If I don’t have good service on Friday I swear to…. Wait I never have good service!

“on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers”

I’m not quite sure how to interpret this statement. On one hand, it sorta sounds like AT&T really does try to provide communications services, yet I know for a fact that my contract has no SLA in it.

I’m sorry, but if the network is so “critical” then why does it suck so much? I mean, if it rains in San Francisco, we lose fucking data.

I think it’ll be a miracle if we’re even able to use an hour’s worth of data on AT&T’s network, never mind the fact that 300 of us want to use it at the same time.

AT&T not worried huh? So that is why they have the call center reps on standby and training them on how to handle the inevitable crash, including excuses that they will provide when customers call in? I worked for AT&T (Blech) and still have friends there. They are shaking in their boots, I promise you. T-Mobile FTW!

Well, number one, I think that operation choke hold is possibly the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard. Second, I live in Indianapolis, Indiana and I must say our 3g coverage, call quality, and data speeds are just fine. I tend to believe that a lot of complaints that people have with att’s data network seem to be centered around the west coast and New York. You must understand that areas that have such a high volume of traffic are going to have problems with successful traffic aggrigation. Simply, ATT needs to add newer, better infrastructure to it’s network to be able support better 3G network speeds in large populated cities. I know recently that ATT has been rolling out new infrastructure left and right so I wouldn’t cry yourself to sleep at night about it.

Now im not an a WAN Engineer but i can tell you that some of this is just common sense.

@Iphone owner, ATT DSL customer: I know, common sense right? So it’s funny that three years after the launch of the iPhone, AT&T can’t get its shit together. Guess you didn’t see the news awhile back where an NYC iPhone owner goes into an Apple store complaining about a ton of dropped calls. The Apple Genius pulls up some diagnostic data and says (paraphrasing) how the owner is lucky how he’s only dropped ~20% of his calls and the average for NYC is 30%. This is beyond “high volume of traffic”; this is just plain stupid.

So they are planning to put out a house fire with gasoline. Brilliant.

I can almost promise you that criminal charges will be brought against Daniel and those who participate in this childish and counterproductive display if it result in loss of business and personal danger. As an AT&T customer, businessman, and broadcaster, I’ll support any effort to hold these impudent troglodytes who weren’t slapped hard enough by their parents accountable.

I think the best way to disrupt their signal would be to just take down one of their antennas.
But in seriousness, if a handful of people with phones could actually clog a phone network up bad enough to interrupt service, then the network wasn’t good enough to begin with. Its a company with millions of subscribers, it should be able to handle a few idiots messing around.

@joe cassara,
That’s the most ridiculous, retarded thing that could be said. You really think that AT&T can possibly bring criminal charges against every single customer who uses their iPhone data service at that particular time? What about granny who got an iPhone for her birthday, bumped the screen and has been streaming live video for 5 days now?
Oh wait… You’re probably too busy jacking over pics of Obama and Pelosi to be able to formulate a well thought out comment but instead rely on your moderately expanded vocabulary of purulent adjectives to attempt to bolster your online ego.
Go play in traffic

Why is it, without fail, whenever there is any discussion of cell phone carriers it’s like sprint doesn’t exist. T-mob always gets a mention by someone. I pay less than AT&T customer and Verizon customers. I have better signal by default than everyone but Verizon customers and I roam for free on Verizon’s network, data included.

I get great customer service, great prices, great coverage and yet Sprint remains third in reality and fourth in hearts and minds. I just don’t get why.

“I can almost promise you that criminal charges will be brought against Daniel and those who participate in this childish and counterproductive display if it result in loss of business and personal danger.”

@Joe Cassara, you are a complete moron. Not only are your claims idiotic, but you try to use the word ‘troglodyte’ while struggling with basic English grammar in the sentence prior.

I could see charges being brought up because, while in essence they are “just using the service they paid for.”, they are doing it with the intent of bringing down the network. They are launching a DOS on AT&T’s network. That is illegal.

Course good luck proving intent in the vast majority of these cases.

Apple screwed up when it partnered with AT&T (and vice versa) as the sole provider for the iPhone. Verizon clearly has the best cellular network (or at least the best overall coverage) in the country. Perhaps this whole mess will force AT&T to the table with Apple to renegotiate its position as the sole service provider. If I were Verizon, I’d have my knife and fork in hand and be prepared to dine.

Increasing coverage and capacity requires adding cell towers. I metropolitan areas like San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, people don’t want cell towers in their back yards. Not much ATT can do about that.

300, you say? Hmm, what does that number remind me of?

Coming to a theater near you: i300, the sequel, with ATT as the new Xerxes and 300 nerds of iPhorta!

Interestingly, it sounds like the iPhone may be part of the problem:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/business/13digi.html?_r=1

I bet most of the people participating in the “operation” don’t realize that.

The Operation will NOT, I repeat NOT affect the phone network it will only affect the data network therefore it will NOT affect emergency calls

That NYT article about iPhone being the problem is ridiculous. First off their sources for AT&T having a better Network are all on AT&T’s payroll, they even mention this in the article. Not to mention that iPhones overseas on other networks work just fine. I love the NYT, read it everyday, but I had to laugh at that horrible story.

On a side point, I do not now, have ever, or ever will own any product from Apple. I’m not one to defend Apple, I hate that company, however, the idea that AT&T’s network is not the problem when the iPhone works perfectly on every other network in the world is laughable.

Has anyone stopped to think that it seems like 99% of the AT&T whiners are iPhone users? Maybe the iPhone really is just a piece of crap that doesn’t know how to interact with the AT&T network, like they said?

I hate defending companies, but you all forced me. My AT&T blackberry is great. Have clear calls, no drops, fast internet, and stronger signals than my friends and family (even when traveling).

If all iphone users switched another carrier, you’d have the same problems. You’re abusing the network. Unlimited data plans mean unlimited over the billing cycle, not all at once.

Just because you all have the time to do this while sitting around doing nothing at mommy and daddy’s house doesn’t mean that other customers don’t rely on the network for important things.

I wish cell carriers had separate networks for business users and pleasure users that just HAVE to watch some stupid utube video on there phone instead of waiting until they get home.

Grow the f*** up!

…”several have pointed out that the action may affect emergency calls!”….

OK…has anyone ever tried calling 911 from a cell phone??
The few times I have had to call (report drunk driver, car accidents, etc) I have either not been able to get thru or have had to wait for an operator to assist me, so I don’t think this is going to make any difference with making emergency calls!

Telling people to limit thier use of an “unlimited data plan”, is like telling people to limit how much they can eat at an “all-you-can-eat” buffet!