AT&T wants another year of iPhone exclusivity

by Stevie Smith - Apr 16 2009, 15:00

Potentially bad news now if you happen to be an avid tech consumer in the United States holding back on an iPhone purchase while waiting for AT&T’s current exclusivity deal and its lock-in policy to come to an end.

More pointedly, current media reports are claiming that U.S. telecommunications heavyweight AT&T is attempting to persuade iPhone manufacturer Apple into signing off on a one-year extension to its existing exclusivity contract – taking its regional grip on the handset to 2011.

According to one such report posted by The Wall Street Journal, AT&T chief executive officer Randall Stephenson has already held discussions with Cupertino-based Apple regarding the possibility of that contract extension.

When considering the significant popularity of Apple’s iconic smartphone and that the vast majority of AT&T’s business emanates from wireless mobile handset customers, it’s not difficult to see why Stephenson is seemingly so keen to tie the iPhone down for another 12 months.

“We have 77 million wireless customers and 30 million consumer phone lines,” he commented in a recent WSJ interview. “Which customer base would you rather work from?”

Industry analysts claim that a potential price war could ensue if Apple were to widen iPhone availability across multiple carriers in the U.S., while it has also been noted that many rival networks on offer through the likes of Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are presently unable to carry the iPhone’s services to the optimum.

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