Word on the street is that more iPhone 4 users are complaining about mobile data upload caps (hat tip to Gizmodo). Shocking, isn't it, that as carrier networks are brought to their knees by massive data consumption, that they would try to dial it back? Expect more.

The users are complaining that AT&T is capping the download speeds to 100Kbit/sec in some regions, predominately New York. I have put a call into AT&T to see if they will comment on this.

This is only the beginning. Expect to see more aggressive "traffic management" from service providers as the smartphones proliferate in the market. As we have analyzed in the Rayno Report sponsored whitepaper, "The Data Deluge," mobile data consumption is about to take off with the next generation of smartphones, and the problem of managing data consumption will increase by an order of magnitude.

Nothing to get a bunch of slathering sycophantic tech journos rolling like a new iPhone upgrade. This morning's news focuses on the rollout of the new iPhone and related upgrade and connectivity issues.

Excuse the brevity, but this morning we were delayed this morning by the important professional business of watching the U.S. World Cup victory over Algeria! Here are the links:

• Walt Mossberg: iPhone is "Top of Class." (Wall Street Journal)
• Engadget: iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market.
• If you are shopping for all things Apple, the iPhone 4 is slower than an iPad, says MacRumors.com.
• In non-Apple news, how many people would like to be a fly on the wall for the Obama/McChrystal meeting? (Bloomberg). I would!
• Sales of new homes plunge to lowest level on record (Bloomberg). But seriously, would you expect anything else? The country is awash in empty, new houses.
• Unemployed people are frittering away their free time (Wall Street Journal). This comes from a government study. Better question: is the government studying unemployed people a good use of government-employed people?
• The Fed is likely to do nothing (Wall Street Journal). Possibly for another 10 years.
• Uh-oh. BP's taken the cap off (BusinessWeek). What will they screw up next?
• Scammers were all over the U.S. homebuyer credit, says a watchdog (Reuters).
• Adobe was down on earnings of 28 cents per share, up from 24 cents last year (MarketWatch).
• Facebook CEO says: We're really gigantic (Guardian).
• New meaning to the word, "GOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" (USA Today).

Don't you love the way that Apple dominates the news? Steve Jobs could put out a press release saying he's going to have his teeth cleaned and it would dominate the news flow on Financial TV. Oh really? Who's the dentist? Will this delay a product release?

Yesterday, of course was the release of the new iPhone 4, which had every tech pundit and their cousin covering every angle. For that reason, I'll keep this post short, giving you a few links to coverage and a few thoughts for what it means for Apple.

The main points of iPhone 4:

• It's slimmer, .37 inches vs. .45 inches for the prior iPhone (PC World review)
• It's got video calling (mirror.co.uk).
• It's got a sharper screen. And a Gyroscope (CNN)
• Actually, they are calling the screen a "retina display," because its density of 326 pixels per square inche allegedly rivals the human retina. Yeah, right Apple (Tom's Guide).
• IOS 4, which includes support for multitasking, iBooks, and other stuff (Mashable).

Okay, so what's it all mean? What's interesting to me is the statement that Apple has made with its last two releases: iPad and the iPhone 4. Have you noticed that Apple and Steve Jobs in particular claim to be "driving industries forward." For example, the message of the iPad as that it will enable the publishing industry to function in the digital world.

But rather than focus on whether or not the iPhone is driving some industries forward I can't help but think how it's driving the telecommunications industry backward. What do I mean by that? It is becoming more evident that the iFranchise is making the telecommunications provider increasingly commoditized and irrelevant.

What's AT&T's role in the iPhone franchise other than to connect the thing to a mobile network and then disappoint users. is AT&T adding any other value at all?

If all of the innovation is coming from Apple, what value are the service providers adding? What does this mean for the future of the mobile telecommunications industyr? Check out the videoconferencing component of iPhone which uses a WiFi connection and could certainly accelerate the trend of Internet communications platforms cannibalizing service provider networks.

Think about that, AT&T: Just look at what's happened to Apple's shareprice when compared to yours. Clearly they are the innovator and you are now the commoditized service provider.

Now, who has derived the most value out of the iPhone franchise?