Filed under: iPhone
At last, the iPhone comes to Vermont
After a fourteen-month wait, the iPhone is finally coming to Vermont."But isn't Vermont a part of the US?" you ask. Well yes, but AT&T -- the iPhone's exclusive carrier in the US -- has no wireless coverage in the Green Mountain State, so the iPhone has never officially been made available. Some enterprising Vermonters have set up blogs and even gone underground with their jailbroken iPhones, but that's all about to change.
Earlier this week, Vermont's WCAX TV reported that area providers Verizon and Unicel have merged, and AT&T will be awarded overlapping service areas to prevent a wireless monopoly in Vermont.
The wait is almost over, Vermonters! Now you can enjoy standing in long lines like the rest of us.
Thanks, B. Marriner!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Steve said 1:46PM on 8-05-2008
So since Alltel and Verizon have merged, and pretty much all of South Dakota is overlapped between the two, does that mean that AT&T will be awarded those service areas, bringing the iPhone there? Who decides who gets the overlapped areas?
Reply
Julie said 2:34PM on 8-05-2008
I sure hope the same applies to the Dakotas. This is my only hope of getting an iPhone prior to 2010! Don't know how long the switchover is going to take, but I'm glad I got the news now. I just today upgraded my work phone to a Blackberry, but I'm going to hold off upgrading my personal phone until there's more information from the merger.
Julie said 9:50AM on 8-06-2008
And the deal definitely does NOT apply to the Dakotas. The FCC ruling listed six markets, most in Vermont, but a couple in Washington and New York. So the faint glimmer of hope has dimmed.
Vernal said 1:48PM on 8-05-2008
Mmmmm I'm not sure that cell coverage here in Vt is good enough to justify the hefty forkout that AT&T wants... and I don't think there is 3G ANYWHERE in the state. Maybe they'll invest?
Reply
J said 1:54PM on 8-05-2008
I, for one, can't wait. But, I have not heard any official word that AT&T has been awarded the territory, even though they were working a deal with Unicel in 2007. Hopefully we'll see a press release soon.
Keep up with the VT iPhone blogs, news and twitter chatter here: http://www.iphonevermont.com
Reply
V Paulissen said 2:15PM on 8-05-2008
Well this sounds like the beginning of the Asterix & Obelix cartoons in Europe. Whole Gallia (France) was conquered, the whole of Galia?... no a brave village (Vermont) resited to the Roman Impire (Iphone metafoor) ..
Reply
Fernando said 3:17PM on 8-05-2008
What about Puerto Rico. We've had At&t for ages!!!!!
Reply
Aaron Weissman said 3:38PM on 8-05-2008
No AT&T in the State of Montana, either. No prospects for them to come here, either.
Reply
MickAv8r said 3:38PM on 8-05-2008
This is great! Vermont has been a cellular black hole for me since I first signed on with ATT back in 2003.
Reply
Luigi193 said 4:03PM on 8-05-2008
THANK THE LORD...
Finally! Our ever-crappy state gets something!
Reply
J said 4:30PM on 8-05-2008
Uh, ever crappy state? The only thing worth wanting that VT did not have was the iPhone. And now it will :)
Jake said 4:21PM on 8-05-2008
We've got the same problem in North Dakota and SD too- No AT&T wireless coverage. Maybe AT&T will show some love up here.
Reply
Matt said 6:39PM on 8-05-2008
I have been actually using an iPhone in Fargo for almost a year with a Minneapolis number. For the first 10 months of iPhone usage in Fargo, I traveled a lot so I was always pretty confident that a majority of my use would be in AT&T networks, but the last two have been mostly in Fargo. I haven't gotten the supposed nasty letter from AT&T telling me that I am abusing their partner networks.
While in Fargo, I mostly have 3 or 4 solid bars and the little "E" in the upper left. Sometimes it is a dot. Does anyone know what those mean? I.e., would "partner networks" show "E" (which I know stands for EDGE) or does Fargo have undocumented AT&T coverage?
Jake said 3:22AM on 8-06-2008
Really? I'm in Fargo too. You have phone and data service?
But you have a Minneapolis number. Detroit Lakes supposedly has AT&T so in theory one could go through DL and it would be like having a Moorhead number.
I may have to investigate...
Julie said 9:50AM on 8-06-2008
The trick is you need a Minneapolis / Detroit Lakes / Fergus Falls address. If you don't have one of those, the iPhone is a no-go. (So close!) The phones will definitely work in Fargo, but you can't buy one using a Fargo (or Moorhead) address. Given that Fargo is such a Microsoft hot spot, I'd love to see AT&T add a tower or two to cover the area just for spite. >:)
Kris Lien said 9:48PM on 8-07-2008
Yea, I have an unocked iPhone in Fargo, ND and use it on T-Mobile Flexpay service(which I have had working for about 7 months now). It works pretty good up here. I even have T-Mobile billing me to my address here in Fargo. What's nice about Flexpay is that it is the same as a post paid account but viewed as a pre pay service, so no contract but all the benefits of plans with a contract! It is kind of nice having this device up here since most people don't think there is any way to get it here(Verizon country).
Jake said 11:21AM on 8-06-2008
Fargo is Verizon country- everyone I know (including me) is on verizon.
Julie said 1:10PM on 8-06-2008
How'd we get so many (frustrated) iPhone geeks in Fargo? :-) We should start a support group...
bkim said 4:57PM on 8-05-2008
Hooray! Now Vermonters can enjoy the same crappy AT&T service the rest of the country has to deal with. I switched from Verizon to AT&T so I could get an iPhone 3G. The difference in cell service isn't subtle. I could use my Verizon phone in elevators at home and at work--not so with AT&T. I lose my AT&T signal before I even get into the elevator at work. I get no signal in places where my Verizon phone worked fine.
I couldn't even get EDGE to work, much less 3G, at Lollapalooza. I could barely make calls or send text messages (success rate was less than 50%). My friend had no problem connecting with his Sprint phone. AT&T was one of Lollapalooza's biggest sponsors. They obviously didn't make any effort to try to add extra capacity even though their name was plastered all over the place.
Reply
Toledo Guy said 12:52PM on 8-07-2008
You seem to have switched to Verizon for the same reasons why I switched back to AT&T. My final insult was when my wife and I were driving along the Ohio Turnpike, following each other in separate cars. My call to my wife (in the car behind me) went direct to VM. My Cingular/AT&T service is much more reliable.