Apple had planned MVNO for iPhone

Apple reveals that the had planned to launch the iPhone on an MVNO. Their own MVNO, that is. Like Tracfone, it would have drawn service from all participating providers, allowing a greater level of coverage across the country. I’m not sure why this plan wasn’t executed. It could have been a number of reasons, ranging from pure financial to disdain from carriers. But it sounds like it would have been an efficient offering. Because it would be receiving information from multiple networks, the iPhone would communicate with a central server, which would pick the best rate for the phone’s geographical region (and presumably the time the call was made). Even further, Apple had planned to make these rates available in the user interface, allowing users to manually select which network they communicate through.

“Bids can be received from multiple network operators for rates at which communication services using each network operator can be obtained. Preferences among the network operators can be determined using the received bids, and the preferences are used to select the network operator,” Apple’s iPod chief Anthony Fadell wrote in the filing.

If you want to talk about competition, this is it. If networks are bidding for airtime, then rates are bound to come down. This makes it appear as though the carriers nixed this sort of deal. However, given the complexity of the system, it appears Apple may have deemed it too costly for them. They’d surely have to hire an entire new department to handle tabulation and billing, including liaisons to the primary wireless carriers. But no matter where this idea was quashed, it appears that the move would have been far more beneficial for consumers than the exclusive deal with AT&T. Seriously, that’s what held me back from buying an iPhone. 1) AT&T gets poor service in my area, and 2) EDGE sucks. But with the MVNO model, you’d essentially be getting the strongest signal for the lowest price. So in the end, we the consumer loses out.]]>