It’s Tuesday, January 11 and that means Verizon executives will be taking the stage in New York City to announce the iPhone has finally arrived on the carrier after years of speculation and rumors. The question now is, how will AT&T respond?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on how AT&T executives will face what they call “their moment of truth” -- losing the telco’s coveted iPhone exclusivity after three and a half years. With Verizon expected to announce Tuesday morning that they are now a second carrier here in the U.S. for Apple’s device, AT&T may be in for a rough year.
Or maybe not.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, AT&T’s wireless chief executive says the company has been prepared for this day all along, and even welcomes the competition.
“We are ready for it,” de la Vega said defiantly. “The short and long-term viability of AT&T will be good whether we have exclusivity or not. We are much bigger than this.”
The telco dipped into their “war chest” last summer with the launch of the iPhone 4, allowing “any iPhone customer who would be eligible for an upgrade at some point in 2010 to immediately trade up to the new device as long as they signed up for a new two-year contract.”
According to Credit Suisse, that means that 15.9 million of the current 18.4 million iPhone 4 subscribers at the end of 2010 are still locked into such contracts -- making it an expensive proposition to simply ditch AT&T and head to Verizon, thanks to the company’s early termination fee (ETF).
However, AT&T executives could be misjudging the unhappiness of their customer base. Dropped calls and poor data connections have been frequent complaints among iPhone owners since the device went 3G in 2008. Despite AT&T’s best efforts to fix the problem, those grievances continue. Whether or not those dissatisfied customers are unhappy enough to pay for the privilege of jumping ship remains to be seen.
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(Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal)
jefredrickson
January 11, 2011 at 5:58pm
AT&T will lose my business do to the fact that they keep promising us the 3G network, every year, and never deliver; but we are paying for it. What good is a data plan if it take for ever to use it, and with the iphone we are forced to have the data plan. AT&T wants our money but don't want to update the rural areas to 3G. I would consider that as a breach of contract on their part. Cingular should never of sold out to AT&T, they were twice the company that AT&T is.
iMac.27
January 11, 2011 at 11:16am
and charging $2.99 for visual voicemail they break off all their smart phones.
malber
January 11, 2011 at 10:17am
You have to wonder though: will Verizon be playing the dirty tricks they do with their other devices, like nerfing GPS?
