The iPhone arrives late to Alaska

It’s official, AT&T has announced they are taking over all the CellularOne business inside Alaska. According to reports, you can now get the iPhone as soon as December 9, 2007. No doubt this will be one of the most popular Christmas wishes for many Alaskans this holiday season.

Update (21 November): Details of the merger and how it will impact current CellularOne (aka Dobson) have been posted by AT&T. For most, the changeover to AT&T will have little to no immediate impact on current plans, phones, minutes, etc.

For details: http://www.wireless.att.com/dobsoncellone/

iPhone Christmas in Alaska

The acquisition of CellularOne was a part of the larger buy out of Dobson Communications by AT&T. It’s actually fairly amazing that we in Alaska will have access to the iPhone so quickly, considering that the FCC only approved the sale last week!

I’m still not able to find any official word on any of the cellular provider’s websites or AT&T Alascom (the local AT&T company site). I suspect that sometime around the Thanksgiving holiday we’ll begin to see a media blast about the AT&T options in Alaska.

Other unofficial sources are saying that the cost for the iPhone plan in Alaska will not be terribly competitive and could very well cost more than what people pay in the L48 states. I think that’s a terrible move (should that be true), Alaska is ripe for the picking, but we all expect to pay less or at least the same as the rest of the USA.Not to go on another rant about the fleecing of Alaskans for the technology we all use and depend on, but we are still getting abused by our local communications providers. The national player can and should enter this market with the intent to create some real competition. Simply put, I hope that AT&T really gets aggresive with pricing and performance options for mobile and internet.

The other interesting story that I am going to watch closely is how GCI responds to this change of ownership. They own a huge percentage of Alaska DigiTel and will effectively be losing their reseller deal with CellularOne - something interesting is bound to come of this for GCI.

I’ll keep on an eye on the news about AT&T and update or post a new article over the next week or so.

Anyway, happy holidays Alaska. The iPhone will surely be a hot item this Christmas and I for one am seriously considering the iPhone more seriously now.

/kk