Sorry IPhone users but the revenue stream from El Sucko AT&T is to good for Apple. They won't change unless some other El Sucko company ponies up more and since this revenue stream goes directly to the bottom line, it's just gravy to Apple. Of course, you could jailbreak the IPhone but then evil things that go bump in the night might come after you.

I would love to see an Ipod Touch with a microphone/speaker and the ability for it to connect to a cell phone via bluetooth the same way bluetooth headsets do. Forget exclusivity, use the carrier/phone of your choice and use the Touch simply as a universal handset.

Our family has G1s on T-Mobile and we'd jump ship to Verizon in a heartbeat if they got the iPhone. Best carrier and best phone would be nice. I'd go back to a land line before I signed up with AT&T.

I am in the same boat here in Canada.The IPhone is on Rogers here but where I live Rogers is the worst mobile carrier. i'm sure its better in other places of the country though.

Odd, I have not noticed any issues with AT&T's network.

That said I have been able to use MMS and tethering for years using my HTC 3125 then again using the AT&T Tilt, now again on my HTC Fuze. I will admit that it took a long conveluted process to get the 3125 and the Tilt (before WinMo 6.1 was released) to get the tethering going. The Fuze however, works like a charm either via a direct USB connection or over Bluetooth. A2DP Bluetooth to my car stereo for playing music is quite nice too.

All "taunting" aside. MMS and Tethering works for numerous other devices. It makes no sense that ATT can't get them going on the iPhone.

they can but all providers lock down their phones. it just depends how much stuff they lock down. if you get a jailbroken iphone, you can do MMS and tether it with no issues. ATT is really scared when data usage goes high because their network can't support it. Why would they stop apps like Slingplayer only on wifi? come on now. alot of people put down Verizon because they dont have wifi on alot of their phones but why? because they have great signal most of the time and don't need the wifi.

I have an iPhone and love it. I also hate AT&T but it has nothing to do with dropped calls.

I use my iPhone constantly but seldom for phone calls. I'm not a big telephone talker. Took my wife to the airport yesterday during rush hour and used it to check a realtime traffic map before choosing my route. Checked stock quotes several times. Checked to see that her flight was on time. Checked email several times and answered a few messages. Used the iPhone's iPod feature to play music on my car stereo to and from the airport. Made note of my cars location in the parking lot in iPhone notes. Had breakfast with her at the airport coffee shop and read several NY Times articles on my iPhone. Used AOLs AIM chat app on my iPhone to stay in touch with my office.

AT&T requires me to pay for a minimum of 450 minutes phone time per month. It would be rare for me to use one tenth that many phone minutes. The iPhone is about the data plan for me. I don't ever used texting and I seldom use the phone. I have about 4000 rollover minutes. I hate their billing plans. Also hate the way all cell phone service providers have their offerings set up. Hate the concept of being billed for minutes, hate two year contracts, hate roaming charges especially internationally, hate being billed for each device that I own. I just want a pipe to the internet that works with any of my devices, one flat low monthly rate, no extra charges for anything.

"Took my wife to the airport yesterday during rush hour and used it to check a realtime traffic map before choosing my route. Checked stock quotes several times. Checked to see that her flight was on time. Checked email several times and answered a few messages. Used the iPhone's iPod feature to play music on my car stereo to and from the airport."

May I make a suggestion for the next time you get in the car with your iPhone??

HANG UP AND DRIVE!!!!

YEAH AND I HAVE A SUGGESTION FOR YOU... MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS YOU HYPOCRITE !!!!

Hypocrite? Really?

Sorry, I don't "Check stock quotes several times. Check to see that her flight was on time. Check email several times and answered a few messages. Used the iPhone's iPod feature to play music on my car stereo to and from the airport"

...while I drive. :)

That's pretty bad if "davesmall" is having breakfast with his wife while browsing the web and totally ignoring her. That sounds worse than Obama's Blackberry addiction.

i agree with that. loved my iphone cuz all I use is the data really. sports, news, texting, and slingplayer. had to jailbreak it to use their 3g network instead of strictly wifi. unfortunately i had to leave cuz of the service. would lose my 3g coverage and some apps i would use would not load because of the speed. i did use the voice minutes when i had to but it was soo horrible. bad speaker on phone and dropped calls and bad reception.

