AT&T raised/raising their game? As one of their customers, I don't see it. What I do see is a company that's milking a golden goose (US iPhone exclusivity) for all its worth, doing nothing to advance its customer's network experience as network performance degrades.
When I got my iPhone 3G in 2008 it was a rarity to see 3G. Now I get it everywhere with good signal. I realize AT&T has problems in some areas but it's not universal. They've definitely put some money into this market.
The skeptic inside of me says that this could have happened anyway. It seems reasonable to expect that telcos would heavily invest in their 3G infrastructure right now, iPhone or not. I have no actual data, but I would guess it’s a 2:1 split. Two parts normal infrastructure investments, one part Apple (that one part seems a bit high to me, though, don’t know).
Agreed; other than visual voicemail and perhaps indirectly forcing AT&T to upgrade their 3G network by making data plans attractive to the masses, how has Apple swayed AT&T? They don't allow tethering, and Apple is not really putting pressure on AT&T to change their ridiculous (not compared to other carriers, but compared to common sense) charges for overages, text messages, etc.
> One anonymous source with knowledge of Apple was quoted in BusinessWeek as saying, "Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy. Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle."
An "anonymous source with knowledge of Apple"? That could be me! Or you!
