“Analysts say AT&T’s problems would have happened on any network that carried Apple’s iPhone because of the enormous amount of data downloaded by iPhone users. Over the past three years, AT&T’s data traffic increased 5,000% because of the iPhone,” Goldman reports. “‘The challenges that AT&T has are being faced by a lot of operators around the world: Very rapidly growing usage coupled with dense populations,’ said Daniel Hays, wireless expert and partner at consultancy PRTM. ‘Would it have been different on Verizon? Probably not.'”
Goldman reports, “AT&T accurately states that it has the nation’s fastest 3G network but it “probably bit off more than it could chew,” said Doug Helmreich, program director at consultancy CFI Group. ‘Now some of their customers are paying the price.’ iPhone users in New York and San Francisco in particular have been up in arms about frequent service interruptions.”
“Verizon has had a field day at AT&T’s expense,” Goldman reports. “‘There’s a map for that’ commercials have poked fun at AT&T’s smaller 3G footprint. And that has helped Verizon take market share, according to Piper Jaffray. But studies show that AT&T’s network is actually faster than Verizon’s, and Verizon’s ad campaign may be a bit misleading.”
Read more in the full article here.
Extrapolated common sense does not make a fact. The iPhone has done a billion times more for AT&T;than Verizon’s ads have done to damage it.
AT&T;will have to charge for usage – like most telecoms do everywhere else in the world… bandwidth is a limited resource – allowing a small minority of users to use huge chunks of capacity without paying for it is unsustainable…
After years of dictating to manufacturers as to what “features” were permissable on their networks, ATT et al have effectively forced to admit their networks gave suffered from chronic underinvestment in infrastructure. They only have themselves to blame.
Now we can all understand why Apple absolutely refused to give any carrier the right to dictate what functions were on the iPhone.
=:~)
“allowing a small minority of users to use huge chunks of capacity without paying for it is unsustainable…”
Without paying for it? Then what the hell is the 80 or 90 some odd dollars per month the average iPhone customer pays to ATT?
More Goldman BS, first Laura now this guy. “Over the past three years, AT&T;’s data traffic increased 5,000% because of the iPhone,….” The iPhone has not been on the market “the past three years.” I’m not on ATnT, but it sure seems like VZ and maybe Sprint are planting all sorts of stories. Does anyone have any real proof that ATnT network can’t handle the iPhone? Are all the reports from “analysts”? I’m a disbeliever in the hype against ATnT. Honest, I don’t work for them, own any stock or anything else. I’m happy on T-Mobile-I don’t even own a iPhone.
Finally someone with enough balls to tell the truth in public about AT&T;difficulties managing iPhone data.
Why not look at O2’s announcement today in the UK and make a comparison? O2 apologized for having such poor service with iPhone, and are actively upgrading their network in London. I have yet to hear AT&T;do something similar for NYC or SF. Of course, AT&T;doesn’t have competition. In London you can now get iPhone on Vodaphone as well as O2, and I think Orange isn’t far behind.
AT&T;AT&T;what’s MDN got against typing AT&T;!
Berries and cream, berries and cream…
Too many stray semicolons it seems.
Darkness,
“I have yet to hear AT&T do something similar for NYC or SF.”
The “related articles” are your friend, you moron.
And, BTW, this is how it’s done: AT&T
People can make all the excuses for ATT they want. The fact is they couldn’t handle the previous crop of 10-11 million iPhone customers a couple months ago and probably signed up another 2-3 million over the past two quarters. The picture only gets worse for them. The “improvements” to their network can’t outpace the addition of new iPhone users so we won’t see a noticeable difference no matter how many billions they claim to invest.
By this time next year they’ll have around 20 million iPhone customers, double the amount that brought their cruddy network to its knees. Can ATT upgrade and build out enough to compensate for that? Not to mention the unforeseen load from future iPhone updates, like running third party apps in the background.
The iPhone is doomed unless it becomes available on all four major networks in America.
Gee, R2, I think any company would love to be “doomed” with 20 million additional customers…
Oh, by the way, anyone see that the cypher for phones has been cracked?
Isn’t this the same DB that dismissed the “iSlate” . . . oh well, at least he’s right on with this one
Remember all that “Dark fiber” out there cause people over build.??
Well, companies make bad choices after bad choice cause they are cheap, over priced, over paid executives. However, things will stabilize out.
AT&T;is already building home mini cell tower units. More and more places are having free wifi (athough it really sucks in most places…. they think like MS and have software and systems to match…
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Anyway, I think we will get there slowly with every overpaid exec fighting tooth and nail to slow down progress…. LOL
Just a thought,
en
Verizon has a much better record of capital investment and infrastructure upgrades than AT&T;. Case in point: FiOS vs. U-Verse. Verizon would have done a much better job at scaling up 3G service than AT&T;has.
It’s simple. Ask AT&T;when it plans to catch up with Verizon Wireless on 3G coverage. The answer is: Never! Instead, they try to change the subject to their crappy 2G network.
I hope that Verizon gets the iPhone soon so I can buy one. AT&T;shareholders will get what they deserve when that announcement is made. Until then, I’m sticking wth iPod Touch with WiFi access, which is a much better value than AT&T;’s 3G service.
