Carriers

How Did AT&T Hold Up at CES 2010? Root Wireless (and TiPb) Report!

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010 a 4:09 pm

One of the more interesting conversations the Smartphone Experts team had at CES 2010 was with Root Wireless, who monitors the performance of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the US. Their overall message is that there's no single best carrier, because it varies so much from place to place, but they did try to determine which carrier survived CES the best.

Here's the bottom line:

AT&T started out providing the fastest service, but quickly fell to 4th place.
Verizon better maintained its consistency of service, performing particularly well on the event’s busiest days.

Loading its proprietary Root Mobile™ crowdsourcing application on smartphones purchased off-the-shelf from each of the ‘Big Four’ carriers, Root Wireless conducted stationary tests at a fixed location immediately adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center, constantly running Root Mobile from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., January 5-8. The linear tests determine data transmissions speeds, cell tower hand-off rates and network connection failures, as monitored and reported by Root Mobile. It is noteworthy that the findings differ from others data transmission speed tests conducted using PCs, precisely because Root Mobile is engineered to determine wireless consumers’ real-world experience using smartphones, not PCs. Also worth keeping in mind: Results reported here are local to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Root Wireless network mapping software has confirmed that all network performance is local; it varies from neighborhood-to-neighborhood, from service provider to service provider.

CrackBerry Kevin shot from video at Root Wireless' booth, so if you're curious for more (and the techies among you should be!) go check that out on CrackBerry.com.

My experience after the break!

From the Forums: iPhone OS 4.0, Nokia Experts Needs Your Help, 4th Gen iPhone Concepts, Plans and Carriers

By Jeremy, Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010 a 11:23 am

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. Today we would like to go over some of the popular sub-forums for those of you who may not be familiar with our forum setup. Becoming a member is fast and free, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

Do Other Countries Lose Out on Apps Because of AT&T Policies?

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Aug 21, 2009 a 11:33 pm

Mike Ash (via Marco.org) makes this point following the FCC responses today:

iPhone, Skype, and Dumb Pipes: The Future of Cell Carriers

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Apr 9, 2009 a 9:43 am

Macworld has a great article up today about the arrival of Skype on the iPhone (and soon the BlackBerry) and what the widespread availability of VoIP (voice over IP) clients -- which eschew the traditional phone lines to send talk via data instead -- means for cell providers like AT&T, Verizon, O2, Rogers, etc. who've made tons of traditional money billing us all by the minute.

One common future seen for cell companies is that of "dumb pipes" -- like DSL or cable companies that provide bandwidth but few if any premium services. Verizon shows how far (and foolish) they'll go to avoid that fate:

Unlocked iPhones Around the World

By Jeremy, Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 a 10:00 am

This past Saturday Apple posted a new support page, a simple list of all the carriers currently selling iPhone 3G's and which ones are locked and which ones are unlocked. As all AT&T customers know, our iPhone's are locked down tight until the Dev-Team can do something about it. I suppose if you were that desperate and crafty you could use this list of unlocked carriers to get yourself one, for a hefty fee of course... and be sure to know how to speak fluent Chinese if you want support for one purchased in Hong Kong or Taiwan. ;)

Apple's Path to $199 (Wait-a-Thon)

By Casey Chan, Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008 a 8:00 am

So you might have heard that the iPhone 3G was going to retail for $199 from AT&T. I’ve already covered how it isn’t technically $199 for current iPhone users. And you heard Rene tell you that $199 is less than the notorious price DROP of the iPhone. Well TiPb has been wondering how Apple settled on dropping the price so dramatically.

And we settled on a story, kind of—more like a collection of reasons. We’ve analyzed the outcome back and forth, from reverse and from the beginning. And we think we have come to a conclusion (or at the very least, a conspiracy theory). In a purely speculative story, I’ll give you my opinion on how we reached $199.

Read on for Apple’s Path to $199

Apple's New iPhone Business Models

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, May 28, 2008 a 8:00 am

[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

"We're not married to any business model."

At the time -- and it's scary how long ago it seems already -- the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What's more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative -- and unprecedented -- revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren't married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was...