To be honest, it's unclear if AT&T is ready for Operation Chokehold. A satirical suggestion by Fake Steve Jobs, Operation Chokehold is designed to bring the AT&T wireless network to its knees, on Friday, Dec. 18th, at 12 noon PST.
For those thatare not in the know, Fake Steve Jobs is the creation of writer Dan Lyons. At first a totally anonymous creation, Fake Steve Jobs even drew favorable attention from the real Steve Jobs. At any rate Operation Chokehold is his idea.
Operation Chokehold is retaliation, of sorts, for the statements made last week by AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega. Last week, admitting that 40 percent of AT&T's wireless traffic comes from 3 percent of their users, he stated that AT&T is considering tiered data plans, which would charge users different fees and cap them at varying amounts of data.
That has caused an uproar among AT&T customers, and brought about the idea of Operation Chokehold. The idea is for AT&T customers nationwide to start some data-intensive task at 12:00 noon PST on Friday December 18th, and run it for an hour. It could be streaming audio like the NPR iPhone app, or some video application, or whatever. Just run it for an hour to bring AT&T to its knees, Fake Steve posits.
While an obvious act of civil disobedience, Operation Chokehold could potentially cause some serious safety issues, if it truly brought down AT&T's wireless network. Users have gone so far as to create a Facebook page about the event, so there are many actually considering participating in Operation Chokehold.
The thing is, AT&T is well aware of its network's limitations. And while putting tiers on its data service is definitely the wrong move, as it will (and already has) foster negative reactions from customers, Operation Chokehold will only serve to harm those on the AT&T network, and produce no real positive changes. Yes, AT&T needs to improve its network, but no, we certainly do not want to bring the network crashing down among us nationally.
While Operation Chokehold probably would work if executed as asked, it is truly unclear if any network, even Verizon's, could handle all the data being used by iPhone users, without a hiccup. The iPhone truly changed the way smartphones are used, and its users digest far more data, estimated at 4 times as much data, in fact, than the average smartphone user.
Here's the best idea for AT&T's network woes, Operation Chokehold aside: end the iPhone's exclusivity. The obvious and easiest carrier to take the iPhone would be T-Mobile, not Verizon, as the device is a GSM device, and a CDMA version would be much more complex. As users move to a different network, it will take some of the strain off of AT&T's overtaxed network.
Obviously, putting the iPhone on Verizon would result in tons of defectors, easing the strain on AT&T massively. Even a move to T-Mobile would help AT&T, however. Operation Chokehold is something we don't need. We already know AT&T's network is overtaxed; let's not cut off our noses to spite ourselves and bring potential harm to those using AT&T phones who won't be able to make calls and more during Operation Chokehold.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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