To find out that the Apple iPhone (
heard of it?) would roll out locked to Cingular on a multi-year exclusivity agreement was difficult enough for some folks to swallow. Imagine, then, the pain and suffering that'll be experienced by those in areas that Cingular has forsaken. Case in point: the Burlington Free Press has noted that Cingular offers not a sliver of coverage in the quaint state of Vermont, leaving well over half a million good citizens (Ben and Jerry included, we reckon) without their fix. While our initial instinct might be to buy the phone elsewhere and just roam 'til the cows come home (literally -- this is Vermont, after all), Cingular policy states that a customer's address must lie in a directly covered area -- and even for the few that manage to skate by that one, the carrier's known for canceling accounts that roam excessively. Of course, Cingular points out that eager buyers are more than welcome to buy it contract-free without activating an account, but there's not a lot of fun in that; meanwhile, Apple's staying mum on the subject, perhaps for fear of further agitating hundreds of thousands of irate Vermonters. And the problem is by no means limited to Vermont: residents of large parts of Maine, Virginia, West Virginia, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Arizona, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Colorado (among other states) might find that Apple has passed them over come June, unless Cingular goes into turbo mode lighting up new service areas. Anyone out there willing to move for a cellphone?
[Thanks, Craig]
posted Jan 17th 2007 2:21PM
Ha...move for a phone...you're silly. In all seriousness though, Cingular offers fairly good coverage in my area, but I just dropped them for one of their competitors, and no amount of iPhone will get me to go back...
Wow this really doesn't seem to be making any sense to me from Apple's perspective. Why would they be so severely limiting themselves? The number of prospective phones that they can sell seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the day.
There is obviously something we just don't that makes a world of difference. What on earth is is though?
It also looks like they will lock out existing cingular customers who are not "eligible" for an update. This has been a mixed bag, no confirmed info, but there normal policy is such. If so, SO STUPID.
ANynone have any info on this?
lol, i dont think they care...cingular and apple i think will be just fine if the people that do have coverage, which i'm guessing is a much larger amount than the ones that don't
and the ones that don't have coverage: 1. probably dont have Cingular anyways
and 2. its just too bad, nothing can be done and it sucks, but i don't know how far cingular would go out of their way to meet the needs of maybe the 10% of the population that doesn't have coverage cause they can make billions without them
Any word/speculation about Apple coming out with an Ipod with all the same features minus the phone?
Ipod with:
a touchscreen
a widescreen
Wi-Fi (no need for a carrier)
a bigger HDD
I'd buy it.
Ummm Cingular does tooooo work in VT...I have spent a lot of time in Burlington and have never had a problem on my Cingi phone.
Um, even if you did buy an unlocked one, I think the only other GSM network in the US is T-Mobile, whose coverage is probably much worse.
And for the record, last time I was in Burlington, I saw a vending machine for Live Bait. I don't think that's the iPhone market.
#6: But you were roaming on Unicel. It's not native Cingular coverage.
Engadet want to post a tmobile, alltel, or sprint map up here, my guess is that the coverage would be worse and roaming would be more. Verizon and Cingular are arguably the most nationwide coverage you are going to get in one carrier.
this is a dumb article. Ever heard of the chocolate, the blackjack, the list goes on. They were only available through one carrier. This is the same deal. Give it time and the iPhone will be available on other carriers as well.
You know for all the people who don't know anything about cellular. You should got to GSMworld.com (GSM is the actual digital signal AT&T uses) you will see that over 2 BILLION NOT MILLION, BUT 2 BILLION PEPLE use this signal of GSM in the world and AT&T is the biggest GSM provider in the u.s. they have the largest digital voice and data network in america, not analog like sprint (most powerful) and verizon (most reliable) proclaim. so why wouldn't they go with the best. oh and for all the people who think they know more than the actual CEO of yahoo, google, AT&T and Apple you need to lay off the crack. It's plain and simple guys, it's all marketing if you don't have AT&T you're not with the best how do we know that....one word iphone. plus apple will never make a CDMA version of the iphone. why you ask not worth the money!!! if you don't work for the companies you don't know squat. THANK YOU come again.
While Apple may be neglecting a fair share of prospective customers, they will also be pulling a fair share of customers from other providers into Cingular's lap. I've hardly talked to anyone about this phone, partly out of frustration and the remainder out of disappointment, and I already know 4 people who plan to leave their current providers for the iPhone. And these people aren't at all "cell phone addicts." They're just friends and friends of friends. A decent amount of people will be jumping ship for Cingular, and some of them won't care about the disadvantages Cingular has as far as coverage goes.
#10: The Chocolate and the Blackjack weren't nearly as hyped as the iPhone, though your point still stands. It will most likely go to other carriers, but the question is, how long will the wait be (how long is that exclusivity agreement)? Will it ever come to CDMA? And will it improve its features to make it at least 40% worth the price?
So many questions, so little answers.
#12: Why are you getting so worked up over this? If you're going to complain at least try and look SOMEWHAT knowledgeable about the subject at hand. First of all, get your facts right. All of the major carriers are offering digital service as a standard. More than 90% of their customer base use digital signals. But more importantly, work on your spelling and grammar. Once you do that you'll be amazed that people will give - yes, even your - opinions some credibility, simply because your writing will present itself as being written by a knowledgeable person.
