There has been a lot of press about high-profile tech folks giving up their iPhones because of dissatisfaction with the network quality, or with the way apps have been handled.
Om Malik of GigaOM was among the first to ditch the iPhone because he got disgusted with dropped calls. Then Michael Arrington gave up his iPhone, mostly because of how Apple handled the Google Voice app for the iPhone, but also because of dissatisfaction with call quality, dropped calls, and lack of signal. More recently, developer Alex King has tried doing without his iPhone and BB Storm, although he is giving the AT&T Network one more chance before making a decision.
All 3 of these folks are in the Western United States, where AT&T and Sprint have poor JD Power quality ratings. In fact, AT&T doesn’t do very well in any of the regions, and doesn’t have the best quality in any of them.
In my case, I specifically chose to stay with AT&T when my 2-year contract ended a couple of months ago, and to renew the contract specifically so I could get the iPhone. If AT&T had not had the iPhone, I would have gone with Verizon, which has by far the best performance in the SouthEast region. And, if I were working instead of being retired, I would have gone with Verizon regardless of them not having an iPhone, because a good network while traveling is more important to me than the “coolness” of a particular phone.
What about you? Did you choose your carrier because it offered a specific device, because of its network performance quality, for its pricing structure, or for some other reason?