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AT&T halts online iPhone sales in NYC

Categories: Announcements, Apple, AT&T, iPhone
By: , IntoMobile
Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 8:38 PM
att-iphone-nyc-halted

This is what happens when you enter the "10128" zip code

It’s not entirely clear why, but reports have confirmed that AT&T has stopped selling their iPhone through via onlines sales to anyone in the New York metro area. The iPhones are still being sold in AT&T and Apple stores throughout the area, but is blocking online iPhone orders from anyone with an NYC zip code. Earlier today, The Consumerist reported that an AT&T customer service representative, named Daphne, said that New York just didn’t “have enough towers to handle the phone.” Another AT&T customer service representative told Gearlog that the reason for halted online iPhone sales was “increased fraudulent activity in that area when ordering the iphone.” Hmmm.

Higher levels of iPhone sales fraud in The Big Apple sounds like a fairly plausible reason for suspending online sales. The iPhone is still being sold in New York area Apple and AT&T retail stores, which lends more credibility to that line of thinking. There is, however, a more provacative motive underlying the iPhone-freeze. AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega recently mentioned that AT&T is thinking about managing wireless data traffic in some way. Limiting iPhone sales in dense metros might be one way of doing that. But, then again, that’s all just speculation.

[Via: Gearlog]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • RF9

    Another blog confirmed that this is simply due to the warehouse that seves NYC is out of stock.