With a Verizon version of the iPhone apparently in the offing, attention is turning to the head-to-head, mano-y-mano between the AT&T and Verizon networks that will support the iconic mobile device. Today, The Wall Street Journal takes its turn on that topic, detailing the urgency with which AT&T is girding its network, including reference to a “100-day plan” to beef up coverage in bigger cities.
The WSJ story featured some interesting notes:
In mid-December, AT&T executives set up a 100-day plan to dramatically improve the company’s network in densely-populated cities, according to people familiar with the plan. Since then, AT&T has added new network spectrum to better handle traffic, repositioned antennas to improve reception in office towers and wired more neighborhood cell towers with faster connections.
For example, AT&T said when iPhone customers started checking their email and surfing the Web from their high-rise offices, AT&T repositioned its cellular antennas to point up, instead of down. Rivals will start the process of making the same changes only after the phones hit their networks, it said.
The iPhone taught AT&T other lessons its rivals will discover through customer trial-and-error. Before the iPhone, it used to be able to accurately forecast to the minute the type of phone usage each new customer would add to its network based on basic demographics such as age and income levels. The forecast always held true across cities and towns. But with the iPhone, such bets are off, AT&T executives painfully learned. It now looks at a broader set of customer profiles to forecast behaviors. For example, in a metro area with a large proportion of students, the phone operator schedules network upgrades to occur outside of colleges’ nine-month academic terms.
Connected Planet’s take, Kevin Fitchard:
AT&T is right in the sense that other operators won’t know the hassles of the iPhone until the day they, too, will have to support millions of such devices on their network. Verizon Wireless is definitely getting a taste of what’s to come — if the reports of a CDMA iPhone are true, that is — with the Droid and other smartphones beginning to populate its EV-DO network, but it hasn’t faced the deluge of traffic brought on by multiple millions of iPhone activations in a single quarter.
But I would disagree with the statement that Verizon is just as unprepared as AT&T was for the onslaught. Many of the big steps AT&T has taken to improve its network to meet iPhone data demands, Verizon is also taking before it gets the iPhone. Despite all of the network tweaks the Journal points to, AT&T’s single biggest problem was capacity, in the radio access and particularly in the backhaul network. AT&T recently completed an upgrade to 7.2 Mb/s high-speed packet access, which theoretically should have doubled its network capacity. In reality, though, AT&T saw some performance gains but little overall capacity gains. Most of AT&T’s cell sites are still fed by copper, so all of that newly supported traffic in the radio network just hits a bottleneck in the backhaul. AT&T is moving as fast as it can deploy fiber to the cell so it can take advantage of that new capacity. Meanwhile, Verizon has already deployed 3500 fiber links to its cell sites within the Verizon Communications territory and is using IP microwave technology to augment its footprint out of territory. VZW is boosting backhaul capacity in preparation for its 4G long-term evolution launch, but the 3G network can take advantage of that capacity as well.
That’s our take on this. Let us know what you think in the comments section below:
Really? No other provider could possible be prepared for mobile users to consume more data because AT&T was caught off guard? These are the same people that will run a trunk in the bottom of a ditch and act surprised when the phones don’t work when it rains.
Since the introduction of data to the “phone” network, AT&T (Bell, etc.) has been trying to limit their customers. In 1980 I had a Bell rep explain to me that the FCC only required them to support a 300 baud connection and they would provide nothing more.
I will be stunned if any of the other providers have the same problems as AT&T.
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. I agree with you that by observance, sideline observation and other forms of communications Verizon will not be completely in the dark on what to expect. I think the technology of CDMA for data will be a factor in their performance – for the very reason that Verizon is not even in 2nd place on data speeds for 3G. In the end like all pre-fight debate and predictions shaded by ones own likes and beliefs – once the bell rings we may be very suprised at the outcome.
It is difficult to believe that two companies—each of which wants absolute control over the user experience—could come to terms to field a CDMA version of the iPhone. This would be possibly the worst corporate mismatch in US history. Despite the never-ending clamor for such a device from Verizon subscribers and analysts, the latest rumors appear to be meritless on their face.
Why would Apple go to a previously unused contract manufacturer to build a single device for the narrow (in world terms) network presently used by Verizon?
Why would Apple reportedly announce a product late in the third quarter yet apparently have insufficient stock on hand to begin immediate shipments, thereby missing the holiday sales season?
Why would they focus on a CDMA device for Verizon alone when Verizon, by that point, will already be bringing LTE network segments on line in major metropolitan areas?
That initial Wall Street Journal \’scoop\’ made little sense, and the followup in the same newspaper days later by the same reporter made even less sense.
It\’s long past time to drop the \’iPhone on Verizon\’ pipe dream: it\’s just not going to happen in the foreseeable future. And, I\’ve been saying that since the initial iPhone shipped. So far, that statement has been validated year over year. Just sayin\’…