Analyst says iPhone is lifeblood of AT&T success - Page 3

I am starting to come around to this type of thinking. If Verizon insists on
crippling the iPhone, or adding nickel and dime charges for iPhone
features, or interfering with seamless access to iPhone apps on iTunes, these
will be negative comparison points relative to their competitors. If people
want to stick with Verizon, in spite of these types of shortcomings, and if
Verizon pays Apple the same subsidy as AT&T, maybe it would all be good.

The biggest stumbling block is probably Apple's requirement for a superior
overall user experience. They have already been blamed for some of AT&T's
shortcomings, so they may not want to be blamed for those of other phone
companies, in addition.

You might think that or you might think, with so many tech-type people
living in a small area, that the demands on AT&T's bandwidth are exceptionally
large, and this causes the lack of reliability you cite.

I can't speak to Verizon because I left them 5 years ago. I can, however, speak to AT&T, because I have had AT&T for five years now, and AT&T sucks the rigid wank of Satan.

Their cavalier use of the word "service" to describe what they provide is the most lying, out and out fraudulent deception in the history of mankind. "Service to His Darkest Lord" would be a better description.

AT&T is every bit the agent of the Devil himself that spiders and poodles are, and anybody who does not recognize that either lives within 20 miles of their corporate HQ, is a waterhead, or never personally used a phone on the Devil's Network.

You get out of YOUR fantasy world, Zohan, and smell what the Jobs is cookin':


AT&T goes away as soon as that contract ends. The secrecy is simply there to keep Wall Street from knowing too much too early.

No it is not, CDMA/EVDO only has a 10% market share

What's clear is that AT&T's quality of service is subjective and based on where you live. So, some people get crappy service (as I did in NYC), and some people are getting great service.


C'mon, that's rude, not to mention against forum rules.

That means ATT has you for two more years. Lots can happen during that time to keep you going as an ATT customer!

How does one get that fish image as wallpaper -- it has been around in ads and media from Day 1, but Apple has never offered it!

Try here.

Youre going to kick yourself for asking that question. Just save the image and to your photos and then make it your wallpaper.

http://images.google.com/images?clie...N&hl=en&tab=wi

Heh heh. Thanks.

I don't think so. Unless everyone living in Silicon Valley is up at 3:00 a.m. downloading porn to their iPhones.

I have been on AT&T for about a year now, and no matter what time of night or day, I get lousy service. Besides, your theory doesn't account for losing connections every time you pass a specific location, or their lack of coverage in certain areas -- like where my house is located. Even AT&T admits their coverage isn't so stellar. If you go to their coverage map and enter any Silicon Valley address or zip and look around, you'll find plenty areas where coverage is "moderate" -- their term for "shit" (their scale being Best - Good - Moderate - No Service).

http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/

Although I appreciate your dramatic hyperbole, I think the best you can hope for is for
the iPhone to be offered on more cell networks in addition to AT&T.
I don't think they will go away.

Too bad they didn't have that map before you signed up and so sad you didn't discover
the problem during the period when you could have returned the phone for a refund.
Please keep us all posted regularly on how you are feeling about it.

Why is it everone thinks going to CDMA is such a hard thing? The way people make it sound, you would think a CDMA chip has never been invented. There is no inventing, buy it from Qualcomm. You can buy them yourself if you want.

The other issue is people say it is only good for the US if you make it CDMA. Not really, there are many other countries that CDMA or GSM/CDMA mix ( you know...China for example...the country that has more population than the rest of the world ).

And do you really think its impossible to build a phone with both CDMA and GSM radios? It is and has been done for a while.

The people that say it can't and won't be done are the GSM/ATT fanboys that this is their last gleaming hope of being someone very special.

Going to just Verizon would open the potential to 80 million plus customers....let alone the other CDMA carriers in the world.

If you think Apple is going to keep its exclusivity with ATT just to be nice and turn its back on hundreds of millions to possibly billions more dollars, you are nutz. They love making money just like any other company.

I look for VZW to announce the iPhone or something similar from Apple when the LTE networks are promoted.

LTE will use a SIM style card, but, it will not allow just taking the device from one carrier to another like with GSM. I believe their plans are to use CDMA as the backbone for the voice and low speed data and the LTE for higher speed.

As for which is better, VZW touts the Most Reliable network. I believe this is true, but, it mostly depends on your location. Some providers have better service than others in certain locations. To be fair, I have seen areas where a small local regional carrier had better coverage than any of the Big 4.

