AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and reportedly Sprint each stand to grab a healthy slice of the market demand for the new iPhone. But each carrier brings something different to the table, making it difficult to predict which one might benefit the most, says ComScore.

AT&T holds the dominant share of existing iPhone customers. As of July, 81.9 percent of iPhone subscribers were with AT&T, leaving only 15.1 percent for Verizon, according to the report.

Following the launch of the new phone, all current iPhone carriers will likely continue to offer the iPhone 4 at a discount. AT&T could pick up even more customers by also continuing to sell the iPhone 3GS cheap. But that advantage may be short-lived since at some point, the older model iPhone will cease production, especially if Apple launches a low-cost iPhone 4.

Though Verizon’s percentage of iPhone users may be low, its satisfaction rates continue to be high. In July, ComScore found that more than 76 percent of Verizon smartphone customers graded the carrier with a score of 8 or higher out of 10, compared with 68 percent for other carriers. Among existing iPhone users, 23 percent said that they will switch or are seriously thinking of switching to another provider, opening the door for more business to come Verizon’s way.

However, Sprint also stands to do well if it gets custody of the new iPhone as it would be the only carrier to still offer an unlimited data plan. That benefit alone could scoop up new customers and prompt current data-slurpping users to switch carriers to grab the lower-price plan. However, questions have been raised as to how long Sprint could retain its unlimited plan, especially given a flood of iPhone users gobbling up data that the network might having trouble supporting.

No matter how the carriers fare with the new iPhone, the one company certain to come out ahead is Apple, ComScore said.

“Putting the operators aside, the one clear winner so far would appear to be Apple, which stands to gain market share from the additional market sectors penetrated by Sprint and providing another device option for customers of AT&T and Verizon,” the report noted. “As the Android platform continues to grow in popularity, it will be interesting to see the role the iPhone 5 plays in the platform share race and how this will ultimately impact the operator industry.”

[Thanks: http://news.cnet.com]

Bloomberg reports that the European carrier is handing out coupons for the device to customers who ask for it without actually calling the device the iPhone 5. A company spokesperson told the outlet the move is based on expectations of the phone being hard to get once it’s released.

A follow-up report by German language news site Focus.de (as picked up by AppleInsider) notes that this pre-ordering process is being intentionally kept low profile, with no mention of it in advertising or its online store. Instead, customers will need to go into the carrier’s retail stores and request a reservation for the device.

Deutsche Telekom did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the program.

Apple and its carrier partners received more than 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4 last year, resulting in a number of hiccups for those trying to reserve the device for purchase on its first day of availability. Apple then had trouble keeping up with demand, with new orders taking weeks to ship out to new buyers and causing customer lineups at Apple’s retail stores and carriers that were selling the device.

Deutsche Telekom became the second European sales partner for Apple following the launch of the original iPhone in 2007. The two companies proceeded to launch the handset on Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile network in early November.

Apple’s next iPhone is expected to be released in October, marking a departure from the company’s longstanding tradition of a summer release. The timing also coincides with when Apple typically holds its annual event to spruce up its lineup of iPods and The Apple TV.

[Thanks: http://news.cnet.com]

According to a source speaking to HardMac, Apple has internally announced that it has created a Web-based version of diagnostic tools that AppleCare technicians are already using. The tool allows a technician to send an e-mail (or presumably an SMS) with a specially crafted URL. When a user clicks the URL, it connects to Apple’s servers and collects various bits of data about the device’s state, the health of the battery, and the version of iOS running.

HardMac’s source did not say if the tool will be able to collect any logs, such as app crash logs or the baseband radio log. The site also noted that there so far isn’t any indication that jail breaking can be detected, though we note Apple certainly has methods to do so.

Of course, the remote troubleshooting step won’t be helpful for a device that simply does not function or has no network access. But if the device is functioning enough to run Mobile Safari, the tool could be a useful first step in getting assistance if an Apple Store or authorized service center isn’t conveniently located nearby.

[Thanks: http://arstechnica.com]

Here’s a look at what Google must do next to plus things up and turn Google+ into a true Facebook rival and not merely a niche-y Facebook alternative for geeks.

