The iPhone sucks in the US, & it’s AT&T’s fault – & Verizon’s, T-Mobile’s, & the FCC’s!

The iPhone sucks in the US. First, however, let me preface this by saying the problem isn’t with the iPhone or Apple – it’s with AT&T (and Verizon, T-Mobile, & the FCC – read on for more). In fact, I believe the iPhone is currently the best mobile device in the world. The opposite could be said about AT&T – that it’s the worst mobile network in the world – and that’s where the problem with the iPhone in the US lies.

MC Siegler over at TechCrunch recently wrote a sharp rebuke of AT&T for it’s network problems and handling of the iPhone. It’s good reading, and I have to commend him on his well deserved public condemnation of AT&T. Others, including ComputerWorld, have also covered the problems. Now it’s my turn. As you can read in depth about the problems in that blog post, I’ll only highlight some here:

• Visual Voicemail has been down for some for weeks, causing missed voicemail and no comment at all from AT&T
• AT&T’s online iPhone activation fails (2 years in a row) on iPhone 3Gs launch weekend, causing Apple to give free iTunes gift cards to rectify the unhappy sentiment
• iPhone OS 3.0 launches in US without support for MMS and tethering (2 of it’s big features) because AT&T can’t get its act together. Weeks later, these two features still are not available, and there’s no ETA.
• iPhone 3Gs users everywhere [else] enjoy faster 3G access due to built in support for 7.2Mbps 3G – except in the US, because it’s not supported by AT&T network (and won’t be until well into 2010 or 2011).
• AT&T ends iPhone pre-paid option, screwing both US customers and foreigners traveling within the US, who want local access, and are used to purchasing local pre-paid SIM cards wherever they go. The US is really the only country that doesn’t offer or makes it extremely difficult to do this. Read more here.
• AT&T’s network coverage sucks, and frequently goes down completely, leaving iPhone users unable to connect. For example, during the SxSW music festival in Austin, the network just crashes. People can’t get signals in major cities, and I, as an example, get cut off conversations with many times more static and dead spots than I used to a few years back with T-Mobile.  Why can other country’s mobile carriers have working networks in large cities, with just as many users, and without any of these problems, and AT&T can’t is beyond me. The blame has to be with AT&T.

All of these problems are truly reprehensible, and the blame lies entirely with AT&T. It also reflects poorly not just on AT&T, but also Apple due it’s exclusive arrangement. Unfortunately, it seems AT&t is just another example of an arrogant company that truly doesn’t care anymore! It makes no apologies for it’s failures, and makes no promises for fixes. AT&T should be doing everything possible to fix these problems in it’s effort to court Apple, and its not! This is just further proof that Apple should not renew its exclusivity contract with AT&T, or any other carrier.

However, I believe AT&T’s network and iPhone problems are just one piece of a much larger problem: the US mobile industry itself. Specifically, the fact that CDMA is used by half of the carriers, which decreases competition, and lousy foresight and steering by the FCC. Granted, AT&T is solely responsible for it’s own failures, but the fact that there is no competition (to force fixes & upgrades) is systemic in the US system (and furthered, of course, by AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity).

First, let’s examine the problem with CDMA. The US & South Korea are essentially the only countries using CDMA-based mobile networks. Every other country solely utilises GSM networks. GSM allows for cross-compatibility, global roaming, and increased competition at the network/service level. Thus, as CDMA carriers, Verizon & Sprint aren’t truly viable as competition to AT&T and T-Mobile. Then, there are the problems of varying GSM network bands in the US, which are often different from those used in rest of the world. T-Mobile’s 3G network band is all by itself – it’s the only network in the entire world on its band, making it entirely incompatible with AT&T and all other GSM networks, and like with CDMA, requires phone manufactures to create phones with specific support for T-Mobile USA (which is too small to matter to most manufactures to justify such a cost). This problem can be blamed squarely at the FCC, along with not mandating GSM and standardized network bands from the beginning. Then, there are anti-competitive business practices, like mandated phone exclusivity, long-term service contracts (even when a phone isn’t subsidized), and locked phones in general. All of these issues need to be corrected before the US mobile market is competitive and provides consumer choice.

In a globalized world, we can’t afford to be looking so internally, thinking that having an iPhone on Verizon would solve all of our problems. Likewise, we can’t look at the domestic-only compatibility of CDMA and not conclude it isn’t a huge liability. The GSM world standard exists for a reason, and it’s past time for the US to fully adopt it. People are too mobile, and phones manufacturers are too global-focused not to. For example, unlocked CDMA phones aren’t available; you can’t just switch out a card to change providers (in fact, you can’t change CDMA providers at all); and CDMA phone models are extremely limited (mostly to South Korean manufacturers), because a phone maker would have to build a phone specifically for the US market and a specific carrier. Indeed, Apple would have to build a version of the iPhone specifically for the US market and Verizon, which cant be used globally and can’t be used on any other network besides Verizon. This just isn’t practical! The only other GSM carrier, T-Mobile, isn’t really much competition because it’s 3G network sucks and isn’t even compatible with the 3G bands supported by the iPhone and 99% of other phones (leaving you with 2G only). However, Apple should end the AT&T exclusivity and allow T-Mobile to sell the iPhone, and leave it up to consumers which carrier to choose.

Surely, this lack of global compatibility is the largest overall problem with the iPhone in the US market. Just for comparison sake, consider Australia: There are four national GSM carriers, each carrying the iPhone unlocked (!), leaving consumers free to shop around for the best network and service prices. This kind of competition is what the US needs, and will only happen when the carriers all utilise the same network technology for cross-compatibility!

I, for one, refuse to even consider Verizon (even if it does have the “best” network) because I don’t want a phone locked to a legacy, isolated technology (CDMA), that won’t operate on any other network, or even globally. Besides, I want phone model choice and new technologies, and that only comes with GSM because it’s just not available with CDMA. Luckily, Verizon appears to understand, and is planning on migrating its network to GSM LTE 4G in the next couple of years (although I’m unsure what band). Unfortunately, that doesn’t help American iPhone owners now or next year. Until then, all we can do is light a fire under AT&T and hope they get there act together!