While 3G, or third generation, wireless technology is not the current state of the art, it is far better than anything else we’ve seen in this area.
We have been highly critical of AT&T’s cellular service in recent months, and it’s only fair that when the company makes a significant improvement we respond with significant praise.
We expect excellent service from a company of the size and history of AT&T, but we don’t generally expect such a company to respond to complaints.
AT&T acknowledged that it had a serious problem, not only in Talladega, but across most of the state. The president of AT&T in Alabama paid a visit to Talladega and promised improvements. Since then, the company has been forthcoming about the extent of the problems, its remedy plan and the expected timeline for putting the plan in place.
A spokesman for the company explained that a planned upgrade to the Talladega tower had to be put off when AT&T workers discovered that it needed repairs, but the upgraded service went into effect late Monday. The spokesman, Mike Barger of the public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, said that fine tuning over the next three weeks would optimize the 3G service in Talladega.
An e-mail from Barger on Wednesday, however, brought the unhappy announcement that network enhancements in other areas are not likely to come online before the end of the year. Cities on this list include Pell City, Lincoln, Eastaboga, Childersburg and Sylacauga as well as several others nearby in Calhoun and St. Clair counties.
The company had said in November that all these sites would have the enhancements in place by the end of the year.
“We apologize for the inconvenience, but would like to assure our customers that we’re working diligently toward having these ready as soon as possible.”
Under other circumstances, we’d disparage such a statement as more of the same run-around. But in light of the commitment from company President Fred McCallum and the follow-through with 3G service in Talladega, we are willing to give AT&T the benefit of the doubt.
