Why I think the iPhone is stuck with Cingular

Exclusivity in business is a strategy that some companies choose to take, and I doubt that neither Cingular nor Apple would sign on unless it showed the promise of generating the highest possible profit. Cingular and Apple are both aggressive companies, and they'll both probably come away winners before the iPhone passes away.

Until then, suck it up and switch to Cingular. Being in the Atlanta area, I, as do many others, are already on the network. I don't think there will be any iPhone shortages around these parts.

one thing you must understand, having it exclusively on cingular isn't as bad as you make it seem. you may think there are better companies out there and that's your opinion, fact is that cingular has many many more customers than any other carrier in america...something close to 60 million. and their new plans that are about to roll out next week will only make that number grow significantly...it's a great strategy for both cingular and apple

Here in the SF Bay Area, Cingular service is pretty spotty. About half the people I talk to say they can't get a Cingular signal from their inside their own HOUSE!

"Fewest dropped calls" they claim -- the joke is that you just can't connect to their network at all.

The first thing I think they decided was to go with GSM radios. They have a lower power drain, are accepted in more countries, are cheaper than CDMA chips, and have a future in broadband cellular technology.
I think Steve had to just pick one provider to get the network capability of random access voicemail.
In the end he picked Cingular(I mean AT&T)over T-mobile because AT&T has more customers that could potentially buy the phone without switching providers. I too will be waiting until at least 2009 to pick this one up.

If they were going to go exclusivley with a carrier, Cingular is the best choice.

If it was exclusive with Verizon, then that would suck. Since it's GSM, I can import it to Canada and use it with Rogers (after unlocking it).

Maybe Cingular isn't the greatest out THERE, but I can tell you that in semi-rural Indiana, Cingular is the ONLY out HERE. It's not even worth thinking about switching to another carrier, there's just no coverage. Cell phone coverage on any carrier isn't universally spotty or universally amazing - it varies very, very widely.

No matter which cellphone company was chosen, you'd have 50% of people saying they like it and 50% of people saying they hate it. Your reception depends on where you live. If you live in a rural area or odd geographical area (San Fran has lots of huge hills and changes in elevation), then get Sprint or Verizon. They use a different, older network that works better in America but isn't used in other countries.

Apple chose Cingular because like T-Mobile, Cingular uses a more modern cellphone network that is available worldwide. This is a network America will eventually adopt fully once the coverage gets better (We're a little behind the rest of the world in cellphone technology and networks).

As for locking down the phone, visual voicemail requires the cooperation of the carriers to make it work. Therefore, one company must be picked as the exclusive carrier for the initial release.

Maybe you got it backwards. Maybe Apple went with Cingular for the iPhone because Cingular was the only network willing to carry the ROKR. The networks that refused to carry the ROKR can eat their hearts out now.

why is this article about cell phones on download squad? it doesn't seem to make sense.

Could it be that they needed a network behind them to allow all the features to function. For example the "Visual Voicemail" surely requires a change in the voicemail system at the networks end.

When you are launching a product that your claiming "reinvents the wheel" you need all the features to be functional so you need a a carrier behind you to ensure that

Yeah, not only do I NOT want to drop $500 for the iPod with phone, I don't want to pay the $150 cancel fee from my current carrier.

Phone manufacturers do exclusive deals with carriers because carriers subsidize the cost of the phone when it's sold to consumers. No carrier exclusivity could mean the iPhone would cost $699-$799+.

Also, as Steve Jobs said, the iPhone has many network dependent features that necessitate a close relationship with carriers - easier to roll out with one at launch, and for the carrier to perform this integration, they want something in return, exclusivity.

Enjoy..............G

Folks, there's a reason I don't read Engadget, or Engadget Mobile, or the Wireless Report: I'm not that interested.

Unfortunately the cingular network is so slow that many of the features won't work. Cingular says that they expect people to utilize hot spots, not just their network.

And how big is this market? 20% of phones are video capable and only 10% of that 20% use it. Seems like not much demand to me.

Actually I heard it WAS because of the features needed on the network's end. I heard it was only Cingular that can offer the technology needed for the visual voicemail.

I don't think Apple owes anything to Cingular. In fact, it was Motorola that got screwed on the Rokr. They were absolutely shocked when the Nano was introduced the same day as the Moto/Apple joint venture. It was a half ass product attempt that probably tought Apple a lot about the cell phone business on Motorola's dime.

Here's the real scoop on Cingular and its dropped calls claim:

Cingular has been in the hot seat for its latest ad campaign claiming that "the leading independent research company" has proven Cingular has the fewest dropped calls. Cingular doesn't identify this mysterious "research company" in its ads or on its website. While you might assume Consumer Reports is the publication being referenced, that's not the case. It turns out that the referenced study was conducted by a company called Telephia Corp., but according to an investigative article by Bruce Mohl published in the Boston Globe, neither Cingular nor Telephia will release the results of this study to anyone.

Cingular isn't the only wireless company that makes big advertising claims, but Cingular's claims are perhaps least supported by any of the available independent testing data. In the large survey conducted by J.D. Power, Cingular is rated lowest in overall call quality in four of six regions. In the remaining two regions, subscribers rate overall call quality in the bottom two. In the survey at PC Magazine, readers rate Cingular call quality higher than that of Sprint/Nextel and Qwest, but significantly lower than Verizon, Alltel and U.S. Cellular.

Source: http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/cell-phone-plans/index.html

Why the Cingular bashing?

They are fine?

I mean you don't get service in most places that other carriers like verizon don't get service. I agree their 3g and HDSPA coverage is lame,

Cingular has the largest digital network while Verizon and Sprint will put you with analog and roaming to get more all over coverage.

A coverage sucks in the mid-west....EVERY CARRIER.

If we went by coverage, Alltel wins

hiving worked in the cell phone area for a while i can say that the deal with cingular makes them both a great deal of money, but i dont think that it will be 'exclusive' for very long. given the track record of the more complex phones (WM5, Symbian), it should be easy enough to unlock, probably not even a month after the phones hit peoples hands. what really shocks me though is the price, you can get a much more serious piece of hardware for that cost from the 'pocketpc' fare. i shudder to think what the 'full retail' price will be.

First of all GSM is NOT more modern than "CDMA" as used by Sprint and Verizon.
SPrint and Verizon are quickly migrating from CDMA to CDMA2000 and that's part of the reason why there two companies are quickly and relatively inexpensively offering higher speed data.

Cinglular/AT&T is on GSM (as is a lot of the world) this is morphing (very slowly) to WCDMA. This is an expensive step with many jumps along the way as the companies don't want the expense of a one time jump.

Technically Sprint/Verizon are in a better position technically and have a less expensive upgrade pathway. In essence the GSM is the first and the oldest digital wireless technology.


Apple's phone is around 6 months away. If you want Apple Style buy it mid 2007. If you want more functionality in a phone and likely less expensive go with another phone. There is nothing announced by Apple that indicates their phone is a technological step ahead. It's all Apple style. If you want it buy it.