Steve Jobs: 'there might be' advantages to two iPhone carriers in US
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 1st 2010 9:55PM
posted June 1st 2010 9:55PM
Speaking of AT&T, Jobs says that his company meets with the carrier once per quarter to get briefed on network improvements, and while he notes that they've got the fastest 3G around, he says "I wish they were improving faster" -- while also qualifying that any network receiving the iPhone back in '07 probably would've suffered the same kinds of problems AT&T has. When pressed on whether we'd see the iPhone on another carrier in the near future, Jobs hit them up with the expected "no comment" before turning to other subjects, so make of it what you will. Follow the break for another interesting snippet from the Q&A session at D8 where Steve muses on AT&T's network improvements.
Q: Steve, we love our iPhones... but our concern is that we can't make a phone call on it. Is someone working on that?
A: Well, we're talking about it. You can bet we're doing everything we know how to do.
Q: Can we expect something soon?
A: I'll tell you what I'm told -- (LONG pause) -- to make things better, people reallocate spectrum, and they do things like increase the backhaul, so they put in gigabit Ethernet instead of T1... things get worse before they get better. If you believe that, things should be getting a lot better soon!
Huge laughs.
A: I'm told that a lot of places are getting better certainly by the end of this summer.
Kara: And if they don't get better?
Steve: Then they won't.
Maybe not Verizon, but some other carrier?
5 year exclusive agreements last 5 years.
@Air Force One
I have a friend in Sprint and he said that they got a Memo... "Iphone goes to Verizon this year"
I told him that I if had a penny for each time... but he said: Sprint is sending that information to the trainings for employees.
So we will see if that comes true...
@jdsmx lol I hope you don't really believe that.. for the sake of why would sprint have ANY info about what's going on between vzw and apple? right, because they wouldn't.
@jdsmx I work for Sprint. Never seen any such memo and it's not the kind of information that we would have or disperse.
@BadWolfCubed Seconded.
@sweet greggo
.... for the original iPhone
@BadWolfCubed Yeah, I didn't believe it and I don't believe it that is going to happen at least this year. I will ask him for a screenshot of that.
@zephxiii Sprint and many companies have information about the competitors, I used to work at Nokia and we has info about Motorola, Sony, LG, etc. I don't have idea from where they get that info, but there were presentations about the competitors.
@Air Force One
Verizon has been running FTTC, Fiber to the Cell sites for well over a year now. They will have the capacity to run ALL PHONES.
@sweet greggo
Unless one of the parties breaches terms of said contract.
@MikeWard1701
More liekly than not, the contract will have early termination clauses somewhere within it.
AT&T will likely have wanted the right to end it early if the iPhone didn't meet required sales and subscriber targets.
Apple may have stipulated they get to go home if AT&T fails to provide sufficient service to support the device.
@Air Force One
Does every sentence that comes out of his mouth warrant a full article? NO.. and will someone please get him a belt.. and some jeans that fit?? What a goon.. no wonder apple products aren't for the business world, their CEO doesn't know how to dress for one.
@Air Force One
I have a feeling this is going to turn ulgy. Turn into something I wake up and deal with every day. I'm talking about the Canadian telcos.
The plans are extremely similar, the pricing is exactly the same and even the tiny fees that you never notice are being increased to match their "Competitors". Service isn't bad on any of the carriers... I'd sit back with a bag of chips and a ginger ale if I saw this happening to the US.
.......................ya think?
"There might be" advantages to competition? NOOOOO. I never would have guessed! Serius, we need another iPhone carrier here. AT&T is just bad and I won't consider an iPhone until it's available somewhere else.
@Dafrety As someone who switched from verizon a year ago i have no complaints about AT&T. in fact i think my service inside buildings is better than verizons.
@jflan
It really does depend on where you live. My cousin had the original iPhone and while he loved the phone, the service was terrible. After the two year contract was up he switched to Verizon and got the Droid.
@Dafrety The Jew is here and he hates Germans!
IPhone Apple fans = SUckers
@Juggernaut408
I just ordered a Nexus One with the desktop dock to upgrade from my T-Mobile G1. You're an absolute idiot.
@Dafrety
I agree that thus guy is an idiot but what was the releveance of the begining of your post?
@n8equalsd
probably to prove he's not an iPhone supporter so that this statement will have a bigger impact then an apple supporter coming along and saying the same thing
I really wish Apple would put it out on more carriers! I am not really interested in the iPhone but it would put manufacturers on the hot seat to make better devices. Oh yeah at&t would have to step their device game up and lower prices :)
@Mike Vick
Yeah at the moment, they have no smartphones besides the Backflip, Blackberries, and the iPhone. If the iPhone suddenly became non-exclusive, they would fall way behind in that market. WAAAY behind.
