AT&T To Be The Premier Windows Phone 7 Carrier

July 28, 2010 | By WenWP

Now I am not quite sure how Verizon, T-mobile, and Sprint will feel about this, but it seems AT&T (the nation’s worst provider if you live around lake Erie) now says they are your best option for Windows Phone 7 devices. This news comes from PCWorld, which just recently had an interview with an AT&T spokesman who are now claiming they are the best WP7 source. This claim comes to me as a surprise considering how much I thought T-mobile (nation’s most accepting carrier) would be taking the plunge into the new world of connected.

“We’ll be the premier carrier for Windows Phone 7,” a spokeswoman said via e-mail on Monday. “We haven’t given guidance on timing.”

Now I love Windows Phone 7 (weird since I have never used it before), but I really would never switch to AT&T just for it. T-mobile will most likely also get some great devices and will have them on its HSDPA+ network (I hope).

That is just me, but does anyone else want Windows Phone 7 that bad that they will go to AT&T for it? Comment below.

About Wen M

Working for WMPU is awesome. Love to write personal articles, and I do it very often. I am the reviewing editor (self appointed), so you will see alot of reviews and giveaways from me. I own quite a few devices not just Windows Phone but Android and others. I live in Minnesota, USA and love traveling to other places.

Blog
Twitter

Tagged AT&T, device, release, windows phone, windows phone 7

RDee

Never!!! Love T-Mobile, no need to switch. Once the new Windows Phones are available through T-Mobile it's game on for me!
Eludium-Q36

OMFG! What alternate-reality have we been transported to where AT&T is declared a premier carrier of WP7 ?!! How the #$%^ did that come about ?! Because of the pathetic reputation for dropped calls it's gotten with the iPhone ?! Besides that, there's been four generations of iPhone on AT&T, it's well established there, how does MS expect ANY of its first-gen phones to compete on the iPhone's sole network ?! This is freakin' insanity!!

Max

I've been with AT&T for years, since it was Cingular, and did not have dropped calls. Face it, iPhone has a weak radio, that explains why the most complaints about the AT&T service come from the iPhone users.

http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

AT&T is weak for sure. There are no such issues on Asian networks. My friends are using iPhone4 with auto-roaming, and they did not experience any call dropping at all!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

it them on their home turf is where it hits the hardest.
okkkk

ive had at&t since cingular as well, and cant remember ever having a dropped call, and i havent lost 3g signal for 2 years.

Melika

Where have you guys been for the past 5 months? AT&T has been called the Premier partner since WMC. Anyway, this is meaningless. This is not the iPhone, WP7 devices will be sold on all carriers that would carry them. I never understood what is meant by being a premier carrier anyway in the context of WP7.

And from a business perspective, there's no way in hell T-Mobile, the smallest US Carrier by a big margin, would ever be chosen as the premier partner for any respectable platform. The main question is whether WP7 will launch with CDMA support or GSM only.

http://intensedebate.com/people/chinch chinch

Bingo.

bloggers/people are pretty uninformed it seems. Welcome to 5 months ago LOL.
http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

WP7 will launch with CDMA and GSM.

clint

Since I am from Canada and use Rogers, this is good news for me since only AT&T phones are compatible with my network! (Not that my network is any good either…)
Eludium-Q36

@Melika
(1) It's now a news story, so it has more scrutiny,
(2) It's not meaningless, it means they'll get the first of everything, including exclusives, this likely includes first updates and revisions too
(3) I don't think it's a question of CDMA availability or not, that's most certain. MS has never indicated that type of technical bias. WP7 phones will be on all four US carriers, it's just of matter of who gets what and when and it appears crappy AT&T has won a (not necessarily "the") premier spot.

http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

I think updates will get pushed to all handsets at the same time.

Chef Fabrizio

I Currenty own a Tilt2. And reception is good. And the phone, once reflashed without all of Att bloat and HTC sense, runs like a top.

So… I'm kind of happy that Att will be the Premier Windows Phone 7 provider. It makes life easier for me. As I hate switching carriers.

What I find so odd is that, there is so much division. Maybe that is truly the american way now. Shouldn't we be about choices.

If someone wants an iPHone. Good for them. And if someone wants a WP7 good for them. And if that same WP7 person wants it on t-mobile or att. I really don't care.

But for everyone to nitpick any diversity of choice. Just seems silly
http://www.facebook.com/Bugblatter Bug Blatter

In other news Ford has said that they make the best cars.

I don't see anything in this story that suggests it's more than marketing spin.

They say 'premier carrier' as if it's an honour bestowed directly by Microsoft. If anyone calls them on it they'll just bat back some spiel about how they're premier because of their great coverage, data plans etc.

If Microsoft says that AT&T are the premier carrier THEN it means something.

http://intensedebate.com/profiles/vangrieg vangrieg

Microsoft said that, as far as I recall, quite a while ago. That still doesn't mean much (well, apart from AT&T's possible commitment to sell many phones). It doesn't make them an exclusive carrier, that's what matters.

http://intensedebate.com/profiles/bigcashley bigcashley

I am on AT&T now and I will say that the dropped calls thing is way overblown. Now I could be biased because I live in the DC area but I just do not drop calls as much as everyone complains they do. So this is good news for me!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1425676469 Warren Cush

to me it doesnt matter to me who's the premiere carrier but i will not be switching to att to get a WM7 phone. im with verizon and not going anywhere, as far as im concerned verizon carries more wm phones than all the other carries or i could be wrong. why would MS make att a premiere where they spent all there resources on the iphone. if any rumors of the iphone are any true in the near future att will need to be premiere carrier if verizon gets the iphone. to me goin with att wouldnt make sence cause its not gonna take away from the iphone users already there, MS need to make another carrier its premiere but like i said it doesnt matter. you also have to remember which oems will they get, people have there oems that they'er looking for. which one will actually have phones available, im personally lookingn out for htc, i know they will have phones on verizon so need to for me to switch and thats my 2 cents.

chinch

Verizon can't be WP premier since they are blowing $100m on "droid" with no end in sight (shortages be damned). They're also poised to get an iPhone by 2011 for 4G rollout. That puts WM at #3 on Verizon's priority scale.