The parts of Maine that are not covered by Cingular have very few people living in them. Do moose and squirrel need an iPhone?
Out west there are HUGE tracts of land with no one in them. Look at the Nevada coverage. They cover the Las Vegas area, they cover the highway 80 corridor. That probably cover 99% of the people in the state at any given moment.
@12...if anyone needs to lay off the crack, it'd be you.
>AT&T...they have the largest digital voice and data network in america
WRONG
>not analog like sprint
WRONG
> and verizon (most reliable) proclaim.
WRONG
>if you don't work for the companies you don't know squat. THANK YOU come again.
And which of these companies did you manage to get through the drug screen with?
Cingular is the worst cellular service provider in the state of New Mexico. Of all my acquaintances who have Cingular, not a single one of them holds even an indifferent opinion of them . They have no dropped calls because they can't even make calls to begin with --mild exaggeration.
I'm not a Verizon fanboi, their paradigm of anally raping their customers' wallets is no fun, but they currently provide the largest and most reliable coverage area in Albuquerque; I still don't get good enough cell service in my house to not have to use my land line, but it's not their faults. Its due to a zoning law established before the invention of the cell phone, and it won't expire for at least another decade.
HA! HA! to all who can't get the iphone! No, really, I don't care for the iphone at all. I have cingular, works great enough for me that i don't have a landline. I understand paying $500 for a phone without a plan but $500 for a phone with a new plan? Thats ridiculous. At this price, so many people will want it and so few people are actually going to get it that locking it to Cingular makes almost no difference for apple.
But take the razr as an example, at first only cingular had it but now its so popular and every carrier has their own version of it.
Cingular also says they have coverage in many areas, but then give you horrible service. I'm in MA and I had more the 50% dropped calls! I am know happily on verizon, not to mention, the evdo...without a real data plan, the iphone will just be slow and frustrating...and I'm not counting on hdspa(sp?) to save it. I'll stick with my verizon, the nations best provider.
to the tool that posted about cinguatt having the largest data network....you have no clue what you are talking about...VZW continually has the most additions as far as data customers and by far a faster and MORE RELIABLE network all around...as far as cingulars claim to have the least dropped calls...if you cant make a call you cant drop a call!! so that claim is pretty jaded...im over all not too impressed with the iphone...it will be a little fad just like the sidekick was with tmobile...but just as people grew bored with that something new will come along that will spark a new interest and steal the attention... i personally will stick with my RELIABLE network and the piece of mind that comes with VZW.... not to mention the first quarter areound here at verizon (yes im an employee) holds numerous things that will over shadow the HYPE that cingular is tring to create with a device that they cant even get a name for (legally) at thsi point...
I imagine I'm not the only gadget freak here in Northern Virginia (the blue part of VA) who believe there's little if any loss in not having the iPhone in that Cingular-free part of the Commonwealth.
To #12:
Yeah, so GSM reaches 2 billion people. Are there 2 billion who can actually AFFORD the iPhone, and a 2-year cell phone plan? NOOOOOO!
Yeah, lay off the crack pipe. Apu is NOT funny.
Further, from an economical prespective, it is kind of a bad move. The two largest celluar telephone markets, Japan and North America (ones of which have the most immediate impact on the iPhone (well, maybe not Canada, since service has not been readily introduced)), CDMA and other standards are actually dominant. Cingular may be the largest carrier in the US (which it didn't exactly earn to begin with), but it garners about 60 million, while the only other GSM carrier, T Mobile, garners about 28 million. Add minor GSM carriers, we're talking at most 90 million. Verizon and Sprint, on the other hand, each hold about 57 million. Alltel holds about 15 million, and is growing. With minor carriers, the CDMA market in the US is approximately 130 million, nearly 50% more than the GSM market.
Now let's add another element to the equation: Europe. Clearly, Apple will benefit from the large, GSM-only community in Europe. But there's one major problem: Europe HATES Apple. The Brits think Apple's ripping off their styles, and they love their Skypes. France wants Apple to open up iTunes. Germany's most popular carrier is T-Mobile, and they're not going to negotiate unless the American exclusivity agreement is dropped. There are other factors, but it's clear that Apple just isn't loved in Europe.
Theoretically, Apple could negotiate with Vodafone, and get a WIDE piece of the pie there (one that will be simple, too, rather negotiating with every dominant carrier in the country). However, Vodafone has a majority stake in Verizon (45%), so if the exclusivity deal prevents Apple from producing a CDMA/EV-DO model of the iPhone, I seriously doubt Vodafone will even negotiate. Thus, Apple will once again have little control over the market.
My guess: If Apple knows what's best for them, when we find out the exclusive carrier for the GSM models, we will hear word of a CDMA model in the works.
TO NUMBER 9
You'd be wrong, Alltel actually has the biggest nationwide network covering more square feet than any other carrier. Cingular has the most subscribers solely because it has more coverage in Metro areas. VZW has second biggest network and second in subscribers followed by Cingular in 3rd for coverage 1st in subscribers, Sprint next in 4th with coverage 3rd in subscribers, Tmobile last in fifth but 4th in subscribers. Alltel has the most coverage but the 5th in subscribers
what about those of use in the UK and the rest of europe? - wouldent it be better to release the phone to work, all-be-it, more limited, for all networks?