A Newsweek writer better known as Fake Steve Jobs is so fed up with AT&T's service for his iPhone that he's calling on his fellow AT&T customers to clog up the 3G wireless network today in protest of AT&T's plan to impose service fees on "bandwidth hogs." According to the Inquirer:
Dan Lyons, blogging as Fake Steve Jobs, has called on AT&T users to show their service dissatisfaction by trying to overwhelm the network with data-intensive tasks. "Operation Chokehold", as he called his incitement to flash-mob mischief, hopes to shut down the US AT&T 3G network at 3pm today and appears to have gained some support from the iPhone rabble.
Thousands have pledged their support for Operation Chokehold (on Facebook, so take that as you will). However most tech blogs are calling Lyons and his protesters jerks for attempting to disrupt service. The FCC and AT&T are calling the stunt irresponsible because it would be an intentional disruption to AT&T's 80 million customers. However, a disruption, if one even happens, wouldn't affect voice service, so the claim that 911 calls would be blocked isn't true. Some blogs don't think anyone will participate outside of New York and San Francisco, but if the thousands do materialize, and the network is bumped off-line, the Inquirer speculates that Lyons could face legal trouble for inciting the stunt. Just to play it safe, if you need to use any of your amazing iPhone apps to access the internet, you might want to do it before 3 p.m. today. Related Content: Discoblog: Modern Bedfellows: LSD Inventor Wrote to Steve Jobs, Asked for Support Discoblog: Macbook, Shmacbook. Where’s Our Limitless Movie Selection? Discoblog: Typo Brings Down the Internet In Sweden
Image: flickr / William Hook
