It has now been 2 years that Apple and AT&T are teaming up to offer and support the iPhone on the US market. The carrier is even working hard to get this exclusive partnership extended till 2010. The honey moon between both companies might experience its first clouds as 4 senators have sent a letter to the Vice-president of the FFC (Federal Communications Commission) to request an investigation to be opened about exclusive partnerships, taking AT&T-Apple as an example, but willing to extend it further.
This is of course only a request, and the FFC might not give a positive answer to this letter. One can also imagine that Apple will not really fight to preserve the exclusive partnership as its business model around the iPhone has switched from sharing subscription plan benefits to AppStore, for which Apple is dealing alone with developers. Apple's goal might now be more interested in getting as much as iPhone users, and potential AppStore purchasers, even if it implies to get several carriers offering iPhone-specific subscription plans.
