I have been a long ATT Mobility customer for a few years. My first phone was blackberry curve (8310) and it was ok for web browsking and tethering but little slow. I could listen to stream music or view webpages on fast moving train without loosing a connection. The voice quality at the beginning was not too great but later it improved.
Now I got Iphone 4 from Apple Store and the process of setting up and activating was easy but somewhat took little long mainly due to waitline. I purchased that device to have near laptop-like portable Internet in my pocket. Comparing to EDGE, HSPA is a lot faster. Web pages and maps load fast. I noticed average speed between 1.2Mb/s - 2.1Mb/s down and 600kb/s - 1.4Mb/s up.
The phone often shows less bars of coverage than my old smartphone but I have no trouble making calls and they are about the same in quality as with my previous. I ordered a free case and see if it improves reception. So far I have not experienced a death grip issue like many people complain. In area with a perfect coverage I could hold the iphone anyway I liked and not notice a change.
My only complain is low caps and expensive overages on data plan. For now I ordered just 200MB to save little money for now since I can watch videos/stream music on wi-fi and on the go use offline tunes. However, in my opinion they should offer a lot more than 200 MB for the price they currently offer. It can be easily add up in overage charges if you are on road drip.
I tested streaming music from pandora on 3g and it ran smoothly. Be aware than a half hour of streaming music can easily eat over 25 Mb.
Overall great service and great smartphone but little pricey.
P.S Once you pick a smartphone and get "portable internet" you never wanna go back to a simple phone. Its very handy when you need to access the internet and don't have a quick access to your computer and don't have time to drive back home or look for a library. Its so much easier to carry around smartphone/pda in your pocket than a laptop or netbook in your backpack or suitcase.
UPDATE 09/28/2010
Got the case and it little improves reception. When I turn off 3G, it picks more bars than my old Blackberry!
Bloomingdale,Dupage,IL
$60 per month
"consistent coverage, not bad in chicago area"
"could improve outdoor coverage in some suburbs and upgrade towers to improve speed"
"choose wisely and always check coverage before getting the service"
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