Google Plus Games: Facebook games are the scourge of the social network for those who don’t play them, as invites run amok for social games like Farmville and Zombies reached spam proportions before they were finally brought somewhat under control. But games are an essential part of Facebook in the eyes of many of its users, and if Google wants the mainstream, it’ll need to add games to Google+ in such a way as to not sully up those users who don’t want gaming spam. Sidling up to Zynga or Angry Birds maker Rovio might not be a bad first step.

Google+ iPhone app: Google made a tactical error by not ensuring it had a Google+ iPhone app approved in Apple’s App Store from the day Google+ launched. Either Google has been slow in getting the app going, or bitter smartphone rival Apple is stonewalling the approval process, or Google thinks limiting Google+ to strictly having an Android app is a good idea. None of those three scenarios look promising, as the hundred million plus iPhone and iPad users are going to be far less interested in switching over to Google+ if they have to rely on the web app. Web apps, by definition, are lame.

Google Plus Adsense: Even a wealthy company like Google needs each of its products to produce revenue eventually in order to remain viable. Unlike Facebook, which had to build its ad network from scratch, Google has its Adsense ads ready to go in Google+ any time it wants to fire them up. But can they be implemented in such a manner as to not chase away early Google+ adopters, or does Google need to wait until well after it’s been opened to the mainstream?

Google+ custom URL: We haven’t yet been able to confirm whether the “Lady GaGa” account in Google+ is really her or an impostor, but it doesn’t much matter until a URL like plus.google.com/ladygaga actually points to her page. Facebook implemented this way too late for musicians, and it was one of the reasons MySpace was able to hold onto the musician crowd even as the rest of its user base was fleeing to Facebook. Google will need to implement custom URLs in such a manner as to make celebrities’ time worthwhile, as in fans being able to find them without having to search and wade through the impostors. And it goes well beyond celebrities, as everyone wants a custom URL instead of having to point people to an address like plus.google.com/113305033825535522724

The mainstream: It doesn’t take much more than quick lookaround to see that the existing ten million users on Google+ consist mostly of Google-worshipping geeks. That must change before long if Google wants Plus to be a mainstream service to rival Facebook instead of merely a non-mainstream refuge for the geekiest one percent of the population who are looking to converse without their old high school classmates looking in. In other words, even if Google’s engineers aren’t thrilled with the idea, the invite system must fade soon and the front doors be thrown open so that the mainstream can actually begin kicking the tires. Until then, Google+ is merely Google Wave or Google Buzz with a higher success rate among the geeks. Here’s how to get invited into Google+.

[Thanks: http://www.beatweek.com]

The Galaxy S2 smartphone is expected to arrive on Verizon network as the “Function” phone in July, and Sprint may have it in September. Even AT&T will have its hands a version called “Attain.” There was no confirmation on any version going to T-Mobile, but a new rumored smartphone, known as the Samsung Hercules, has emerged out of the blue and is expected to be T-Mobile’s flagship phone.

Samsung’s Hercules handset,with a rumored $350 price tag, can tick all the boxes on the super phone list, making a big impact in the crowded smartphone market.

If the speculated rumors related to Samsung Hercules are true, then the new smartphone will come with 4.5-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display which is very similar to AT&T’s Samsung Infuse 4G as far as screens go. Motorola Droid Bionic is the other smartphone to feature a 4.5-inch HD display screen, but with a better resolution of 540 x 960 pixels. The newly announced HTC Eternity is expected to come with 4.7-inch display, which is slightly bigger for a smartphone. The iPhone 5, on the other hand, is expected to feature a display screen between 3.7-inch or 4-inch.

Samsung Hercules will also be identical in terms of 132 x 71 x 9 mm dimension similar to that of Infuse 4G.

Powering the Hercules would be a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm APQ8060 processor which can make it the fastest smartphone in the market. Other smartphones that are expected to feature a 1.5 GHz dual core processor are Google’s upcoming Nexus 4G smartphone, also now known as Samsung Nexus Prime and, of course, the iPhone 5.Even the HTC Eternity launching in September features a 1.5GHz CPU processor, but it features a single core processor unlike dual core processors found in most of the recently released smartphones.

