SlingBox iPhone fiasco shows AT&T's network strains
Boy, I didn't expect musings on the limits of 3G connectivity to continue for a third day on this blog, but that's the subject at the core of the latest controversy roiling the Apple world. The kerfuffle involves Slingbox, a gadget that's been around for a while and that will essentially redirect your television signal over the Internet to any device that can run a SlingPlayer. (Only one device at a time can access the signal from a given Slingbox, getting around copyright concerns.) The iPhone hasn't been on that list, until now -- but AT&T will only allow you to stream to your iPhone over Wi-Fi, not over cellular signal.
This has led to a wholly predictable round of outrage, much of which has involved the word "crippled," one of my very least favorite words in tech-related discourse. Generally, when someone calls a gadget or program "crippled," they mean "It doesn't have the features I want at the price I want to pay." I also have problems equating being unable to stream mobile video to your iPhone with, say, being unable to walk (call me a PC weenie if you will), but that issue aside, the complaints seem to have a fairly firm grounding in this case, as SlingPlayer on a number of AT&T-supported Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices can stream video over 3G.
Why, then, does AT&T persecute iPhone users? Well, AT&T has never allowed such streaming to computers that are connected to the Internet via 3G, and is now taking the somewhat absurd stance that an iPhone is a computer, as "smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs." This doesn't make any sense on the surface -- obviously Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices are smartphones too. But from the perspective of the companies that have to support their mobile bandwidth use, an iPhone is more like a PC than a mobile phone, in that its users treat it like a little Internet-capable computer that can make phone calls, rather than as a phone that can surf the Web. (Remember how those iPhone Internet usage stats were all out of proportion to the actual number of iPhones sold?)
This gets to the heart of the unlimited bandwidth paradox.
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Stupid AT&T
There is not a day that goes by that I don't curse AT&T for their terrible network. Almost every single call I make is either dropped or broken up. I live in a major metro area and half the time I can't get a signal, or I'm stuck on Edge, or I don't have data access at all. My guess is that they are already underwater, in some areas, at least.I love my iPhone like a child (actually, more than a child, which is probably why we've decided against having children), but there's only so much of this that a person can take. We ditched our land line years ago, but I am really starting to regret that decision.
ATT Straining
I'm in total agreement with the disparaging remarks about ATT's network capabilities. I live in Idaho, and ATT isn't even an option unless you promise never to travel more than 5 miles north or south of the single interstate highway that transects the southern portion of the state.However, this situation may change in the very near future. I don't know if this is a rumor or not, but being very familiar with the television broadcast industry, I've heard that once the digital switch is complete next month, ATT and a few other wireless carriers have pre-purchased large chunks of bandwidth on the frequencies being freed up.
Does that mean better coverage for Idaho? Doubt it. I've been waiting 3 years for Verizon to implement VCast Video like they promised when I coughed up the $200 for a VCast phone. Verizon is the only carrier that exists outside the interstate corridor here. Coverage and signal is good, but the phones sure need help.
Imagine my surprise
To find out AFTER I bought my iPhone that I couldn't access my Slingbox over 3G.