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There seems to be no love lost between some customers and AT&T (News - Alert) as the carrier giant continues to struggle with network issues. For those who dearly love their iPhone - including yours truly - AT&T is the only option. Does that mean we have to settle for less than stellar performance? For now - the answer is yes.

 

A recent Wired report showed AT&T's network is floundering again with iPhone (News - Alert) users as its victims. Reportedly, over the last few days, upload speeds on the network have slowed to a crawl, registering below 100 Kbps. Can anyone say dial-up?

 

Most of the slower speeds were reported in bigger metropolises, which included New York City. iPhone users were clogging MacRumors and Gizmodo forums to report pitiful upload speeds below the 100 Kbps. One Wired.com writer, Eliot Buskirk, clocked 27 Kbps on Tuesday morning.

 

The slower downloads reportedly started on Saturday according to data provided by Ookla (News - Alert), the company behind Speedtest.net. The company's broadband testing application is installed on more than 3 million iPhones and Ookla captures data from more than 150,000 iPhone speed tests every day.

 

In Seattle, for example, users were enjoying 525 Kbps on Friday, yet the speed was reduced to 97, 131 and 101 throughout the weekend. iPhone speeds in Minneapolis were roughly 600 Kbps on Friday, yet fell to 85, 121 and 89 on average throughout the long, holiday weekend.

 

Similar results were reported in areas such as Baltimore; Boston; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Des Moines, Iowa; Detroit; Fairfax, Virginia; Houston; Kansas City, Missouri; Las Vegas; New York; Orlando, Florida; Phoenix; St. Paul, Minnesota; Salt Lake City; and Washington, D.C.

 

The degraded speeds are described by some as a cap, yet industry analysts and users alike are still unsure as to whether or not this is a network problem or a new policy. So far, AT&T is not talking, but has promised to do so soon.

 

The performance of the AT&T network has been a sore spot for iPhone users for quite some time as dropped calls and overwhelmed cell towers continue to plague the provider. While the company has tried to overcome some of these challenges with new towers, extra bandwidth and even reduced data plans on the iPhone.

 

A bigger problem, however, is that the network seems to have a problem doing what the iPhone was designed to do - which is putting people off. Sure, the iPhone still dominates and performance hasn't really hurt sales, but how long will we tolerate less than stellar performance to have the ultimate in Apple wares?