Someone has to get this fixed.....

I wrote the FCC and Two US Senators about this issue....You cant dial 911 or anything when the system overflows.   Something has to be done...

From Sun Sept 12,2010 Tuscaloosa Alabama News

Football fans blast ATT’s network

Complaints center on delayed text messages, slow connections

By Wayne Grayson Staff Writer

Published: Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 12:20 a.m.

Billboards around town and ads scrolling across the LCD strips and big screens at Bryant-Denny Stadium boast that “The Tide rolls with AT&T.”

Even the headset Alabama football coach Nick Saban uses to communicate with his coaching staff during games depicts the wireless carrier’s logo.

But as the Crimson Tide took on San Jose State on Sept. 4 under the lights of Bryant-Denny, Saban and his coaches were one of the few with a connection.

Numerous reports of gameday trouble with AT&T’s network were reported, to the Tuscaloosa News and to AT&T representatives in Alabama.

Responses on the Tuscaloosa News’ Facebook and Twitter pages show that the troubles fans experienced were far-ranging. Some had trouble across campus, others were only affected within the stadium, while a few couldn’t use their phones anywhere in Tuscaloosa.

The complaints include dropped calls, slow or absent data connections, delayed notification of phone calls and text messages. Some had periods of no service at all.

The problem is traffic congestion, specifically from data-hungry smart phones, on towers inside the stadium and on campus, said AT&T southeast region spokeswoman Sue Sperry.

Sperry said AT&T’s troubles are more apparent than other carriers’ because more smart phone users use AT&T, including many who use the iPhone, which has an exclusive contract with AT&T.

“The majority of customers on the UA campus for gameday are our customers,” she said. “We are by far the smart phone leader, and when you have a smart phone, you don’t want to just make a phone call or send a text.

“The problems come when you’ve got everybody assembled together on campus ... the current demand exceeds what we’re able to handle.”

In April, AT&T announced it was planning upgrades to towers on campus in addition to a distributed antenna system near the stadium that would relieve the heavy demand on campus towers by pushing it to other towers around the city.

And while the carrier recently increased the traffic capacity its towers can handle in Tuscaloosa, Sperry said the launch of the distributed antenna system is on a timetable that only UA can determine.

“The only thing that’s going to solve the stadium problem is the distributed antenna system,” Sperry said. “We’ve done a site survey and design for that. We have our part of it budgeted and designed.

“But this project is managed by the university because they want all of the carriers involved.”

Asked who at the university was in charge of the project and whether there was a timeline for completion, UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen said she did not know but would try to find out. She had not responded by press time.

Ryan Marks works a concession stand inside the stadium during games. He said his Samsung Captivate 3G smart phone was stuck on AT&T’s slower EDGE data connection all day. He said he also was unable to receive or make calls until around 10 that night.

“I usually get a 3G connection everywhere in town,” he said. “If we need to call for supplies, our phones are our medium to reach out to the support team.

“I actually gave up and had to use one of the landline phones in the stadium, but it was broken. It’s sad because you’d think they’d want to have the best coverage available for the event they’re sponsoring.”

Michael Spilotro is a UA alumnus and was visiting campus from Washington, D.C., for the game. His iPhone’s data connection slowed and he said he saw a 30-minute delay in his text messages.

“I was staying at the HomeTowne Suites (on Veterans Memorial Parkway) and I was having no problems there,” he said. “I didn’t start having problems until I got into the stadium. I was texting and receiving text messages, no problem. But as soon as I got into the stadium, that’s when things got shady.”

Sperry said AT&T is aware of its customers’ gameday woes and assured fans the problem was being worked on.

“We’ve doubled our (traffic) capacity in Tuscaloosa this year and we’ve spend nearly $200 million on upgrades across Alabama,” she said.

Buzz up!