In a Wall Street Journal article last week
(AT&T Faces Data Dilemma) AT&T had the nerve to state that some customers were placing too much strain on its network and that they may have to come up with certain “incentives” them to curb their usage. Incentives is a thinly veiled way of saying make their customers come up with more cash. The overwhelming success of the iPhone and their exclusive agreement with Apple has led to this issue. To which I say, “What the hell did you think was going to happen?” Everyone knows that Apple puts out that "crack"
(really popular products that people become obsessed with). AT&T negotiated a deal in such a way that the people who want it can only buy the product from them and then they are going to whine about people liking their product too much. Get the hell out of here that mess. They talk about it placing too much strain on the network. Well, you know what; they had three options:
- They could have built a more robust network. I see why Verizon clowns them in those TV ads. The only thing I don’t understand is about the U.S. (and this really should be a rant of its own) is its terrible broadband. If Japan and South Korea have networks where you can watch HDTV on mobile devices, then AT&T should be able to build one that won’t go out just because everyone wants to check their Fantasy Football scores at the same time on Sunday.
- They could have limited the number of iPhones sold, therefore not taxing their fragile network and making the internet experience better for their customers. But nah, those cats wanted to rake in as much cheddar as possible, network be damned. So live with it.
- They could have negotiated a non-exclusive agreement with Apple, therefore allowing the iPhone to be sold by other carriers. This would have spread the data load across all carriers and alleviated the strain on their delicate network. But no, they didn’t want anyone else to eat; they wanted the whole plate. They wanted the cachet, not to mention the additional customers that would defect from other wireless providers that having the iPhone all to themselves would bring. They were really on that “Greed is good” tip. So I say, “You stuffed yourselves silly, now deal with the indigestion.”
I know I can’t be the only person that is getting tired of all this corporate whining.
