AT&T Wireless has a problem on its hands. No, it’s not the dropped calls that seem to plague them more than other carriers (there are three areas on my 50-mile drive to work that are dead spots for my AT&T Blackberry phone.) The problem is those damn iPhone users who are using their phones excessively.
That’s at least what the company told Newswires reporter Roger Cheng today. And to fix the problem, AT&T will introduce “incentives” to encourage iPhone users to cutback on their data usage. One solution may be to give users information on how much data they are using. The thinking is that the shockingly high numbers will startle people into lower usage. Not sure I get that one.
Here’s another solution from me – Apple, go ahead and open up competition and let iPhone users choose their carrier rather than just having AT&T. It will spread the usage out, will not have users frustrated with their phones because of dropped calls, and ultimately, competition often leads to better prices for consumers.
December 9, 2009
Sounds like a “so crowded no one goes there anymore” kind of problem. The tech guys from old AT&T Bell Labs would solve it in a NY minute if someone fed the marketing guys to the crocodiles.