After years of whispering, back room deals and the pleading of countless Apple aficionados who refused to be yoked by an AT&T contract, Apple is rolling the iPhone out to a second American provider. As has been speculated for months, the Verizon iPhone is CDMA network compatible, as opposed to the GSM goodness that much of the rest of the world enjoys. Coming from Canada, a country that saw the iPhone finally make it on to all three of our major national telecoms in late last winter, I understand why everyone down south is so excited, as it wasn’t so long ago that we were all wigging out up here about being about to get our meathooks on an iPhone too.
That said, reading the coverage of this morning’s Verizon event and the CDMA iPhone 4’s February launch, it wasn’t so much the differences between the AT&T and Verizon handsets that struck me, but the way in which the iPhone’s switch from being a network-exclusive handset to an device offered by multiple carriers reflects the subtle differences between our two countries.
Back in 2008, Rogers Communications -- one of Canada’s three national telecoms -- announced that they’d secured the exclusive Canadian rights to offer the iPhone to Canadians. 7.4 million of us -- Roger’s subscriber base at that time -- squealed with delight. But Canadians who had cellular contracts with Canada’s other national telecom providers? Not so much. At the time, the other guys, Bell and Telus, had CDMA networks. With that being the case, Rogers was the only game in town. Despite Rogers’ legendarily hostile customer service and high monthly fees, their offering the iPhone led to a one year customer increase for the company of 7%, and this in the middle of a massive recession. Unwilling to watch Rogers glut themselves on iPhone sales and service for any longer than necessary, Bell and Telus teamed up to build and launch their own national GSM network, providing enough 3G coverage across Canada to let the two telecoms go toe-to-toe with Rogers. By October of 2009, the new GSM network was ready, timed seemingly to coincide with end of Roger’s exclusivity deal with Apple. Now, we are swamped by a sea of iPhones.
Negotiation. Teamwork and a whole lot of patience. That’s how we roll up here. As we saw this morning, Americans do things just a little differently. When the iPhone first made the scene back in 2007, it was an AT&T exclusive. Almost immediately after the smartphone made its way into the hands of consumers, the complaints began. AT&T’s network couldn't handle the additional data load caused by the phone. They were wicked slow, had insane billing practices and offered, in many areas, spotty cellular coverage. As a result, many users looked to grey market geeks for carrier unlocks so that they could transport the phone to an alternate GSM carrier.
Most users, however, who loved the iPhone’s form factor and functionality, soldiered on and longed for the day when AT&T’s death grip on the iPhone would end. That day was, well, today. Verizon, long rumored to be would be the next American carrier to offer the iPhone, didn’t build a new GSM network in order to meet the iPhone’s needs. They didn’t even wait for AT&T’s exclusive hold on the hardware to go slack. Instead, Verizon worked secretly with Apple to develop an iPhone that would work on their existing network, leading to an iPhone that while similar in many ways to the one offered by AT&T was under the hood entirely different.
Canada's roll-out of iPhone hardware across national networks took a lot of patience from its patrons. Bell and Telus worked together, planned out and built the network they needed to wrest away the control of the iPhone from Rogers. Americans, unique as you are, came to conqueror AT&T’s hold on the iPhone 4 in a manner that fits the origins of your country to a tee. Not willing to to wait for Apple patiently for Apple and AT&T's exclusive GSM relationship to come to an end, Verizon pushed for an iPhone of their own and won it, through hard-won innovation, determination and a whole bunch of moxie.
Just saying.
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nebula
January 18, 2011 at 1:19pm
Bell announced their plans to implement a GSM network long before the iPhone was unveiled. GSM is a global standard, and at the time the handset market was generally sexier on the GSM side. CDMA, while superior in some ways, is simply not as popular in other countries.
iPhones work like crap on AT&T because they have oversold their network. AT&T simply does not have the capacity to keep adding devices. (This situation may change in a couple years when LTE emerges, as GSM networks will get new spectrum allocated for data. For now, voice and data occupy the same spectrum).
For a company like Verizon, implementing GSM would be a far more cost-prohibitive measure than for Bell in Canada, because there is much more area to cover in the US (almost the entire country, while Canada's coverage is primarily along its populated southern corridor).
iPhone's performance on AT&T has been disappointing. Because Apple is only as valuable as its reputation for creating quality products, they desperately needed to get the product on another US network. Because the other networks didn't have GSM any time in their near future, Apple could only react by developing a CDMA iPhone.
This has nothing to do with different business mindsets between the two neighboring countries ... other than that the overall scale in the US is much larger.
Just sayin.
chegarcia
January 16, 2011 at 9:28am
So, a couple Canadian utility companies transforming themselves in response to US-based corporate innovation is used as a cultural metaphor??? Actually, that DOES just about sum up the contrast of the two cultures.
silica
January 12, 2011 at 12:52pm
So, we have two stories of several mega communication companies and their various exploits in providing iPhone services while filling their coffers with money. And this becomes a metaphor for the two countries as a whole. The "way we roll up here" versus "the Americans doing things just a little differently." How is the maneuvering of corporate entities trying to make a profit for their shareholders tied to the culture of two countries? It isn't. You have thrown up a strawman to try make an article about the approach of the companies more interesting as a cultural comparison. To those that are interested, the way the companies handled dissemination of the iPhone is interesting enough. You didn't need to make a giant leap.
Ginger apl fanboy
January 11, 2011 at 11:20pm
You know as a canadian I must point out the you can buy unlocked iPhone 4 in Canada and they are on our 4 biggest net work ( now virgin mobile too) come to canada to get your unlocked iPhones
keyboardkowboy
January 11, 2011 at 7:20pm
I am not sure, but I think Americans were being disrespected...
Seamus Bellamy
January 11, 2011 at 8:40pm
Not at all! I work for a number of American companies, have American editors and a whole boat load of Americans that I consider to be my good friends. I love the United States as much as I love the Venture Brothers... and that my friend, is a whole lotta love.
emoryu21
January 11, 2011 at 6:14pm
Most entertaining story. Entertaining and educational actually. >_> Now to go back to my plotting and scheming so I may finally get my paws on an iPhone.
