Apple satire site sparks real AT&T protest

Blogging as an ultra-egotistical version of Apple’s chief executive, a journalist has encouraged readers to derail AT&T for a brief period.

On his blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs,” Newsweek writer Dan Lyons posted a plan called “Operation Chokehold,” which he said originated from Apple employees. The plan calls for all iPhone users to perform bandwidth-intensive functions, such as streaming YouTube videos, for one hour on Friday, starting at noon Pacific time. The idea is that it would grind AT&T’s network to a halt, demonstrating the poor quality of its service.

“Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments,” says the operation’s directive. Fake Steve Jobs approves: “The idea of spanking them like this just gives me tingles all over,” Lyons wrote.

All this negativity originates from comments by AT&T Consumer Markets chief executive Ralph de la Vega, who hinted at an investor conference that the wireless carrier should stop people from consuming so much data with incentives. He noted that 3 percent of AT&T subscribers consume 40 percent of the network’s bandwidth.

This prompted a rather cathartic blog post from Fake Steve, taking the carrier to task for favoring its bottom line over costly network investments. That post, in turn, prompted “Operation Chokehold.”

AT&T has responded in a statement to Cult of Mac, calling the protest “an irresponsible and pointless scheme to draw attention to a blog.” That may be true, but in responding, AT&T has only drawn more attention to the protest and to its network woes. I don’t think the actual event will be big enough to impede emergency services, as some critics have wagered, but the buzz surrounding it has certainly resulted in more bad publicity for AT&T.

Despite his satirical role as Fake Steve Jobs, Lyons has raised some interesting concerns about the wireless carrier, noting that capital expenditures have decreased from two years ago while subscription revenue has increased. The implication is that AT&T ignores long-term customer satisfaction for short-term profits. AT&T did not address that argument in its response. Perhaps AT&T will if enough straight-laced outlets start raising the issue.