Operation Feedback: A Sensible Alternative to Operation Chokehold
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 3:43PM 
As you may have heard. "Fake Steve Jobs" ie. Daniel Lyons has proposed Operation Chokehold for this coming Friday at noon pacific. The idea? To bring the AT&T network to its knees by encouraging data-intensive app use from iPhone users for one hour. The point, in theory, is to, gee I guess let AT&T know they don't have the most robust network to handle this traffic. With all due respect to Mr. Lyons, I'm pretty sure AT&T is quite aware of the status of their network at any given time.
The problem with the AT&T network is all the time it doesn't work. So why, would you encourage those who actually are getting data to flood the network.
Here's our sensible alternative: Operation Feedback. Every iPhone user should download AT&T's Mark The Spot app for reporting dropped calls, dead spots, data drop, etc. and for one week, we should all mark every single issue we encounter. If you want to bring something to its knees and be productive at the same time, why not flood the problem tallying-server with legitimate service concerns.
Starting this Friday, for one week, send AT&T every single issue you encounter via the app.
Who's with us?
AT&T, dan lyons, fake steve jobs Permalink
Reader Comments (6)
I'm with you and here is why..
Fighting the AT&T power.. kindly
Hell No!!! The problem with AT&T is that they have consistently put the cart before the horse. If you are going to sell us a device that's locked to your network, and shackle us to a two year contract, you better be damned sure that it's going to do what you promise. I, for one, am sick and tired of US wireless networks chipping away at the promises they have already made. Why have text messages gone UP in price over the years? Why does "unlimited" mean up to 5GB/mo? Because they hold all the cards, that's why. If a few people are inconvenienced by AT&T's network being choked out for an hour, that's unfortunate, but AT&T has repeatedly offered me less and packaged it as more. I have been with the same carrier for over 10 years, and that means I was with VoiceStream, then Cingular, and now AT&T. Each time my contract has expired I was offered a "great deal" on a new plan, which contained less features and benefits than the previous plan. And every time the carrier has decided to reinvent itself, it gives them carte blanche to stop honoring the deals we have made with the previous company.
I for one plan on maxxing out my 5GB/mo in one go, on Friday b/t 12-1 PST
Long Live Operation Chokehold!
Down with AT&T!
I agree that AT&T has over promised and under delivered, but really.. There is NO way a DNS attack on AT&T is going to say anything, and in truth, its not going to work. Even if 10,000 users attacked the network, it would just slow down, not crash. Really, if you want to protest, jailbreak your phone and go to T-Mobile or some other carrier. Or as I plan to do, jump ship altogether once the right Android phone comes out.
Kudos for using reason and cutting through the juvenilia of Operation Chokehold. I implore anyone that thinks Chokehold is a silly and dangerous enterprise to join the Operation Cuckoo group on Facebook.
You must be new to dealing with AT&T. There's no way that app isn't just a black hole. If you've ever tried to get a complaint heard with AT&T you'd know their entire corporate structure is based on plausible deniability. The execs on top hire idiots on bottom and put in place procedures that makes it easy for them to go, "Whoops!, Our mistake" and never claim any responsibility then repeat ad nauseam.
My company is now in month 3 of a relatively simple number port to a VoIP carrier that will save us a few thousand a month that AT&T has constantly dicked around with. For an easy example try to find the number of the complex portability department. It's not published anywhere and none of the normal customer service lines will give it to you. I'd compare AT&T to trying to scale a fortress but it's more like trying to scale a sheer glass obelisk. At least with a fortress you can make slow progress, AT&T doesn't have a single foothold to even get started.
I still don't see how this is dangerous. Using tons of data won't affect voice service at all, and even if it did, there is no roaming charge for 911 calls, so anyone with AT&T's service could just use T-Mobile or US Cellular or any other nearby GSM cell tower.
People who support "Operation Chokehold" aren't motivated by dead spots or "poor voice quality," they just want to see AT&T back up their claims, just as cDizzle described above. Moreover, this "Operation Feedback" powered by the "Mark the Spot" app is only a small piece of why AT&T users are upset with their service, and is a poor alternative to "Operation Chokehold."