AT&T halted online sales of iPhone in NYC last week?

[Justin]

With little explanation, AT&T last week halted online sales of the iPhone in New York City -- the most populated city in the U.S. Customers in The Big Apple were greeted with a generic failure when trying to purchase an iPhone, telling them to "shop for another phone". The iPhone is once again available online, but AT&T's reasoning is still a mystery.

AT&T has admitted that their cell network is having difficulty coping with the surge in data usage by smartphones -- much of which the iPhone is responsible for. Dense areas like NYC would be hit hardest by demand, so it's possible AT&T was trying to prevent its network from collapsing in the region.

If that were the case though, you'd expect sales to stop elsewhere, but the iPhone was still available through AT&T and Apple retail outlets. It has also been suggested that the carrier was attempting to reduce fraud -- though, that also seems unlikely.

Regardless of AT&T's logic, might this be a sign that Apple should finally extend the iPhone to other providers?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/37444-att-halted-online-sales-of-iphone-in-nyc-last-week.html

 

[Timonius]

The time for AT&T exclusivity is over (and never should have been). Apple already has a great prescence in the smart phone market, they could do better by giving the consumer some more choices (as usual with Apple, I don't choose them due to their lack of 'choice'). Of course AT&T could always raise their prices in high usage areas like NYC but then that would probably be counterproductive (But then again high prices go hand--in-hand with Apple anyways ).

 

[TomSEA]

Telling consumers to "shop for another phone..."

Is that for real? If so, it's mind boggling to think that a distributor for ANY product would say something like that to its consumer base. That's absolutely nutz.....

 

[Relic]

TomSEA said:
Telling consumers to "shop for another phone..."

Is that for real? If so, it's mind boggling to think that a distributor for ANY product would say something like that to its consumer base. That's absolutely nutz.....

Not really nuts, better then maybe admitting that there network simply can't handle it imo. And then having to actually fix the issue instead of sweeping it under the rug.

 

[Guest]

Apple would lose a big chunk of their sales if they were to move to a service provider such as Verizon, or Sprint. the reason behind this is simple, keeping the IPhone on a SIM technology such as ATT or T-mobile allows people who cannot get approved for service, to buy a prepaid sim and use it with either companies. As much as Apple dislikes the jailbreak feature, it is helping them with sales!

 

[tengeta]

Is this that "big plan" to fix data jams in NYC and San Fransisco?

 

[9Nails]

My contract was up and I tried to get 4 new iPhones with AT&T... Their plans aren't very good and I would end up spending about $250+ for their services. I went to another carrier and am spending a little more than half that for Android phones, and have everything that I need. And the phones are super cool, the service is slightly better.

I don't know how AT&T's cellular network cannot be the best for the prices that they're asking. If I was investing in their company, I'd pull my money out because something isn't adding up.

 

[SNGX1275]

AT&T's 3g network is a joke, just like Verizon says in the commercials. I live in a town with a population of ~20-25k depending on the time of year (college town) which is along an interstate highway and we don't have 3g access here.