http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...he_iPhone?taxonomyName=Hardware&taxonomyId=12
"There are simply too many users using data-intensive applications," Donovan said. "Users expecting to just pick up their phone and use 3G data whenever they want are being unreasonable."
Yes, it's unreasonable to expect to use features you're paying for at any time. Time for a CDMA Verizon iPhone..
I don't see that quote in any of the articles. In fact, the articles have more to do with AT&T reacting to the load placed by the iPhones. Here are Donovan's quotes:
Its been a challenging year for us, said John Donovan, the chief technology officer of AT&T. Overnight were seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones, he said. Theres just no parallel for the demand.
"3G networks were not designed effectively for this kind of usage," says John Donovan, AT&T's chief technology officer, referring to the current generation of broadband wireless. "We fight the day-to-day guerrilla warfare as the customers move around."
"Nobody is in the same boat we're in," says AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan. "We're shaping the landscape for the whole industry, and I relish the opportunity to be the first to figure it out."
One of the biggest choke points in AT&T's network is found in what's called back-haul capacity, or the size of the pipe that connects cell towers to the Internet, according to a person familiar with the matter. AT&T is trying to remedy this shortcoming by increasing its back-haul capacity. Donovan tells BusinessWeek that the company has nearly doubled the number of these connections it plans to add this year. While it had planned on adding 55,000, it now plans to add 100,000 to accommodate skyrocketing mobile traffic.
And AT&T is making big changes in how it plans and runs the network. In the days when a cell phone was just for voice calls, it was easy to forecast network capacity across large regions. But in February, AT&T began creating specific plans for 295 individual cities. "Green Bay is a lot different than Los Angeles," says Donovan. The company even has a team whose job is to tweak network reception at big events such as the Super Bowlsay, to shift from a torrent of phone calls as fans look for each other before kickoff to then deal with a flood of texting and photos once the game has begun. "No other carrier is even close to that degree of sophistication," Donovan claims. "We're solving problems for the world in how to deal with these loads."
"Apple felt like they'd given AT&T huge amounts of warning and unprecedented insight into its product roadmap, only to find that AT&T couldn't react," the person says. Donovan says he recalls no friction over the matter, and reconfirms that AT&T hopes to add MMS support by "late summer."
At this point, both companies say they are making fast progress. Donovan says an internal metric of customer satisfaction has risen 30% over the past four months. The company declined to divulge exact data.
Donovan says it's not uncommon for iPhone owners to check a stock 40 times a day. "Anytime a Do Not Walk sign flashes in Manhattan, people pop on their iPhones for that 30 seconds," he says. Many of these services involve video, which chews up vastly more bandwidth than making a simple call or sending a text message.
Did I miss any?
