Get Ready AT&T: Operation Chokehold Has More Than 1,600 Facebook Fans

Leander Kahney ()

Tower

Cell tower photo by forklift - http://flic.kr/p/772WXR

Fake Steve’s Operation Chokehold is growing fast. The number of Facebook fans has jumped five-fold overnight, from about 300 fans on Tuesday to more than 1,600.

Fake Steve is calling on disgruntled AT&T customers to bring AT&T’s data network “to its knees” at 12 noon PST this Friday, December 18. (Here’s Fake Steve’s original Operation Chokehold post).

The action is in protest of comments made by AT&T’s CEO Ralph de la Vega that some iPhone users are using too much data. The protest started as a joke, but is taking on a life of its own.

On Tuesday, AT&T dismissed the planned protest as a publicity stunt. A company spokesman downplayed any effect it may have — but that was when there was only 300 fans.

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About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Fake Steve, iPhone, News |

  • Patrick

    This was accomplish nothing.

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    I agree. This wont gain any real benefits for end users of the iPhone in the long run.

    Bringing AT&T to its knees for 1 hour may annoy them a little bit, but it wont make them spend the hundreds of millions of $$$$ in order to upgrade the network any quicker.

    Frankly, im glad im on O2 in the UK. Never had a problem with my network. I sure dont envy AT&T users after all the stories ive read about the service.

  • RadioFlyer

    Why are people so intent to f with AT&T? We’ve heard it over and over, so why keep repeating the same dribble? Why isn’t this attempted with Verizon?Is that just not as fun? I would be pissed if I’m not able to use my phone on Friday due to these punks. Go build something!

  • firesign3000

    this is about the stupidest effing thing i’ve ever heard.

  • http://ObamaPacman.com Obama Pacman

    @ RadioFlyer

    FSJ is a jerk. I submitted a story to him once. He posted it but didn’t give credit.

    I submitted the same story to Gizmodo and it got posted with proper credit.

    Why? FSJ is probably just a secret Apple hater.

  • jboster@me.com

    1600? and that’s suppose to make AT&T nervous? really… sounds like some blog looking for attention. AT&T has what 40 million subscribers? There are probably a few hundred thousand people downloading, surfing, streaming at any given time already, these 1600 just looking for attention.

    Looking back now, Verizon is probably happy not to have the iPhone crippling their network.

    I’m sure the AT&T people will be holding their breath at noon….

    or not lol, another day, another dollar. This simply won’t effect anything.

  • GOPfanboy

    The main point is that Dan Lyons is basically encouraging a form of DISRUPTIVE corporate sabotage, disrupting public telecommunications, which borders on terrorism, in order to force a change of policy on AT&T. This is something that Osama bin Laden does and Hezbollah would love to do to their enemies.

    In a democratic nation (and capitalist society) like the USA, this is unacceptable, and our American culture considers it bordering on terrorism.

    If AT&T was an airline, and Dan Lyons and his 1600 disgruntled followers “called out” for a terrorist bomb threat to bring down an AT&T jetliner… it would be the same thing: terrorism. Just because the disgruntled morons have a beef with how poorly AT&T manages its services, does not give anyone an excuse to call for disruption/sabotage/terrorism.

  • Scott

    @GOPfanboy, you should watch a little less Faux News. 1600 disgruntled customers using their phones according to their signed contracts is hardly the same thing as murdering passengers on an aircraft. And I bet you think Rosa Parks was a terrorist too right?

    I think the main idea is to try to put pressure on AT&T to invest the large profits they’ve been raking in from pricy iPhone plans back into it’s own infrastructure. They should be voluntarily wanting to re-invest in their company, but since they’ve been treating iPhone users poorly (where the hell is my tethering? I’m paying for “unlimited” data afterall) this protest has started up as a means to try to draw media attention to the degree of customer dissatisfaction.

    Part of me thinks will be a bit like the Southpark episode where one of the kids trys to “flood the world” by letting his garden hose run, but maybe the numbers will be bigger by friday. I at least hope it gets some press. And if this stunt hinders emergency calls, then the fault lies with AT&T for not designing their network correctly. There should be a certain buffer of network bandwidth permanently and exclusively allocated for 911 calls.

  • MArwej

    I think this is a GREAT idea. ATT is treating its customers like absolute crap – and they’re making $$$ off of it. This is common amongst huge greedy monopolizes.

    They deserve a slap, here, and then. I don’t think this will do much; considering the iPhone’s extensive user-base and only a tiny fraction of people knowing about this Chockhold thing…. but, I’d say we make a bigger one – like a Op. Chockhold (Hardcore Style), plan it 3 months ahead – get hundreds of thousands on the list… shoot for over 1 million users. F’ ATT in the ass! Let me know – I’d be happy to spend too much of my time setting up something like that.

  • Jeff

    If you really want to get even with AT&T.. don’t use them.