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Verizon's Anti-iPhone PR Campaign

by: Sam Gustin August 26, 2008 | about stocks: AAPL / IFX / T / VZ    

Sam Gustin

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For the last few weeks, tech reporters have been receiving a steady stream of dispatches from Verizon's (VZ) PR department highlighting articles about the iPhone's service troubles.

The cell-phone giant clearly smells blood in the water, and has wasted no time pouncing on the PR hit that the iPhone has been taking.

Just last week, Apple (AAPL) vwas slapped with a class-action lawsuit over the iPhone's reception problems, which have been attributed to chip-maker Infineon (IFX).

"Apple and AT&T (T) seem to be tossing a minor chipmaker, Infineon, under the bus," a Verizon spokesperson wrote in an email. "But Infineon didn't make the phone, market the phone, build the network, sell the phone, sell AT&T service. Customers don't pay their monthly bill to Infineon. This is about responsibility. Who do you write your monthly check to?"

Among the subject headings of the various missives:

  • "Another negative iPhone/AT&T story"
  • "iPhone down the drain"
  • "iPhone dropping calls like flies"
  • "iPhone Hating"

Now comes word that Verizon has been briefing its own employees with anti-iPhone talking points. Gizomodo has unearthed a confidential, internal document in which Verizon debunks what it calls "3G iPhone myths." Among them, "iPhone 3G is now twice as fast," and "the new iPhone 3G is half the price."

Memo to Verizon: Maybe you guys should be focused on improving your own products, like, say, making sure they aren't a public safety hazard.

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This article has 10 comments:

  •  
    Aug 26 08:01 AM
    The Infineon chipset is mature and works well on other phones. This appears to be an ATT issue.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 26 09:43 AM
    My new iPhone works great here in Canada (on the Rogers network). No reception issues at all.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 26 10:38 AM
    Well, I've had my iphone (3g) now for 4 days. For whatever reason, I left the Apple store with 2.0.1. On my way home I had one dropped call. Since updating to 2.0.2 I haven't experienced any drops. The Iphone itself is awesome, there's so many cool functions and applications, however I do have to agree that the ATT service is crap (I'm coming from Verizon which I've had for the last 7 or 8 years). I'm barely able to get 3G, when I have it it's usually 1 bar which is sqaut. On Edge, even with a full signal, I can't get page loads on Safari or connect to Itunes to search apps. Edge is pretty much like having a very poor dial up connection. I'm hoping that the 3G issue is more just localized around my house as I'm on vacation this week so I haven't yet been able to test the network from my normal everyday locations. Hopefully when I'm at the shore over the next few days I'll be able to get a clear 3G signal. Other than ATT's network, I love the phone, I just wish we were free to choose the carrier.


    Reply
  •  
    Aug 26 11:39 AM
    I agree with Rob L. It's definitely more of an AT&T problem. I get bad reception probably half the time I talk on the phone whether it's on my wife's phone or mine.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 26 11:45 AM
    Verizon's campaign seems to indicate that they are feeling the impact of iPhone and AT&T. While the iPhone/AT&T combo is not flawless (3G drops, 3G/fetch battery life, app instability bug), Verizon still has no handset that competes.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 26 11:47 AM
    @Rob L. I have had one of the original (Edge) iPhones for over a year now, and lately in Manhattan the Edge service has deteriorated to what you describe it. It wasn't like that over the past year though -- most of the time Edge was surprisingly fast.

    I have a feeling that AT&T's data network in NYC is absolutely overwhelmed right now -- 3G, Edge, doesn't matter. They really, really need to upgrade their infrastructure, especially in major cities.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 27 11:51 AM
    Verizon should worry about themselves, their EVDO is a mess at times. Calls all ok but data drops at times are every 15 minutes. Consistenly good some days, consistently bad others. And coverage outside major metros is non-existent, at least in the upper midwest.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 27 01:54 PM
    Was anyone else experiencing trouble with Verizon's service yesterday? It went out for a good amount of time yesterday, but I don't know what the range was. I heard people calling up on the radio to say it would be down, but I dont know what county's or state's this was limited too.
    Reply
  •  
    Aug 28 07:48 AM
    AT&T service is horrible, you can't mask that with a great phone.
    Reply
  •  
    Sep 01 12:43 AM
    I am not an iPhone owner yet. I do plan to buy it, sometime in a future when I see it works as good as it should. For now I visit Apple store to check up how it works (if it works). The anecdotal situation happened today. I went to the Apple store (Albany, NY), played with their 3G phones trying to accomplish very simple task: being connected to the 3G network to visit apple.com site on the phone’s Safari browser. 3G signal shows full strength, all bars are displayed. I can visit google.com. But apple.com (as well as some other random sites) – is impossible to visit. The salesperson asks me if I have any questions (I am in the store by that time for about 25-30 minutes). So I say that the only question I have is how come none of the 3G phones are unable to visit apple.com and other sites and I am trying for half an hour? He takes the phone, tries to change some settings. No success. He takes his personal iPhone out of his pocket and goes to apple.com successfully. Shows me proudly the screen and reports that he could do it. I point out to him that his phone is displaying EDGE indicator. I am asking him about the 3G network. All phones on the display show full 3G signal strength but still none could connect to anything other than google. He could only say that “they” probably doing some maintenance. I did not even bother to dive into the topic about who “they”. Very, very disappointing.
    Reply
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