Rumor: Apple could announce end of AT&T iPhone exclusivity Wed. - Page 2

That is correct, unfortunately. The only two GSM carriers in the US are AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T uses the world standard for 3G (UMTS/HSDPA with some HSPA showing up) that operate on the 850, 1900, and 2100MHz frequency bands (mostly 850 and 2100 from what I have seen). T-Mobile, on the other hand, runs on an exclusive and proprietary 1700MHz band. Most 3GSM handsets do not contain the 1700MHz band (the iPhone is no exception). Only phones that are made for T-mobile's 3G contain this band (conversely, phones that are 3G on T-mobile usually do not contain the bands needed for AT&T 3G).

So the price drop almost confirms Verison is getting the iPhone.


And I suspects it will be slightly larger and a much larger iPod Touch too.


Both will come in colors.

1) Yes, we knew about Cingular’s issues long before the iPhone announcement

2) I’d say the contract is likely up in the summer, after 3 full years on the market. Foolish for AT&T to make an agreement on a phone they never saw and have it start 6 months before it goes on sale.

3) If you are going to announce the beginning of the end of the exclusivity, likely coincide with the G4 iPhone release, then an even like this would be great as you can then announce your other mobile partners to help prepare users who may be not want to get back into contracts as well as take the blanket off the corporations so they can prepare for it in the light.

4) No new carriers will go live this week and no new phones will be announced this week.

5) AT&T had been building build out before the Phone launched. The comments that they just started recently to grow their 3G are blatantly false.

6) Using the countries map to say AT&T covers no one with 3G is a fallacy. The important areas, where people live are mostly covered. I am rarely out of a 3G area. I’m tethering my iPhone right now at 3Mbps.

7) AT&T’s dropped unlimited plan was a response to Verizon doing the same thing, and nothing else.

8) If this covers the quarterly sales, new stats, then the iPhone OS 4.0 demo, with SDK, the new carrier setups coming and then Apple Canvas with Canvas OS SDK there won’t be time for new pro Macs or Mac OS X apps. I think that stuff would be better served at a latter event focused on Mac stuff.

9) AT&T will not lose the iPhone. They will loose the exclusivity to it. I’ll be keeping my AT&T iPhone since I love simultaneous voice and data, and I hope they make it available for all carriers. a) So I can my bandwidth back from some of you, and b) to make stock jump like crazy with the iPhone Verizon. Wile a Tablet will be okay in the short run and likely great in the long run an iPhone on Verizon will make the stock jump 30 points in a day.

Ending AT&T exclusivity on Wednesday is meaningless without releasing new hardware on the same date.

I can't take my existing iPhone 3G to T-Mobile unless I want to settle for Edge (worthless). I can't likely unlock my iPhone even if I pay a cancellation fee even if I wanted to switch.

Only hold-outs can benefit from any announcements and new hardware.

Just bring on the iPad or Tablet or whatever. I need something to replace my laptop for trips.

Guess what? In my home I have perfect AT&T coverage. Your experience means nut

For this reason I think the next iPhone will have the 1700MHz radio for T-Mobile as to have make it compatible across two carriers with little effort.

I hope the CDMA-based iPhone comes but the logistics are considerably less certain or clear.

Great post.


Yes.


Very insightful. Having been 'bitten once', I can see why there are 'twice shy' of being confronted with another blockbuster bandwidth-hogging product that is anounced 3-6 months before its release date.


I agree with that too. SJ has one hour. He's not going to waste his time talking about carriers.


I have had excellent experience with 3G coverage from ATT too, incl. during my visits to NYC and SF. Perhaps I am just consistently lucky.


ATT will have a head start in their strategy to bundle the iPhone and the iSlate into one compelling experience right off-the-bat, with a 3-6 month window for rolling out more towers and bandwidth. I have no doubt that they have seen this coming, and have a Plan B. I too will probably end up staying with them, for that reason. (Also, I tend to travel abroad a few times a year, and cannot see myself on CDMA).

Just out of curiosity, do you work for Verizon?

All of your posts seem to be the same.

It will work with any GSM carrier including T-Mobile. However, T-Mobile 3G is incompatible with the iPhone's 3G frequencies therefore you will be stuck with EDGE on T-Mobile. Personally, I just don't want to pay AT&T $3/min when I travel.

Is it true what they say about Verizon's network that you can't surf and talk at the same time? What has been your wife's experience with Verizon and the droid in that regard?

good luck when you want to look something up on the web when your in a call...

Give me an extra $35 and I'll get you a brand new, factory-unlocked, 32GB 3GS for that price.

No. I too have had equally good experience. My Rogers roaming bill while in both cities attest to that.

