You say that as if there really is such thing as an unlimited plan on AT&T. And yes, I've had experience with AT&T. Ten+ years of experience, before the blight that is Cingular took them over. Never again.
And 50 years later, they seem to have learned a lot more from the Vietnam war than we did.
France is a bit player, given stature only because of its history and location.
What lesson did France learn from it's Indochine history? Start a forest fire and let your neighbor bother about putting it out, and footing the expense -- in human life and $ ? Retreat from the world, but demand a seat at the table too?
Unfortunately, if the U.S. drops the ball there isn't any other country to save it. France is a bit player, given stature only because of its history and location.
This pretty well sums it up. The telecoms are the enemy, so lay off the national stereotypes. Some idiot in the arrogant, incompetent and stupid formerly publicly owned Australian telecom, Telstra, thought the iPhone would be an abject failure.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/telstra-to-apple-stick-to-your-knitting/2007/02/15/1171405363291.html
If we are comparing AT&T to Verizon, the unlimited plans are essentially the same. I pay $199 to upgrade my iPhone with AT&T and keep unlimited, however, versus $649 with Verizon.
I am not forced to buy an expensive share plan if I have more than one device on AT&T. On Verizon, you either have a single line, or a family share plan.
Verizon charges more for people who use minimal data as well, and their data speeds are slower.
Every time I talk to AT&T customer service with an issue, they seem to pay my last month's bill. Maybe I'm lucky, but I don't understand all the negative feedback towards AT&T.
No phone company is our friend. They all want to stifle competition, and none of them like the idea that something like the iPhone disrupted the monopolistic golden egg laying goose that they had. But I'll take the service I get on Verizon any day over the crap that AT&T provides. At least Verizon's arrogance gets backed up by real results.
And BTW: The "Every time I talk to AT&T customer service with an issue..." statement is very telling. Been on Verizon for a couple of years now, and I've never had to talk to VZ customer service with an issue.
Arrogance is the saving grace of Apple.
Mobile operators are incredibly arrogant, they are used to holding all the money and making demands. While every other hardware manufacturer tried to design around mobile operators demands / useless customisations and never to be launched services, Apple marked out its territory as controlling the hardware and software experience. Look at the death spirals of Blackberry and to some extent Nokia following this path.
I remember hearing how a large mobile operator executive said he couldn't believe how arrogant Apple were. Believe me - probably the first time anyone had held their ground.
So yes, hearing Apple is losing its arrogance is again somewhat worrying portent of a company that may stop focusing on great products and become a dull glossy shareholder value obsessed 'brand' like Sony did.