The Great American Western Roadtrip: iPhone and AT&T FTW!
I’ve been trying an experiment ever since I got my iPhone. I always try it before opening a laptop. By and large, I have had uneven results. That is until I went to west Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona for Thanksgiving 2007.
The AT&T network gets a well deserved criticism that it is low bandwidth and is, hence, implied to be of little value. The flip side of this argument is that AT&T can deploy this technology in more places, such as west Texas, southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. These arid zones have been poorly served by cell phone carriers for the last 20 years or so. Yet, the iPhone, being the Wi-Fi network seeking device that it is, is able to sniff out the faintest whiff of internet availability. It found little Wi-Fi but found EDGE data service wherever it had phone service. (The predominant Wi-Fi source was roadside motels. Unlike fancy city hotels, motels have all gone Wi-Fi for the road traveling set. Apparently, no one was going to pay for Wi-Fi and the first chain that flipped got a competitive advantage. Now all of them offer free Wi-Fi.) What I think has happened is that as AT&T’s network gets more usage in cities, AT&T moves its lower bandwidth equipment to the hinterlands. In any event, it was a pleasant surprise where we had web service.
As others have noted, the most valuable feature of the iPhone is the Google Maps application. This is even more useful when traveling on a road trip. It was trivial to type in an address and the word restaurant - Google put down the push-pins for a reasonable selection. Even in west bumf*&^! Safari found us restaurant reviews. (Yes, there is always a local blogger/civic booster that will publish something about the local dining scene.) We were able to look up closing times for parks and winery tasting rooms. (The Blue Teal 2003 Shiraz is mighty fruity and we bought 8 of them.)
There was a snow storm in New Mexico and Texas while we were returning home (November 24-25). The New Mexico Department of Transportation has a simple but effective web site, New Mexico Roads. It was able to give us real-time updates on road closures. It gave us the confidence to take the scenic path instead of the safe path. In particular, AT&T’s EDGE network made this critical safety service possible. (There was a rendering problem that is not on desktop Safari. I’m sending them email bug report.)
Surprisingly, iPhone and AT&T FTW!