By now most of the US has seen or at least heard of Verizon’s ad campaign ‘There’s a Map for That’. Unfortunately At&t didn’t appreciate the ads and eventually filed a case in federal court against Big Red because they believed the maps were being misinterpreted by consumers to think that At&t did not offer any data service in the white areas of their 3G coverage map. To help set the record straight, the PR team from At&t has released a statement breaking down the facts of the carrier’s data network.
At&t’s 3G network currently reaches 233 million people or 75% of the population while their slower EDGE data network reaches 301 million people or over 96% of the population and finally their GPRS data network, the slowest of the three, reaches 303 million people. The purpose of the press release was simple, let the nation know that At&t offers data services that cover 97% of the US population. Unfortunately this does not address the less than stellar reception I have on my iPhone 3GS at home, but at least I can rest well knowing I could have data services if reception permits.
On a side note, many people who use CDMA networks such as Sprint and Verizon Wireless might find it interesting to note that At&t devices with 3G service are capable of sending and receiving data while talking at the same time.
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