Many potential iPhone customers in the US have been irked by Apple’s exclusive deal with AT&T, but that marriage is now coming under pressure from another source: small, rural cellphone providers. At issue is the the fact that AT&T does not offer the iPhone for sale in many rural areas where they only offer roaming service.
And, since the exclusive deal prohibits the local cell providers from selling the iPhone, that means that inhabitants of those areas—like much of Vermont, and rural areas in 15 other states—will not be recipients of the iPhone love.
So it is that the Rural Cellular Association, a trade group of 80 small rural providers, plans to petition the FCC to look into the legality of exclusive deals such as the one between AT&T and Apple. According to the Wall Street Journal, most of these small carriers serve 500,000 people or fewer, though those numbers do add up. Ars Technica highlights the case in Alaska, where residents had trouble legally using the iPhone, due to service restrictions imposed by AT&T.
The FCC has apparently intervened on similar issues in the past, as Ars points out, such as forcing Direct Broadcast Satellite providers to offer their services in Alaska and Hawaii. Whether or not that precedent will cover the RCA’s request remains to be seen.
On the many, many, many lists we’ve compiled of missing iPhone features, the lack of Instant Messaging has consistently been towards the top. Among the theories (conspiracy or otherwise) behind the lack of IM on the iPhone is the suggestion that IM would cut too much into AT&T’s revenue from text messaging: while the provider includes 200 text messages in all the iPhone plans, extra messages sent or received cost a subscriber anywhere between five and twenty cents.
Of course, that can add up, as parents of frequent text-messaging kids have quickly learned, especially for messages that are limited to 160 characters—marginally longer than your average Twitter thought. In fact, as Dr Nigel Bannister of the University of Leicester recently concluded, sending SMS messages in his home country of the UK costs roughly four times as much as data sent back from the Hubble telescope.
So it doesn’t seem very surprising that here in the US, a class action lawsuit has been leveled at seven major mobile providers—Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Alltel, US Cellular, Cellular South, and Virgin Mobile—about the price of text messages. While the specific focus of this suit appears to be on unsolicited text messages that subscribers receive (and are charged for), there may be implications beyond that.
Personally, we think the Mississippi federal judge who ends up with this on their docket should take a look at Dr. Bannister’s findings. Or at least let us send text messages to outer space.
So, with all of this hubbub over Apple’s non-exclusive carrier deals in many of the countries they’re moving into, what does this mean for the countries where Apple’s already got deals in place?
According to the CEO of T-Mobile, Hamid Akhavan, it doesn’t affect the happy marriage between Apple and its German provider:
“We have a very good relationship with Apple…at least in Germany it is exclusive, and we expect it to remain as such,” Akhavan told the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris.
And though Apple’s US partner, AT&T, has not been shy about touting a future 3G iPhone, T-Mobile is taking a more circumspect route—which Steve Jobs would no doubt approve of:
“If and when there is a 3G iPhone we expect to have it exclusively in Germany as well,” [said Akhavan.]
T-Mobile is, of course, also currently selling the iPhone in Austria, but as we noted late last week, France Telecom announced that they’ve also struck an arrangement to sell the iPhone in Austria. If Apple’s Austrian extramarital fling is causing strife in Germany, there’s certainly no indication of it.
More fun with carriers! Orange, who already has an exclusive deal with Apple for providing the iPhone in France, has now announced that it’s made a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to other countries under their dominion.
As of “later this year” (which we are awarding “most favored catchphrase” status), Orange will be providing the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, and “Orange’s African markets.” While they didn’t spell out which countries that includes, Orange currently has operations in Guinea Konakri, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Niger, Ivory Coast, Mali, Kenya, Cameroon, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Reunion, and Mauritius.
For those playing along at home, you’ll notice some duplicates there: Swisscom has already announced a deal in Switzerland, América Móvil has claimed the Dominican Republic, and Vodafone has spoken for Egypt and Portugal. Most interestingly, T-Mobile has been offering the iPhone in Austria since February, which means they didn’t manage to snag an exclusive agreement for the country.
The country parade seems like it’s continuing unabated. Let’s see what next week brings, shall we?
If, in light of the current iPhone shortage, you were planning on raiding AT&T stores to stock up on iPhones and resell them at high prices, you might be a little disappointed to find that the mobile operator’s retail locations are now limiting the number of iPhones that customers can buy.
According to a leaked internal memo, customers at AT&T stores can now buy only one iPhone each—this was confirmed by Macworld via calls to AT&T stores. In addition, checks and cash will no longer be accepted for buying iPhones: you’ll need to use a credit card.
Well, so much for my new business plan.
Many great things have come out of Switzerland: chocolate, clocks, cheese. Many of them, as you might notice, start with “c.” But now something great is coming into Switzerland, and that’s the iPhone. Confirming rumors published in Swiss’s Le Matin last week, a notice appeared on Swisscom’s website with the short but sweet news:
Swisscom has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Switzerland later this year.
But they still don’t answer the questions that inquiring Swissophiles want to know: will it have holes in it? Will it speak four languages? Will it feature a cute blond girl in pigtails? Will it support Helvetica? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
If you’ve started to get sick of all the iPhone carrier deal announcements, well, that’s probably because you either don’t live in any of the countries already named, or you do and have an unlocked phone. Either way, try to keep in mind those less fortunate than yourself. Adding to the already impressive roster of iPhone carrier deals we’ve heard over the past week, we now have an announcement from SingTel that it and its Bharti Airtel and Globe Telecom affiliates, as well as its Optus subsidiary, will be bringing the iPhone to Australia, India, Singapore, and the Philippines “later this year.”
But wait! If you’ve been paying attention, then you’ll have noticed that India and Australia have already both had a flag planted in them by Vodafone. More evidence of Apple eschewing the exclusive deal route, as they’ve done in Italy? I guess Apple’s moved on to an open marriage—how adventurous of them.
[via Macworld]
What are you playin’ at, AT&T? Some tipsters pointed out to Engadget that the My Account page on AT&T Wireless’s site now provides you with two options after you select Apple as your phone manufacturer: the run-of-the-mill, ordinary, “iPhone” and the mysterious “iPhone Black.” Cue the suspenseful music. I snapped some screenshots for posterity before the evidence disappears back into the shifting sands of the web.
Rumors have been flying that the next model of iPhone will feature a glossy black exterior—that’s not entirely farfetched, given Apple’s penchant for monochromatic model madness: witness the original iPod (now classic) and MacBooks. But if you happen to select “View by Picture,” you’ll notice the two images are exactly the same (below). AT&T jumping the gun here? Nah, that could never happen!
[via Engadget]
