Straight Talk AT&T Data Issues Since August 13th

[cooter55]

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?p=14886828

That is a good read for those of you who believe that MVNOs get the shaft when it comes to service and reliability on a Tier 1 carrier's network.

I wouldn't be surprised if Tracfone/Straight Talk have a similar clause in their agreement with AT&T. Think about it, if your an MVNO you definitely would like to know you and your customers aren't getting the shaft when it comes to service quality and service reliability. That's just bad for business.

Sent from my LG Nitro HD

interesting reading

[Endeavor]

While you're correct that it is ST's problem, we all seem to agree that ST has no ability to actually go in and fix the problem. However, ST is a very large company and has tremendous legal resources. Most of ST's U.S. based employees, including those in ST's legal department, use their service. The higher ups are probably aware of this problem and are undoubtedly demanding that AT&T compensate ST for the failure to provide the guaranteed level of service. While I doubt that ST will pass those savings along to us, I'm confident that they are pressuring AT&T to get the problem fixed.

I disagree with you there. It IS a Straight Talk problem, in that one of their major suppliers is very unreliable. This is impacting Straight Talk service.

If we don't protest vehemently, Straight Talk won't do anything. They will just keep collecting our money every month -- quite happily.

This is one reason I never trusted MVNOs for years, because they are totally beholden to the major carriers who control the water flow.

There are two things Straight Talk can do about their problem:

1) Straight Talk can be honest with customers and admit there's a problem, instead of acting like we are all stupid. After all, even you said "ST is very well knowledable about the fact there is an issue but can't offer a fix in their systems."

2) Straight Talk and other MVNOs can put pressure on AT&T. Sure, that part may not work effectively, because AT&T doesn't want cheaper competition to work TOO well, now do they? Sort of like back in the '90s when Microsoft purposefully put bugs in their operating system to so competing office software would not run correctly... (Yeah, they did it and years later enough evidence was uncovered they paid a large settlement, but at that point it was too late for the competitor.)

AT&T has no incentive to fix the problem quickly and even may have caused the problem on purpose. (AT&T are not good guys, you know.)

So really we are back to point #1. At least Straight Talk should admit there's a network side problem upstream with AT&T, instead of making customers run endless loops with the script monkeys in customer service.

__________
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GT-i9250).

[cooter55]

prolly in all honesty it is both st and att fault

[getyup]

no what is funny is getting that mad over $45.now that is funny )))

The funny part is you switched to Straight Talk to save about half or so ($45) over the competition, so CLEARLY $45 a month is a big deal or you wouldn't have gone through the steps to switch, so take your foot out of your mouth and stop acting like a trolling idiot.

I would be equally mad if my service cost me $5 per month. I don't care if it's $5 a month or $500 a month, if I'm not getting what I pay for, why am I paying a company to provide the service? I could use that money for another Starbucks or something, at least then I'd be getting something for my money.

[getyup]

While you're correct that it is ST's problem, we all seem to agree that ST has no ability to actually go in and fix the problem. However, ST is a very large company and has tremendous legal resources. Most of ST's U.S. based employees, including those in ST's legal department, use their service. The higher ups are probably aware of this problem and are undoubtedly demanding that AT&T compensate ST for the failure to provide the guaranteed level of service. While I doubt that ST will pass those savings along to us, I'm confident that they are pressuring AT&T to get the problem fixed.

Exactly, people don't get it. Usually when your internet goes down at home, it's an issue with the provider's provider (who your cable company buys internet from). Obviously they can't touch their vendor's product, but they have contracts in place with them just as end users have contracts in place with carriers. Any reputable carrier has a SLA (service level agreement) with their providers, and clearly it's been breached here. Straight Talk just needs to enforce it with AT&T. I have been in contracts with providers' providers for years, so it's very common. We get beat up by our customers all the time, and they have a right to do so when we fail to meet our SLAs

[ChazzMatt]

Exactly, people don't get it. Usually when your internet goes down at home, it's an issue with the provider's provider (who your cable company buys internet from).

Not a good analogy. Think of another.

When MY internet goes down, it IS my cable provider's fault. My cable company doesn't "buy" internet from anyone. They are one of the largest ISPs in the entire world. So, when my internet goes down, yeah I blame them.

