Comments on: AT&T fails to deploy iPhone Tethering and 3G MicroCell in 2009

By: iPaladin

iPaladin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:45:16 +0000

I think I’ve found the answer now.

Qualcomm could throw in a CDMA/HSPA modem out of the QTR8610 variety. The rest of any iPhone/iTablet will assuredly be of the PA Semi variety that Apple bought in 2008.

By: bOMBfACTORY

bOMBfACTORY — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:37:05 +0000

So AT&T won’t allow me to tether my iPhone because apparently that will put too much stress on their network. Yet they seem to have no problem adding 10 million new (over)paying iPhone customers every quarter. Will the AT&T PR dept. ever release a statement that makes even a bit of sense?

By: iPaladin

iPaladin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:56:35 +0000

I’m betting on the Gobi chip being in the next iPhone. That would put Verizon in play as an iPhone provider. AT&T won’t lose the iPhone altogether, but for GSM enthusiasts, it will remain the best option.

The next iPhone will probably run on the Snapdragon QSD8672. That chip includes the Gobi. Yes, I know CDMA is supposed to suck in theory, but if that’s true, then why does the VZW network cover so much more of the country in 3G than their slow dumb Blue Counterparts at the Death Star? I wish that AT&T and T-Mobile would get their heads out of their asses and get 3G where I live, but I have a better shot of getting a 3G iPhone through Verizon than that happening.

By: jdb

jdb — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:34:57 +0000

Apple is in a tough position in the US. I doubt they want three different models of the iPhone but in order to get the iPhone on all 4 major US carriers, but that is what they would have to do. Just the inventory problems alone would be a big problem.

It is possible that in the near future, that could be reduced to 2 models if a single chipset becomes available either for both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G or as Dan suggests, a “world mode” CMDA phone that also does either AT&T or T-Mobile 3G. As far as I know, such chipsets do not currently exist though there was a report in December that Motorola is working on one for AT&T and T-Mobile 3G.

If it isn’t technically possible to satisfy those requirements, then another likely scenario is leave the current iPhone 3GS on AT&T and create a new, lower end iPhone that works on CDMA. There were rumors that Apple was sourcing a smaller phone display for a future iPhone. This would follow Apple’s iPod strategy of targeting the lower end of the market after several years of the original iPod (classic) design.

By: Berend Schotanus

Berend Schotanus — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:45:35 +0000

“other carriers have instituted artificial limitations of their own”

All in all, probably, Apple hasn’t done a bad job at all with its AT&T coalition. And, given its increased power in mobile communication, Apple might do some even better steps in the future.

From my side I stubbornly keep believing that the only way out lies in customers paying for hardware and communication as two separate products. Mobile communication really is a complicated product: you have to keep track of all those different radio frequencies, sources of interference and regulation thereabout. It does take a lot of experimentation and experience to get it right so it is really a profession on itself.
When you have a monopoly it is so easy to not put all this effort in product improvement and just keep earning your revenues from customers that don’t have a real choice. The vertical integration model is not a complete monopoly but it comes close to it.

I’m looking foreword to what Apples next steps will be and maybe we will know pretty soon when the iSlate does have some kind of 3G connectivity.

By: airmanchairman

airmanchairman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:30:51 +0000

Launching the iPhone on other US networks will achieve a few positive outcomes, even for AT&T which stands to lose its exclusive contract in the Summer.

The immediate benefit will be the easing of network congestion as the wildly popular phone becomes available on T-mobile and possibly Verizon, allowing them to absorb some of the tremendous data load that is characteristic of this ground-breaking appliance.

US technophiles, particularly of the pro-AT&T persuasion, should possibly prepare for Fall and Winter seasons of extreme hilarity and “Schadenfreude” as the 3G networks of their rivals crash and burn even harder than they have taking the brunt of the voracious i-hordes’ data demands. It may come as no surprise if subscribers that decamp from AT&T vote with their feet again and return to the carrier as the lesser of two evils, the devil you know…

Long-term benefits will include proper infrastructure planning by all networks for the data demands of the future, which have unexpectedly arrived well ahead of time with the advent of the iPhone and its copycat clones. The carriers are now going to have to “put their money where their mouths are”. This means that all the fat text and service nickel-and-dime revenues which have hitherto been surreptitiously siphoned off to shareholders and investors will now have to be diverted into the infrastructure rollout they have been paying lip service to all these years.

By: olivervoel

olivervoel — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:25:52 +0000

In Germany, there are legally unlocked iPhones available thanks to the laws in the European Union. Tethering is allowed by providers such as simyo, but with the iPhone OS update 3.1, Apple has broken this function. Apparently, Tethering now requires a specially signed configuration file which is not easily available even if the provider wants to offer it and it worked with OS 3.0.
This means I cannot use Tethering with my iPhone although my provider would like to offer it for no extra cost. The provider says they have contacted Apple repeatedly in this matter and got no response. Apple could certainly do a better job here.

By: stormj

stormj — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:19:32 +0000

It doesn’t excuse the situation, but the most vocal of AT&T critics don’t realize that being on Verizon is not awesome for a smartphone user. But (and this isn’t snark) for the foreseeable future, voice telephone calls are what most people use their phone for the most, and AT&T just doesn’t seem to be able to deliver on that.

I know, I know. It’s all the data. It’s the frequencies they use. Yes, yes—I understand all of the technical details. Understanding the failure doesn’t make it a success.

And that would be making calls on the go… which is why AT&T’s retort that it’s map covers 97% of the population is fatuous. That’s great–if we want to use our mobile phone in our houses. Of course, we want to be able to use it anywhere, to territory is also important…

…which is why for all of their other virtues, T-Mobile is a non-starter.

I haven’t had a Sprint phone in 10 years. Do they suck less?