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Consumerist Says AT&T Site Won't Sell iPhone In NYC, Citing Network

Posted by timothy on from the sounds-a-bit-hinky dept.

cowp writes "A Consumerist tipster couldn't get AT&T's website to sell him an iPhone when he shopped using an NYC ZIP code, but could when he tried other cities' ZIPs. Consumerist asked an AT&T CSR and seems to have gotten confirmation that this is carrier policy: 'Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone. You don't have enough towers to handle the phone.' Considering Apple's gadget is currently the most popular handset in the US, its exclusive carrier's inability/unwillingness to support the device in the country's largest market is pretty huge news. If this proves true, I'd expect curtains for AT&T's exclusivity deal when it comes up for renewal." If you're in NYC, can you confirm or deny this outlandish-sounding claim? Updated 20091227 1:03 GMT by timothy: Headline, now corrected, inaccurately named Apple rather than AT&T. Mea culpa.

9 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. Spin by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can we stop saying things like 'the most popular handset?' When we're talking about a market where no single handset has more than about 1-2% market share, saying 'the most popular' is entirely meaningless.

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    1. Re:Spin by bonch · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It says "iPhone 3G," one specific model of the iPhone. The other phones and their models, however, are grouped together. See the parenthesis?

  2. Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. by dov_0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This from the most technological advanced country on the planet.....

    AT&T happy to take customers money, not willing to spend millions for a working network.

    I didn't see any mention of Japan in TFA?

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  3. This is exactly why I have an iPhone by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not because it's the best phone available, which it might or might not be depending on who you ask, but because there's a guy in Cupertino with a black turtleneck, a borrowed liver, and a really shitty attitude who owns the exact same phone I do, and who has the power to make it suck less.

    Even if he has to stare down AT&T to do it.

    What other phone manufacturer can go to bat for their customers like that?

    1. Re:This is exactly why I have an iPhone by Minwee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yup. I'm sure this guy is going to bat for me.

      That's right.

  4. Don't bash AT&T by astrashe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is responsible -- they don't have enough towers, and they shouldn't be selling any more phones until they build more capacity.

    It's not any different than not selling additional seats on an airplane that's already full. No one would blame an airline for not overbooking. I don't think we should blame AT&T for doing the right thing.

    As a New Yorker with an iPhone, I hope Apple follows suit and stops selling iPhones to New Yorkers until the network is robust enough to provide decent service.

    Failing that, I think they should waive early termination fees for NYC users.

    1. Re:Don't bash AT&T by astrashe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The phone is surprisingly popular, and no one has a crystal ball.

      For most products, there's some sort of limit on how much you can sell, that's connected to how many of them you make.

      Southwest can only fly so many people to a certain destination, a bakery can only sell so many cupcakes, a barber can only take so many appointments, a restaurant only has so many tables, etc.

      Sometimes popular products and services sell out -- it's a very common situation in business.

      There is a limit on the number of iPhones the AT&T network can support. The exact number is fuzzy, but there's no doubt that they've gone beyond it here in NYC. They should just say that they're sold out until they grow the network.

      Again, it's not any different than a restaurant declining to take a reservation because they're full. Respectable businesses do this all the time. It's perfectly reasonable.

  5. Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many Americans seem to think their country is the best and most advanced in the world. They are brainwashed by the mass media's propaganda.

  6. Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    WTF? Seriously? Why do Canadians always bring up that arm as if it is the greatest piece of technology ever invented when it is sitting next to a $10 billion Orbiter and a $100 billion space station, which are some of the greatest marvels of technology ever invented?

    People really are dipshits with this "my country is more advanced than yours" idiocy. Advances in technology can only be compared with time, not locations. The rate of development of technology in the US is extremely high--but this doesn't mean that the technology is deployed there. Is a country like Japan more advanced than the US because it builds more hardware and software or is the US more advanced because it designs more? Or should we compare per capita?

    I think it is a foolish thing to even worry about. Only nationalists would really care. I care about the technology, not who is the most 'advanced'.

    The blue diode, the microprocessor, scramjets, the LHC--those are important. I don't give a shit which country gets the nationalistic props for being the most technologically advanced.