Also a Samsung smartphone usually runs the ARM Cortex processor so its choice for a Qualcomm processor is new, making Hercules its exception. The Galaxy S2 is powered by Samsung’s Exynos CPU, which is Samsung’s dual core processor but Hercules is not expected to have it.

As it comes to camera, the Hercules smartphone will have an 8-megapixel 3264×2448 pixels camera found in most of the smartphones but it can shoot 1080p 1920×1080 pixels full HD video which is not found in many smartphones. However, iPhone 5 is also expected to come with 8-megapixel camera but with dual-LED flash compared to Hercules which will have LED flash support.

With NFC support, Hercules will have rare privilege to stand alongside Google Nexus S, Google Nexus S 4G, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Wave 578, BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 and Nokia N9 as all of them have NFC support. There are many other phones outside which also support NFC. However, the upcoming Samsung Nexus Prime will surely feature NFC and even iPhone 5 is rumored to have NFC support.

The biggest of all the surprises is that the smartphone is having category 24 HSDPA capability to exceed the max speeds of 42Mbps downstream which will make the Hercules the fastest HSDPA plus for a smartphone in the market.

Today, HSDPA speeds found in most of the smartphones are 21 Mbps or 14 Mbps. Also, the phone is expected to have hidden radios for AT&T HSDPA plus as well, which is a unique feature. The phone also will have MHL port which combines microUSB and HDMI port as one single port.

The Hercules phone may make its first appearance in August.

[Thanks: http://www.ibtimes.com]

In this week’s Ask Maggie, I help one reader decide if he should wait for the next-generation iPhone or buy the iPhone 4 before Verizon Wireless gets rid of its unlimited data plan. I also explain to another reader when I think more Windows Phone smartphones will hit the market. And I offer some guidance on which cell phone provider to choose when traveling between rural areas.

Ask Maggie is a weekly advice column that answers readers’ wireless and broadband questions. If you’ve got a question, please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put “Ask Maggie” in the subject header.

iPhone 5 vs. unlimited data

Dear Maggie,
I’m going to get a new iPhone, but I’m not sure if I should wait for the iPhone 5, or get the iPhone 4 now on Verizon Wireless in order to get the unlimited data. My friends seem to unanimously agree that Verizon Wireless has better coverage/service. So I was thinking that if they are going to eliminate their all-you-can-eat data plan, now might be the time to jump on board. I currently have an iPhone 3GS with AT&T. Are the features on the unannounced iPhone 5 likely to make it much greater than the iPhone 4 to make it outweigh the unlimited data package?

Dear Joe,
Most people don’t use more than 2GB of data per month. So even though you may feel compelled to rush over to Verizon Wireless now for the unlimited data plan, most likely you’ll be fine without it. So I wouldn’t make any rash decisions just because you want to hold onto your unlimited data plan.

To answer your question regarding the iPhone 5, rumor has it that it will be announced in September. What we know so far is that the new version will look very similar to the iPhone 4. But inside there are some tweaks that will improve performance. For one, it’s supposed to have a faster processor, the A5, which is the same one used in the iPad 2, and a higher resolution camera. It will also get a new camera that will be an 8 megapixel camera instead of the 5 megapixel camera on the iPhone 4.

I doubt the iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE, since Apple rarely is on the cutting edge in terms of the components it uses in its products. The new 4G LTE phones are still having battery life issues. So I am sure that Apple will want to wait until the technology matures before putting it into the iPhone. Plus, the LTE services from either AT&T or Verizon Wireless aren’t widely available. Verizon Wireless says that it has 74 markets covered. But the LTE footprint won’t match its 3G footprint until 2013. Meanwhile AT&T hasn’t even started offering 4G LTE yet. It is supposed to be in 15 markets by the end of the year.

That said, AT&T is using HSPA+ in its network too, which is an upgrade to the current 3G technology. So it’s possible that that iPhone 5 might support HSAP+ in the GSM version, which could give it a speed boost.

Of course, all of this is speculation. We won’t know what features the next iPhone will have until it’s announced.

