We recently wrote about a Consumer Reports survey that ranked AT&T as the worst among the big four wireless carriers in the US.
Apparently, AT&T is already taking steps to address their shortcomings. The company has now launched an application on the App Store that enables users to notify AT&T of areas where the network is spotty.
Called 'Mark the Spot', this free iPhone app lets you specifically indicate if you had a dropped call, failed call, loss of coverage, data failure or simply poor voice quality from any particular location. The company explains the intention behind the application on the app page
"AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best network experience possible. This application will help contribute towards this goal and its utilization is greatly appreciated."
Is this merely a PR stunt to portray the company's commitment towards their customers or is this a genuine attempt at improving AT&T's congested networks? The company won't tell. But this is surely a pretty commendable way to directly get the subscribers to help the carrier in prioritizing its future infrastructure upgrades.
However, this is probably the closest AT&T has come to a candid admission of their poor service levels and the app could be fodder to Verizon's marketing team who probably are already working on their next attack ad. If you are a frustrated subscriber planning to use the service to spam AT&T about the repeated loss of coverage from your location, AT&T has already pointed out that any particular complaint from a subscriber will be registered only once.
It will be interesting to see how AT&T acts upon these complaints. By the way, if you are wondering what if the network is so poor that the complaint itself cannot be sent, fret not. The app also lets you to report past incidents from another location.
How do you like the iPhone app? Do you think this is a step in the right direction? Please tell us in the comments.
Download Link [iTunes]
[via Boy Genius Report]
