Guest post by InfoWorld’s Bill Snyder questions whether AT&T’s jockeying on tethering and MMS may signal iPhone pricing surcharges to come. After all, as Apple’s exclusive U.S. partner, Ma Bell should have plenty of insight into upcoming iPhone features and revenue opportunities. Yet AT&T was very conspicuous in its absence from the list of providers who will support tethering and MMS at Tuesday’s launch of the new iPhone at WWDC, and by Wednesday, it was backpedaling furiously, saying it will offer both services — later in the year. Certainly, the exclusive arrangement between the companies is proving to be an ugly roadblock to Apple’s iPhone vision. But Snyder thinks it may go deeper than that: “My best guess is that we’ll see horrendous pricing surcharges for tethering and MMS, on top of the already expensive data and voice charges iPhone users pay. I don’t think AT&T execs wanted to stand up at WWDC and announce that.”
Anyone surprised? The US is the country where the receiving party pays for the call – why not have a little more price gouging given that you’re already gouging them when it comes to calls. Things won’t change until there is a monumental overhaul in the way things are done in the US telecommunications sector.
I really want this iphone. But it looks like the only way that makes some sense is to buy a hacked one from e-bay and put t-mobile on it.
text messages cost no bandwith to the telco companies. its basically free space that isn’t used anyway. yet they make a killing on it. This is just a huge scam.
Actually on most carriers, both parties pay. Its not free for the sender.
But, one of the smaller companies US Cellular has changed that policy. So its subscribers pay nothing for incoming calls. It doesn’t appear that the other carriers will adopt policy. Us cellular has always seemed like a better deal, but they just screw you in other ways: bad service, roaming fees, and fees on long distance calls depending on the plan chosen.
Yeah, I know the sender pays but that goes without saying anyway.
There was the same debate in New Zealand over how we’re getting screwed, well, apparently getting screwed. It wasn’t until the telecommunications expert pointed out the royal screw job American customers get when most actually realise things aren’t as bad as they think.
Reminds me of computers in New Zealand how New Zealanders look to America and say how cheap it is – ignoring the fact that in New Zealand pretty much all computers are quoted with a screen by default rather than just the computer by itself as well as also having a lot stringent consumer protection as well.
Edited 2009-06-12 05:25 UTC
ATT is just trying to figure out a way to nickel and dime you. It is fitting though to have ATT and Apple in bed together. Apple fans are loyal and seem to be made of money, so they’ll pay anything. I wonder if Apple is going to take hints from ATT and make desktop wallpapers go through iTunes so they can charge $1 for you to change wallpapers.
I guess I find it funny that Apple spends a lot of time saying that the iPhone is a computer. They say it runs the same OSX that their other computers use. So its pretty silly that ATT says to tether an iPhone to a computer is against their policy when Apple says their iPhone “IS” a computer.
Maybe they just don’t want users using their network to download torrents. I was going to say what is topping them from downloading a torrent directly to their iPhone but then I forgot about the AppStore gestapo.
Mark this comment down for trolling… I don’t care. Apple and ATT (and actually all other US carriers) are evil.
If it’s anything like O2, the UK provider of the iPhone then yes – http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/internet.html – it’s certainly going to be an uncompetitive offer.
What did we expect when Apple tied themselves to single providers in various countries? The profits may be good but the service isn’t always going to be great when you pick carriers which are more interested in profit themselves.
I think Apple needs to be careful here. Faithful Apple fans are annoyed at being locked into rather long contracts when new iPhones come out more frequently and they’ve got almost no option to upgrade. It’s one thing to pay a price premium on Apple products, but when another company tries to enter the relationship (the mobile providers) and join in the price gouging, people are starting to resent it.
…that the first iPhone article on OSNews since the release of both the Pre and the new iPhone is a negative one… *removes tongue from cheek*