AT&T tells iPhone users to slow down!
Users have been complaining bitterly about the quality of the AT&T wireless network for years, but now the company has a quick fix; they say that all those iPhone users should just stop using it so much!
The service provided by AT&T has been seen as so bad by iPhone users that it is the single factor that has weighed down Apple’s handset in user survey after user survey. Time after time, AT&T has announced program after program to set things right and bring their wireless network into the current generation. Recently, they even issued a mea culpa in the form of an iPhone app that let users detail the areas and services that were seen as being substandard.
Finally though, and most recently, AT&T has come up with the ultimate solution to their problems, and it has nothing to do with improving the level of service on their 3G network. Quite the opposite, in fact. AT&T’s final solution for its problems is to have iPhone uses cut back on their usage so that their shoddy network can handle it. There is, after all, more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.
The idea was floated at a conference in New York. The following is quoted from an Atlantic article on the subject: “AT&T is upgrading its network to cope, but its head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a UBS conference in New York that it will also give high-bandwidth users incentives to “reduce or modify their usage.” Apparently, AT&T sees heavy users as a serious problem. De la Vega also mentions that only 3 percent of smartphone users consume over 40 percent of network capacity. So next time you have a call dropped, he wants you to think about that guy trying to stream a movie through his iPhone.
As a counter to De la Vega’s idea, I would like to float a different suggestion. Maybe AT&T could spend some time and effort upgrading their network into the 20th century so that they will only be one century behind. Maybe they should think about giving their users something of value for the top dollar that they are collecting instead of whining about how hard it is to do their job. Maybe, just maybe, they could do actual work, give users a real wireless system to use, and shut the hell up. Barring that, they could just subcontract their wireless network to Verizon, who obviously knows how to build and maintain one.
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December 13th, 2009
That’s sick. I would be upset. I’m on an iPhone now but I’m on my own wifi. And most the time do have it. So this whole idea makes me mad.
December 13th, 2009
Michael Jones is an immature twit. Go do some research on which network provides the most capacity. Hint: it’s stock ticker is T! It’s the iPhone radio that’s the problem, except AT&T can’t point fingers at Apple.