Dude- Ok- Let get the record straight.
1.) The 3 highlighted items- I have never ever stated. You keep stating the 3rd over and over and I have repeatedly asked you to prove it. I hope the monitors make note of this. You have made this claim at least 3 times in the last month without showing where I've said that. You can't keep stating things that are not truth.
2.) Over the last 6 months , many things have occurred that you have stated were either not in Apple's business model, not needed, etc, etc. these are:

a.) A small formed professional laptop. You've stated the MBA was the extent of that quest. and guess what- we now have a 13" MacBook PRO.
b) iPhone got MMS Texting, video, voice recognition- all things that you've stated were not wanted. Meanwhile this version of iPhone is selling at an unbelievable rate. Other and not just me thought they were important enough to hold out until it got it.
c.) Firewire is back on the 13: - again you said it wasn't gonna happen.
d.) Matte screens- you keep insisting that the 17" matte was some kind of experiment????You still do not get it. It is what many professionals want and got. Many just don't want a high gloss display- Apple listened! It's really not that hard to comprehend. And now matte will probably return across the line as it should have never left.
e.) AT&T is second rate compared to Verizon. Do you have stock in AT&T as well as Apple? You must because you are in major denial. AT&T is always rated at or near the bottom. I'm hoping that I have a better experience than others have. I think the new 3Gs iPhone helps out a lot. It is really fast, etc. The AT&T rate seems kind of excessive but I've budgeted for it - so I'm not worried.
You really need to get a grip on reality and face the fact the although mine and other's requests are being met by Apple , your dismissals are simply being dismissed.

I don't think he understood what I was asking so he posts some flippant answer. I was curious how iPhones received texts prior to 3.0 - I think text works great on my new phone.

Check it out yourself. http://www.cellreception.com/

Though it's possible for Apple to make a CDMA iPhone, I agree it's unlikely. As such we would need to compare the overall quality of Verizon's LTE, against AT&T's LTE+3G+GSM networks. AT&T would likely win that in the short term!

That said, it is _possible_ that Apple will make an LTE+CDMA phone. I think that's more likely a backup plan and bargaining chip with AT&T.


Competition is great. In Australia Telstra has the best coverage and costs a bit more than AT&T for the iPhone. Three other networks also offer the iPhone, and at much cheaper rates. The low end sweet spot is the 16GB iPhone 3GS for free on a <US$60 plan (2 year contract). Lots of voice minutes provided but only 1GB of data.

All carriers offer MMS, but only Vodafone offers Visual Voicemail & free tethering.

ps.
In general, it's a pity that we're seeing too many big companies buy each other up rather than give us lots of competition.

Since when Sprint has good service?? it is the only phone carrier that constantly lose subscribers..do they leave because they have good service. I was with Sprint 3 years and had to constantly battling with problems.

I don't see iPhone for Verizon anytime soon, but I can't miss a chance to rant about AT&T. The 3G service in coastal LA is a real joke.

I get 3G about 15-20% of the time. I'm on GPRS (2.5G) another 10-15% of the time; the rest is EDGE (2.75G) of course. And even when I supposedly do have a 3G signal, stable connections are truly a rarity.

Here's hoping for more choices next year.

If Verizon et al are busy adding support for 4G GSM, I hope that support includes support for older GSM technologies, since otherwise it will limit the number of roaming customers and handsets they have access to in the beginning. Access to roaming customers is one big reason to support GSM: the provide additional income from customers traveling abroad and international phone users using the network while present.

As to quality of service, they all rock and they all suck. Many cell phone companies seem fine, until you deal with customer service and then it depends on the person you are dealing with. On the other hand preventing access to features of your cell phone is one way to displease customers. As to network speeds, the number of customers making heavy data use is going to have an impact on the speed and in many ways I don't think many cell phone companies to expect such a high data usage, though they should now.

The biggest mistake verizon ever
made was not getting the iphone.

This will be a decade long highlight on how not to run a high tech phone company.


9

But don't you think it could also be a mistake for AT&T? Thank god AT&T helped start the iPhone but once APple pulls the plug or goes multi-carrier in the US , AT&T will be in much worse shape than Verizon. Don't you think? I mean Verizon will suffer in the short term but AT&T will in the long term.

I rarely have a problem with dropped calls. The problem normally would be in connecting the call in the first place. But you are right in the middle of the day in Manhattan, the 3G data is either slow or nonexistent.