So here’s my advice, since you’re already an AT&T customer, and you’re likely already on the unlimited data plan, just wait for the next iPhone. It will be more advanced than the iPhone 4. We just don’t know how much more advanced. And at that point you can decide between AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Verizon does have a better reputation in terms of its network. And unless you’re a very heavy data user, you should be fine with the new 2GB cap.

I hope this helps.

Where are all the Windows Phones?

Dear Maggie,
Why are there so few Windows Phone 7 GSM phones out there? When do you expect to see a significant number come out? Will Mango include Skype???

Dear Shaneryland,
I expect more Windows Phone 7 devices to be on the market this fall with the release of the new Mango software. Microsoft has said these new phones will be ready for the holiday season. These phones will be from a number of handset makers.

Jo Harlow, a senior vice president at Nokia, was in the CNET office recently and said the first Nokia devices sporting the Microsoft Mango software will be out by the end of the year. She wouldn’t say how many devices would be available, but she said it would be a portfolio of devices for the world market. More phones will be released sometime next year. These phones are also expected for the GSM market as well as the CDMA market. Nokia has a big investor event in October in London, so I’m hoping we get to see some of these Windows Phone 7 devices then.

As for Skype, I don’t expect that Microsoft will have any meaningful integration with Skype in Mango. Greg Sullivan, Windows Phone senior product manager, told me when Mango was unveiled here in New York City a few weeks ago that further Skype integration would be added in subsequent versions of the software. Microsoft acquired Skype at the end of the development process for Mango. So look for cooler Skype integration with the next iteration of Windows Phone software.

Service help

Dear Maggie,
I currently have Sprint for phone service, and I can be a heavy data user at times on my phone and via mobile hotspot. I currently have the HTC Evo 4G, and I love the phone. However, here is the problem. I travel a lot back and forward from Florida to North Carolina driving. I want to switch services later this year, but I’m not sure to which company.

Dear Traveling Whitey ,
I have had a similar problem. My dad lives at the beach in Delaware. And when I had Sprint as my carrier, my phone wouldn’t work at all throughout the entire town, even though the coverage map said there should be a signal. The only two carriers that have strong signals there are AT&T and Verizon Wireless. So I had to switch carriers, just so I could make phone calls or check e-mail when I am visiting him.

So the first thing you need to do is ask people in the two areas where you travel which service they use. Also ask them if they are happy with the service. Because you are traveling through some rural areas, I suspect that AT&T and Verizon are likely the two best candidates. T-Mobile and Sprint generally don’t have great coverage in rural areas. Their bread-and-butter are the suburbs and cities.

If your choice is between AT&T and Verizon, keep in mind that Verizon has a reputation for having a more reliable network. Of course, this may vary depending on the region. So that’s why it’s best to ask people who live in those areas for their opinions.

Verizon may not always be the fastest, but you’re more likely to keep a call going and even get a data signal. By contrast, AT&T has struggled with reliability. And in cities, like New York, data speeds have been slow and calls have been dropped. Of course, the experience may be very different for people in South Carolina and Florida, so do a little homework before you make your decision.

Another thing to keep in mind is that LTE and HSPA+ won’t make much difference to you unless you buy a phone that supports either of those two technologies. Currently, the majority of phones sold by either carrier do not support these flavors of network technology. Also Verizon’s LTE network is not completely built out, so you even if you get an LTE phone you may not be able to take advantage of the fast speeds. AT&T’s HSPA+ network is built out further, but if you will be in rural areas, you’re likely to be on the older 3G network or even the 2.5G EDGE network.

As far as pricing is concerned, AT&T and Verizon offer comparable pricing. Although Verizon is priced slightly higher than AT&T when it comes to data. AT&T offers a $15 plan that includes 200MB of data downloads per month. And a $25 plan that offers 2GB of downloads per month. Verizon Wireless’s cheapest data plan for smartphones is $30 a month. And as of July 7, that service will no longer be unlimited. Instead, usage will be capped 2GB per month.

