After a few tests, the Apple Genius determined that Manoj’s phone was dropping 22 percent of its calls, which turns out to actually be “excellent” compared to most iPhone users in the New York area, where a dropped call rate of 30 percent is said to be average.

image © Gizmodo

The article goes on to say that an iPhone in the NYC area that drops three out of every ten calls is considered “fully functional,” and that the issue is “consistent with the service provided by AT&T.” My two take-aways:

1. AT&T is really turning into a millstone around the neck of the iPhone. The arrangement worked when the iPhone launched and Apple needed someone to heavily subsidize the hardware to promote early adoption and a wide install base. But now they’re stuck with a carrier that couldn’t even get freakin’ picture mail to work until late 2009. And if the network is solely responsible for causing the primary function of the device to fail 30% of the time, that’s going to make it tough for the iPhone to remain competitive against all of the also-rans, which might have inferior hardware, but they’re running on superior networks—networks that don’t soak you for a $30 monthly data plan that doesn’t even include text messaging.
2. I assume that the Apple Genius Bar follows some pretty strict protocols about the information that they give out and the way that it’s presented. So if you’ve got Apple’s own Geniuses throwing AT&T under the bus, I have to think that the writing is on the wall. I would not be shocked to see AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity come to an end within the next 12 months, unless something big changes soon.

The telecommunications company knows its wireless network is the scourge of iPhone owners, so it’s just posted a YouTube video of an empathetic, long-haired geek named “Seth” to explain how hard it has been for the company to keep up with the torrid growth in smartphone subscriptions. You know what else is hard, “Seth?” Spending $100 per month for crappy service.

More than 20 million other smartphone users are on the AT&T network, but other phones do not drain the network the way the nine million iPhones users do. Indeed, that is why the howls of protest are more numerous in the dense urban areas with higher concentrations of iPhone owners.

“It’s almost worthless to try and get on 3G during peak times in those cities,” Mr. Munster said, referring to the 3G network. “When too many users get in the area, the call drops.” The problems seem particularly pronounced in New York and San Francisco, where Mr. Munster estimates AT&T’s network shoulders as much as 20 percent of all the iPhone users in the United States.

image © New York Times

Honestly, since I got my 3GS a couple of months ago (upgrading from a 2G iPhone), I haven’t noticed any decline in data or call quality. If anything, it’s improved across the board, and it’s miles better than the service I had on the Sprint smartphone that predated my iPhone.

Then again, I live and work in the relatively sleepy metropolis of Portland, not the tech Sodom and Gomorrah of NY and San Fran. But since most tech media is centered in one of those two cities, that helps to explain the pervasive anti-AT&T vibe that I’ve never quite understood.

That being said, AT&T promised MMS functionality by “the end of summer” (and yes, it’s completely ridiculous that the world’s awesomest futurephone still doesn’t have native picture mail). By my reckoning, that gives AT&T about 19 more days to get their act together. If I’m not able to text pictures of my drunk friends to their spouses’ phones by then, I’m drinking the AT&T Haterade.

UPDATE: AT&T says that MMS will be enabled on iPhones via a software update on September 25th. That’s four days late, AT&T! Four days late!!