Legal Research

The iPhone: a Weapon of Mass (Infrastructure) Destruction

On Saturday, lots of hip, trendy, iPhone-wielding artsy types descended on Austin, TX for the annual South by Southwest festival. And they brought Austin’s AT&T 3G network to its knees. In true Gen X style, SXSW attendees turned to Twitter to vent their frustration. AT&T has responded, promising to add bandwidth.

(On Saturday, I planted peas. Stayed offline for almost the whole day. It felt good to get dirt under my fingernails.)

Anyway, this is not the first time that the iPhone’s 3G troubles have ticked people off. And coincidentally, the NY Times on the day before the SXSW fiasco had a post titled “3G Phones Exposing Networks’ Last-Gen Technology“. This quote could have been plucked from the SXSW Twitter stream of complaints:

“For many, the iPhone has become a symbol of the gap between the promise of a powerful device and the reality of inconsistent service. Its owners complain of continual hiccups, particularly in certain cities.”

(Actually, that couldn’t be a Tweet, ’cause it’s longer than 140 characters. But you get the point.)

The Times goes on to report that AT&T plans to invest $11 billion this year in upgrading their network:

“For some AT&T customers, more improvements to the company’s so-called 3G, or third-generation, high-speed network can’t happen soon enough. And industry analysts say the problems at all carriers are becoming more glaring as the growing popularity of so-called smartphones puts pressure on their networks.”

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on March 16, 2009 (boomark / email).