If you want to see Verizon’s 3G network that is fast enough to broadcast video, look at the map that they show where Vcast TV is available. It’s so tiny, it makes AT&T;’s 3G network look huge. In other words, Verizon’s 3G network may be wide, but not necessarily much faster than EDGE in most areas, since the area where it can actually give you enough bandwidth for video is tiny.
In order for AT&T;, and every other wireless company since, to get the iPhone, they all had to agree to lower data rates and improve their networks.
And that was mainly before the introduction of the 3G.
Nobody, including Apple, predicted the uptake. AT&T;basically gave away the store when then offered unlimited data. After a year, they published a report that the average iPhone user in the US used less than 100 MBs a month, the rest of the world offered limited data.
Then the 3G was introduced and wow. An explosion, which nobody expected, that even AT&T;, which was spending billions of dollars upgrading their network to handle the regular iPhone never expected, and which every expert and blogger in the world denied that would ever happen.
Now we are seeing other countries as the iPhone really starts to take off, an issue with service.
Anybody that says that AT&T;should have know better is an idiot. And are about as dumb as any parent that expects their child to take out the garbage every week without asking.
I agree with the premise of the article. It could happen to any and all carriers, and will.
I could be wrong but, shouldn’t carriers be adopting massive Wi-Fi hotspot upgrades to do all the heavy lifting on their networks, leaving the wireless spectrum for voice and text only? If they don’t, the computers guys will once again, just walk in and turn it on its ear.
Does Verizon offer VoIP? They should. In fact, all the carriers should be moving in that direction. I would imagine VoIP over FIOS would be crystal clear.
Apple will supposedly introduce Light Peak products in their Macs in Q4 of 2010, which is super for the home network, but when I look at the bigger picture, I see another revolution gathering force that will leave the carriers sitting on the sidelines in the same manner Apple’s iPhone has left the phone manufacturers dumbfounded. Apple will do an end-run on the carriers by doing a Jetson’s on their ass.
When VoIP (video and voice) proves to be “good enough” for everyman, it will marginalize the phone carriers. Any device with a speaker and microphone will serve as a phone.
Sooner or later, the phone carriers, if they are to survive, will start buying up data centers like Akamai and Limelight Networks to compete with Apple and the other “computer guys” who are redefining the concept of the phone call.
@Darkness
AT&T
What’s the problem?
@R2
The “we pay too much” and the “they don’t pay enough” factions are both right. If ATT charged the minority data hogs a premium, then they should, in theory, be able to simultaneously create a lower price tier for data sippers. As with most things, one size does not fit all.
None of the carriers have sufficient network capability to handle the new consumer demands for data. It’s much like a city not building good roads until the houses have been built for several years – they never build in foresight, just catch up in hindsight.
Phone networks are already noting that Android users are very similar to iPhone users with regards to data usage. More smartphones, regardless of the network, is going to mean issues in the near term…
@R2
The iPhone is doomed unless it becomes available on all four major networks in America.
I disagree. For starters, Apple doesn’t have to build a better product in the iPhone and they’ll continue to sell a boatload in spite of AT&T’s problems. The onus is on AT&T and others to build a better network.
I’m not buying that crap story line about how a flawed iPhone is the major cause of AT&T’s network problems. AT&T’s weakness is not their Tier-1 backbone, of which there are only ten in the world, it’s their wireless “front end” that is lacking.
AT&T, the behemouth, has over a hundred years of R&D;experience and investment in their infrastructure and data networks.
De La Vega promised Tethering in ’09 and he only has a few days left to honor his promise. Not gonna’ happen until they experience a paradigm shift in what a phone call truly means.
Apple, on the other hand, could utilize its new data center for VoIP, allowing me to make all my phone calls from home (like AT&T used to do) over my home Wi-Fi network. That would be one way to get some iPhone traffic off 3G and Edge.
Apple could also invest in Wi-Fi hotspots, starting with their Apple stores as hubs, giving Mobile Me customers access to the internet for the price of my annual subscription. From there they could adopt a outward emanating repeater strategy using the new Light Peak repeaters to extend the bandwidth from their Apple stores into the communities surrounding their stores.
If I had money I would open Mobile Me internet cafes right next to Apple properties giving Apple customers unfettered access to the internet.
So, don’t worry about Apple having to be on all carriers in order for iPhone to succeed.
Rule number one: If Apple can provide a service, that’s one less partner it needs to succeed.
Say goodbye to Akamai.
@ G4Dualie
Nice premises. However, WiFi is not free. And the same carriers that service wireless, are the same carriers that supply WiFi.
I had my network partially opened for WiFi until the kid across the street was chewing up data downloading pirated movies. Didn’t find out until I got a notice from my ISP warning me of illegal downloading and my wife showed me a surcharge for exceeding our allotted data plan.
@ Bizlaw
“It’s much like a city not building good roads until the houses have been built for several years – they never build in foresight, just catch up in hindsight.”
I gather you don’t own a home and pay taxes.
It isn’t just me G4Dually. Several people before me seem to have the same issue. Typing AT&T;results in the added semicolon. Not that I really care, I just found it odd.