March Madness on Demand iPhone App Will be Big Test for AT&T's 3G Network

College hoops bragging rights won't be the only thing on the line when the NCAA March Madness men's basketball tournament kicks off next week. Also under the microscope will the performance of AT&T's 3G network, since CBS Mobile announced earlier this week that its new $9.99 premium iPhone app will offer live streaming of all the tournament's games over AT&T's 3G, EDGE and Wi-Fi networks. As with last year there will also be a free "lite" app that will offer on-demand clips only.

Presumably AT&T, CBS and NCAA have modeled how many concurrent streams could be requested under different penetration rates for the app and feel comfortable with AT&T's ability to support these in a quality manner. Let's hope for their sake they got the math right. I continue to hear iPhone users expressing frustration with dropped calls and 3G availability, particularly in Manhattan (in fact I've resisted getting an iPhone for this very reason). AT&T does seem to be getting more confident in its 3G coverage though; just last month it approved Sling's SlingPlayer app for use on its 3G network. In that case, I thought that because few people would likely buy the $29.99 app the stakes weren't that high for AT&T. MMOD is a different story; if AT&T's 3G network fails there will be a horde of angry hoops fans banging on its doors.

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Categories: Mobile Video, Sports, Telcos

Topics: AT&T, CBS, iPhone, MMOD