One thing a lot of us forget when we ask for a "Verizon iPhone" Is that Verizon passed it up the first time. They had a chance to get it, and they said no thank you.
Personally I think the iPhone is a cool toy. Heck I've got an iPod Touch.
But it won't be replacing my blackberry on verizon any time soon.
Why? Because first and foremost it needs to be able to make calls.
That is the most important factor for me. and Verizon just does it.
In all reality i'm not sure how much of this is At&T's fault, as the iPhone effect has taken over and completely overloaded their network in some places now. Just from the sheer increase in bandwidth utilization. and voice network utilization. But by now you think they would have worked that out no?

I'm wayne and that's your new opinion!

"One thing a lot of us forget when we ask for a "Verizon iPhone" Is that Verizon passed it up the first time. They had a chance to get it, and they said no thank you."

They didn't "pass it up" Neither side of the table (Apple vs. Verizon) would give and they both walked away from the table. Both companies are notoriously stubborn.

"I'm wayne and that's your new opinion!"

Hehe... Love it!

ACTUALLY IT MAKES NO SENSE FOR APPLE TO CHOOSE VERIZON OR SPRINT BECAUSE THEY USE OLD TECHNOLOGY. GSM IS THE TECHNOLOGY THAT IS USED AROUND THE WORLD. MAYBE IF VERIZON OR SPRINT UPDATED THIER NETWORK THEY WOULD GET THE IPHONE...

I HATE AT&T BUT WOULD RATHER HAVE THEM OVER T-MOBILE ANY DAY

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!

First. shouting does no good here, people only get mad, it doesn't help you make your point. Second, GSM is the inferior technology. I say that as a long tiime phone salesman, working for Verizon, Sprint, and Tmobile, at different times. GSM is the tech standard as it is free to implement, and no chipset royalties have to be paid to Qualcom. That does not make it better, only cheaper. As a long time user of all three technologies, I can say that the fewest problems (all else being equal - however they rarely are) are had on CDMA networks, both for the provider, and the customer.

My facts are straight, and no amount of anecdotal story telling will change them. The only advantage Tmobile has is the very best customer service, as acknowledged by several years worth of J.D. Powers surveys. Verizon has the best network, AT&T has neither.

@SCREAMER:

Settle down there, sparky....

No-one claimed GSM wasn't widely used or that Apple going to Verizon made sense...

Right. I had a GSM-based phone with Aerial/Voicestream and it was passable. Sprint's CDMA service is better and it's also better than I've seen with AT&T in the last 2 years.

I think that one network technology would be nice but Sprint will likely have to change anyway since Verizon is leaning that way.

CDMA is like standing in a room with trillions of people who all speak a completely different language (except the person you're trying to communicate with). This means you have to try and "zone out" the other people in the room so you can hear the person you're trying to communicate with. With GSM it's just you and the person you're trying to communicate with in the "room".

Why is CDMA better than GSM?

That's true about both companies being stubborn. But i think if verizon knew then what they know now. they might have been a bit more determined to work out a solution that was amicable for both parties. But hindsight is always 20/20. I still believe that both parties passed on a marriage of the premier carrier/brand combo. And verizon's back end infrastructure could handle it as well. Or possibly they might be a bit more willing to grow it more to help.

I honestly look forward to the day that all the carriers deploy their LTE networks. then You can buy a phone, and pick the carrier of your choice. And get what works best for you.

look what the new technology has done for ATT-nothing but complaints. for most areas 3g is not working cuz ATT doesnt have enough equipment upgraded and they dont have bandwidth out there. check out the link this link on ATT's ranking:
http://tech.yahoo.com/bl...att-lags-in-reliability/
Sprint and Verizon have been working on 4g and LTE and Wimax for a while now. it is projected for 2010 for some for full deployment. Thats why these GSM companies are working on upgrading their network to keep up. Remember ATT has to pay for pipes like T1s and DS3s and even larger is some cases for the bandwidth. WHO OWNS THAT STUFF IN ALOT OF AREAS? its the phone company-thats why they can get better service for data and voice. If ATT were to spend more on their network on things like more pipes and equipment, their service would be good.

i agree but it will never happen until the government forces the hand. too many carriers and different ideas and money budgeting. it would be way easier for only one type of standard but then monopolies could pop up and prices would be higher maybe.

service is different in areas and you should be able to go to whoever with whatever phone you like. and no contracts-buy the phone directly from the manufacturer.

