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AT&T Announces One Million iPhone 4S Activations

Thursday October 20, 2011 7:23 am PDT by Eric Slivka

AT&T today announced that it has surpassed one million iPhone 4S activations since the device launched last Friday, the most successful iPhone launch in the carrier's history despite the device also being available on Verizon and Sprint for the first time at launch.


AT&T touts its network speed as one of the primary reasons customers are choosing the carrier over Verizon and Sprint.
AT&T was the first carrier in the world to launch iPhone in 2007 and is the only U.S. carrier to support iPhone 4S with 4G speeds.

“It’s no surprise that customers are clamoring for iPhone 4S and they want it to run on a network that lets them download twice as fast as competitors’,” said Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets.
Apple announced earlier this week that iPhone 4S sales had topped four million units over the opening weekend across all carriers in its seven launch countries. The iPhone 4S is scheduled to come to 22 more countries at the end of next week.

[ 97 comments ]


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Small White Car
95 months ago
I certainly did my fair share of AT&T bashing back in 2008 - 2009. And boy did they deserve it.

But I gotta say, things change. And considering all the factors I now tell new iPhone owners that I suggest AT&T as the carrier to go with.

Obviously it still depends on where you live, but that's my first suggestion to investigate. Things may change again when an LTE iPhone comes out, but right now in 2011 with the 4S, I gotta give AT&T credit for being the best option.
Rating: 10 Votes
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ArtOfWarfare
95 months ago
I feel that the video in the article doesn't really belong on MacRumors...

it's just a promotional video by AT&T... if it were a news video or a promotional video from Apple, it would belong, but somehow I feel that AT&T doesn't.
Rating: 10 Votes
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ayala421
95 months ago
"AT&T touts its network speed as one of the primary reasons"

...or maybe cause it is now the lowest priced carrier that offers the iPhone.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Caliber26
95 months ago
I think it's interesting how AT&T was hated up until recently and now, just reading through a lot of these forums, I've noticed a lot people have switched gears and are now favoring AT&T and, if anything, trash-talking Sprint and Verizon.

Personally, I've never disliked AT&T. Where I live, coverage is great, data speeds are acceptable (3Mbps - 6Mpbs on average), and I get a great discount through my job. So I'm happy to see them doing well despite the new competition.
Rating: 6 Votes
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jamesryanbell
95 months ago
As far as real world data speed improvement, I'm seeing my 4S running at speeds twice as fast as my iPhone 4 all over Houston. I'm really impressed thus far. HSPA+ is legit.
Rating: 5 Votes
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deannnnn
95 months ago



4G speeds? Laughable. Networks in Canada support 42 Mbps down theoretically. It's ashame the American networks are living in 2006.


Are you serious?

A little research shows that:
-Rogers offers LTE in 4 Metro area- Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa. They have ZERO phones, and ONE tablet that can run on it.
-Bell Mobility has LTE in one Metro area- Toronto.
-Tulus does not have LTE yet.

All of the networks DO have HSPA+ which claim right there on the site "manufacturer's rated peak download speeds with an expected average of 7-14Mbps" ...exactly the same as AT&T and T-Mobile here in the US.

In America, Verizon has LTE in 160 cities across the country. Sprint has WiMax available in every major US market. LTE and WiMax both blow HSPA+ out of the water.

Oh and here's a fun closing fact, the iPhone 4S is not a 4G phone, so none of this even matters.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Popinbottles
95 months ago



4G speeds? Laughable. Networks in Canada support 42 Mbps down theoretically. It's ashame the American networks are living in 2006.


How many users on those Canadian networks vs people on in the states?
Rating: 4 Votes
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cfedu
95 months ago
I think 4 million was world wide
Rating: 3 Votes
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Mulyahnto
95 months ago

so > 4 Millions phones sold on the first couple of days and ONLY 1 Million activated with AT&T

Guess this is good news that the other carriers are doing well and hopefully we see some more competition with better better prices/plans.


Let's see, The population of Germany: 82M, Australia: 22M, France 62M, Canada: 34M, Japan: 128M, UK: 62M (total: 390M) vs US: 307M.

If we assume double popularity in US means 2.4M iPhones sold in US
If we assume equal popularity in US means 1.8M iPhones sold in US

either way, 1M iPhones activated by ATT is impressive.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Small White Car
95 months ago

so > 4 Millions phones sold on the first couple of days and ONLY 1 Million activated with AT&T


Only?

Pop-quiz: How many countries is AT&T in?

I think getting 1/4 of iPhone sales for a US-only carrier is pretty darned impressive.

HAHA!!

Too bad speeds are closer to 0.03Mbps down 0.01Mbps up in the DC area...!

Over 7 tests this week, my highest download speed has been 0.88Mbps. Today, I tried 4 times and it's been between 0.01-0.03Mbps down.


Where are you? I'm in large building's basement with poor signal near Union Station:



And it gets better if I go outside. 7 tests? You should probably try to exchange your phone.
Rating: 3 Votes

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