[Thanks: http://news.cnet.com]

* Pandora shares ended regular session trading at $17.42, almost 9% higher than its $16 offering price. The freemium streaming radio service boasts around 90 million listeners but lost $1.8 million on sales of $138 million in 2010. (Wired)

* HP filed a civil lawsuit in California against Oracle. The move comes after the latter company said back in March that it would stop supporting HP’s Itanium platform because Intel didn’t plan to keep the platform over the long run. (ZDNet)

* Given IBM’s 100th anniversary, The Next Web takes a good look at how far the company has come since the original merger of Hollerith’s Tabluating Machine Company with the Computing Scale Company of America and International Recording Company. (The Next Web)

* News site Reddit, which has seen its unique monthly visits jump 37% since January, nearly tripled its engineering staff today, with new hires like Google’s Logan Hanks, Oracle’s Keith Mitchell and engineering grad Brian Simpson. (TechCrunch)

* Apple rolled out its Back to School promotion, including the usual 10% hardware discount but swapping out the free iPod Touch offer (with the purchase of a Mac) for a $100 software gift card instead. The gift card is applicable towards apps like iWork, but not towards Microsoft Office. (Fortune)

* Is Tumblr the next great social network? (Steve Rubel’s blog)

* Robert Scoble on why Android will gain huge market share later this year. One of his reasons? An impending $350 Android tablet. (Scobleizer)

* Colleague Beth Kowitt has the inside story on how Google conquered the smartphone world. (Fortune)

[Thanks: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com]

Earlier this week, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco that its new iMessage feature that will be baked into the latest version of iOS software due later this year, will offer a similar messaging service that Research In Motion’s BBM service offers.

In addition to seeing when and if messages have been received, just like BBM, iMessage will also work over the wireless data network and it will allow subscribers to avoid text-messaging fees.

In this week’s Ask Maggie, I explain how the new feature will work, and whether the new iOS 5 will also make it easier to message Google Android users in the same way. I also offer my advice on why new smartphone customers shouldn’t buy the iPhone 3GS. And I make the case to another reader in San Francisco for why she should buy the iPhone 4 from Verizon Wireless instead of buying it from AT&T.

Ask Maggie is a weekly advice column that answers readers’ wireless and broadband questions. If you’ve got a question, please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbsinteractive dot com. And please put “Ask Maggie” in the subject header.

Buh-Bye BlackBerry BBM

Dear Maggie,
As a current BlackBerry user who will be switching to an iPhone, I am very excited that iOS 5 is introducing iMessage. I don’t have a texting plan and enjoy using BlackBerry Messenger to cut down monthly costs. I use the Google Talk app to communicate with my friends and family who have Android phones. Will iOS 5 allow Google Talk to function on the iPhone the same way it does on a Blackberry?

Thanks,
Jason

Dear Jason,
The new iMessage feature in iOS 5 from Apple will certainly be a BlackBerry killer. I know lots of people who have stuck with BlackBerry because they like the BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, feature that allows them to bypass the SMS text-messaging network. And now you’ll be able to use the same feature on Apple iOS devices. So whether you’re messaging a friend on another iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can use iMessage to send the quick messages.

The way iMessage works is that instead of routing the text message over the cellular network using SMS, it sends the message over your wireless Internet data connection. It’s basically iChat for iOS, but it makes it very simple to use like the SMS function on your phone. This means that you don’t have to pay the 10 cents a text message or sign up for a $20 unlimited text-messaging plan.

But just like BBM, which only works when you’re messaging another BlackBerry user, iMessage only works when you’re talking to someone using another iOS device. If you want to communicate with someone using a Google Android phone, you’ll have to use Google Talk, Google’s instant-messaging platform. In the latest version of Android, Gingerbread 2.3.4, Google Talk on Android phones also supports voice and video, too.

Google has created a special Google Talk app for BlackBerry users to make the Google Talk experience easier to use on those devices. But there is no equivalent app from Google available for the iPhone. And iOS 5 won’t necessarily change that situation. That said, you can still use Google Talk to chat with Google Android users. But instead of downloading an app, you can access the feature through Google’s mobile Web site: http://www.google.com/talk.