New York is a particular situation that doesn't exist in most places. The New York metro area has 20 million people and one of the highest concentrations of iPhones in the world. It's unknown how any network would deal with the load.

As though no one thought AT&T had network problems before you?

Wow, I wasn't aware that all other cell phone manufacturers ceased production and Apple is now the sole provider of mobile phones.

Fascinating...

Huh? Yeah, they don't have coverage in Metro (if you want to whine about FCC intervention for unfair competitive practices, how about exclusive deals for tower placement?) but AT&T is the only carrier that penetrates the building I work in. Since I switched last August I've had two dropped calls. I get decent speed on data not only in DC but in Northern VA, even in the extreme western edge where I live.

There is no perfect carrier - I've had no significant issues with AT&T vs. Sprint (my previous provider) or vs. Verizion (previous work phone).

There's the problem -- attitude.

I'm astonished the if the people in ATandT are aware of how much their business depends on iPhone's!

The attitude of the two companies couldn't be more different.

Apple is innovative and gives stellar service with iPhone (if a little restrictive with developers) whereas ATandT gives appalling 3G service (especially in the LA area) and gouges its customers with restrictions on access designed to chisel as much money as possible -- consider travel abroad, or using the iPhone as a modem to a lap-top.

The argument might run -- greed is good and ATandT is beholden to its shareholders, but I am not pleased with my treatment, not only with the iPhone agreement but other nickle and dimeing to death that ATandT marketing dreams up to bundle and foist upon their clientele.

I am divesting myself of as much ATandT stuff as I can -- a combination of Magic Jack and PinCity does well to reduce the hemorraging. I'd also like to chuck my need for a DSL modem as well. ATandT is making a ton already from my families use of two cell-phone accounts already.

Why do they want more -- and for such lousy service?

Wake up and smell the coffee ATandT! There are lots of little people, like me, who are making their own decisions...and the trend seems obvious.

Without the inclusion of massive net subscriber additions of prepaid Tracfone customers (who has a monthly average revenue per user of $13 a month) into AT&T Wireless' customer base --- AT&T has NEVER beaten Verizon since the iphone was launched.

Verizon Wireless has higher total ARPU than AT&T Wireless, has higher data ARPU than AT&T Wireless, has much higher profit margin than AT&T Wireless...

This is how you run a telephone company --- you concentrate your effort on middle class Americans.

Sorry but you quote empty no profit facts / Vernon is a fantastic company with withaa great vision for a digital future.

They still made a no signing babe ruth error .

FOR your info AT&T HAD a net gain of 2 million data subscribers. After all the churn and switching that goes on Verizon stood still. ATT gained two million high profit clients.

I like verizon allot there fios is great .i hope they get the iphone soon

peace
9.

In short, I'd like to have the iPhone on Verizon's network, using Sprint's Everything Plan, with ATT's customer service. That's your cake and eating it too

I've had the iPhone for 3 months and it's the best phone I've ever purchased. And this is coming from a former Apple hater.

I'm a Apple Tech & even I'm amazed at the type of client the iPhone has drawn. Some of Apple's product line is a hard sell due to The heavy Apple Tax but the iPhone is in a league of its own. Not only are people paying more that than I thought they ever would for just the phone but AT&T's charges are ridiculous & still millions of people are more than willing to pay. Yes, I have had an iPhone (bought used for $150) but it's not on the AT&T network & never will be. Yes, I'd like to have "3G" speeds but I've found that in more areas than you would believe the "Edge" network is almost as fast. The biggest thing is I pay less than $60 per month for unlimited minutes, web access & 200 messages. Now with the 3.0 firmware I even have SMS & tethering which most AT&T customers don't & will probably be forced to pay for. I've been waiting to see a class action filed against AT&T for not having these functions available & even more amazed that all those AT&T customers are so willing to pay for something they're not getting.

I had a supervisor put it this way. The iPhone customer is a great example of why the Economy is in the state it is. iPhone People are to willing to waste money, to willing to pay for something they're not getting (like USA Wide 3G, SMS picture Messaging, Tethering or useful apps like Google Voice) & What's worst is they never seem to evaluate the alternatives so that they can save for the future.

Obviously not you-you've always defended them left and right.

Verizon still has more data subscribers than AT&T, has higher data ARPU than AT&T, has more 3G subscribers than AT&T...

Verizon has beaten AT&T in every single quarter in terms of net subscriber additions for the last 2 years (when cheap Tracfone subscribers who pay $13 a month are taken out of AT&T's numbers) --- since the iphone was launched.