Sprint & TM can gain significantly by offering great devices such as a killer WP7 device. They won't out-Droid Verizon so picking droid for their team is limiting imho. Yankees vs Royals.

i'd also be curious to see how ATTs coverage & dropped calls is handled by new/powerful WP7 devices because it's rather obvious that iPhone has signal problems since day-1. Many articles reference this and GSM overseas vs USA iPhone chip problems (long before antenna0gate).

Also now that Verizon users are using MORE bandwidth than ATT (per user average) the "iPhone users suck too much data" argument against ATT network can finally come to test. Too bad ATT lacks a mass-market android superphone to obtain feedback vs iPhone.

Still anyone who "will not switch" carriers… sorry but you're strapped over a barrel then because Verizon is just as customer unfriendly as ATT in many ways (and more coming).

I get to say FU to verizon in just over 30days … perfect timing.
http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

If you can get iPhone users on to your platform without them switching network, it benefits everyone.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

well I hope t-mobile gets one of the hotest windows phone 7 devices.

efjay

Only if it is running android xD

http://twitter.com/peterpulmonary1 @peterpulmonary1

i have ATT never had a problem with reception etc. as far as i know anecdotally from my acquaintances only people with iphones have that problem.
steveymacjr

I don't see how this is news…. MIcrosoft had an AT&T exec on stage with them when they announced WP7 at WMC in Feb…
Here's a slide from MWC with all the carrier partners.: http://bit.ly/dzLd8G

And here's a link to the endgadget Live Blog…the carrier stuff is towards the top… Live from Microsoft's Windows Phone press event at MWC 2010 — Engadget http://bit.ly/b0NFjw

I can't wait for Sprint to get it… I'll trade in my EVO for a WP7 device… I just hope it has 4G!
http://intensedebate.com/people/Parrotlover77 Parrotlover77

In other news, Sprint declares themselves ULTIMATE carrier for WP7, Verizon declares themselves SUPERIOR carrier for WP7, and T-Mobile declares themselves AWESOMEST carrier for WP7.

How is AT&T calling themselves a 'premiere' partner news?
http://www.facebook.com/jfatkinsonjr Jeff Atkinson

In my area Sprint has spotty coverage and Tnobile is sort of here and Verizon is primarily here since they bought Alltel. I have god coverage w/o any real problems for a long time ON AT and I am not like;y to ever switch from ATT. I read all the bad comments people from elsewhere have to say about AT and wonder why it could that different. from here. Maybe its all the iphone users using up all the bandwidth but I havea lot of friends who use the iphone without problems.
Vinnie

I'm happy about this although I do agree that it's not really news. I have AT&T now and never had a problem with reception. Customer service is another story of course but it is what it is and i'm definitely not looking to switch carriers any time soon. I just hope this means they will bring us many WP7 phones in different form factors.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1425676469 Warren Cush

everyone has there likes/dislikes with a carrier and it still doesnt who is premiere its all about who gets the better phone and service. depending where you live mya get the best or worst service, for what i hear att is still buidiing up there network to gain more coverage area, it was in an article i read about the differences att and apple are having. att can hav the fastest 3g but its not the biggest interns of coverage or customers, im my opinion its just like sharing the internet on a network the more people on it the slower it gets and vice versa with less people. no matter what carrier your on there are goin to be sum spotty coverage sum are furtunate and some aren't. im sticky with verizon casue i just simply like their service bottom line, my experience (MY EXPERIENCE) with them never had problems like i experienced with t-mobile and cingulair/att thats just me. to finish this off as long as verizon gets some wp7 from htc im all in.
http://intensedebate.com/people/pinguino1 pinguino1

How someone living in lake Erie and uses T-mo, names ATT the worst carrier. Why don't you ask me? I drive in the East Coast from New York to Boston and in CA from Sacrament to San Jose literaly every day. I barely know what's a drop call.

Why people from any carrier have anecdotic data about the opposite carrier? iPhone, the worst phone, the genious of hyped marketing did a good job of negative hype blaming all their faults on att. And everybody believed it including WenWM
MusicGamesPCs

YES! I will be using AT&T. Just because their coverage sucks where you live doesn’t mean it sucks everywhere! In general, they have the best coverage, and I won’t settle for anything less than the best for my new Windows Phone 7!
Matt

I live in the SW Michigan area and I've had both T-Mobile and AT&T. Several family members have Sprint or Verizon. Now I am no fan of AT&T, or any service provider for that matter, but in my experience AT&T has had the most reliable service both here at home and on the road. I absolutely hated the 2 years of T-Mobile when I switched for a cheaper alternative. Dropping calls or even failing to get a connection was a daily nightmare. This just doesn't happen with my AT&T service, not before switching to T-Mobile, or since switching back. And compared to family members, my phone gets service equally or better than each of the others, even when traveling in Northern Michigan where signal can be spotty.

I just don't get the bad rap that AT&T gets. I know a ton of iPhone users hate AT&T, but also that the iPhone has experienced notorious antenna problems and I expect that has more to do with their service quality than anything to do with AT&T.