AT&T Crippling Flashmob Organizer Backtracks

[Honis]

For those of you saying this will take down emergency services, you are wrong. If the AT&T network goes down, you will be placed in a roaming network, ie the competitions network. Emergency numbers will always go through if you are getting a cellphone signal. Your phone doesn't even need to be registered on a network for emergency services to work! (All said assuming you're in the USA.)

 

[festerovic]

How is it any different than all the people in town turning their water on at the same time? Or if everyone in town turns on their AC one hot day? All it does is expose the service as not being sufficient for the client base.

 

[rand_79]

but doesnt AT&T HAVE THE ""FASTEST" 3G network...

sorry my sarcasm is strong today.

 

[skit75]

1600 supporters....

I just want to try to add some ignorant perspective on my part.

Even if ten times that amount choose to participate, how are those numbers any different from say 50-80,000 fans at a stadium trying to call out about a home-run for instance or streaming the game to thier phones while sitting in the stands?

 

[Manos]

To those that agree with the whole taking down the service..Since they cant have enough brains to consider that some ppl around the country do have real issues and reasons to use their cellphone I do hope to the ones involved to this to have no service or someone from their own family when something important happens since they find it a "cool" and "funny" thing to do.

Really some ppl arent capable enough to think further than they could when they were as mature at the age of 8.

 

[shamgar]

the whole problem with this really all comes down to one thing.




the iphone cant play crysis.

 

[lowguppy]

population of facebook groups for/against is the best statistics ever.

 

[datawrecker]

Really there is no need to go through with this demonstration. A lot of the people in my area know AT&T's networks is not up to par. During Hurricane's Rita and Katrina's evacuation no one could get through to loved ones on AT&T's network. When the news announced that text messages could still get through it did not take long for it to go down as well.

My Verizon line worked just fine.

You would think they would learn from this and upgrade the system since nearly everything they had in that area was wiped out. When Hurricane Ike rolled through only half as many people evacuated. Guess what, we had the same problems as before. The number evacuated was still in the millions but only by half of what it was when we evacuated from Rita and Katrina.

When I returned to what was left of our neighborhood to let my wife know that we still had a home I could not reach her on her iPhone. My Verizon phone was working just fine. I recieved messages from work asking for volunteers to help clean up what was left of out one of our buildings.

From my experience. AT&T does not have a reliable network. Four times when we needed it most, it was not there. It is obvious that AT&T could care less about its sevice to its customers. Three years had past, almost to the date between Rita and Ike, and AT&T has not made one improvement. Even in areas they had to completely rebuild.

 

[deathblooms2k1]

"In a post titled"

"Leaving aside the fact that he thinks taking down AT&T's network is a peaceful protest,"

I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi, because I'm sure I would be far worse in your position. Just pointing things out.

 

[barker]

Doesn't american idol cause network outages in some areas during their voting periods? That's similar, right? (might be supported since they advertise "AT&T" a million times on the broadcast though)

 

[mdillenbeck]

It will take a large amount of people to reduce the speed of the network, unless the small amount of people all wind up trying to access the same tower during the protest.

As far as the legality, I think this is an issue that should be resolved on intent. If the intent is to conduct a DDoS attack for the sole purpose of causing economic hardship on AT&T then it is illegal. However, if the intent is to protest inadequate service issues and bring to the company's attention the flaw in its system, then I would not consider it illegal. This is why we have judges, to interpret the stickier points of law - but unfortunately there has been an active campaign to call them "activists". In other words, we don't want judges to judge in much the same way we no longer allow teachers to teach. (They are suppose to regurgitate what is before them mindlessly.)

 

[idisarmu]

"I an a post titled, "

Brilliant. Please proof read next time.

 

[intesx]

[citation][nom]yugo[/nom]Vote with your dollars, folks, and go the the other carriers.[/citation]

This is quite possibly the most intelligent comment in this entire thread...

 

[jawshoeaw]

[/AT&T's been complaining about having customers for years. I don't really know why people insist on burdening them anyway.]
My lol for the day. if only sprint built 1 more tower (near my house )

 

[Guest]

Congrats, Jane, your article made the significant news links on groklaw. Dan is well known there for not fully considering the implications and consequences of his words.

 

[Guest]

If people could leave without having to pay rediculous termination fees they would probably leave that's the only thing keeping me with AT&T

 

[bamslang]

[citation][nom]datawrecker[/nom]Really there is no need to go through with this demonstration. A lot of the people in my area know AT&T's networks is not up to par. During Hurricane's Rita and Katrina's evacuation no one could get through to loved ones on AT&T's network. When the news announced that text messages could still get through it did not take long for it to go down as well. My Verizon line worked just fine. [/citation]

I live in Houston and have Verizon. During those times, my network was busy and calls would not go through. It was like that for everyone on every carrier, so don't pretend that it was JUST AT&T.