Sick of ATT service? Operation Chokehold on Friday :)

[darkswordsman17]

GA's posts, in both this and other threads, have an inherent nature to ridicule everything American, while in actual situations there is little difference in things like, say, mobile rates charged by telecoms in both countries.

If the rates are similar if not more in NZ compared to the US, and he bashes AT&T specifically, doesn't that seem unjust?

He wasn't the one that started with the NZ vs US shit in this thread. He's not even really the one bashing AT&T, its the other people, and he's bashing them for continuing to use their service. Considering the whole thread is about AT&T's service, who else would there be to bash? So what if AT&T is a US company, the thread is specifically about them. I have no clue where you're pulling this anti-US stuff from in this thread.

I am aware of how he's posted about the US, but that has nothing to do with this thread, and like I've pointed out, the stupidity involved is free of place or time.

Lastly, understand, they are conspiring to commit a crime in response to the poor service they're receiving. This is epic stupidity.

 

[TallBill]

Lastly, understand, they are conspiring to commit a crime in response to the poor service they're receiving. This is epic stupidity.

Downloading streaming video isn't committing a crime. Don't worry, you've quickly established yourself as the troll of this thread, nobody will be pointing their finger at GA anymore.

 

[darkswordsman17]

LOL, the guy without a cell phone, living in bumfuck Kansas keeps posting in a thread about cell phones/service.

Cell phones are many people's only phone service nowdays, but you living in the middle of nowhere without a cell phone, I guess don't get that.

Get a life.

Holy shit. I never said I didn't have a cell phone, I said I don't pay for it. Way to jump to conclusions. That's your best argument is that despite you being an idiot, that because I don't live in the same place, I can't point out that you're being an idiot?

Well unfortunately 2-year contracts are not going anywhere. If you want a smartphone you pretty much have to get one. For those of us that are not amish, we have to make a choice and then hope that it doesn't suck. People can make the choice now to avoid the AT&T network, but quite a few people are locked in.

You don't have to sign up for the contracts. You can pony up. Smart-phones are not necessities, so you get no sympathy if you want one but aren't willing to pay the costs involved in having it. You have options and can choose to get out of it.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Holy shit. I never said I didn't have a cell phone, I said I don't pay for it.

Sooo... Who pays for your cell service?

Do you have a smartphone?

 

[spidey07]

This will do nothing but bring out caps or getting your service canceled for abuse. There's a clause in almost any use policy "attempting to harm providers network, performing denial of service , etc" will result in termination of service.

Not to mention the 10s of billions of dollars AT&T is spending to upgrade their cell network, this is just stupid. They can't do it overnight.

And to the entitlement mentality, a cell phone is a luxury.

 

[darkswordsman17]

They do not, however, have the right to use this service with malicious intentions. Normal use would be perfectly OK. This is conspiring to use their service with malicious intentions to cause undue hardship to the provider.

Edit: Definition of DDOS attack:
A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely.

Downloading streaming video isn't committing a crime. Don't worry, you've quickly established yourself as the troll of this thread, nobody will be pointing their finger at GA anymore.

By all means, explain to me how, conspiring to overload AT&T's service doesn't qualify? There's even evidence of them trying to get people to join.

But, they're just using civil disobedience.

 

[Parasitic]

He's not even really the one bashing AT&T, its the other people, and he's bashing them for continuing to use their service....I have no clue where you're pulling this anti-US stuff from in this thread.

He's bashing the frustrated AT&T subscribers and calling them "fucking fools" who "continue stuffing money into the pockets of a company and whine about the service they receive in return" simply because he thinks he knows "many of the details of the situation because [he listens] to Californians moan about this every day on Buzz Out Loud podcast".

In essence, he's calling American wireless users fools for continuing to use wireless service and believes he has the right to do since because he believes he fully understands the situation based on the perception and obviously biased (since mostly only the extremely satisfied and unsatisfied will most likely bother to call into a radio show to defend/complain) opinions from non-mainstream media.

To me that sounds quite a bit anti-American as he doesn't have the full picture of the situation yet continues to make ridiculous comments about how things are in the US. It's hard to judge his opinion as unbiased and pro-American when he and his brother have a less-than-perfect track record when it comes to US-centric topics, which if he didn't feel so strongly about it he could just have chosen not to participate.

He also makes the comment that "anyone who signs a 2 year contract to use a phone is a Category 5 Moron..." when most NZ'ers are also subject to the same treatment by their respective telecoms, similar to those in the US. Is that not hypocritical?

 

[TallBill]

This will do nothing but bring out caps or getting your service canceled for abuse. There's a clause in almost any use policy "attempting to harm providers network, performing denial of service , etc" will result in termination of service.

Not to mention the 10s of billions of dollars AT&T is spending to upgrade their cell network, this is just stupid. They can't do it overnight.

And to the entitlement mentality, a cell phone is a luxury.

I just crack up when AT&T put out its new Verizon bashing ads. Where I live, it's a pretty well known fact that Verizon's network is faster.