I would suggest that most of the complainers here don't have a iPhone but are more than willing to judge it and any service negatively.

Amazing how many here just don't get it. Just how many times do you have to explain that the iPhone won't work on Verizon and why?

I wish AT&T actually let people do that.


You WILL NOT see a Verizon iPhone anytime soon. Verizon demands control of the user experience and Apple cant give that control up. As much as I hate to say it Apple is in a terrible negotiating position. AT&T has been a terrible partner. When you see a Verizon commercial knocking ATT and what phone are they using ? Mostly iPhones. When ATT defends their network the iPhone is completely absent. In fact I have yet to see an ATT commercial that has an iPhone in it. Maybe that is part of Apple's controlling the user experience part but....if ATT was happy with more iPhone sales they would at least mention the thing occasionally. ATT is actually selling more iPhones than it can handle. They want to sell less of them and advertise other (crappier) phones over the iPhone at every opportunity.

Verizon isnt stupid. They know this. As an investor I am terrified of Apple even contemplating T-Mobile or Sprint and am especially frenetic over their 'hat in hand' bargaining position with Verizon. Their iPhone margins will plummet over this. They are going to have to make major concessions and hardware revamps to ever get this thing on Verizon.

What a fantasyland those AT&T executives are in. Tired of taking the heat from iPhone users?

What they mean to say is the iPhone is too good for their network.

There's one thing that's absolutely true - it definitely hurt their reputation.

No.

The next-generation iPhone will be smaller than the current version.

Technically, there are quite a few GSM carriers, but AT&T and T-Mobile are the only ones with UTMS/HSPA 3G networks. The rest of edge only for data.

Do you remember saying this?

Oh yeah, I bet those money-hungry AT&T execs are just dying to get rid of iPhone exclusivity.

I call B.S.

Same here. In fact, my experience is exactly the opposite of the other poster. My iPhone gets solid service in my home (except for one weekend after a Nor'Easter when a cell tower was down). And my roommate's Eris couldn't even connect to download apps on the first day he owned it.

Never happen but imagine if there was a campaign that said come to us, no data fee, unlimited texting and oh yeah, no $30 data fee. I can dream right. Competition will lower plans in time, in time.

I agree. If the exclusivity is up this month then best approach is to create an iPhone that supports Tmobile and that's available right away. This will ensure good sales for the next 5+ months until the new HW form factor is launched. At that point VZ & Sprint can be included.

I live in Atlanta where we have about, if not the best AT&T system. (This was the home of Cingular) I rarely have any network issues or dropped calls. Our Internet speed is almost always 2MB or more. My contract is up this summer. If AT&T's exclusivity ends I will entertain a switch, but not until another carrier has had the iPhone for a while. I want to see speed tests and read real iPhone customer reviews. Also, not being able to surf and talk at the same time is a deal breaker.

I switched from T-Mo to AT&T on June 29, 2007 at 6:00 pm. And sure, I've had dropped calls but no more than with T-Mo.
I've travelled all over the US and Europe, I could be reached almost everywhere and never had to switch phones.

Also, I like to be able to use my phone while checking the online menu of a restaurant for example.

I receive top notch service at my local AT&T store and I have no reason to abandon AT&T.

So I suggest that all of you whiners switch to Verizon, and leave the full AT&T bandwidth for me!

Whether you jailbreak your U.S. iPhone or purchase a carrier-unlocked iPhone from the grey market is immaterial.

Apple does not currently market iPhones that function with T-Mobile USA's 3G data network.

End of discussion.

Not if even has a remote chance of matching the current advantage of many phones that are currently available.

As far the AT&T contract goes. It doesn't matter, Apple stuck with AT&T way too long and they could have broken their contract given the poor performance (Apple's Attorney's are smarter than that).

Both Apple and AT&T got greedy.

If the new tablet is released carrier free. Few with a current contract will pay extra for a 2nd Data Plan (Current e-book readers have free 3G for the life of the device).

By the way, in the three years I've had the original iPhone and the original (3G, I saw no reason to upgrade). I've never had a reason to access the Internet while on the phone.

I have had multiple accounts of typing an email or reading Associated Press and received a call and had to go back into the app I was in. For email at least it was saved for the AP app I had to find the article again and find the article and then start to find where I was interrupted.

That would not work for the new tablet. The return rate would be very large if you are reading a book and another (Apple Approved) app interrupted your reading.

The iPhone is due for Multi Task and the Tablet better have it.

The iPhone numbers (according to Geithner) are going to be stagnant and this quarter because of Android and the Mac sales they made may make them reach their goals.

