AT&T to become “premier carrier” for WP7

To be seen what the premier carrier tag brings AT&T and how AT&T decided to push WP7 but definitely not a bad start

GSMA Business briefing
July 28, 2010

US operator AT&T has become one of the first major operators to publicly back Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Phone 7 series of smartphones, reports Computerworld. An AT&T spokeswoman said this week that the operator plans to become “the premier carrier for Windows Phone 7," but gave no further information around how it would promote the new devices on its network. The development follows comments from Altimeter Group analyst Michael Gartenberg last week who said that AT&T had committed to buy 8 million Windows Phone 7 devices. When it announced the long-awaited new platform at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February, Microsoft said that all four of the main US operators were signed up as partners. However, neither Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel nor T-Mobile USA have commented on their plans for the platform.

The report notes that most operators’ silence to date on Windows Phone 7 could be because they are waiting to see the reaction from the developer community. The platform received a mixed reaction from critics after a preview was released earlier this month. In the case of Verizon Wireless, its relationship with Microsoft may have been soured by the failure of Microsoft’s Kin phone project for the operator, which was shelved after just three months. AT&T, however, which last year claimed to have sold more Windows Mobile devices than any other global operator, has publicly praised Windows Phone 7 on several occasions. On the devices side, Microsoft confirmed this week that Dell, Asus, LG, HTC and Samsung will be making devices for day one sales of the new platform.