There’s a bit of buzz floating around about a rumor that AT&T made a deal with Apple to keep the iPhone exclusive with them until early 2011.
In any event, during the course of negotiations, AT&T agreed to offer Apple a deal on bandwidth rates for the iPad 3G in exchange for a 6 month extension on their expiring iPhone contract. A win for both sides, really. The iPad 3G gets a strong push out of the gate while AT&T gets to keep its coveted spot as the exclusive iPhone provider here in the US.
But is iPhone exclusivity really so important that AT&T would slash its typical wireless data rates in half? In a word, yes.
I’m not in a hurry to ditch my AT&T contract, but that’s mostly because I’m lazy. I’d love to have 3G providers actually competing for my business, rather than lamenting the fact that I’ve locked myself into an iPhone contract.
But I do so love my iPhone.