Apple with "No Plans" to Change AT&T iPhone Exclusivity and Other Notes

[kdarling]

Thats all AT&T coverage, not roaming. You can specify roaming in the settings

Right. Zoom in and you'll see that most areas in the midWest are with partners (roaming) and therefore are places where you cannot own an ATT phone as a resident.

The fact that the iPhone is not available in roaming areas is very well known. There have been numerous articles about it, such as this one or this one (which are slightly out of date, since Vermont just got the iPhone due to Verizon divesting holdings.)

The people who live in those areas, such as the person I replied to above, already know it.

 

[butterfly0fdoom]

I think we are forgeting t-mobile they do gsm
wonderful they only thing i dislike is that, i am stuck with att,
if the u.s.'s cell phone system was more like japans we wouldn't have as much of an issue.
it's hard apple staying with att makes you loose faith well me anyway.

Isn't Japan's cellphone system similar in terms of exclusivity and locks to the US's?

Once again, T-Mobile does GSM. But T-Mobile uses a UTMS frequency that only they use. So even if the iPhone were sold for T-Mobile, you'd get complaints about a lack of 3G.

 

[kdarling]

And neither Nokia or Sony Ericsson makes CDMA phones (except in Japanese phones for SonyE and some ODMed Nokia phones that doesn't even run Series 40). For sure they have a reason to pretend that CDMA doesn't exists.

That could be changing again for Nokia:

Nokia and Qualcomm working together: "Analysts have speculated that the two will create a CDMA flavor of Symbian that could run advanced smart phones on Verizon Wireless "

If I were Nokia, I'd be looking at how RIM and HTC and Samsung have used the iPhone vacuum, in the majority of the US marketplace, to their advantage.

Apple's practically giving away 130+ million potential customers to whomever is smart enough to make a nice CDMA smartphone.

Related to that, the odd thing to me is that Palm went exclusive with Sprint for a while. Are they crazy?

 

[mentalward]

Correct one. AT&T has coverage for GoPhone, PickYourPlan and the normal subscription based phones.

Thats all AT&T coverage, not roaming. You can specify roaming in the settings

Actually, if you zoom in, you will see that it isn't AT&T native coverage, but roaming on a partner network. People in the striped areas can use an iPhone, but not buy one unless they use an address in an area with native coverage. This leaves a LOT of folks locked out, unfortunately.

From AT&T's website: "PARTNER: The areas shown as an orange stripped pattern represent the coverage of unaffiliated carriers and should have sufficient signal strength for on-street or in-the-open coverage, but may not have it for in-vehicle coverage or in-building coverage. Excessive use of Partner coverage may subject your service to early termination, in accordance with your service terms. Data services may not be available."

 

[Vega$$$]

I can't imagine Apple producing two "identical" iPhone models. Doesn't make sense to me. Apple isn't Motorola...

Perhaps it doesn't make sense to you, but nearly all cell phone manufacturers that do business here in the states, besides and including Motorola, have both GSM and CDMA variants of the same handset.

And neither Nokia or Sony Ericsson makes CDMA phones (except in Japanese phones for SonyE and some ODMed Nokia phones that doesn't even run Series 40). For sure they have a reason to pretend that CDMA doesn't exists.

At any rate, swapping a GSM radio for a CDMA radio shouldn't be a major ordeal for Apple if they really wanted to do it. Hell, if they are concerned with the phone working worldwide, they could make a CDMA/GSM "World Phone". Blackberry has a couple with the 8830 and the Storm and will have another later this year when they release the 'Niagara'. Samsung also has CDMA/GSM "world phones" and HTC is planning to launch one later this year as well, the 'Rhodium'. Again, this is not some insurmountable issue if Apple really wanted to expand their iPhone carriers.

 

[tmill56]

Well its too bad if any Iphone does not make it to another carrier within the U.S. i have switched to at&t. and absolutely hated it from day one, don't get me wrong i think the Iphone is a brilliant device that is supported by the right network i would gladly do again. that being said i switched back to Verizon their much superior network (in my opinion) works flawlessly, while i may not like some of the charges on any service this is what you may expect if you want a hot comodity or a premium device, if nobody used or needed there data plans the companies probably would not charge for it. ill give At&t this at least they have rollover minutes on their plans i think that should be a given but not all companies agree. it would be nice for Verizon to offer the same. although at least Verizon lowers the price to cancel your bill early each month your with them the buy out price lowers.


for now ill cross my fingers and hope that the phone is eventually supported by a network it deserves untill then ill just hope and wish for Verizon..

 

[jw2002]

Apple responded that they are very happy with AT&T]

Well at least Apple is happy. Too bad for the rest of us who won't/can't use AT&T or don't want to enter into a $2k contract.

