If you want an iPhone, AT&T is VERY aware of the fact that they have you by the short ones. Thus, they offer no discounts of any kind on anything iPhone related. No equipment discounts, no employee or student discounts on service, nothing.

I ended up using my equipment "loyalty" discount on a free backup phone, then immediately turning around and buying/activating an iPhone. The whole time, the store employees were assuring me that I just had to wait a few months for the "FAN" discount to kick in on my phone bill (I was promised a 26% discount because of my wife's employer!) but when I finally pursued the issue to its conclusion I was informed that no line on which an iPhone is active can receive discounts. Note: this doesn't just mean the iPhone data plan...the base rate package and extra line fees are also excluded. This mad me especially angry because I talked a friend into joining my account with the promise of the discount, then had the rug pulled out from under me by AT&T.

So, I understand that Apple had to get in bed with some provider and trust somebody else with the performance and reputation of their products. Unfortunately, as could have been predicted, AT&T's business model doesn't include such a relentless focus on in-house quality control and performance. Absent evidence to the contrary, I'm going to assume that connectivity problems are on AT&T's plate.