[Infowarrior] - AT&T's latest cell scam

[Richard Forno]

AT&T Tries to Trick Customers into Paying More to Use Less
	• By: Nick Mokey  •
	• March 24, 2010

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/att-tries-to-trick-customers-into-paying-more-to-use-less/

Cell phone data networks are swamped. Now carriers want you to pay  
more money – and use your own resources – to help them deal with it.

AT&T has made little secret of the fact that iPhone users’ voracious  
appetite for Internet bandwidth has loaded down its 3G network to its  
breaking point. But rather than upgrading its 3G network like T- 
Mobile, or going full throttle on 4G deployment like Sprint and  
Verizon, AT&T plans to fix the problem by… asking consumers to bear  
the load for them, and charging them money for the privilege.
The company’s new 3G MicroCell acts like a miniature cell phone tower,  
routing calls through your home Internet connection – the one you  
probably pay at least $30 a month to access – rather than burdening  
AT&T’s 3G network with your traffic – which you will continue to pay  
at least $30 a month for.

How nice of you.

In exchange for taking your weight off its creaking, overburdened  
network, AT&T will happily charge you $150 for the 3G MicroCell, and  
continue to deduct minutes from your plan when you use it, even though  
you’re paying another company to handle your traffic, and paid out of  
pocket for the device to do it. If you want to reap any benefits, AT&T  
will stop deducting minutes from your plan whenever you’re in range of  
the MicroCell – in exchange for slapping another $20 bill in its hand  
every month.

The story of Tom Sawyer tricking another boy into whitewashing a fence  
for him and collecting an apple in payment comes to mind, but I can do  
one better.

Imagine a bus company that charges you $100 a month for a bus pass,  
but the busses get so crowded you can barely use them. The bus  
company’s solution: Offer to sell you a bicycle for $150, so you can  
help free up room on its  busses by not using them all the time, even  
though you’ll continue to pay $100 a month as if you did.

It almost offends me that AT&T thinks we’re dumb enough to fall for  
this, but I know many consumers will be. By promising better reception  
around the house with the 3G MicroCell, as the company is bound to do  
in advertising it, many cell customers will happily shell out $150 for  
one, unaware of the traffic they’re moving to their home Internet  
connections, or the favor they’re doing to AT&T. Just like Tom  
Sawyer’s pal.

In AT&T’s defense, it’s no guiltier than any other carrier in  
attempting to dupe us with the 3G MicroCell, which is part of a larger  
class of electronics known as femtocell devices. Verizon’s Wireless  
Network Extender, launched last year, costs a whopping $250, doesn’t  
provide 3G, and won’t even let you stop others – like neighbors with  
Verizon plans – from leeching off your service for better reception.  
Sprint’s Airave pulls similar shenanigans.

I don’t mean to vilify femtocell technology. It’s actually marvelous  
stuff that could help uncongest airwaves and speed up mobile Internet  
access, but AT&T and others haven taken a completely backwards  
approach to implementing it. Ultimately, these devices should be free  
to anyone who agrees to actually use it – subsidized by carriers in  
exchange for the lightened load on their networks. And because you  
cost carriers less, not more, when you use them, unlimited calling  
with no minute allotment should be a given on any femtocell device as  
an incentive to use it as much as possible, not an extra you pay  
monthly for.

As long as evil geniuses with big marketing budgets get their way,  
that won’t happen. In the mean time, the best you can do is stay as  
far away from Tom Sawyer’s whitewashing scheme as possible, and wait  
until he offers a real incentive to pick up the brush.

Maybe I’ll flick off the Wi-Fi on my iPhone in protest and soak up  
even more of AT&T’s precious 3G while at home. Just kidding. No act of  
protest is worth voluntarily subjecting myself to that network more  
than necessary.

If you would like to leverage your home Wi-Fi connection to make cheap  
calls without scratching AT&T’s back while you’re at it, make sure to  
check out our list of iPhone VoIP apps that can help you pay for fewer  
minutes and get more.