 

[aristobrat]

at least Verizon lowers the price to cancel your bill early each month your with them the buy out price lowers.

Huh? All four major carriers prorate the early-termination-fee.

Too bad for the rest of us who won't/can't use AT&T or don't want to enter into a $2k contract.

Virtually any smartphone [Windows Mobile, iPhone, Palm, BlackBerry, etc] that you can buy from one of the four major carriers enters you into a contract that costs ~$720 (over two years) more than a regular phone contract would cost. Unlimited data costing more than some people want to pay for it is not an iPhone/AT&T issue.

 

[mgfish23]

Great

I can't wait for the complainers to leave AT&T so I can get some bandwidth back. For the people who have the iphone and whine, no one forced you to sign a contract.,jeez you have 30days before the deal is set in stone. For the people who are waiting for a Verizon iphone, "tuff tittie said the kittie" . Keep waiting. Twin Cities AT&T rocks! 1.8 mbps down, on a 3GS works awesome. News flash.. Apple is making deals with China.. aka +1.xx BILLion humans. Who gives a cr*p about 80 mill Verizon customers using a tech that is 5% of the world endorses.? I hope Steve Jobs screws Verizon out of spite for turning him down a couple years ago. BTW, If Verizon activated 30 mill iphones its network would crumble too, don't kid yourself.

Sent from my iphone

 

[Mactagonist]

I can't wait for the complainers to leave AT&T so I can get some bandwidth back. For the people who have the iphone and whine, no one forced you to sign a contract.,jeez you have 30days before the deal is set in stone. For the people who are waiting for a Verizon iphone, "tuff tittie said the kittie" . Keep waiting. Twin Cities AT&T rocks! 1.8 mbps down, on a 3GS works awesome. News flash.. Apple is making deals with China.. aka +1.xx BILLion humans. Who gives a cr*p about 80 mill Verizon customers using a tech that is 5% of the world endorses.? I hope Steve Jobs screws Verizon out of spite for turning him down a couple years ago. BTW, If Verizon activated 30 mill iphones its network would crumble too, don't kid yourself.

Sent from my iphone

You couldnt even be logically consistent for one paragraph?

 

[Ram Mac]

This sucks, I am with sprint. I want the iphone over at sprint. NOW!!!!!!!!

 

[charlituna]

For the people who have the iphone and whine, no one forced you to sign a contract.

actually that's not true. to get an iphone, you are in fact forced to sign a contract. can't pay for the phone until you do. thems the rules

I hope Steve Jobs screws Verizon out of spite for turning him down a couple years ago.

it was hardly personal. Apple stated that they wanted to use GSM and Verizon replied that they had no desire to go GSM but were sticking with CDMA. end of discussion.

BTW, If Verizon activated 30 mill iphones its network would crumble too, don't kid yourself.

that is certainly true. as is the detail that any company that had the iphone could just as easily have screwed over their customers them same as ATT reported has.

This sucks, I am with sprint. I want the iphone over at sprint. NOW!!!!!!!!

you won't get it until Sprint switches to GSM or goes to whatever Apple choses to support next.

 

[butterfly0fdoom]

you won't get it until Sprint switches to GSM or goes to whatever Apple choses to support next.

Sprint will never get the iPhone because of their CDMA and WiMax networks in contrast with the more popular GSM and LTE networks everyone else is using or is switching to.

 

[rjohnstone]

actually that's not true. to get an iphone, you are in fact forced to sign a contract. can't pay for the phone until you do. thems the rules

Not true... you can by an iPhone without a contract.
It won't be unlocked, but you can in fact buy one without signing a contract.

 

[Mee2323]

Not true... you can by an iPhone without a contract.
It won't be unlocked, but you can in fact buy one without signing a contract.

I believe this is true. They're about 200-300 dollars more then the 2 year contract price, but yo can purchase without a contract. How else would people be able to upgrade when their contract is still within the "Non-upgrade" period?

 

[mrochester]

Here's a theory - see if anyone agrees...

In countries where there are multiple networks that all use the same 3G frequencies, the iPhone is increasingly being offered by more than 1 network. In the US, where's there's only one national network that utilises the 3G bands of the iPhone, the device isn't being offered by more than 1 network. In a way, that looks to me like Apple are simply never going to alter the iPhone to support any other 3G standard, and that it would take the other networks to start utilising the 850 and 1900mhz band for their 3G services for them to be able to get hold of the iPhone. So in other words, don't hold your breath for a CDMA iPhone.

 

[Sherwinator]

I gave up on waiting for the iphone for vzw. I just bought an env touch instead. Not the same but still...