“I found myself scratching my head last week as Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced carrier partnerships for the newly unveiled iPad,” Clayton Morris reports for FOXNews.com. “‘AT&T is providing the service,’ Jobs announced, as murmurs ran around the room. ‘AT&T is throwing in free use of their Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S. with this. No contract. And you can cancel anytime.'”
“But where was Verizon? I thought it would be both carriers,” Morris reports. “As I reported before the event, Verizon appeared to be on board and was even working out the final details of the partnership.”
“According to sources at Verizon, the company is more interested in the lucrative iPhone contracts,” Morris reports. “But the two companies are still ‘very much talking and plan to bring an iPhone and an iPad’ to the CDMA network this year, following the expiration of AT&T’s exclusive agreement with Apple,” Morris reports.
Morris reports, “Of course ‘still talking’ doesn’t mean anything. It would be ridiculous to think these companies aren’t still talking: that’s what big companies do. To be fair, these talks are very much in keeping with reports from Wall Street analysts who expect some Apple/Verizon partnership announcement this year. But I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“According to my sources, AT&T was able to outbid every other GSM carrier with a $14.99 or $29.99 plan that gives customers 250MB or unlimited data, respectively,” Morris reports. “I must say I am impressed with AT&T’s iPad data pricing structure — and I wasn’t alone given the amount of applause during the Apple event. ‘I think the pricing speaks for itself,’ said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. ‘Apple sets the price for these plans and the $29.99 unlimited plan is comparable to our data plans for other devices.'”
Morris reports, “Comparable? Actually AT&T brought its A game, offering much cheaper options for consumers than currently exist for netbooks.”
Read more in the full article here.
The additional $30 a month for 3G is ridiculous. This should be changed to where you have a 3G account with AT&T;that covers all your devices. $30 for 3G here, $30 for 3G there. It’s out of control. Not to mention that AT&T;3G is nothing to write home about.
AT&T;just blew the doors away with this plan. Plus they continue to upgrade their services just to please Apple and their users.
That explains why ma bell has spent billions upgrading her cellular network. In hindsight, this may go some way to explain why there were localised problems on her network. If the adoption of the iPad goes the way of the iPhone, the extra load demanded of her network will be even greater than before. To quote a cliche, the proof will be in the eating of the pudding.
Can the other networks cope with not only the iPhone but the iPad demanding data at the same time? I don’t think not, that is why they are emphasising the iPhone for now, once they can cope with the demand, they will then seek to offer the iPad.
The iPad isn’t locked, all Verizon has to do is sell a GSM SIM card. D’oh!
They have that outdated-being-phased-out network, don’t they.
It’s the network.™
Quote:
Rupert Murdoch believes that were it not for content from companies like News Corp., the iPad and Kindle devices would be “unloved and unsold,” according to a report Wednesday in the Sydney Morning Herald.
In other news:
Were it no for music, Apple’s original iPod would have not been nearly as successful.
Now can AT&T;bring the A game for iPhone tethering? $30 unlimited?
wtf? I’m sure AT&T;submitted a bid along the lines of:
$A for X Mb
$B for no fixed limit data
As a bonus, OUR NETWORK IS COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR DEVICE, SO USERS CAN ACTUALLY GET THE DATA THEY WILL PAY FOR.
Verizon could have bid 1/2 the cost that AT&T;did and not make a difference…
The ATT data plan is an excellent plan for those of us who do not already have ATT 3G service. If you have an iPhone with a data plan, I think that ATT should offer at least a combo plan (ideally w/o a surcharge, but i’m dreaming) that allows you unlimited data on both devices w/o doubling your fees.
One thing that is still unclear to me. Since the iPad is an unlocked GSM device, what is prohibiting T-Mobile from offering competing plans to ATT? T-Mobile could offer a $20/month unlimited w/o contract and start some real competition?
This is silly. I don’t believe there was a bidding war with Verison. Verison uses completely different technology. Apple wasn’t carrying an alternative design, just to see who would bid the lowest data plans. Just Faux News drivel.
WTF? ATT was “capable” of such low data rates because the consumer is subsidizing the cost. this is why the 3G iPads are $130 more than the wifi iPads. you can’t tell me the 3G chip costs $130.
What’s up with all the “Fox News this, Fox News that” headlines at MDN lately?
Not that I’m surprised at all…
I don’t see Apple offering ANYTHING running on Verizon’s network, not until their 4G service is in widespread use. Why would Apple build a CDMA *anything* when within 2-3 years it will be replaced by 4G. What would all those CDMA iPads do then? And just how PO’ed would you be if Apple sold you something that wouldn’t even work just a few years down the road… and they knew it when they sold it to you.
No Verizon+Apple for the next few years.
@Wingsy
Not saying that I totally disagree with you, but…
Do you really think that Verizon is going to turn off their huge CDMA network anytime soon? Even after 4G LTE is fully deployed in large metropolitan areas? They will still have CDMA for the rest of the country…
Yours Smugly:
Fox news is trying to infiltrate the ranks and gain favor with Apple users – Buyer beware…
@Oliveman The iPad’s 3G modem supports UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) and GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz). T-Mobile’s 3G runs on 1700 Mhz. See the trouble? You could of course still get EDGE data service using T-Mobile.
two comments:
1. “AT&T;… outbid every other GSM carrier…”
every other? doesn’t he mean simply other? i mean, T-Mobile alone isn’t much of an every.
2. (smack!!) “iPad, bitch!!
@tlgraham,
Thanks. I knew T-mobile & ATT used different frequencies. I just hadn’t seen specs on the iPad’s 3G modem and its supported frequencies.
Too bad. Competition among the service providers would be a welcomed development.
Oliveman:
it would be nice to see an Industry Standard.
Fox News?
I guess that means it never happened.
Verizon is a crap network. CDMA is a dead standard in this world.
@Snow Leopard
True, and ATT still offers wide spread Edge network.
I just think Apple “may” be waiting till the chips that allow both GSM and CDMA become available.
. . . and that exclusive contract thingy expires.
@TOS
Agreed.
Apple’s share of the smartphone market dropped in the December quarter of 2009, according to ABI Research. The Wall Street Journal reported that ABI’s data for the quarter shows iPhone’s market share at 16.6% during the quarter, which is down from the 18.1% share Apple enjoyed in the September quarter.
MDN reposting Fox News, hmm…. perhaps I’ll give Windows 7 a try after all.
“But where was Verizon? I thought it would be both carriers,” Morris reports.
Fox News. What’d you expect… that they’re going to know what they’re talking about? Only an idiot would trust Faux ‘news’ to get simple facts right.