Bargain hunters beware

Dear Maggie,
My husband and I are in the market for new smartphones. So, we walked into both Verizon and AT&T today to compare iPhone prices and packages. Apparently, we had visited an AT&T franchise store first, where they aren’t allowed to sell us the iPhone, so the rep talked us into buying the HTC Inspire 4G. We paid $90 each after rebate for the phones. We later found out when we visited the AT&T “corporate” store that we could get an iPhone for $49, which is $150 less than the iPhone at Verizon. We also found out that the Verizon iPhone plan is $50 more a month than the AT&T iPhone plan.

The AT&T rep from the corporate store told us we could return our Android phones and exchange them for the iPhone if we wanted. Considering that we’re currently using fancy (not) flip phones, I think the iPhone 3GS from AT&T will suit our needs just fine.

So my question is this:

Dear Jenny,
So my first word of advice to you is this: Before you head to any retail store to buy a new phone, do a little legwork from home on the Internet. You can go to each carrier’s Web site and price out the phones and the plans you’re interested in. If you need help deciding between different models of phones, check out CNET Reviews for some help regarding specific phones.

Before I answer your specific questions, let me clarify the price comparison for iPhones running on AT&T’s network versus iPhones on Verizon Wireless’ network. I think the reps in the stores may have misled you. The $49 price tag cited in your question is for the iPhone 3GS, which is a phone that is more than two years old. It’s only available through AT&T in the U.S.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless are currently selling the iPhone 4, which was released for the first time in the U.S. about a year ago. The price of the iPhone 4 on either AT&T or Verizon Wireless is the same: $199 for the 16GB version with a two-year contract.

So the $150 difference that the AT&T rep quoted you was really the difference between two generations of devices and not necessarily an “apples to apples” comparison between the same phone on different carrier networks.

I looked online to price out the overall service plans. And I didn’t see a $50 difference if you are comparing similar plans. In fact, the Verizon plan is only $5 more a month than a similar offering from AT&T. AT&T and Verizon Wireless charge the same price for voice plans and text messaging. Where the two companies differ is on data. Verizon offers an unlimited plan for $30 a month, and AT&T offers two tiers of service. One tier is $25 for 2GB of data per month and the other is $15 a month for 200MB of data per month.

If you think most of your data usage will be on Wi-Fi and you don’t expect to use a lot of data each month, then the AT&T option is less expensive. But it’s not $50 cheaper per month. It’s only $15 less expensive than Verizon’s plan. ($30 for Verizon’s unlimited data plan versus $15 a month for 200GB of data from AT&T.)

So now that I’ve clarified the pricing, let’s get to your actual questions:

iPhone 3GS vs. HTC Inspire 4G? If iPhone: iPhone 3GS, 4, or are we crazy not to wait for the iPhone 5?

If you’re deciding between the iPhone 3GS and HTC Inspire 4G, I’d say stick with the HTC Inspire 4G. It’s much newer hardware than the iPhone 3GS, which came out over two years ago. And at $90 after the rebate, that’s a good deal, considering that this is still considered a high-end phone at AT&T.

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t recommend getting the iPhone 3GS compared to almost any other smartphone on the market. The iPhone 3GS was first released in June 2009. So it’s more than two years old. You may think you don’t need the latest and greatest phone, but the older the hardware, the less likely Apple will be to support it or allow new features to run on it. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs recently said that the next generation of Apple’s software iOS 5 will run on the 3GS. But the new software hasn’t been released yet, and some experts believe it will be missing some features.

Also the software may run slower on the older generation of hardware. My colleague from CNET Reviews Kent German said that’s what happened to the iPhone 3G when the iOS 4 came out. So even though you think you’d be fine with the older 3GS, the truth is that the advancements in software are really about improving the user experience. And that’s good for anyone, even if you’re coming from a flip phone!

But if your decision is between the HTC Inspire and the iPhone 4 or waiting for the iPhone 5, I’d recommend the iPhone 4. The HTC Inspire is a fine phone and it’s a great value at $90. So if price is the only consideration, then stick with it. But if you think you’ll want the iPhone 5 when it comes out, whenever it comes out, then the iPhone 4 will probably have better resale value.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck.

San Franciscan: Verizon iPhone 4 vs. AT&T iPhone 5?

