1 - I have been working in AT&T Mobility for the last 2 years (Alpharetta Data Center) as a Sr. UNIX Systems Engineer.
There are no network engineers emplyed by ANY major communications company that are REACTIVE instead of PROACTIVE outside of network incidents that happen. Projecting network growth and latency reduction is what they go to school for - they don't make 6 figures a year just to tell the director of operations that they are behind. They make these projections 3 - 5 years out and the infrastructure is usually that many years ahead.
The problem is NOT AT&T - when/if iPhone rolls over to Verizon you will see the chink in their armor as well. The simple fact is that there is more data being downloaded per handset than even APPLE knew - as well as AT&T. Any carrier who carries that handset is going to get fucked in the ass:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...m_campaign=rss
From a consumer standpoint - there are more things right w/ iPhone data availability than there is wrong. The problem is the major markets (New York, Chicago). EVERY carrier that provides iPhone service is being taken for a ride - it's a NIGHTMARE for all the iPhone world markets.
BOTTOM LINE: For the US market no mobile provider in the U.S is more capable to carry the iPhone than AT&T.