Well, it’s been five days since Google began taking orders for the Nexus One, and in those five days, many people have had a chance to test out the N1 on T-Mobile’s service. Unfortunately, it appears that many people are having issues with their 3G coverage with the N1. Now, sometimes it’s hard to determine the exact extent of a problem based off internet support forums, but considering it’s been about five days, well four for most since it takes a day for delivery, it could be a big problem.Many people have been reporting that their N1 will not maintain a 3G connection and often switch to EDGE even when other phones, sitting right next to their N1 on T-Mobile’s network are pulling in 3G just fine. There is an article on Gizmodo with a user posting a nice image of their G1 next to their N1 and while the G1 is on 3G the N1 is reporting EDGE.
N1 and G1 Reception
There are some 141 comments on that article with some users reporting the same problems and others reporting no problems at all. Could this be a hardware issue or a firmware issue? Hopefully is this is a real problem it can up fixed with a timely update.
Meanwhile on Engadget there is another article stating Google’s support forums are getting bloated with complaint about 3G service with the N1. There is a quote taken from an interview today with All Things D:
In an interview today at All Things D here at CES, Walt Mossberg mentioned the support problems to which Andy Rubin replied “we have to get better at customer service”…
I’d say so. I’m not sure Google has the customer service part of this figured out. Sure, hardware questions should be directed toward HTC and service questions directed to T-Mobile. However, I think having different entities support different aspects of a phone can lead to too much frustration, as I could see one company blaming the other and vice verse. In an article from nexus404.com a user has had some issues with both HTC and T-Mobile’s support:
Interestingly one user who has contacted HTC directly was helpfully told to direct questions to T-Mobile – which would indicate, it would seem, that HTC suspect that the issue may lay with T-Mobiles 3G network, but many remain unconvinced that this is indeed the case. That said, at least one user has reported that HTC have agreed to replace their specific handset (so who knows where the fault truly lies?).
“I upgraded from a Blackberry Pearl to the Nexus One. I cannot get any 3G service as of yet,” writes one poster. “Don’t know what the problem is. T-mobile and HTC support weren’t able to help.”
Let’s hope that this gets worked out soon, if it is software and can be fixed. If it’s hardware, I think I’ll wait a few more months to see what’s coming down the pipes.
