RSS
Home
Government may put an end to Apple-AT&T Exclusivity
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Christine Varney, the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust in the Obama Administration, has started an investigation into the exclusive contracts that AT&T and Verizon hold with phone manufacturers. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the federal government must investigate any organization suspected of holding a monopoly.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
Among the areas the Justice Department could explore is whether wireless carriers are hurting smaller competitors by locking up popular phones through exclusive agreements with handset makers."
Donald Russel, who was a Department of Justice attorney under the Clinton Administration, says it is unlikely this investigation will materialize into a lawsuit.
While media attention has always been given to the partnership between Apple and AT&T, adding government attention to the mix may cause Apple to seriously consider bringing the iPhone to other carriers, whether it turns into a lawsuit or not.
Allowing the iPhone to move to even just Verizon, would please many iPhone users or would-be users who are unhappy with AT&T's service.
At the World Wide Developer's Conference 2009, where this year's iPhone 3GS model was introduced, iPhone fans worldwide cheered when they heard the third model of iPhone would be able to send MMS messages; MMS messages have been available on most phones for a while now, and were notably missed on the first two iPhone models. Smiles were soon turned upside down when users found out that AT&T, who holds the exclusive contract in the U.S. for iPhones, would not be supporting MMS messaging until an undisclosed time later in the summer. Coupled with dropped calls and poor 3G service in some areas, many iPhone users are eagerly awaiting the day they can try out a different service without having to jailbreak or unlock their iPhone.
Related Articles:
Comments
.jpg)
.jpg)