You think that the iphone subscribers are high profit clients? Not until the final numbers are compiled, then we will know for sure. 2 years into the iphone --- and we still hear wall street analysts talking about the profit margin hit. How many years does AT&T has to keep the iphone subscribers until they can raise the profit margin.

Is that devices on their network that are 3G capable, or devices on their network that pay for data plans?


High profit for Apple. At this point AT&T cant afford to lose the iPhone exclusivity, even if it means little to no profit from the device after all the associated costs are determined.

Come on people, we all know why AT&T's network is bogged down. In addition to directing digital and voice traffic to the intended recipients, they also have to siphon all that data directly into the NSA's computers. So, their network is doing double-duty 24/7.

Perhaps Apple should have partnered with a phone company that isn't helping the government and large corporations spy on Americans. Their networks won't be as bogged down.

Yes, it could be a mistake for AT&T.
The iPhone brought them customers, but has earned a bad reputation with many of those customers.

Or at least that's how it seems. Is it a really common anti-AT&T feeling amongst customers, or just in the customers interested enough in Apple to post online?



Their MMS blocks make no sense to me. And their coverage is something they're entirely responsible for.

I wouldn't criticise them for expensive roaming charges (the ALL do this, as much as I hate it). I think it's fair to minimise tethering too - AT&T provided unlimited data for iPhones which is incredibly enabling to iPhone users (we outside the US have to think about using apps which will download too much data... avoid any music over 3G unless you know what you're doing!). We get free tethering, but only 500MB of data.

I'm very surprised that AT&T got a bad rep for those, and a bad rep for subsidising the phone but not letting people drop their contract a year early (at a $200 cost to AT&T).

One thing is sure, AT&T has managed their customer perceptions badly.
And I'm not sure whether the monthly fees (for a subsidised phone) are similar, more, or less than Verizon.


So many people say that companies have a duty to their shareholders to make more money. It seems they miss 2 key issues
1) charging more doesn't mean you get more customers... it can be bad for making money!
2) if an individual/person tries to cheat us of our money, we don't say "that's okay, he has a duty to himself to make more money"... we say "I get it, I don't like him, I think what he's doing is wrong, and I will avoid dealing with him". Why is it okay or encouraged if it's a company but wrong for individuals?

If the rumor about AT&T having to manually remove the MMS blocks one subscriber at a time is true, then it makes perfect sense.

After 10 million different mergers, AT&T's backend is basically held up by scotch tape.

That is not the point my friend AFTER ALL THE CHURNING verizon overall had no net gain in subscribers.

AT&T RETAINED since they got the iphone >> 2 million high data clients . Not all of these clients bought an iphone .

Both telco's are spending billions built out to the so called 3g 4g LTE networks. And the only high profit item on the tele phone table is data charges >>> all the rest of the services have razor thin profit margins. That is why you phone bill is always confused and over billed. And they need trainloads of cash to pay for all that wire.

SO verizon can have a billion clients and still lose money ./
Verizon down the road will crush time warner ATT and all the rest with there WIRELESS DSL FIOS internet programs /

FROM verizon you will drop all landlines . YOU will bundle on the fastest network speed ever built network FIOS 50G DL. You will bundle your cell phone > your super fast DSL > and movie TV content/
And that is now. $99 a month
Coming soon with such mega mega power is that verizon has you as a client they can then sell you everything fast and cheap from their network .
VERIZON will control your phone your internet your TV and will sell to you from that perch. Verizon will spend over 22 billion when there done lighting dark fiber and stuff.

So can you now see why it was so important for VERIZON TO STRETCH ITS DIGITAL LEGS WITH THE IPHONE .
BUT watch amazon they soon will be a major player.
Amazon and verizon will soon be at war or they will merge. AT&T WILL soon merge with sprint .

peace

Verizon Wireless has a lower churn than AT&T Wireless. And Verizon Wireless has beaten AT&T Wireless in NET subscriber additions every single quarter since the iphone was launched --- when you take out the $13 a month ARPU Tracfone customers.

Verizon outspends AT&T on network infrastructure spending --- because Verizon spends less money on handset subsidies. Verizon Wireless has HIGHER data ARPU than AT&T Wireless --- AT&T relies on cheap $13 Tracfone customers for most of their net adds for the past few years.

Verizon Wireless has HIGHER profit margin than AT&T Wireless.

You WON'T drop Verizon landline --- because it's QUAD bundling. Vonage died because of bundling --- even though Vonage is cheaper than VOIP from cable companies.