 

[nick1985]

Users will intentionally overload the network, but wait until you hear the moaning when AT&T decides to put stricter limits on data so that it won't happen again. Idiots. Just change carrier you fucking fools.

Normally I think you are a damn fool, but this time I agree with you.

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

 

[darkswordsman17]

He's bashing the frustrated AT&T subscribers and calling them "fucking fools" who "continue stuffing money into the pockets of a company and whine about the service they receive in return" simply because he thinks he knows "many of the details of the situation because [he listens] to Californians moan about this every day on Buzz Out Loud podcast".

In essence, he's calling American wireless users fools for continuing to use wireless service and believes he has the right to do since because he believes he fully understands the situation based on the perception and obviously biased (since mostly only the extremely satisfied and unsatisfied will most likely bother to call into a radio show to defend/complain) opinions from non-mainstream media.

To me that sounds quite a bit anti-American as he doesn't have the full picture of the situation yet continues to make ridiculous comments about how things are in the US. It's hard to judge his opinion as unbiased and pro-American when he and his brother have a less-than-perfect track record when it comes to US-centric topics, which if he didn't feel so strongly about it he could just have chosen not to participate.

He also makes the comment that "anyone who signs a 2 year contract to use a phone is a Category 5 Moron..." when most NZ'ers are also subject to the same treatment by their respective telecoms, similar to those in the US. Is that not hypocritical?

They are being fools. They have options, they're pissed about the contract they signed up for but didn't have to sign up for. They are paying for a luxury item/service, but are pissed about the costs, yet are unwilling to stop paying to use it.

Not all Americans sign up for 2 year contracts. Not all Americans have cell phones. Nationality, or region within that nationality has literally nothing to do with the argument that if you pay for a service and don't like the service you are being stupid to keep paying for that service. As I've pointed out about a million times already, you do not have to be locked into that service with a contract. Furthermore, as I've pointed out as well, if you don't like the situation, you have more options.

If anything you pointed out how him being in New Zealand actually gives him more credibility for knowing what the situation is.

The quote about anyone (you do know that anyone would likely include, well anyone regardless of region, right?) makes that not hypocritical. It would be hypocritical for him to call them morons while he himself is signed up for a 2 year contract to use a phone.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Normally I think you are a damn fool, but this time I agree with you.

And take your phone to which carrier to get 3G speeds?

It's like your PC is locked to a specific internet service, if you get service form Comcast, your PC is unusable on ATT or stuck on dial up speeds with Time Warner?

Smart phones aren't cheap and they're incompatible with other carriers.

 

[ElFenix]

He's bashing the frustrated AT&T subscribers and calling them "fucking fools" who "continue stuffing money into the pockets of a company and whine about the service they receive in return" simply because he thinks he knows "many of the details of the situation because [he listens] to Californians moan about this every day on Buzz Out Loud podcast".

In essence, he's calling American wireless users fools for continuing to use wireless service and believes he has the right to do since because he believes he fully understands the situation based on the perception and obviously biased (since mostly only the extremely satisfied and unsatisfied will most likely bother to call into a radio show to defend/complain) opinions from non-mainstream media.

To me that sounds quite a bit anti-American as he doesn't have the full picture of the situation yet continues to make ridiculous comments about how things are in the US. It's hard to judge his opinion as unbiased and pro-American when he and his brother have a less-than-perfect track record when it comes to US-centric topics, which if he didn't feel so strongly about it he could just have chosen not to participate.

He also makes the comment that "anyone who signs a 2 year contract to use a phone is a Category 5 Moron..." when most NZ'ers are also subject to the same treatment by their respective telecoms, similar to those in the US. Is that not hypocritical?

not quite understanding the situation != 'anti-American'. and how the fuck is 'unbiased' = 'pro-American'? it sounds like he's not signed up for a 2 year deal down under so no, it's not hypocritical. not to mention that he didn't bring NZ into this discussion, so wtf does it matter that other people in NZ are fools too?

and yes, we are fools, otherwise att and verizon wouldn't be able to pull this shit. 2 years contracts just to sign up is horseshit (try to join as a new sub to any of them, online there is no bring your own phone plan.). but because we see 'FREE PHONE!' we fall for it. you could do prepaid but if you use your phone more than 5 days a month that ends up being more expensive. $20 for unlimited text messages is horseshit. $0.20 per text if you don't pre-pay for way more than you need is something only a fool would agree to.

they used to lock you in to a new contract for upgrading your plan to more minutes/features/etc. wtf was that? you're handing them more money at practically no additional cost to them and you are the one that needs a contract? (they may still do it. sprint doesn't atm.)

And take your phone to which carrier to get 3G speeds?

It's like your PC is locked to a specific internet service, if you get service form Comcast, your PC is unusable on ATT or stuck on dial up speeds with Time Warner?

Smart phones aren't cheap and they're incompatible with other carriers.

you'd think when we handed the wireless companies their oligopoly we'd have extracted concessions like interoperability out of them. suckers we are.

