Ralph de la Vega 'laughs' when asked about AT&T iPhone exclusivity expiration date, says most customers will stay
By Nilay Patel 
posted May 19th 2010 5:14PM
posted May 19th 2010 5:14PM
Update: AT&T just sent us a tiny snippet of de la Vega's comments:
Interesting -- it certainly doesn't sound like he's betting too heavily on keeping the iPhone exclusive, but we'd like some more context here. We're looking for the full transcript (or better yet, video), so stay tuned.Having said that, all the improvements that we have seen are not just driven by the iPhone. The non-iPhone customer churn has seen the same reductions as the overall total postpaid customer churn improvement levels. So we've seen improvements in churn that are driven by the iPhone and by non-iPhone customers. And so we view that having a great portfolio of devices and services has been the key to our success and will continue to be. And I think the iPhone will be a part of our portfolio. And I think that customers are still going to come to us, like they've done in the past, looking for great choices, great devices and great services.
Update 2: And here's the followup question specifically regarding exclusivity:
Pithy!Q: I thought you might share with us the exclusivity end date, Ralph.
A: No, I don't think I'm going to be able to do that, Mike. (laughs)
iPhone will be at Verizon this June. www.tapscreenapps.com/news.html
@jaygrey
You're a douche.
Ralph is nieve to assume contracts, and family plans will keep customers with AT&T. Millions of people ditched other carriers when the first Iphone came out. And millions more will ditch AT&T when the Iphone 4G comes out on Verizon. And to believe that corporate agreements will keep the business customers with AT&T is also wrong. All it takes is for the CEO to want the new IPHONE, and he can easily mandate the entire company switch. After all its a tax write off
AAAAHHHAHAAHHAA!
Let the peasants eat my royal dung!
AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAAAA!??!!?!?!
My question is this: How many people are going to want to buy a new phone just so they can switch networks. AT&T is GSM and Verizon is CDMA. They are not interchangable
@ssgadget Exactly, people like him are sickening to openly laugh about how they tie people into ridiculously long contracts so they have no choice but to stay and still get poor service. Why doesn't the FTC crack down on this shit?
AT&T and Verizon both have their pluses and minuses. AT&T is pretty good for me here in the Bay Area. I mostly prefer AT&T over Verizon because their network is open compared to Verizon's being closed. You can purchase a phone not directly configured for AT&T's network (retail unlocked) and it runs just fine on their network. I love options. They also use a network that is practically universal worldwide, which it what mainly led Apple to go with AT&T for the iPhone.
The only way Verizon is going to get the NEXT iPhone, or the one after that version, is first two things have to happen:
1) Verizon launches their 4G LTE network (which it also a worldwide protocol)
2) Apple creates the NEXT iPhone to run on the 4G LTE protocol (which both Verizon and AT&T plan on moving to for their 4G phase)
Not until these two necessities become fact will Verizon get any kind of iPhone.
*NOTE* Last I read, Verizon said it was planning to launch it's 4G LTE network as early as the Winter 2010 season. Time will tell people!
Also, you gotta keep in mind the massive number of "data" users that have been added to AT&T's network in such a short period of 3 to 4 years thanks to the iPhone. Many have said that Verizon's network would have been just as hammered if they had received the iPhone exclusive deal rather than AT&T back on 2006.
People jump all over AT&T without realizing the shear magnitude of what's involved with trying to keep their massive network robust while at the same time going threw a major influx of data usage.
Even the influx of new users was so massive that Verizon stopped massively marketing their network as the biggest (due to many users leaving) and began marketing the "bog free network" they have due to not having a phenomenon product like the iPhone utilizing that network in droves!
AT&T isn't the great company by far, and still has much room for improvement, but Verizon wouldn't be much different right now if it had the iPhone instead.
Just something to think about.
@onyxwave Everything you just said is incorrect.
1. Verizons network would have fared much, much better. CDMA is so much more reliable than GSM, simply because there is no set maximum simultaneous users on a CDMA tower. GSM is capped.
Check.
2. Saw a commercial for Verizon this morning. "Largest and Most Reliable."
Check.
3. (Commenting on your post below). No. AT&T wont have near the LTE footprint that Verizon will in 2012. Verizon has already started. AT&T? Starting in 2011
And.....Check.
@onyxwave I just re-read my comment and that sounded ridiculously rude. I apologize. Just stating the facts.
One more point is that Apple just said that they signed a five year "exclusive" deal with AT&T back in 2007 when it launched the iPhone. So, that would mean that AT&T (at this point unless some legal changes are made or worked around, like coming up with another name for the next gen Apple phone) has the iPhone all to itself until 2012. Ironically, by 2012, both AT&T and Verizon will have had about 1 to 2 years worth of 4G LTE network usage under their belt thus giving them a decently established 4G user base by then. 2012 sounds realistically like a good time for Apple to jump into the 4G North America arena.
Which do you all think is more likely:
Apple going around the legal exclusive deal by either amending it or making a totally separate phone with a different name so that it'll have a 4G LTE phone ready for Verizon by end of this year when Verizon says it'll launch this (but only in a few markets most likely, just as Sprint's 4G is today)?
Apple waiting until both major US carriers are have at least a year or 2 of established 4G LTE networks up and running which corresponds with the timing of the end of the exclusive deal before it adopts a US multi-carrier platform?
The latter makes more since to me than the former, since it falls in line with the current exclusive deal and Apple still only has to worry about developing just 1 phone model instead of many offshoots.
Hopefully Verizon gets the iphone new gen.. I got tired of this ATT BS ...drop calls like crazy.. plus the android incredible .. its not exactly like the iPhone but it does have some good qualities ..
"...great choices, great devices and great services." Notice how he didn't include "great prices".