“One of the greatest struggles I’ve had to face with my iPhone is the fact that I have two different companies to deal with. When I have a hardware issue, I’m Apple Store-bound. If I have a service issue, I’m headed to the nearest AT&T location. But wouldn’t it be nice if Apple just had its own network? It would be really nice, and it just may happen, according to a recent patent application extension filed by Apple,” Jordan Crook reports for MobileCrunch.
“The patent application, which was originally filed in 2006 and just extended recently, describes plans to set up Apple as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), but with a little tweak,” Crook reports. “Normally MVNOs lease wholesale mobile network capacity from just one carrier, such as Sprint or Verizon. Apple, on the other hand, has plans to make contracts and relationships with all the carriers, with its own Home Location Register (a database that stores the SIM card details of every network’s customers.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn W.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple granted ‘Dynamic Carrier Selection’ patent where carriers bid to provide service to iPhones – February 9, 2011
Apple to soon become MVNO? – December 5, 2008
Apple’s unprecedented, almost unbelievable iPhone business model: hassle-free MVNO – October 1, 2007
If anyone could do it…
Now that would be a game changer! No longer is Apple just on one network, it will be on every network!
Whoa! So the NC data center stores SIM card images for your iPhone for whatever network works best at your present location. You use your iPhone wherever you happen to be and Apple’s system applies the appropriate SIM card image to your phone and puts it on the appropriate cell system for the connection you want to make. You pay Apple for your contract, data plan, etc. You have one point of contact for service, billing, etc. I like it.
Yeah, I don’t get it. My TV and my TV content provider are not the same company. My computer and my ISP are not the same company. Why do I want my phone and my phone company to be the same?
D’oh! Phone carrier, not phone company in the last sentence above.
Because just like owning a Mac I don’t want to be directed to another agency to deal with hardware issues (the often maddening Windows way). Also because Apple faces massive limitations to its features and services by being forced to go through the existing cell suppliers who gouge, limit, or deny services based on their inability to deliver, or are just plain greedy.
Test messaging is a good example. It requires the smallest amount of bandwidth and should be a free feature as it deters many people from making real voice calls that put a lot more pressure on the network. Instead they gouge heavily for it. If Apple could turn some of these industry paradigms upside down they could sell a ton more phones.
Text or SMS was made by mainly Ericsson engineers when they made GSM standard as a cool thing without the management knowing about it!
Here in Scandinavia telecos didn’t charge for SMS in the beginning, not until they found out what a good way of making money it was, and more or less for free!
Because if Apple wants to push cloud computing they will want it done with the least amount of roadblocks, like bandwidth caps. If history has taught us one thing about Apple it’s they dont like another company controlling the major piece of the user experience.
to Zeke, Nope.. In this model, your iPhone is effectively roaming on every network. since your profile doesn’t exist on the native networks, the “roaming” mechanisms are used to figure out that you’re an Apple customer, you’re validated via the Apple HLR and then your’e under that roaming agreement.. Now apple might be able to negotiate a great roaming rate :-)…
There are some peculiarities in this environment dealing with short dialing codes for customer support, handling voicemail properly, etc but overall it would work fine and there are other companies doing similar sorts of things for other special purpose devices…
The big difficulty with plans like this are more related to support than anything else… when you have a wireless problem today, the Carrier, who has access to the entire infrastructure can best find what the problem is and fix it. under an external HLR MVNO agreement, Apple wouldn’t have access to the network infrastructure… to solve a problem, they would have to call the carrier support team.. and then argue about who’s problem it is… the MVNO or the Carrier.
–marcel
Interesting…
yes please.
Check Mate
“So let it be written, so let it be done.”
Apple will have its own network within 3 years. It fits right in with their strategy. Take it to the bank.
Please let it be true, and true for data as well as voice, as well as text, as well as MMS, as well as overseas, and may this spell the end of carrier locked handsets.
Now if they could do the same thing for home internet…
And this is why Apple may be considering a universal SIM card in a future iPhone. This would allow the iPhone to switch between carrier networks easily.
Why does it seem Apple is the only company planning 2-5 years ahead of time.
Wayne Gretsky strategy : Skate to where the puck WILL BE not to where the puck IS NOW.
i’d be happy to send AT&T (iPhone) & Verizon (mifi) packing if the terms were good.
This is ancient and prior to Apple’s iPhone for god sake. This is long gone, dead, dust. How does old crap get reported on?
worketh for me. AppleNet.
That would coincide with Apple’s effort to try to move away from using a SIM card to an embedded chip that would work for all carriers in the iPhone.
What better way to use it’s Now $68 Billion in Cash reserves!!
Bravo!
Get rid of the BS txt msg charges please!
I one hand I would love to see apple do something like this. At&t and Verizon leave a lot to be desired. Apple certainly would do better.
On the other hand Apple is never known for being inexpensive. Its likely to be even more expensive then At&t and Verizon. Both are far too expensive as it is, its the thing I dislike the most about my iphone. Apple certainly wouldn’t be cheaper.