Comments on: Apple defends AT&T, downplays talk of multi-carrier inevitability

By: gctwnl

gctwnl — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Using T-mobile in The Netherlands hurts Apple’s iPhone as T-mobile has worse coverage than the local big 2: KPN and Vodaphone. KPN’s chairman seems to have some irrational hatred against the iPhone (stating that it would be a failure after they could not hammer out a deal), but Vodaphone would love to carry the iPhone here. They already offer ‘under-the-water’ support for people who buy carrier-free iPhones in Belgium (where that coupling is forbidden by law).

At this point in the US, AT&T is free to offer Android/etc smartphones, but Apple is not free to offer the iPhone to Verizon/T-mobile/etc. The advantage of the AT&T exclusivity deal was enormous for both sides, but has run its course, certainly for Apple who does not need AT&T as much anymore to gain a foothold.

By: pa

pa — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:54:57 +0000

I wish AT&T would forget about the Microcell nonsense and let people use wifi instead. By putting all phone calls on voip and offering just a data plan, they will offload a lot of their bandwidth to wifi when people are at home or at work or at a coffee shop. It’s like having Microcells at everywhere wifi is available. So instead they can focus on implementing 4G faster and being in a position to take a lot of smartphone customers from other cell providers.

By: qka

qka — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:43:27 +0000

Countries with advanced wireless telephone systems – every carrier uses GSM.

Countries with backwards wireless telephone systems – every carrier uses a different technology.

Apple is hesitant to deal with backwards markets.