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AT&T Unimpressed With 'Operation Chokehold' Proposal to Strain Cellular Network

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Apr 12, 2001
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Earlier this week, Newsweek's Dan Lyons as part of his popular "Fake Steve Jobs" blog proposed "Operation Chokehold", a plan for AT&T iPhone users to simultaneously use their devices to place high demand on the carrier's network at a specified time this coming Friday. The proposal comes in response to AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega's comments last week regarding poor network performance in Manhattan and San Francisco and the company's plans to attempt to rein in high-usage data customers.On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) 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!Cult of Mac reached out to AT&T for comment on the proposed action, and the wireless carrier unsurprisingly noted that it was unimpressed with the tactic, calling it "totally irresponsible".We understand that fakesteve.net is primarily a satirical forum, but there is nothing amusing about advocating that customers attempt to deliberately degrade service on a network that provides critical communications services for more than 80 million customers. We know that the vast majority of customers will see this action for what it is: an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog.Cult of Mac notes that a Facebook page devoted to Operation Chokehold has gathered only approximately 300 interested users, suggesting that the plan may have a difficult time succeeding.

Article Link: AT&T Unimpressed With 'Operation Chokehold' Proposal to Strain Cellular Network
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/15/atandt-unimpressed-with-operation-chokehold-proposal-to-strain-cellular-network/
just wow. also must make sure my phone is off then so i dont hurt att. att rulz version sucks. o and the leader need to dig a hole
 
I would do it but my reception at work sucks! It is a good idea...but I wonder if it would work...Anyways, So what app should I use? :)
 
AT&T is right. Pure and simple. You may have problems with their network (as do I) but people need the network to be working for emergencies, critical emails, etc.. This will serve no purpose.
 
It's not doing it to "draw attention to a blog." AT&T's service blows.

I would have to drive down the street if I were to participate anyway. The service is that bad. I live in the middle of a city.
 
Right after the earthquake last year in LA, everybody started using their phones and all major carriers were strained so people couldn't get through. So yeah it would work.

But if you actually got enough people to do this for an hour, I guarantee you'll have at least one customer with a life or death emergency that wouldn't be able to get help during that hour, making Dan Lyons look like a big *******.
 
Out of curiosity, if this did happen and it succeeded, would the entire network go down or just the data portion? Would voice service still work?
 
If AT&T was like Apple or Google they'd say "bring it on, we can handle it". Instead they know how much their network sucks and they have no valid excuse.
 
Shame on those of you who are supporting AT&T. They continue to get rich off of the iPhone at our expense. They have not invested in their infrastructure enough to support the iPhone, yet they blame it for all of their problems. The iPhone has been out for over 2 years now....how about investing some of that money back into the freaking network (like Verizon has done with their 4G network - oh and AT&T won't have 4G until 2011 at the earliest while Verizon is rolling it out next year).

I get a lot of bars on my phone, but the calls drop constantly! They have been slow with MMS support, missing their own deadline. They STILL do not allow tethering, and God know when they will actually allow that with their current network woes.

I'm not really one to join a "take down a company" campaign, but this is one that I actually feel is justified. They want to boast in their retaliation commercials against Verizon that they have "more apps" and can browse the web while talking on the phone...these are iPhone generated advantages. The consumers should be thanking Apple, not AT&T.

May the day of a Verizon iPhone come as soon as possible.
 
...

AT&T had a flawed model to begin with. Unlimited data for $20 a month is totally unrealistic with the amount of data people are using and that consumption will only skyrocket upwards. Its their own fault they needed to set a data cap on their plan to something that would be unlimited to a normal user. Rogers has a 6gb cap on some plans and its totally fine, and at least that stops people from tethering and using a ton of data on their unlimited plan...oh wait...they still don't have tethering in the US do they LOL
 
I think AT&T sucks. I work as a cell tower climber and in the past month I have been to 7 sites were AT&T took out there tower and did not replace it. Actually. Metro pcs took over 4 sites. Not to mention they are not putting in any new sites. Or at least with the co. I work for. So let's destroy there network.
 
newdeal said:
AT&T had a flawed model to begin with. Unlimited data for $20 a month is totally unrealistic with the amount of data people are using and that consumption will only skyrocket upwards. Its their own fault they needed to set a data cap on their plan to something that would be unlimited to a normal user. Rogers has a 6gb cap on some plans and its totally fine, and at least that stops people from tethering and using a ton of data on their unlimited plan...oh wait...they still don't have tethering in the US do they LOL
Click to expand...

no i had tethering since march. jailbreaking is the best tool in the world.
 
I would love to be a part of this, but I have a final from 3-5... :mad:

And it would suck if someone's emergency call couldn't get through.
 
Liquorpuki said:
Right after the earthquake last year in LA, everybody started using their phones and all major carriers were strained so people couldn't get through. So yeah it would work.

But if you actually got enough people to do this for an hour, I guarantee you'll have at least one customer with a life or death emergency that wouldn't be able to get help during that hour, making Dan Lyons look like a big *******.
Click to expand...

meh, so if the network isn't strong enough to handle a real emergency (like the earthquake in your post), we should just accept that? If it's so volatile that a simple blog post can bring it down, we should all be focusing on the blog post instead of the gaping flaws in critical infrastructure?

Deeper problems are there. Don't blame that guy for exposing them in this relatively harmless manner (I doubt anyone will die because they missed a critical email, btw.. much more than likely they'll die because of a dropped call on AT&T's consistently poor network. but whatever).
 
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