Most followers of Apple outside the USA are heartily fed up of reading reams and reams on comments and complaints about AT&T and their 3G network. So what? The network is overloaded and it's no surprise. It's also no surprise that the much lauded Verizon is said to have a better network. They don't have the iPhone. The real problem is that in the USA, unlike in almost every other market, the iPhone is tied to the one carrier. This is probably a legacy of the pre-iPhone launch in 2007 when Apple felt they needed the support of one big carrier such as AT&T. Maybe they signed away too much in return for this support.
Yet, although they started with single-carrier agreements in many other countries, they soon got round that. Here in the UK, and in most other markets, the phone is now sold through all the networks. Moreover, it is also available SIM-free for those, including me, who want to use a variety of overseas SIMs when travelling. It's a sad situation that you cannot buy an unlocked iPhone in the USA, but its no excuse for the amount of space wasted by blogs and commentators on the shortcomings of AT&T when the reasons are so obvious. They should let AT&T off the hook and ask why Apple still insists on just the one carrier. Above all, let's remember there is a big world outside the USA and there the iPhone is free as a bird.