AfterDawn: News

iPhone's bandwidth use compared to gas-guzzling Hummer

A report in the New York Times focused on the effects that bandwidth usage with Apple's iPhone have had on the AT&T network over the past couple of years. The report dug up details on the history of the AT&T-iPhone tie-up and has discovered that the wireless carrier has continuously struggled to keep up with demand as more and more iPhones are added to the network.

The AT&T network's problems had led to MMS and tethering features made possible in iPhone 3.0 being delayed. "The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand," the report states, and goes on to compare the iPhone's usage of bandwidth on the network to a gas-guzzling Hummer.



To back up the comparison, it claims that the average iPhone user consumes ten times the bandwidth of an average Smarthphone user. This is a problem expected to grow to all networks as the other players keep bringing out new devices to take on Apple's iPhone - soon the problem won't be limited to AT&T.

This year, AT&T plans to spend $18 billion to upgrade and expand its 3G coverage. The company said it has no plans to cap data use to help with the problem.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Sep 2009 20:09

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• 5 comments

• ZippyDSM

  ...perhaps AT&T needs a better network?

  7.9.2009 03:51 #1

• engage16

  Thats why I like living in the middle of nowhere... Nooooooooo issues with bandwidth....

  7.9.2009 18:40 #2

• Coyote42

  This is why when automobiles were first invented they paved roads and installed interstates. They didn't complain and say people needed to drive less. I certainly hope they stand by their statement to not cap.

  10.9.2009 09:30 #3

• yeller

  Uh... WRONG!! A hummer gets around 13 mpg and the iPhone uses 10 times the bandwidth of a typical phone.
  
  That would mean the typical car gets 130 mpg?

  11.9.2009 08:24 #4

• Tarsellis

  Which just means that AT&T is going to go to one of their purchased FCC chairmen and some of their purchased congressmen, and tell them they need to collect more "service fees", taxes, and raise rates, "just to keep the current network barely running" and without EVER adding extra capacity.
  Welcome to the cyberpunk world, where separation between corporation and government no longer exists. Thank you rockefeller and rothschild

  11.9.2009 14:08 #5