Technogearophilia

It seems that AT&T is not singing I Love New York – or, at least, it’s not singing about loving NYC iPhone users. They have quietly stopped selling or offering the iPhone anywhere in the New York City metropolitan area.

AT&T has been struggling to meet the network demands that convergence devices like Apple’s iPhone have been making on the telco giant’s aging, insufficient, and underpowered network infrastructure.

Stephen in Brooklyn made the discovery while shopping for a new phone on December 27,2009, and reported it to the The Consumerist.

I was on the AT&T Wireless website trying to get an iPhone. However, when I put in my zip code 11231, the site says the iPhone is unavailable. This seemed a little odd so I started punching in other famous zip codes: 90210, 60609 (spiegel catalog), 02134 (zoom, an old children’s show). For theses cities, LA, Chicago, Boston, iPhone is available. Then I looked up some other zip codes: Dallas, Miami, St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco. All those cities are ok. Then I started putting in more NYC zip codes: midtown, Staten Island, the Bronx…no iPhone available.

This is weird…AT&T has cut off New York City.

Simply put, AT&T does not have the network capacity to provide iPhone service in densely populated urban centers and has chosen to eliminate coverage in those areas rather than move forward with upgrading their network in cities like New york.

This is one of the best reasons for manufacturers of mobility devices like smart phones and netbooks to refuse to enter into exclusive contracts with telco firms.

Hopefully Apple has leaned its lesson and will let AT&T – or any telco – be the exclusive carrier for their rumored tablet.

Tags: Apple | AT&T | Convergence | iPhone | Mobile Phones | Mobility | New York | NYC | Telecommunications

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 9:34 am and is filed under Convergence, Gadgets & Gear, Mobility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.