"IMHO IIRC" <NOSPAM@NOSPAM.NOSPAM> wrote:

> > 3) the iPhone is on all of the top 5 carriers within 2 years.
> >
> > 4) Apple and Google team up and buy their own part of the wireless
> > spectrum and do an end run around all cell carriers.
> >
> > 5) and many more...
> >
> > most likely is No. 3 of course.... if those companies can modernize
> > enough to support Visual Voice Mail and very high bandwidth devices.
>
> Why do you need high bandwidth? I thought everything was done with WiFi.

80% of it is, but even AT&T choked when all the iPhones first came
online. The data infrastructure of cell firms is way behind firms like
Apple. They hide behind slow 2.5 / 3G networks currently, but once they
get a taste of unlimited 802.11g they are going to falter unless they
plan for the future. They are geared for tiny sized voice transmissions,
not huge data loads that come with all the wonderful features of the
iPhone.

> How long does ATT have an exclusive on the iPhone in the US? I thought it
> was 5 years.

Yes, it's 2 years. So it's hard to say what will happen in 18 months of
course. Steve has the upper hand now, so he can play ATT like a fiddle
for better pricing, or play them off Verizon which is desperate for the
iPhone contract, etc.

> Also the iPhone is only GSM - is Apple also designing one that is CDMA?

currently CDMA is like bad cable internet, it's good for the most part
but it's shared and at peak times your calls sound like crap.

so considering Steve is a no-nonsense kind of guy CDMA might not ever
make the cut.

we'll see.