MobileViews Blog

Tag: AT&T Wireless

  • AT&T says cell sites greatly improved in my area (twice). Oh, really?

    On Nov. 26, 2011, AT&T Wireless sent me a text message stating that over 50 cell sites in my area had been enhanced. Did I see better coverage or data speed? Actually, since then it appears that a section of the city of about 2 miles by 0.5 miles does not have any 3G data capacity (despite phones reporting it has a 3G signal) and often no voice coverage. In other areas, voice coverage has deteriorated to the point where voice conversations are difficult to conduct for more than a few seconds at a time.

    Yesterday, Jan. 25, 2012, I received another text message from AT&T Wireless stating that a call site in my “local area” (whatever that means) was enhanced specifically for wireless Internet access. Oh really? The Speedtest.net app reported a ping time of 432ms (very slow), 0.16 Mbps download (that’s 160Kbps) and 0.06 Mbps upload (that 60 Kbps or nearly analog modem speed). This is actually far worse than it was before the enhancement.

    To say the least, I am not impressed by AT&T’s “enhancements” to their cell towers.

  • Podcast 39: Nuance Speech to Text Powering AT&T Voicemail to Text Service – John Pollard/GM

    In Podcast 39 I speak with Nuance Communications General Manager John Pollard about the their speech-to-text techology that powers the recently announced AT&T Wireless Voicemail to Text service (a $9.99 per month service).

    – John Pollard technology industry background
    – Information about Nuance
    – How AT&T Voicemail to Text works
    – Value proposition?

    Audio quality note: John and I bought had problems with Skype the morning of the podcast (December 4). So, I used my LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen to record the discussion from a conventional phone call. I used an HTC Touch Pro2 (Windows Mobile 6.1) phone on my side of the conversation. I mixed the stereo audio recorded by the pen’s headset down to mono so that John’s voice could be heard over both speakers instead of just the left channel.

    This podcast is 21 minutes and 41 seconds long.

    – You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
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