We’ve been saying for a while that the AT&T BlackBerry Bold was being delayed becasue of the iPhone, however, we thought that it was becuase AT&T really wanted to sell a lot of iPhones.
According to the Globe and Mail, the reason, at least in part, that the AT&T BlackBerry Bold hasn’t been launched is becasue the iPhone 3G is such a 3G bandwidth hog it clogs AT&T’s network to the point of not having enough resources to effectively launch the Bold.
The iPhone utilizes a “ping-pong” technology which must constantly access AT&T’s network in order to receive data and e-mails, placing a great strain on the telecom company’s cellular infrastructure. “We believe that AT&T is now realizing that it can have up to 20 BlackBerrys for every iPhone on its network. AT&T will need to spend as much as $1-billion (U.S.) to repair its network.
Then how come Rogers can handle both of these devices in Canada?
I hate ATT so much.
@Wayne
Canada has about 20 million or so wireless subscribers, 37% of whom are Rogers subscribers. This comes to about 7.4 million Rogers subscribers, of whom less than 2% are iPhone users.
This means that there are less than 150,000 iPhone subscribers on Rogers.
To make a long story short, it isn’t a big problem for Rogers simply because, at the end of the day, there aren’t enough iPhone users to cause the problem. That and the fact that Rogers can’t possibly be as inept at running a network as AT&T.
That article is suspect at best. There must be more to this, IF the Bold is easier on the cellular providers system resources (since RIM is doing much of the heavy lifting with the NOC) why would ATT not roll out the Bold? ATT has had other 3G devices available for years. Handsets, smartphones and data cards, sure the 3G iPhone is a huge success and is using lots of the ATT network resources but there are many other 3G devices which would be using more ATT network resources than the Bold no? Something is up, RIM hasn’t put a new device out in quite some time, the Bold is the 1st 3G Blackberry, and ATT is RIM’s biggest provider something just doesn’t add up. Perhaps it is the iPhone but the reasoning doesn’t make sense.
I remember reading on gizmodo or engadget or somewhere that the AT&T Bold Release was actually due to problems with the Bold itself but you would think that someone on one of these other carriers would have brought up those issues by now.
If that’s the case, AT&T has absolutely no business selling 3G phones.
is this the first 3g blackberry? what does Verizon and Sprints BB run on? i thought 3g since it streams live video has tv and all? im not saying V and S’s runs 3g just asking?!?!
That is because 3G is a bolt on to aging GSM technology. Verizon and Sprint run on the newer and better CDMA networks. Unlike GSM, 3G on CDMA works within the signal and is not bolted on.
This site is so iphone envy that they publish any bogus claim to make their lousy BB’s seem current. According to this ATT actual says the 3G data usage is less than planned.
Not a “bolt on” 3G is just the next evolution when it comes to GSM networks, just like EVDO is just the next (and final) evolution for the cdma network. For most providers the next evolution is to GSM LTE yes even Verizon is upgrading their “aging” network to GSM LTE which will be 4G and beyond.
Jay,
The bold will be the first blackberry to support HSDPA 3G data, not just 3G. All current GSM Blackberry’s have used GSM or GSM EDGE 2.5G. CDMA-EVDO networks had the early lead on performance, But lately this seems to be changing in favour of HSDPA. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.4 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are available with HSPA+, which provides speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s downlink. Currently Verizon and Sprint run CDMA-EVDO 3G, but however soon Verizon is upgrading to GSM-LTE and Sprint is upgrading to WiMAX for their 4G networks.
Give me a break! at&t is just ridiculous already! Bold could have been out months ago. It’s all over Europe, and Canada already. This business of the iphone hurting the network is half the story! They know that the Bold will be a big hit over here, and will definitely hurt iphone sales! All about the green$$ here (aka Greed)
Verizon’s Storm is going to hurt at&t really bad in the Blackberry market, especially the market that travels within the USA. Not to mention at&t’s service is terrible as of late!
AT&T is a dumbass, while Apple is a piece of shit phone. Blackberry FTW!!!