages, but the pages seem to start loading a lot quicker and more consistently?

Msampair

Level 1

0 points

Oct 22, 2010 6:32 PM in response to spencereholtaway

Having the same problem in Minnesota but I also cant connect to Wifi either. VERY frustrating. Nothing has fixed this, even my ipad wont work

Oct 25, 2010 11:42 AM in response to jloberman

Likewise, in San Francisco, on a brand new iPhone 4. From Downtown to the Outer Richmond, when on 3G I connect about 1/4 of the time. On edge and wi-fi it works fine, but for my hour long bus commute, it's a crap shoot.

Glad to hear it might not the phone, but I have other iPhone 4 folk in the city who don't have the sam problem.

Oct 26, 2010 10:37 AM in response to spencereholtaway

I don't think its the phone itself. I noticed this 1 week ago at my normal gym location at Post and Van Ness. It happens almost every time i go now, i tried restarting the phone at first, which somewhat worked, then just turning 3g on and off, which seems to work 75% of the time, but it is super frustrating. Hopefully the poster above was correct about the network upgrades and it will improve soon. Wi-fi is completely fine, of course.

daniloni

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2010 7:19 PM in response to spencereholtaway

I've been having the same problem for the past couple of weeks in the Civic Center area. I called AT&T tech support a couple of days into it and at the second level of support, the woman told me that AT&T was having a problem with the tower which gives this area service. She said that it was a "third party problem." That AT&T rented this tower from a third party and some part was malfunctioning leading to intermittent 3G service. She gave me a ticket # (which I have since misplaced) and said that the problem was supposed to be cleared by October 31, since they were waiting for some part to fix the problem. Sorry for the lack of info, which is based on my lack of tech knowledge and the fact that I was probably being BSed. As with everyone else in this thread, no connection problems on 2G and 3G works fine in my home neighborhood (West Portal).

daniloni

Level 1

0 points

Nov 4, 2010 12:06 PM in response to willzzz88

Finally appears to be working ok now. Hope I'm not jinxing.

AT&T 3G Not connecting (San Francisco, CA)