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Steve Jobs Wanted an iPhone-Only Wireless Network

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-the-iinternet dept.

jfruhlinger writes "One of the more profound ways that the iPhone changed the mobile industry was the fact that it upended the relationship between the handset maker and the wireless carrier: Apple sells many of its phones directly to customers, and in general has much more of an upper hand with carriers than most phone manufacturers. But venture capitalist John Stanton, who was friends with Steve Jobs in the years when the iPhone was in development, said the Apple CEO's initial vision was even more radical: he wanted Apple to build its own wireless network using unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum, thus bypassing the carriers altogether."

7 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. And We'll call it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    iCanthearyounow

  2. Neat by DWMorse · · Score: 5, Funny

    That would've freed up a lot of the load on AT&T. However, it would've made the iPhone a lot more expensive per unit... hmm. Where's the downside?

    --
    There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
    1. Re:Neat by Kenja · · Score: 4, Funny

      And I would have stayed on the other side of the wall and chucked the occasional beer can over into the garden.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    2. Re:Neat by jd2112 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, it is your carrier that is overselling their bandwidth. It is really not Apple's fault.

      It would be Apple's fault if your phone couldn't use a signal that was there, or if ou had to hold it in a funny way to not touch the antena. That problem you describe, it's really an AT&T problem.

      No. You're holding it wrong.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    3. Re:Neat by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

      No. You're holding it wrong.

      Note to /. : Never say that to a girlfriend, no matter how true.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  3. Re:technically unfeasable by PhrstBrn · · Score: 4, Funny

    This would not have been feasible, which is why it didn't work. the idea of a carrier pushing through a wifi network with enough coverage space is laughable. The 3g/4g wireless spectrum operates entirely different than wifi because wifi is limited in many ways..

    The point is, we can all sit around and throw ideas and himhaw back and forth, but if things don't pass engineering/financial spec the don't get done. Applauding Jobs as a visionary for an idea that failed on technical and financial merit is kinda stupid.

    The success was in the not doing it.

    Why don't you have your own little success by not posting?

  4. it upended the relationship alright by t2t10 · · Score: 3, Funny

    One of the more profound ways that the iPhone changed the mobile industry was the fact that it upended the relationship between the handset maker and the wireless carrier:

    It sure did! Instead of a big, evil corporation screwing their customers, charging inflated prices, and delivering a product prone to failures... we now have another big, evil corporation screwing their customers, charging inflated prices, and delivering a product prone to failures!