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TAP not supported on iPhone 3G
July 10th, 2008
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UPDATE: AT&T Announces TAP for iPhone 3G [deafmac.org]
I’ve been waiting to purchase an iPhone for over a year. First announced in January 2007, the first generation was launched in July 2007. I decided not to get it last summer because 1) rumors were going around that 3G would be available and 2) a plan wasn’t available without voice. I wasn’t going to pay for something I wasn’t going to use.
3G on the iPhone was announced in January 2008, as expected. Then in Spring 2008, Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) was announced. TAP enables deaf consumers to have iPhone plans without voice. Not only did Apple and AT&T meet my two criteria, they threw in GPS and a price reduction to $199.
Yesterday, I called AT&T’s National Center for Customers with Disabilities (NCCD) and learned that AT&T wasn’t supporting TAP on the iPhone 3G being released tomorrow (July 11th, 2008). The person I spoke to didn’t know if it would be supported in the future. They didn’t know anything except that it wasn’t supported currently.
I instant messaged with a friend, Chad Taylor, who runs deafmac.org, about this phone call. He was surprised by this and contacted someone he knew at AT&T. As far as I know, Chad hasn’t heard back.
I received an email from a person who has been in correspondence with NCCD. He thought that I should share with the DeafRead community about this lack of TAP support. If you know of a deaf consumer planning to get the iPhone tomorrow, alert them as well.
The iPhone is probably refundable for 14 or 30 days, however, the activation fee isn’t.
So if you’re planning on getting the iPhone 3G and expecting to take advantage of TAP, I would wait. I am not getting the new iPhone until they support it. Like I said, I’m not paying for something I’m not gonna use.
I am sorry to be bearer of bad news, but better to know this than not. I’m not too happy either. Deaf people continue to be treated as second-rate citizens.
Aidan Mack | July 10th, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
I plan to buy Iphone this weekend. Can you explain what is TAP? I got a form from ATT for text accessibility Pan. Is that TAP? I can attach it and send it to you if you like.
tayler | July 10th, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
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Josh Jones | July 10th, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
All -
I already called NCCD again about 10 minutes ago to confirm regarding the TAP plan for iPhone 3G. They said they cannot say right now but will confirm TAP plan by tomorrow. Funny thing about this, I emailed NCCD about two weeks ago and said TAP will be used on iPhone 3G. I asked the representative recently what she thinks. She thinks TAP will support iPhone 3G.
I even asked iPhone 2.5G (old one) and ATT will not sell them but will replace any broken old iPhone.. So this shows that we are not going to buy old iPhone from ATT/Apple no matter what and iPhone 3G will be only product they sell (8GB and 16GB). Now, hold your pants and wait till tomorrow. Call NCCD once more in morning and find out.
in logic, TAP plan will left unused if ATT will not sell iPhone and its purely common sense that TAP will be rolled over to iPhone 3G.
tayler | July 10th, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
Josh, thanks for calling. Someone else I know also called today. The more calls NCCD receives, the faster they’ll issue an announcement. I hope it’s tomorrow so I can join in the lines.
TAP will not be left unused because of existing consumers already on the plan. That said, I am sure they are going to port it for iPhone 3G, but we have to wait.
passingthru | July 10th, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
interesting….I recall Norman Williams’ video reply on an iphone topic on DeafVideo.TV that TAP would be available on Iphone3G (don’t recall his source) so I assumed until now that everything was a GO for deafies to get the Iphone3g.
(if anyone knows, will the BlackBerry Bold (3g) be available in August at the sprintrelaystore?)
JFLMAD | July 10th, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
I called NCCD about the TAP plan and they said that it is true and will honor it if we submit the form with your doctor/audologist’s name. So I am going to buy new iphone tmw for sure no matter cuz we have black and white paper that say we will get discount on TAP plan on the iphone.
Ryan Turek | July 10th, 2008 @ 5:46 pm
I also called NCCD and received similar sentiments. I asked them if they could get in touch with upper management and let them know what was going on because I was sure NCCD received a plethora of these kinds of inquires today. I was told that they had no way to get in touch with upper management and they’d have to wait until they were apprised of any new changes. It just made me wonder what was the purpose of having NCCD if they’re not aware of and/or able to do anything to expedite the process to meet the needs of the customer so they’d be on an even playing field. I just hate the feeling of being in limbo- not knowing whether I should get in line or wait and thus lose my opportunity to get an iPhone before it’s sold out. I was elated up until this point. Now it’s just utter, utter frustration.
Sam the Bright | July 10th, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
I always thought myself to wait until next year because I feel something isn’t right. Ah-ha! No TAP on iPhone 3G? Glad I don’t waste by spend in line.
Peachlady | July 11th, 2008 @ 3:26 am
Thanks for this report. I stay with my blackberry curve. I love it.
Former Sidekick 2 User
John | July 11th, 2008 @ 5:20 am
Staying with my advanced iphone 3G imitator = MOGUL HTC 6800 pager. for $30 a month I get Phone as modem via bluetooth, copy/paste, video recording, aim/msn/yahoo/google/myspace in one, able to use HOVRS ICHAT on laptop anywhere in car on my lovely MACbook via bluetooh, GPS, mogul becomes wifi center to transmit wifi signals for other laptops to use wifi if you aren’t around any location that has WIFI, unlimited sms, data, email, www. IPHONE 3G has none of those except GPS at this moment. my GOSH the IPHONE 3G missing so many features!!!! ATT wants to RIP YOU OFF by forcing you to pay for CELL MINUTES that you of course WONT use. if you want unlimited features you have to pay about $100 per month for unlimited IPHONE 3G !!!!! So silly to pay $100 per month for missing features!!!
John
John | July 11th, 2008 @ 5:27 am
Oh forgot to include, I can watch missed video calls from CSDVRS on my Mogul HTC 6800. Any blackberries prior to 8830 can’t watch any missed calls on pager. Don’t know about 8330 curve or the BOLD coming up soon. So cool to be able to watch missed calls on Mogul HTC 6800. Pagers with windows mobile 6.0 are able to do this. Don’t know if IPHONE can watch any of missed calls on any VRS services? Anybody know if can be done one IPHONE??? let me know.
John
tayler | July 11th, 2008 @ 6:00 am
AT&T has announced TAP for the new iPhone 3G for $50.00 a month. Read more
Josh Jones | July 11th, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
I got iPhone 3G.. and loved it. Few features are missing but I m sure there will be many modifications over time. iPhone is still new comparing to BB.. but… the technology is much superior than bb.. It blows bb away… but software is still coming.. Give it time and it will grow.. Like MacOS X, at first release at 10.0, it was bad.. now its at 10.5, it blew many operating systems away.
So 2.0 is like 10.1 for now.. Watch and iPhone will have a major impact on mobile market… 70 countries and counting.
Yes, the TAP plan is at 50 dollars per month.. iPhone 3G isnt something you want to dismiss.. believe me, you ll be happy of what iPhone 3G has to offer.
Wiggums | July 20th, 2008 @ 9:15 am
I do have the TAP plan, but not on an iPhone. I bought a HTC Touch Cruise from Hong Kong last week and it took me a lot of time to get it up and running! It’s far better than Blackberrys and Sidekicks, but since I haven’t used the iPhone, i don’t know if it’s any better – but it’s a different beast for sure.