Will iPhone MMS take down AT&T?

AT&T is finally going to bring multimedia messaging service to the iPhone. This service allows sending of pictures via the phones. Nearly all other carriers support this service for all of their phones. AT&T supports it for everything but the iPhone.

I predict that this is going to make a bad situation worse. There have been many reports lately of AT&T's 3G network being hard hit by iPhone usage. Time will tell, but this may be a decision they'll regret.

Unsubsidized bus fare experiment

Fairfax County has just kicked off a pretty interesting experiment: will people pay unsubsidized bus fares? It seems the answer is yes, as long as the routes are still the best form of transportation.

Perhaps this is another argument for privatization of transit, or at least shows government agencies strapped for cash that jacking up the bus fares won't cost their bottom line. At any rate, it will be interesting to see if this trend holds continues, and if more fares are raised.

AT&T to go up in flames by year's end

Maybe that headline is a bit much, but some are speculating that AT&T may lose its exclusive on the iPhone by 2010. If either CDMA carrier gets ahold of the iPhone, it could be really disastrous for good ole Ma Bell.

The other GSM carrier, T-mobile, is not much of a threat at this point. But Verizon is regarded by many as having the best coverage, and Sprint would probably have the most to gain. With the cheapest data prices by far, I could see many switching if they landed the iPhone (not to mention that their network is as good as Verizon's since all Sprint phones roam on Verizon).

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but no matter what happens it is probably great news for Apple and not so great news for T.

Big profits on the way?

Since a lot of big bank did not go under, TARP is starting to actually make money. If it continues to play out this way, it will be interesting to see what those who were against the program say, especially since the return could be 15% or more. We're not out of the woods yet though.