Some people's "cable" companies are also Tier 1 providers.

[getyup]

Not a good analogy. Think of another.

When MY internet goes down, it IS my cable provider's fault. My cable company doesn't "buy" internet from anyone. They are one of the largest ISPs in the entire world. So, when my internet goes down, yeah I blame them.

They've even built their own private "internet" for digital voice calls.

What a misguided comment. You may want to search "peering" because your "provider" isn't your sole provider.

[ChazzMatt]

I have searched peering.

Read my revised comment, which makes it clearer. Some people's ISPs are also Tier 1 providers. Maybe YOUR backwater ISP buys their Internet from other providers...

Your analogy is bad. Think of another. If you can't comprehend that you know nothing about internet providers. Go Google Tier 1 providers.

[bpaulson]

While it's frustrating how bad data had gotten it appears to be working better so far today.

I'm not sure if these are growing pains for AT&T's mvno business but it's quite clear they haven't got their act together.

I wish Verizon let straight talk bring their own phones as I'd be all over that... You don't hear of any of the other customers on Verizon, tmobile or sprint complaining about spotty data.

[Jonathan Warner]

I have had data issues for about two weeks now...started about the same time as everyone else on this forum. Never had problems texting or making phone calls, but today I cannot even make phone calls. It shows 5 bars Extended and it goes down to 1 periodically. Starting to miss Verizon.

Is this still a network issue or is it possible there might be something wrong with my phone?

[Jonathan Warner]

I guess Straight Talk and At&t heard my complaints. About 5 minutes later not only can I call, but data has been restored. I hope it lasts...

[cooter55]

The funny part is you switched to Straight Talk to save about half or so ($45) over the competition, so CLEARLY $45 a month is a big deal or you wouldn't have gone through the steps to switch, so take your foot out of your mouth and stop acting like a trolling idiot.

I would be equally mad if my service cost me $5 per month. I don't care if it's $5 a month or $500 a month, if I'm not getting what I pay for, why am I paying a company to provide the service? I could use that money for another Starbucks or something, at least then I'd be getting something for my money.

simmer down,you are about to boil over.if you have a starbucks then you live where the big 4 cell providers are available.it is a free country,if you dont like the customer service where you at leave and go down the street to another store.

[benjamin.kelley]

Something crossed my mind this morning when I came across an article. You know AT&T just rolled out facetime over 3G/4G for its new data share plans...and the article this morning was about AT&Ts statement they just came and made about their network not being able to handle facetime over cellular because of the overwhelming about of iPhone users on its network much like what happened when they released the iPhone is 2007 and just about brought the network to its knees because it couldn't handle that many new activations and such a sudden load of users. Went on to explain why why they made facetime over cellular only available to customers on a limited shared data plan to keep it under control.

I wonder if this is why their network has been having data issues the past few weeks. Just can't handle this new feature would in reality would be a huge data hog of a feature. Anywho, the articles is over on Engadget.
Sent from my Venue Pro via the HowardForums WP7 App

[cooter55]

Something crossed my mind this morning when I came across an article. You know AT&T just rolled out facetime over 3G/4G for its new data share plans...and the article this morning was about AT&Ts statement they just came and made about their network not being able to handle facetime over cellular because of the overwhelming about of iPhone users on its network much like what happened when they released the iPhone is 2007 and just about brought the network to its knees because it couldn't handle that many new activations and such a sudden load of users. Went on to explain why why they made facetime over cellular only available to customers on a limited shared data plan to keep it under control.

I wonder if this is why their network has been having data issues the past few weeks. Just can't handle this new feature would in reality would be a huge data hog of a feature. Anywho, the articles is over on Engadget.
Sent from my Venue Pro via the HowardForums WP7 App

now this makes sense.

[jebr]

I've noticed that changing my DNS servers on my phone away from the default (and to OpenDNS, in my case) help with the connectivity issue. DNS Changer on Android does this, if that's your phone's OS.

It's doubly frustrating here because AT&T, in general, is having issues here as of late (as in their issues aren't limited to MVNO subscribers, but also to direct AT&T customers).