I haven't had that particular problem, but yesterday I did have something strange, and very irritating, happen with my AT&T cellphone -- it wouldn't receive calls. I had a strong signal, and I could dial out, but for maybe 5 or 6 hours I couldn't receive calls -- incoming calls were all routed immediately to voicemail. Text messages also didn't get through, though they did get queued up and were delivered later in the day. This has never happened to me before, at least not for this length of time. In the past, I've had the occasional call go directly to voicemail without ringing my phone, but yesterday was much more of a problem.

-Joel

Call 611 and report the service problems.
Sometimes they may not know there is a problem until they get enough calls from a specific region. As soon as they are aware of this they will get a their technical staff to fix the problem.

I think AT&T is devoting more of its spectrum to data service to support the iPhone.

It is time to eliminate the right of people to interfere with the placement of cellular towers. The so-called esthetic objections are just a blind for the tinfoil hat brigade and for the folk whose only goal in life is to stick it to corporations. No one is allowed to stop the installation of fire hydrants every 4 to 5 hundred feet, nor to make them less obtrusive. Public safety regulates their location and appearance. Cellular phones are just as important a public safety need, and eminent domain should allow their placement wherever needed to ensure coverage.

Wow Walter, AT&T would love to hire you. You could rally for them.

AT&T and other wireless companies are now deploying micro cellphone antennae on telephone poles. Walter is wrong because it's now possible to have a perfectly good signal (4-5 bars) and still not be able to place a call. The lack of signal is not the problem. It's what the signal is being used for. 2G and 3G data services serve the more expensive rate plans with the more expensive phones. Less spectrum is available to an expanding base of voice callers. Loss of service is often because the limited wireless spectrum for voice calls is oversubscribed, though there are still plenty of dead zones in Palo Alto.

The thread is correct that AT&T cellphone voice service has suffered since the release of the iphone.

To the extent AT&T fails to satisfy customers, competition will correct the situation. Antenna placement is ALWAYS important for any wireless service. I recall the objections to the placement over at the Church of the Parrots. While I don't watch TV over my iPhone, I would want the system robust enough to handle it.

AT&T service sucks. Calls are constantly dropped. I've never had a connection problem with Verizon. But all the cool phones are AT&T :( It's a trade off.

There is a pocket where cell phone reception is very poor. It it on Walter Hays Drive

I actually switched from verizon to att and have received much better service. I very seldom (once every couple months) have a dropped call.

I get no service with AT&T (Peers Park Area) (I'm in the middle of the 3G area on at&t's map. There are places all over Palo Alto that get no reception (like Lucy Stern area). AT&T is the worst I've ever had. I had Sprint before. Customer service was not very good but the phone always worked great. No dropped calls. I have many friends with I-phones and they all have the same problems. I think it's AT&T not the I-phone.

I work off of Arastradero and Foothill - our business park has such lousy AT&T reception (static, dropped calls, can't get 3G or send emails). I am probably going to switch to Tmobile because I can't use my cell phone in the office.