Apple adding second iPhone carrier in Taiwan. Why not US?
Pretty much wherever you look around the world, except here in the land of milk and Honey Nut Cheerios, iPhone users have some degree of carrier choice. Even in tiny Taiwan, which is about the same size as Maryland (with about 23 million people crammed in), is gaining a second carrier from next month.
Quoting Taiwan’s generally reliable Commercial Times, DigiTimes reports that Taiwan Mobile will begin selling the iPhone in that country from March with subsidized pricing at NT$1,999 ($63).
To date, the iPhone has been available exclusively from Chunghwa Telecom.
Why not us?
Yes, AT&T is getting better. On the data front, they’re actually starting to take leadership — they’ve gotten better.
When it comes to calling, especially in key markets like New York and San Francisco, they still have a long way to go. Maddeningly far.
These facts beg the question, “Why hasn’t the U.S. gotten a second carrier?”
It’s been said over and over that because AT&T so desperately needs the iPhone to remain competitive — it’s the one thing that can beat Verizon over the head with — that Apple can ring the best deal possible for themselves.
That said, given that T-Mobile is the only other GSM carrier in the U.S. and they’re actually quite small, it’s hard to imagine Apple couldn’t just name their terms. Moreover, T-Mobile elsewhere around the world is already an Apple partner.
Why not T-Mobile? It’s not like they’re going to seriously challenge AT&T or demand a better deal from Apple.
I don’t have an answer here. I’m honestly looking for believable reasons as to why Apple is holding out on us…
What’s your take?
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February 25th, 2010
T-Mobile’s GSM network works in an incompatible frequency in the U.S. It thus CANNOT work on the iPhone even if it wanted to.
Verizon and Sprint use the old incompatible CDMA networking protocol. the iPhone cannot work with Verizon and Sprint. Period.
In the rest of the world, the various carriers use compatible GSM networks. It is EASY for Apple to work with multiple carriers since the iPhone is compatible with them.
Unfortunately, in the U.S., the carriers decided to use very incompatible networks. Since AT&T has the largest network, it is the clear choice for Apple.
Since AT&T also bended over backwards in installing customized software on its servers to support the iPhone (e.g. visual voice mail), AT&T became a natural choice.
Verizon refused to install customized software on its servers for Apple. Verizon also wanted control over the iTune system – so users would have to download music and apps from Verizon, not Apple. Etc. Etc. Verizon just did not want to CEDE control and become just a data pipe to Apple. AT&T was willing to do this for Apple, Verizon was not.
AT&T now has improved its networks in New York and San Francisco and other major cities and now has THE FASTEST NETWORK in those cities – verified by an independent PCWORLD study.
Can you hear me now?
February 25th, 2010
Wow, we really live in a sad capitalist world when 300,000,000+ people is too small a market to bother with.
February 26th, 2010
thanks for your article!
February 26th, 2010
ATT hasn’t improved NOTHING ! ! I took my freaking iphone back after a week and a half because of ATT’s shitty service!! Why do you call CDMA incompatible?? Incompatible with iPhone maybe. CDMA appears to be the BETTER network since from what I have personally experienced and am hearing over and over about ATTs network, GSM SUCKS! Verizon (CDMA) is by far the most reliable network hands down! ! Thousands of cell phones use CDMA… why is it that the Apple’s iPhone can not ?? Sure it can.. they just won’t. Apple thinks they are the shit and only the shittier ATT is willing to PAY the price that Apple is asking for the iPhone.. it’s kinda pathetic actually…
February 28th, 2010
James Katt,
I am not sure where you got your info about T-Mobile, but it is incorrect. I personally have used several phones bought overseas on T-Mobile, and as I type my wife is using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile, and it works smashingly well!