It seems all the hate talk that AT&T has received in the past few months is finally paying off as the company seems to be more open to new innovative solutions for iPhone. Sling Media’s iPhone app is one of those solutions. If you have ever wanted to watch your TV from a remote location or over your home network, you have probably heard of Sling. SlingPlayer is not a new app by any means. Sling Media developed the app a while ago, but the app was restricted to WiFi only by AT&T. It seems after Sling Media’s complaint to the FCC and AT&T testing the app for a few months already, the company is ready to allow it to work over 3G as well.

The FCC was fast to respond to AT&T’s decision to let SlingPlayer go 3G. After all, it may have played a role in AT&T’s decision to reverse its course:

AT&T’s announcement is a step in the right direction. Consumers benefit from mobile video choice

Sling Media is happy with the decision as well. After all, the company is all about giving consumers more options when it comes to watching TV. But is AT&T shooting itself in the foot by becoming more lenient towards bandwidth-intensive apps such as Slingplayer?

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AT&T has been an average partner for Apple. It’s true that the company took a chance on iPhone and negotiated with Apple to have the rights to offer iPhone till 2010, but the quality of service offered to iPhone owners has been anything but satisfactory. There are a lot of  iPhone owners who believe they can get a better wireless service with other carriers such as Verizon. We won’t know for certain what percentage of these people are willing to back their word up unless Apple offers iPhone through Verizon.

Many experts believe that Verizon have better capabilities to handle a revolutionary device such as the iPhone. But as CNN reported in its story, Verizon may not be that much better than AT&T when it comes to handling the load that a device such as the iPhone will put on its network:

Unfortunately for AT&T, when it comes to network quality, perception is reality and right now Verizon has a more positive public perception, … If AT&T can continue to show improvement in network throughput, it may blunt some of the impact.

AT&T has learned its lessons the hard way. The future is mobile, and AT&T’s network was not prepared to handle it. The company can address this issue by investing more in its infrastructure and learn from its experience with iPhone. That’s no guarantee that AT&T’s service will get better, but at least the company has something to work with.

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Credit: Wikipedia

New York City may be one of the best cities in the world. It may be a lot of good things, but for now it is a city without iPhone. In a move that has surprised a lot of New Yorkers, AT&T has decided to stop selling iPhone in the city. The phone became unavailable in NY just recently. At first, it was thought to be a temporary issue. But according to AT&T, the city is not ready for iPhone. In reality, AT&T is not ready to handle all the load that the iPhone owners are putting on its network, so that could be partially the reason for this move.

Consumerist published an interview with an AT&T customer service representative that was quite revealing. AT&T officials won’t probably ever admit dropping NYC to lower the pressure on their network, but it seems AT&T’s customer service wasn’t ready to handle the question (Daphne is a customer service representative):

Daphne: I am happy to be helping you today . Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Daphne: You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.

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It seems AT&T has not yet coped with Verizon’s ads attacking AT&T’s quality of service. AT&T has responded with its own ads, but anyone who has tried both networks can tell you that the quality of service on Verizon is much better than what you get currently on your iPhone. That’s why iPhone on Verizon sounds exciting (whether it happens or not is another story). AT&T has decided to address some of its customers’ concerns by coming after… wait for it… its customers.

AT&T is failing to address its short-comings when it comes to its quality of service. So it does make sense to go after customers who are putting too much burden on AT&T’s network. According to AT&T, 3% of its customers are responsible for 40% of  data load on its network. The company should have known that iPhone is not your everyday phone. We did get MMS later than the company promised its customers. We are still waiting for tethering to happen. And more data intensive applications are on their way. The solution? New pricing plan that punishes customers who put too much pressure on AT&T’s network. Read the rest of this entry »

Talk about a bitter rivalry. AT&T and Verizon don’t seem to find a way to get along, and why should they? After all, they are competitors, and there is much at stake. Verizon has increasingly gone after Apple and AT&T in its ads to make it clear that Verizon is the best network around. AT&T first complained about it. Then launched a lawsuit. Verizon responded by inviting AT&T to improve its network. Unfortunately for AT&T, the lawsuit has not been as successful as it was hoped. So it’s no wonder the company has been looking for other ways to get even with Verizon.

Here is the ad that made AT&T lose its mind:

The commercial ad is pretty clear. Verizon is a better network than AT&T. It may not be tough for customers to figure out which network is better, but that doesn’t keep wireless companies from trying to position themselves as the best. AT&T may be still mad about it all but has launched a fun ad to respond to Verizon’s claims. Read the rest of this entry »