Did AT&T provide cheap iPad data rates to keep iPhone exclusivity?

A lot of this talk is "the grass is greener on the other side.". How in the world would anyone know how verizons system would act after placing 10 million plus iphones on it? Their system is a lot older than at&ts.It also is not capable of voice and data at the same time(right now).I have a iphone and a verizon mifi and guess what, the mifi is constantly at half what my iphone 3g connection is. And both devices show full signal strength. As for cheap data services in Japan and Korea remember, U.S. cell providers have much greater distances to span their networks meaning greater costs. The United States has the most extensive systems in the world....bar none, not even china. Every provider has dead spots, every provider has problems, there are no exceptions to this. Just because one person gets good verizon reception and bad at&t doesn't say the exact opposite does't happen somewhere else. I want what I want and I want it now seems to be the general mentality around the iphone and nothing will satisfy all of the people all of the time.

The answer to when will Verizon get the iPhone is "when they build a network using an actual global standard".

Yeah ok! Cheap would have been unlimited @60Mbs download for $14/mo like in Japan/Korea...

Meh. This is just another analyst making, essentially, nothing more than a prediction. I don't put much stock in this kind of thing. These analysts are like psychics- there are so many of them making so many predictions that eventually, only by sheer numbers, one of them is right.

I would pay just about ANY amount of money to leave AT&T. Here in Valencia, CA, there are huge areas where you get a perfect 3G signal - and data barely comes in at a trickle. In my home, I'll have 4 bars - but can't make or receive calls because as soon as I do, I drop to no bars (huh?). In southern GA where my family lives, you barely get edge. At the local hospital in Dublin, GA edge doesn't work at all. My mom has a long driveway, and AT&T is the only broadband provider in Dublin, so of course they denied her DSL access for the last 10 years. Neighbors had it, she didn't. Then last month I found out Verizon had a 3G tower within a mile of her home. One Mi-Fi later, my mother finally has broadband - and it's faster than the fastest DSL offered by AT&T in the area.

The thing to keep in mind with AT&T is that they're only going to make decisions based on demographics. In rural areas if the population isn't high enough, they're gonna skip to the next town.

In my job, if I overpromised and underdelivered as much as AT&T has, I would be fired. In fact, my children would be fired. My children's children would live with the legacy of my failings and move to another country to try to start a new life - but my failures would follow them there. This is AT&T.

And here's a 'one last thing'. The 'solution' to my woes is a microcell adapter, which has been in testing for a year. AT&T can't even roll that out right - how long does it take to make, test, and manufacture a product? Apple makes a new phone, every year, yet are you telling me that AT&T can't mass produce these microcell devices at even half the scale and speed in which apple produces iphones? Christ - we're talking about a $150 product, so AT&T has even gotten their customers to subsidize their failings - and they can't even get that right.

The United States has a robust and powerful network built from coast to coast - it's just not tied to a specific network. I really wish that Apple would realize that. Android isn't going to kill the iPhone. AT&T is.

A few things people forget when they talk about Verizon getting the iPhone.
1. Apple sells the iPhone around the world without having to significantly alter the insides. Economies of Scale. They have a nice GLOBAL marketshare and don't necessarily need the 11 million Verizon switchers.

2. If it were to happen, it would be an LTE model, and the way things stand now, that's easily 2+ years before that network is up and running everywhere.

3. Steve Jobs never forgets. Verizon passed on the iPhone once, then had ads dissing it during Christmas. We all know how passionate Steve Jobs is. It will take a helluvalot for Verizon to get the iPhone.

but would you pay an extra $100? What about $150? Would all your friends and family too? I doubt there's enough market for that device compared to the GSM market world-wide that hasn't reached iPhone saturation yet. My guess is it will be only after Verizon completes its LTE update that you'll see an iPhone on that network...which means wait for 2011 when it will have hit the big burgs.

I can understand why some people dislike AT&T, they are far from perfect. However, they have dramatically improved their network over the last few years. If supposed competition with Verizon lowered the price for iPad 3G customers, great. As far as Apple producing a Verizon compatible iPhone, I'll believe it when I see it. EV-DO Rev. A (as we have it implemented in the US) is a step backwards from HSPA, not to mention a completely different radio technology. There is no doubt that Verizon does blanket more area with EV-DO than AT&T does with HSPA, but I don't particularly care since I neither live in those areas nor wish to go there. Sorry.

I just assumed.

This "no-contract" plan... I mean there is almost nothing like it, at least not from the BIG wireless companies and on a device as "hot" as the iPad. I have been dying to get a "connected" device aside from my iPhone (read: MyFi, etc.) but hate the idea of a 2 year contract. Although the pricing can be argued (as yorick has demonstrated), this is worthy of being described as "landmark." I am sure they got SOMETHING in return for it...

I'm on my third iPhone. My wife, grandson and I all own an iPhone. I've bought the last iPhone I'll ever buy if ATT has exclusivity when my contract expires. There are just too many good smart phones on the market now to have to deal with ATT.