Dear Maggie,
I live in San Francisco, and I’m planning on buying an iPhone 4. Is AT&T’s or Verizon’s service better?

Thanks,
Cathy

Dear Cathy,
I can tell you without much hesitation that I’d go with a Verizon Wireless iPhone in San Francisco rather than one from AT&T. As I mentioned in my answer to the previous question, the service pricing on Verizon versus AT&T is similar. Also, AT&T’s service in cities such as San Francisco and New York City has been abysmal. And even though the carrier says it has added new cell sites and capacity, I still hear lots of complaints from iPhone users in San Francisco.

At the All Things D conference recently, AT&T’s head of wireless Ralph de la Vega was questioned by tech writer Walt Mossberg about AT&T’s bad reputation for poor service. De la Vega tried to defend AT&T by blaming the poor service on the 8,000 percent increase in data traffic over the past four years. And when he was pressed specifically about service issues in San Francisco, he blamed the local government’s unwillingness to let AT&T upgrade its antennas on their cell phone towers.

There are people who would argue that if you get a Verizon iPhone you won’t be able to surf the Web while you talk. But if you get an AT&T iPhone in San Francisco, there’s a good chance you won’t be talking because your calls will be dropped and you won’t be surfing the Web anyway, because your data downloads will be so slow. So in my opinion it’s a moot point.

Of course, I must clarify that this advice is specific to someone living in San Francisco. The most important thing to consider when buying a new cell phone is the service. First and foremost, does it work where you live, work, and socialize? Because if you can’t get reception, then the phone and all its cool features are worthless to you.

[Thanks: http://news.cnet.com]

Despite Verizon’s attempt at obfuscation in the chart above, the only U.S. carrier with 4G service worth mentioning doesn’t have much to show for LTE so far. Only cities with the yellow circles actually have the service, the green stars being planned for later this year. Not surprisingly, that’s still better than AT&T, which claims “4G” service with its HSPA+ upgrade, with LTE having an “initial” launch sometime this year. That’s important to the prospects of an LTE iPhone, because Apple still sells about a third of its iPhones in the U.S., making it easily the single largest market.

Internationally, the situation is even less favorable for an LTE iPhone, though there is interest, notably in China. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Chairman of China Mobile Wang Jianzhou said Steve Jobs had “expressed his interest in an LTE iPhone and is willing to start the development at an early date.” China Mobile is the world’s largest mobile phone provider, with more than 600 million subscribers. China Mobile is currently in the process of large-scale testing of TD-LTE networks in several large cities.

It’s also rumored that China Mobile may be getting the next generation of iPhone for its TD-SCDMA network. That makes sense for Apple, as the company has explicitly stated China is a major focus for future growth. However, it’s unlikely LTE networks will reach maturity in China by even the end of 2012, unlike in the U.S. Since coverage should be quite good by 2012, we can very likely expect an LTE iPhone to debut in the U.S. next year. For that reason, the rumored iPhone 4S for this fall will be the first model I pass on. How about you?

[Thanks: http://gigaom.com]

The listing, which has since been removed, was for a “carrier engineer” based in Kansas City, Missouri, less than 20 miles from Sprint’s headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.

The carrier engineer would be “responsible for day-to-day technical interactions with the one or more carriers to track down issues reported by the carrier.”

The job also required technical understanding and experience working on GSM/GPRS, Edge, CDMA and UMTS. Click “Next” at the bottom of this page to see the original listing, courtesy of blog Stop It, AT&T.

After the Sprint iPhone rumors began yesterday, Apple apparently changed the job location back to its headquarters in Cupertino, California, which (to us at least) only re-inforces the speculation.

Sprint, which runs the country’s second-largest CDMA network after Verizon, is technically capable of supporting Apple’s CDMA iPhone currently offered by Verizon. Speculation over a Sprint iPhone began when Apple COO Tim Cook first announced the Verizon iPhone back in January, with a loaded remark about Verizon not having exclusive rights to the CDMA iPhone.

Last week an analyst claimed that Apple will release an “iPhone 4S,” one without LTE support, on T-Mobile and Sprint by the end of the year.

[Thanks: http://www.pcmag.com]