My understanding is that VZW is moving to LTE -- the next version of GSM (4G). Yes or no?
Sony thought Beta was a great idea too. And Juniper thought that BGP was the bees-knees for doing EoMPLS. But having a 'technologically superior' solution doesn't mean squat if you're the only one supporting it.
If I take my Sprint CDMA phone to Europe, I'm SOL (oh, unless it's eastern Europe, then maybe it will work). When I take my iPhone from that 'crummy' AT&T network and fly to the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Romania, the U.A.E, the K.S.A, Portugal, South Africa, India, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, etc., etc., etc.... it works. Sprint's answer was 'get a travel phone.' W-w-what?

So, maybe you don't need that kind of worldwide coverage. That's cool.
Having traveled all over the US, as well, using T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, I can say they are all about the same: great in some places and suck in others. But if you want to play with stats:

http://gizmodo.com/51119...t+to+coast-3g-data-test
"So, for the time being anyway, if you're into sending big files, or running some kind of masochistic mobile torrent service, AT&T is the right choice."

Not that I care that much. Am I happy with AT&T? No MMS blows out my ***. Tethering? My iPhone is jailbroke and I use MyWi, so I'm good there too. So other than MMS, yeah, I guess I would say I'm pretty happy -- as much as I was with T-Mobile or any of the others. I hate the games that all of the providers play here -- but then we get unlimited nights and weekends and you don't see that too much outside the U.S. Of course, you don't see too much of the locked-phone issue outside the U.S. either. Go figure.

One of the biggest difficulties phone makers has in the United States is actually getting consumers to purchase phones. Since the phone makers has trouble with the carriers, it offers most of its phones in the U.S. ‘unlocked’, which means the phone is not subsidized by the carrier, and has no carrier molestation branding. Unfortunately, American consumers haven’t a clue what an ‘unlocked’ phone really means, and usually believe that their only options for phones are those offered directly from the carrier.

Not sure where you're getting your info from but most phones sold in the USA are locked to one specific carrier. While there are some phones available that are unlocked to begin with these are extremely rare.

ONCE AGAIN JADA GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT... GOD DAMMIT IS RIGHT

I think you need a new keyboard something appears to be wrong with it...

well it is because a 1yr or 2 yr pricing makes the phone affordable. if a phone were to be bought out right, it would probably cost from 300-1000 dollars. funny because the phones are made at a fraction of the retail cost. its about how much money they can make from the phone. instead of making little profit so the phone could be sold more, they would never sell a phone cheap-it doesnt make sense to them LOL

About 80 percent of the people I know that actually own an Iphone, don't need one. It has become the next Razr. Everyone seems to think they need one just like everyone else. ATT is not to blame. You practically have to give up an arm and leg to own one. Iphone users need to quit gripping about every freaking thing. Quit being stuck up and be happy for once.

Your first 3 sentences are right... AT&T knew for a long time after the release of the iPhone 2g and 3G how many people would be using them. They had plenty of time to make changes. We are not stuck up, there are just a lot more of us, and it's pretty sad that my old razr can mms and my iphone 3GS cannot!!

Verizon's new advertisement pokes fun at AT&T's 3G network's inability to work in various places since it works so few places.

A friend in NJ had mentioned AT&T's coverage problems ever since SBC bought the old AT&T Wireless network and the AT&T name and BellSouth to become the new AT&T.

It's not as though iPhone users are just now complaining. They were complaining from the start. It's just that, when their 2 year contracts ended, they had a way out. Of course, the 3G-connected iPhone users are in more of a problem since T-Mobile doesn't have much of a 3G network.

AT&T, how's that global coverage working for you in your own country?

Read why AT&T is married to the iPhone... it's not going anywhere anytime soon. http://technestreport.co...main-on-the-att-network/

Who needs it?

