FCC also calls Operation Chokehold ‘irresponsible,’ Fake Steve blinks [u]
Earlier today I predicted the mainstream media would pick up this story and now it’s happened with one network reporting that federal regulators have joined the fray. With the nation’s attention now focusing on the issue, it’s hard to imagine any sort of upside for AT&T.
ABC News is reporting comments by the FCC’s public safety and homeland security bureau chief regarding the growing Operation Chokehold rebellion whose aim is to bring AT&T’s data network to its knees on Friday at 3 p.m. (EST). This revolt, which began with a call to arms by Dan Lyons (a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs), is tapping into iPhone owner anger over the carrier’s network and service issues, and that company’s efforts to put the blame on users.
“Threats of this nature are serious and we caution the public to use common sense and good judgment when accessing the Internet from their commercial mobile devices,” said Jamie Barnett, public safety and homeland security bureau chief, FCC. “To purposely try to disrupt or negatively impact a network with ill-intent is irresponsible and presents a significant public safety concern.”
This statement is essentially a reiteration of AT&T’s response to Lyon’s call to action.
“There’s real anger about AT&T,” said Lyons, adding that AT&T executive’s “mealy-mouthing” about incentives for people to use less bandwidth pushed already-disgruntled iPhone owners over the edge. “I was really taken aback by the response.”
“I think they do feel powerless and at AT&T’s mercy,” he continued.
[u] Fake Steve is calling on disgruntled iPhone users to go with a change in tactics, urging them to gather for protests outside AT&T stores.
“Let’s form actual flash mobs outside AT&T stores and put duct tape over their mouths. Anyone up for this? Like, in San Francisco? The media is already all over this protest. They’re loving it. They know how badly AT&T sucks and apparently they want to join us in our struggle. So making this into a physical demonstration is the best way to ratchet it up another notch.”
Choosing sides
Operation Chokehold is proving to be a polarizing issue. Whereas a fair number of angry iPhone owners organizing themselves for action on Friday—more than 2,500 3,366 (3:40 EST) have joined an ad hoc protest group on Facebook — others see the rebellion as a stunt that takes the issue of anger at AT&T and its ongoing, multi-year service issues a step too far.
With both the mainstream media and federal officials joining the fray, the stakes have increased by orders of magnitude. Whatever ultimately happens on Friday, it’s obvious that relations between AT&T and iPhone users have been poisoned, perhaps beyond repair…
What’s your take?
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December 17th, 2009
My take is that if it happens, it will have minimal impact on AT&T. But it *is* illegal – it’s a Distributed Denial of Service Attack on the Nation’s communications infrastructure. I think the FCC statement was weak considering that.
I don’t know where this is going to end up, but the “collateral damage” is going to fall primarily on Apple. AT&T is huge – they can take a hit like this. Apple isn’t. And if it turns out that the problems are in the iPhone and not AT&T, as I’ve seen some technical analyses suggest, AT&T could well sue Apple.
Coupled with the relentless competition from Google and Verizon and the real Steve Jobs’ health, this could be a company-killer. If Dan Lyons really is an Apple fan, you can’t see that in the garbage he spews as “The Fake Steve Jobs”. I don’t understand why Apple’s marketing team and attorneys haven’t shut him down.
I hope there isn’t a disruption in the AT&T service at the “scheduled” time. Most of the iPhone users I know, while they do complain about dropped calls, are responsible adults with years of Internet experience. They know a troll when they see one, they know that DDOS attacks are bad news, and they know that in this day and age of minimal anonymity, if there is an interruption in service, the authorities can and most likely will prosecute.
December 17th, 2009
Hi Ed. Careful with the casual misinformed hearsay. No, the technical problems are not with the iPhone. The significant issues with drop calls are not a problem being seen else in the world where the iphone is a major handset. It’s only on ATT’s network. Countries where GSM is well built out and where providers are used to heavy data users are not having these problems. I have yet to have my iPhone drop a call in Sweden or Germany. In the US it was all the time, even in the center of cities with supposedly full coverage.
In addition, ATT had sales of 124 billion in 2008, Apple had sales of 32 billion. ATT had net income of 12.9 billion, Apple had 4.8 billion. So ATT is 3-4 times larger in terms of sales and profits but the implication that Apple is fragile and vulnerable is unjustified. Particularly considering the company has over 30 billion in cash and zero debt. “Company killer” – right.
December 17th, 2009
FSJ is far more impressed with himself and his perceived power than reality would dictate, however, when he openly advocates an illegal action, people will take notice. Funny how his virtual testicles shrivel when he actually has to answer for his potty-mouthed blog.
I am an iPhone user who finds AT&T less than stellar, but I will neither be ramping up my data usage nor hanging out BY MYSELF (trust me, it will be onesy twosy at best) in front of an AT&T store in some pathetic, juvenile attempt to get noticed and draw attention to a foul-mouthed net celeb has-been whose 15 minutes were up a year ago.
FSJ is “Zune Tattoo Guy” with a different gadget. Go away, please.
December 17th, 2009
Ed, that has got to be the dumbest post I’ve ever seen. Seriously. The depth of your “wrongness” is breathtaking.
1. Apple has a bigger market cap than AT&T (by about 10 billion dollars).
2. Apple has prospered with iPhone *despite* AT&T’s crappy network.
3. How the hell would there be collateral damage to Apple? They’ve had nothing to do with this “operation.”
4. Apple doesn’t compete with Verizon and Google directly.
5. Jobs’ health appears good. Why bring that up?
6. If it was truly illegal, the FCC would have said so.
7. Prosecuted? For using your phone at the same time everyone else does?
December 18th, 2009
“FSJ is far more impressed with himself and his perceived power than reality would dictate,”
Are you talking about the fake or the real Steve?