The iPhone, with its aesthetically pleasing and functional design, beckons users to enjoy internet access, YouTube, and other data services. AT&T as the single exclusive network and reseller of the iPhone, carries a tremendous data burden on its already deficient network. Rather than focusing on the issue at hand, the unreliability and overstress of the network, CEO Ralph de la Vega voices his displeasure with the amount of traffic AT&T customers demand from his network and attempts to redefine the smartphone based upon its keyboard size and potential data use rather than OS capabilities.
I will go ahead and point to the obvious; if you want an unclogged network do not force iPhone users to stick with it. You can’t have two things at once, pick priorities; though it seems AT&T intends to nibble what it cannot eat, and keep it on a 2 year contract of sub-par service and coverage.
Operation Chokehold, purpose and reasoning: Proposed by Dan Lyons Operation Chokehold will attempt to take down, or at least cripple, the AT&T data network. Keep in mind, voice services will remain operational, so the 70-something percent of cell phone users AT&T owns will remain able to make calls.
On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time (GTM -8), we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every smartphone user turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
Some things to keep in mind:
- Remember to turn OFF your Wi-Fi during that hour. There would be NO point browsing YouTube in the office or home and using your Wi-Fi without knowing.
- If you have enough upstream bandwidth at home try using Orb or AirVideo or a similar app to stream a movie for an hour. If not, try MediaFly which will let you download mostly the same video podcasts as your iTunes app without a 10mb limit.
More sources of discussion on the subject may be found at neowin, fakestevejobs, Gizmodo. I will keep this page updated with latest developments.
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