We don't need the iPhone on other networks...that's *one* phone. What we need is a glut of competing phones on the other networks that can actually *compete* with it.

Get a "must have" Andriod Touch with an "app for everything", more "launchtime" functionality (Launches with Cut N Paste, SMS/MMS, flash, and VVM out of the gate), and decent looks on the Verizon network, and we're golden. (never gonna happen, but I can dream, can't I?)

Well, I have the samsung omnia from Verizon and ever since someone leaked a rom from it, its been a pleasure to use prior to that you could skin it with SPB Shell or the touchflo interface that the htc devices use instead of boring windows mobile 6.1 but the problem with skinning it - it doesn't leave a lot of memory available and when you got several apps open can make it slow and cumbersome. Now with it baked into the rom makes it a much more fluid app. I am using winmo 6.5 with SPB shell and its a slick looking interface.

http://www.spbsoftwareho...om/products/mobileshell/
http://www.freewarepocke...ouchflo-2d-manilla.html

the iphone is great and ive been switching carriers for the last 2 yrs because each has its own issues I realized. i started from Verizon and now ended up full circle back to them-LOL. I use data services heavily on phones so all the phones I have used are practically PDA/smartphones. I loved the iphone and no phone can compare. back to verizon and the phones are just not the same. when you have freedom to so many apps and functions a phone can do, you get spoiled. it just opens up your eyes to how much our phones are locked down from doing anything. When you realize how much you pay for your service(at least $100), you should expect alot. going from an iphone to another is like having a high speed internet connection and going to dial up. i pray they come to Verizon because there network is stable.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, being chummy with Verizon et al, wouldn't be part of the mob screaming wildly for an end to exclusivity deals, would he?

Could it be that this all boils down to a bunch of folks who are unhappy with AT&T, but enamored of the iPhone, and unable to reconcile the two?

Hoestly, I can't recall anyone complaining about exclusivity before the iPhone/AT&T deal. Blackberry, anyone? Razor? Huh...

So due to Apple's excellent marketing and AT&T's massive "failure to launch" (*shudder*), we need to change a system that has *worked* for decades??

What we really need is some decent competition to the iPhone on the Verizon network. Problem solved...

A most excellant point!

Or perhaps better still, Verizon put their money where their mouth is and buy the sodding exclusivity deal.

It's more about money than control, I would guess. Both Apple and Verizon are notorious (Verizon not so much recently) for being super-control-freaks.

its all about money and that sucks. apple wants X amount of the iphone that sell and Verizon doesn't want that because they want to make money also(the phone itself and not the service). Verizon's new customer lines still was higher with their array of phones than with ATT and their new Iphone(which was like 20% of their new lines). Verizon gets it, they would kill ATT and the Exodus would begin. My wife is still with them because of her iphone but is just waiting. I couldn't wait unfortunately.

"Could it be that this all boils down to a bunch of folks who are unhappy with AT&T, but enamored of the iPhone, and unable to reconcile the two?"

i think the problem is rather a bunch of folks who are unhappy with at&t, but enamored with the iphone, but are too cheap to buy the no-contract unlocked version, and are unable to reconcile the three.

i realize there will be problems getting the iphone to work with sprint or verizon (unless they start issuing sim cards, and who knows if that will happen, probably not) but if more people bought those phones and put them on other networks, that's problem solved as far as i'm concerned. i'm rocking my 3g on t-mo's network not because at&t's plans are outrageous for the iphone for my purposes (actually, they are) but because t-mo has a strictly data plan for smartphones and at&t doesn't and requires using an iphone plan for an iphone.

I guess At&t is different in CA, i live in the bay area and routinely go to Tahoe, LA, Vegas and Seattle. Before i the iphone came out i had Verizon and couldn't get reception on my street and when i was driving the best i could hope for a was 2 bars broken dropped calls, i Switched to At&t and got a blackberry then an iphone and havent had a problem at all. but then again im in CA this was NYC, I was in RI and CT last year and still never had a problem. I guess im a lucky one i love my Blackberry and my iphone.

I use the blackberry for work Email and exchange service, iphone doesn't work well or at all for the style of email we use.