I just saw the first iPhone review written by Walt Mossberg and he's confirmed what I haven't wanted to think too long about: the iPhone and AT&T. I'm on my third carrier with my cell phone. Sprint: rotten coverage in the Bay area, and really rotten coverage at my house. AT&T/Cingular: Better than Sprint for overall coverage in my locale, but not great and still not great at my house. Now I'm with Verizon: Love their coverage everywhere, even when I travel, and especially at my house. Still not great at my house, but acceptable. Here in my NY hotel, my husband's AT&T phone has 0 to 1 bar. My Verizon phone has a strong 3 bars and works great. My Verizon data plan is also cheaper than my AT&T plan was.
Now, back to Walt:
But the iPhone has a major drawback: the cellphone network it uses.
It only works with AT&T (formerly Cingular), won’t come in models
that use Verizon or Sprint and can’t use the digital cards (called SIM
cards) that would allow it to run on T-Mobile’s network. So, the phone
can be a poor choice unless you are in areas where AT&T’s coverage
is good...
In addition, even when you have great AT&T coverage, the iPhone
can’t run on AT&T’s fastest cellular data network. Instead, it uses
a pokey network called EDGE, which is far slower than the fastest
networks from Verizon or Sprint that power many other smart phones. And
the initial iPhone model cannot be upgraded to use the faster networks.
The iPhone compensates by being one of the few smart phones that can
also use Wi-Fi wireless networks...
But this Wi-Fi capability doesn’t fully make up for the lack of a
fast cellular data capability, because it is impractical to keep
joining and dropping short-range Wi-Fi networks while taking a long
walk, or riding in a cab through a city.
AT&T is offering special monthly calling plans for the iPhone,
all of which include unlimited Internet and email usage. They range
from $60 to $220, depending on the number of voice minutes included. In
an unusual twist, iPhone buyers won’t choose their plans and activate
their phones in the store. Instead, they will do so when they first
connect the iPhone to the iTunes software.
That stopped me from even finishing reading the review. I'll go back and read it because I still think the iPhone is awesome. And here in NY, maybe I'll get to see it 3 hours before I might have seen it at home! But AT&T? Hopefully this phone will be such a hit that Verizon will make a deal with Apple. I remain optimistic.