Steve Jobs: 'there might be' advantages to two iPhone carriers in US.
my $ would be t-mobile. sprint and verizon gets no love from apple.
As much as I love WebOS and getting an EVO on Friday. If the Iphone came out I would buy it. But I cant leave Sprint due to all my family and friends on it and Sprint gives me a great discount.
I must be the only one who's completely unimpressed by terse, semi-vague CEO responses.
The CEO of my company does it as well.
And, no, it doesn't make you seem smarter.
@ Steve Jobs: 'there might be' advantages to two iPhone carriers in US
You think?
It's kinda hilarious (also sad) that someone saying "There might be" is enough content for an entire article. The comment is a "weighty little gem"? Geeze.
Plus, this is pretty darn obvious. Yes! There are advantages to being on more than one carrier! For one, not everyone is on the same carrier, so more carriers=more customers! Sorry to get all math-y on you guys there!
@sonicyoof The point is that he left the door open, when it would've been very easy for him to say "we're happy in the relationship we've got with AT&T" or some similarly politically correct language. He didn't have to leave it open-ended the way he did, and that's notable.
@Chris Ziegler
Yes, I understand, but it's just funny how coy his answer is.
"Steve, do you feel the sun is essential to life on earth?"
"It might be."
@Chris Ziegler Which carrier would you think would be next in line to carry the iPhone seeing as how VZW has effectively burned the Apple bridge?
Yawning...
@Rampy Yawn quietly please......
The Taiwanese said it best Steve Jobs 'OEM profit bloodsucker'
@Xing
Can you explain that statement to me, because Foxconn is a TW OEM... and they seem to be doing OK, and they seem to love doing business with Apple.
They might not like Apple auditing them all the time, but they love making iPads and iphones and Macs...
Most likely those were photos of CHINESE PEOPLE (check the signs for Simplified Characters) who were pissed about the suicides.
@Xing
I think we caught it the first 3 times you posted that. Also, it doesn't make sense.
I think Sprint will released a Iphone this summer with their 4g coverage. I think that's why we haven't see any Evo commericals because Sprint will push this phone.
@kenmid
Or because it hasn't been officially released yet...
@kenmid That must also be why we haven't seen any Bigfoot commercials either: Santa Clause is preparing to roll out Unicorns. /s
@Palomino
TONIGHT on Unsolved Mysteries, we find out...... Who gives a shit about Bigfoot?
T-Mobile landing this phone would be pretty awesome. Their 3G footprint may be smaller than AT&T's but the HSPA+ upgrades that are rapidly being green lit in major cities across the US make it better equipped to deal with the increased data consumption the network would see.
The way I see it, if AT&T and T-Mobile both carry the iPhone then it would no longer be about who has the hotter phones but who can have the cheapest data plans. Seeing as how AT&T wants to roll out LTE in the near future and T-Mobile just wants to beefcake out its 3G footprint, I see T-Mobile having an edge in that fight since it's easier to invest in more backhaul and software upgrades than build an entirely new network.
let me know when mossberg takes his lips off stevie's rear. it's been stuck there for quite some time now...
was that Skeletor in the turtleneck?
@sroach23
lmfaooooooooooooooooooooooo
@sroach23 Steve-O dose not look all that good. I think he's taking what Madona is taking. I wonder what it is... :)
Honestly, lets look at the obvious facts T-mobile has been making vast improvements on there network.I think people in general look at T-mobile has the unlikely candidate due to the fact that they're the number 4 carrier, but in Apple eyes its the next best candidate solely based on the fact that it doesn't require that much of a network hardware change. Unofficially T-mobile does support the iPhone look at the website or call customer care they troubleshoot any problems you have with the phone. This is going to be a good summer for tech geeks.
Hey Steve....ahhh.... "duh?!"
Here in Canada there are 3 carriers (or 5, depending on how you look at it) that have the iPhone... more is always better. Get an AWS version and the world is yours...
Once upon a time...I wished that the iPhone would come to Verizon.
Now that I've grown up, all I have for Jobs is a big fat "meh". Android FTW.
And even if it does go to Verizon, non fanboys are fickle so of course the iphone would peak in sales yet again, until Jobs invents another tech gap we didnt know we had, while Android spreads from microwaves to cars to TVs doncha know. Got Ur widgets yet ?
@joshai So I have an android device right now on hand... I say meh to do ANYTHING you have to tinker with this thing the whole day. I got no time for that I want to CONSUME INFO not wiggle the settings every 5 seconds kapish?