 

[mugs]

That really doesn't have anything to do with AT&T having poor cellular service in some areas of the country. And there's so much competition for land lines now that it really is a non-issue that SBC bought AT&T.

 

[WelshBloke]

Of course it is possible that its Apples fault not ATT.

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=16001&news=Apple+iPhone+ATT

 

[iversonyin]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh, I bought a phone because its cool not because the carrier has good service. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh, I should've got a Verizon phone in the first place waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. I have all the apps in the world I can't use cuz' my network suckz whaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Adrenaline]

Can I still buy gas on that day, or should I wait?

This is the first thing that popped into my head also. I have an iPhone and have great service in Memphis.

 

[Svnla]

ATT is planning a plan to strike back?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...t-dispatches.aspx?post=1419669&_blg=1,1419669


@ posters that said cell phone is a luxury. I have a smartphone and paying about $30/month and that is all I have. No cable tv, no land line, nothing. My smartphone is all I have to communicate and of course, broadband internet at home.

 

[cirrrocco]

ATT is planning a plan to strike back?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...t-dispatches.aspx?post=1419669&_blg=1,1419669


@ posters that said cell phone is a luxury. I have a smartphone and paying about $30/month and that is all I have. No cable tv, no land line, nothing. My smartphone is all I have to communicate and of course, broadband internet at home.

30/month for me too. total cost 34.00 / month for a smartphone and unlimited data / text. wonder why no one cares to join sprint.

btw I work at a a place where 95 percent of cellphones are iphones and I noticed that calls drop so much.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Of course it is possible that its Apples fault not ATT.

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=16001&news=Apple+iPhone+ATT

Hopefully they do more testing, specifically including the iPhone. It will be hilarious if the poor iPhone connectivity was due to that though.

ATT is planning a plan to strike back?

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.co...t-dispatches.aspx?post=1419669&_blg=1,1419669


@ posters that said cell phone is a luxury. I have a smartphone and paying about $30/month and that is all I have. No cable tv, no land line, nothing. My smartphone is all I have to communicate and of course, broadband internet at home.

I'm not going to defend AT&T, as the whole unlimited bandwidth but not actually (which can be tied into quality of service). I believe AT&T had been planning on something like that link is saying for some time (for as much as a year), so its not a response to the idiotic suggestion this thread is about. I doubt AT&T has even heard of the plan the OP linked to, as its just a post on some low blog. Scratch that, they probably have by now since other bigger blogs have picked it up (and its likely spread further on Facebook by now), but hopefully most people are just laughing at how stupid of a response this is, and like most digital protests, ends up failing badly.

Its your choice to only use a smartphone. A cell phone is a luxury. A smart phone even more so. If it is a need then the benefits should at minimum be equal to the cost and you wouldn't be bitching about price, or would have switched to a more reliable service.

 

[jersiq]

That really doesn't have anything to do with AT&T having poor cellular service in some areas of the country. And there's so much competition for land lines now that it really is a non-issue that SBC bought AT&T.

It somewhat does from a wireless perspective. Anyone who had a phone around merger times can recall the whole "Orange" network "Blue" network fiasco.

They had quite a mix of heterogeneous equipment from various vendors with various practices. I know that's something that all mergers face, but they never truly had any clear cut idea of what the hell they wanted to do. It's like the merged, had a party and said now WTF do we do?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Well I live in the US, but having seen how cells work in the rest of the world, it makes me laugh we put up with this stuff. I recently signed 2 more years with ATT to get a cheap iPhone for my parents. But me? I still stick to unlocked phones.

Too bad we have a whole market for stupid cell phone names like RAZR, Shine, enV, etc. Phone manufacturers make new phones JUST for the US because we have:
- Stupid 3G bands
- CDMA carriers to deal wtih
- That 4th 2G band (850mhz) that no one else uses.

So we end up with limited handsets.

Then we have to have carrier subsidies because free phones (the original idea was to get people to get on the mobile wagon) really help with dumb consumers. You know. It's the same thing with 0% interest* and crap. It gets people on board who later realize they are getting raped in fees. Yup. That's us. As a result carriers pay out billions to phone companies for cheap phones for US consumers. Then we fail to spend enough on network improvements. While you can argue that the US is a vast land mass, the fact remains that our 3G deployment is pathetic, even in cities. Complain all you want but Asia and Europe has long had 3G. If it weren't for the iPhone 3G, no one would give a crap that AT&T's 3G network BLOWS. Forget network congestion. Just look at spotty coverage. Even in cities like NYC, Chicago, and SF. It's pathetic. Now throw in congestion and our network is ridiculously crappy.

But honestly the way we do things in the US with cheap phones and subsidies is killing us. Unlocked phones are huge in the rest of the world. Too bad it'll never takeoff with exclusive US-only or Americas-only frequencies.

 

[Rezag3000]

I've had ATT and I don't have any complaints about my service. In fact, I think the 3G is pretty fast!

 

[T9D]

...

 

[Fritzo]

Can I still buy gas on that day, or should I wait?

I think you can, but only after 6pm on OZone Action days.