That would scare the hell out of me if I were an Apple Stock Holder

I don't know who said this (Quote below); but they have a short memory. AT&T had horrible service (both customer service and network capability) and horrible call quality long before the iPhone and back when they were Cingular too. Many of us dropped (ha ha pun intended) AT&T and had switched to Verizon and were thrilled to have no dropped calls and near landline quality for calls vs. sounding like you are calling from the planet Mars. It was a huge disappointment to return to AT&T just to get access to the iPhone. If Apple is announcing a Verizon phone -- I will call AT&T as soon as it is available and say, "CANCEL MY ACCOUNT! CHOP CHOP WORK HARDER WORK FASTER MAKE IT SO!"

"Inside of AT&T, we are hearing that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before," the report said. "On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T's image. Because they are the only company to carry it, and it's such a data hog, it's largely to blame for AT&T's network troubles. We don't remember hearing about AT&T's 'horrible network' before the iPhone--do you?"

Actually, yes it does take more than year to put a new tower down, if at all. Sometimes the process can take up to 5 years and beyond. And that's not because the carriers want it that way, believe me. If they could, they would put one up the day after they apply.

Cities and counties DO NOT LIKE new towers. Swapping out antenna and equipment on existing towers isn't such a hassle, but to increase coverage in areas where there is none presently is a major hassle.

I, for one, would love to see AT&T's exclusivity end. If, for any reason, just to get all the whiners off the network and free up some bandwidth.

Okay, yeah! I seriously doubt it. let alone, the rumor.

Compromise.

Thinner with a larger screen.

More slender...

Where I live in the SF Bay Area, 3G has always rocked hard. I've never had a problem here, or anywhere else for that matter. The iPhone and AT&T was a good match. If it opens up to other carriers, well, good for whoever wants an iPhone and doesn't want to put up with AT&T in their area.

Good riddance!! Switch to verizon or tmobile (stop and get a whaamburger and some French cries on your way). The perfect service I've had with AT&T/Cingular will only get better.

Fact is, buying an iPhone with AT&T was a concious choice we all made.

You could have had Verizon this whole time and been enjoying all the things their horrible phones didn't do.

Actually, I see the opposite.

Smaller screen and possibly thicker, especially with the iPod touch, mostly to accommodate autofocusing camera elements.

The current iPod nano has a video-only camera because high-quality autofocus camera mechanisms wouldn't fit in the device and thus provide decent still images. This is allegedly why the proposed camera for the last iPod touch was yanked late in the development cycle.

Wednesday cannot get here soon enough.

Apple is all about the user experience and to have one phone be able to use data and voice simultaneously and another not wouldn't be acceptable.

Nobody is going to open up free 3G for the life of an Apple tablet like a Kindle. And nobody I know, even a hardcore apple fan like myself is going to shell out another 50 or 60 bucks for yet another data plan. And how often are you really going to be using data on your phone and your tablet at the same time? Never.

Which is why my money says that an Apple tablet won't have 3G and this will be when AT&T opens up tethering to the iPhone with no additional fee. And they'll subsidize the unit just like a phone or package the two.

And they'll keep the exclusivity and way bump up their network within 6 months when the tablet appears.

All the Verizon talk is BS.

I thought that was Allitel, you know the company Verizon bought so they could paint pretty pictures of cows and cornfields with 3G coverage on maps.


If Apple opened the iPhone to one or two smaller carriers who operate on the 850-2100MHz 3.5G network, it would shut all the whiners about exclusivity up, as it would no longer be exclusive to AT&T.

I think they'd still whine anyway.

I was referring to national carriers, not regional ones. The only two national coast-to-coast carriers operating on GSM are AT&T and T-Mobile. Further, the majority of the regional GSM carriers are using AT&T and T-Mobile's network.

In my experience, Verizon is pretty horrible in terms of customer service and great at raping customers in terms of billing. Apple would be smarter to go with just AT&T and T-Mobile (at least for a while).

First, adding T-Mobile will not irk AT&T as bad as if Apple embraced Verizon full force right away. Apple and AT&T for the most part seemed to work well together, and AT&T was willing to give Apple the chance other networks weren't so keen to do. If possible, it is worth trying to preserve that relationship. Second, as Apple points out in it's commercials, Verizon's network will not let users do data and voice at the same time. That is pretty lame. Third, embracing T-Mobile gives T-Mobile a chance to steal some customers away from the two big dogs, which can't help but to benefit consumers. Fourth, T-Mobile is probably more open to working with Apple as it is more hungry. Verizon has also given Apple a hard time.

So then when I get a call and it starts in 3G and ends up in GPRS, what does that mean? There have been many calls where my 3G indicator ended up as a small circle when I was done.

Bingo.