Ok, so I heard back from the AT&T corporate office WRT my complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Essentially, the AT&T rep said that unofficially he sympathized with how we're feeling, but officially AT&T's stance is that they are constantly expanding their coverage and any speeds listed always carry the caveat of "speeds up to x speed." We talked for 30 minutes and I explained that my complaint isn't with the download speeds, but only with the upload speeds. That these are up to five times slower than some 3G devices. He said that I am still within the 30 day window and that AT&T recommends that if I'm not happy with the handset, that I should return it. He said that for all he knows, the problem we are all experiencing is with the handset manufacturer and not with AT&T's service. So I asked him if he was admitting that there is a problem with the radio that Motorola and HTC use in their handsets. He said that he didn't say that and repeated that I still had about a week to make a decision about whether I wanted to return my handset.
I love the Atrix, so I don't want to return it. I said that I just want AT&T to admit that they are intentionality limiting upload speeds and explain to the consumers why. I believe that there is a perfectly reasonable justification. I really feel that they are doing it to conserve on bandwidth. I think they are allowing the iPhone 4 to keep its HSUPA speed to allow it to stream video through Facetime over 3G. I think that what they didn't think about is that the Atrix has a front facing camera too. This isn't a problem with the HTC Inspire, which doesn't have the FFC. If you try to stream video chat over 300kbps, it isn't going to look pretty.
The AT&T rep said he'll call the network engineer in my area and report back to me by tomorrow 10 Mar. I told him that as unwilling as he is to budge and give me a solid acknowledgment is just as unwilling as I am to back down on my complaint. I don't think an acknowledgment is too much to ask?
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