It's been 4 years since the launch of the original iPhone, and since then, subsequent versions have been launched in many countries all around the world. Some of these countries have adopted a single-carrier model such as in America, while others offer multiple carriers. Many of these countries with multiple carriers have a much smaller iPhone user base as compared to America. However, despite the large number of users here, there is only 1 official carrier: AT&T. They have benefited from the significant increase in their number of subscribers due to the iPhone, but the large amounts of data used by iPhone users has put a strain on their network, causing both iPhone users and others on AT&T to suffer from slow data transmission and frequently dropped calls as well. If there were multiple carriers, this would benefit both the providers as well as customers: the customers would be able to choose from more than one provider, and the presence of multiple providers would likely bring about more competitive pricing for customers. Although it might not seem ideal to share iPhone users with other networks, the providers would benefit from being able to spread out subscriber usage across networks. While AT&T may enjoy the monopoly on the iPhone as it currently exists, they are clearly struggling to keep up with their network to support demand.
When it was first released, the iPhone was revolutionary because it was the first phone with an array of features that elicited such great interest and desire from consumers. Users would normally pick the carrier they wanted to use, and then select a phone from whatever was available from the carrier. Now, the binding relationship between carriers and their phones became very apparent: if they wanted to use the iPhone, they all had only one choice: switch to AT&T. From the perspective of AT&T, this was great news, because everyone suddenly wanted to join their network. Several million users have since signed contracts with AT&T because of the iPhone.
This has resulted in a huge shift of cellular phone users migrating to AT&T, increasing their subscriber base by as much as 40%. One of the downsides to this is that AT&T's network has struggled to keep up with user demand, since iPhone users have been shown to consume significantly larger amounts of data as compared to other smartphone users. Despite investing millions of dollars in upgrading their network, many users still experience problems with the AT&T network, with frequent dropped calls and slow data transmission. One of the reasons why the iPhone is not available on more carriers in America is because of the 2 different types of networks used by the major carriers (GSM vs CDMA), which means that Apple would have to create 2 different types of iPhones if they were to switch to other carriers. In addition, although T-Mobile also uses a GSM network, its 3G frequency is different from that of AT&T, and as a result, is not fully compatible with the iPhone.
If the iPhone were available on multiple carriers, it would help to ease the burden on a single network, and would also result in greater carrier choice for those looking to buy the iPhone. Based on existing network infrastructure, it would be impractical to manufacture multiple types of iPhones to work with the different networks: there would be one for AT&T, T-Mobile, and then Verizon/Sprint. Furthermore, these multiple types of handsets would be primarily for the American market since most other countries use GSM networks. It is uncertain if the potential profit from the additional subscribers would outweigh the cost of producing two different types of handsets.
Apart from providing consumers with greater choices for service providers, this would also benefit the providers. By allowing multiple carriers to share the burden, each of them would not have to shoulder as much subscriber data usage. Right now, AT&T is under immense pressure to upgrade their network as quickly as possible, especially in densely populated areas where there are many users. The result of this is that AT&T has had to spend huge amounts of money to upgrade their network. This has likely affected their profits earned in recent years from the increase in iPhone subscribers. Another example of how AT&T is struggling to keep up with user demand is when iOS 3 when released, which introduced features such as MMS and data tethering. However, both of these features were not available for American users, despite international users being able to use them on launch day. The reason for this? It was because these features would strain AT&T's data network further, and they had to upgrade their network to support these features. It was finally available to American users, but only a year after it was officially announced.
The first iPhone may have been launched on a single network to ensure a more consistent user experience, as well as to introduce unique marquee features such as “visual voicemail,” which Apple worked on with AT&T to create. A single-carrier model would allow Apple to monitor network service and performance more easily as compared to if it were on multiple networks. However, the iPhone has since been launched in many countries where it is offered by multiple carriers, and this has ultimately allowed a greater number of consumers to jump on the iPhone bandwagon. It is also interesting to note that many of these multi-carrier countries often do not offer visual voicemail on the iPhone. Although novel at first, visual voicemail is usually not considered the most outstanding feature available on an iPhone, and has not slowed the iPhone from being widely adopted in these countries. When was the last time you heard an iPhone user gush about visual voicemail? Ultimately, Apple benefits from having multiple carriers because it basically means that they sell more iPhones, and more consumers are able to enjoy the iPhone without being limited to specific carriers.
Here is a breakdown of the number of countries which offer the iPhone on multiple carriers.
Europe: 18 of 34 countries
Asia-Pacific: 8 of 16 countries
Latin America: 11 of 18
Africa: 2 of 15
Canada: 5 carriers
And yet, here in America, there is only 1 carrier. While this may be largely due to the restrictions of the different types of networks, I am really looking forward to the day when this will change with phone networks adopting 4G standards. By moving to the next generation of cellular technology, there would no longer be separate GSM and CDMA networks. Only then would we be able to have the option of iPhones which would work on more than 1 of the 4 major carriers in America.
