To market the iPhones 4S to consumers, AT&T will be taking a different tact to the other carriers. They will be advertising that the data downloads on the iPhone 4S will be faster on their network. The question that most consumers will be wondering is, is this really the case?
The iPhone plans are similar across all the carriers, so it will be difficult to win market share from other carriers. If it is true that AT&T can offer faster download speeds, then this could be the differentiating factor that could win it that crucial market share.
The iPhone 4S on each of the carriers is in fact, actually the same. What the difference is is that AT&T’s network supports High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which is compatible with the iPhone 4S. The other carriers do not have this capability.
HSDPA allows for theoretical speeds of up to 14.4Mbps, which can only be achieved with the iPhone 4S on the AT&T network.
This immediately sounds like a win for AT&T and the consumer however, the 14.4Mbps is only a theoretical maximum speed. The actual speed that a user can achieve could actually be significantly less. AT&T have released in a press statement previously that a users typical download speed would be more like 700kbps to 1.7Mbps. This speed does not even come anywhere near the maximum speed of 14.4Mbps. AT&T have also mentioned that they are liaising with Apple to try to add a new indicator to show the consumer they are using a 4G network.
T-Mobile’s network has a much more capable HSDPA network, however the network runs at a frequency that is not supported by the iPhone 4S making it useless.
Expect AT&T to start marketing the iPhone as being faster on their network. They won’t be able to differentiate on the iPhone 4S price, so this will be the only way.