Will apple chooses a different carrier?

[Randykn.]

just a quick question,
how many carriers that supports plan for iphone 3g last year in america?

i'm from australia and i was just wondering whether apple will change their market approach or stick to the same carriers.
In australia (melbourne), there were only vodafone and optus. (i think telstra has too or they were just promoting plans)

Wonder if they will expand and giving more carriers the opportunity

 

[jmann]

AT&T is the exlusive carrier of the iPhone in the US. It has to be unlocked to be used with any other carrier (T-Mobile in my situation ). I doubt that AT&T will let the iPhone be with anyone else, and their relationship with Apple seems to be working well.

 

[skubish]

just a quick question,
how many carriers that supports plan for iphone 3g last year in america?

i'm from australia and i was just wondering whether apple will change their market approach or stick to the same carriers.
In australia (melbourne), there were only vodafone and optus. (i think telstra has too or they were just promoting plans)

Wonder if they will expand and giving more carriers the opportunity

Depends on the terms between Apple and the carriers.

 

[robothero]

the only other US provider that would currently support the iPhone is T-Mobile. Sprint/Verizon are CDMA (which is only used in the US), so unless Apple makes a CDMA phone they won't be getting it.

I know there are a bunch of smaller carriers out there but I don't really know anything about their networks.

 

[Tallest Skil]

the only other US provider that would currently support the iPhone is T-Mobile. Sprint/Verizon are CDMA (which is only used in the US), so unless Apple makes a CDMA phone they won't be getting it.

Apple won't be making a CDMA iPhone. An LTE iPhone in 2010 that can be unlocked and used on Verizon's LTE network is not impossible at all, however.

 

[robothero]

I agree with you there. It just doesn't make sense when the overall CDMA market is so small compared to GSM.

 

[Warbrain]

the only other US provider that would currently support the iPhone is T-Mobile. Sprint/Verizon are CDMA (which is only used in the US), so unless Apple makes a CDMA phone they won't be getting it.

I know there are a bunch of smaller carriers out there but I don't really know anything about their networks.

And Japan.

But there's no way Apple is making a CDMA phone. That network is dead. And it will be entirely unpleasant to use an LTE iPhone on Verizon when Verizon makes the switch because you won't have the redundancy of the CDMA network when there's no LTE signal. It'll need to radios.

 

[jav6454]

just a quick question,
how many carriers that supports plan for iphone 3g last year in america?

i'm from australia and i was just wondering whether apple will change their market approach or stick to the same carriers.
In australia (melbourne), there were only vodafone and optus. (i think telstra has too or they were just promoting plans)

Wonder if they will expand and giving more carriers the opportunity

As long as its not Verizon, I would care less. AT&T has been great to me so far.

 

[aristobrat]

the only other US provider that would currently support the iPhone is T-Mobile.

Sort of. The iPhone 3G does not support the frequencies that T-Mobile US uses for 3G, so it would be EDGE only for data.

Wonder if the next iPhone will support T-Mobile US' 3G frequencies?

 

[JCastro]

As long as its not Verizon, I would care less. AT&T has been great to me so far.

Me too. I have had very few issues with them and I have been with them for close to 10 years. One year with an iPhone.

SWonder if the next iPhone will support T-Mobile US' 3G frequencies?

I doubt it unless they are the same frequencies that AT&T uses. AT&T has the largest GSM 3G coverage area in the US. And while GSM may not seem as common as CDMA in the US, it is the most common worldwide. Apple was aiming for a larger marketplace than CDMA would afford them. That doesn't mean that they won't make one in the future but right now there is still a lot of room for growth in the GSM arena. My opinion!

 

[aristobrat]

I doubt it unless they are the same frequencies that AT&T uses. AT&T has the largest GSM 3G coverage area in the US. And while GSM may not seem as common as CDMA in the US, it is the most common worldwide.

T-Mobile's 3G frequencies are different than AT&Ts, but they're still official UMTS/HSPDA frequencies, and there are a few other countries that use them. I didn't think there was a radio out that supported them around the time the iPhone 3G was being designed, but maybe there was one in time for the next iPhone?