Sounds like some management types over at AT&T have gotten their panties all in a bunch about the consumers prospected release date for tethering. Sigh. So the fine folks at 9to5 mac are getting harassed by AT&T because they re-published some of the end of year expectations echoed by some of the other heavy hitting blogs, most notably CNET.
Normally I’d feel bad for a company who has their words twisted to imply something that they never intended, but I have no sympathy for AT&T. They can’t say or do anything right these days, it’s not because consumers are misinterpreting what they say, it’s because consumers can’t differentiate what the heck they’re saying anymore. Plans designed to confuse you, an increase in bill amount because of fees that border on illegal, the outright thwarting of innovation because they’ve failed to innovate, is there any real doubt here that everyone’s confused because for the last decade AT&T, as well as others, have put forth their best effort to confuse us about what we’re actually getting? This summer turns into sometime in the fall, this year could likely mean sometime in the next two years. It’s a precedent they’ve set, so they only have themselves to blame.
I can’t think of any other industry that have so poorly failed to innovate with technology, and instead of maybe getting a new network to help them hold down the fort, they do everything in their power to stop the innovation instead of innovating along side it. Actually, I lied, both the MPAA and the RIAA are probably right up their with the AT&Ts of the world.
It doesn’t matter what the fine folks at AT&T said about a release date. What matters is that we’re now going on a 4th version of an iPhone and somehow these smart phone users are the only ones who can’t seem to get tethering love from their telcos. That’s the real story here, a company’s complete failure to handle a handset that for once has been the cause for an evolution in an industry, go figure that AT&T is fighting it with every ounce, and delaying its release. It’s what they do–nothing. Instead they collect your monthly bills and hope that the telecommunications market stagnates so that they don’t have to spend a dime on infrastructure issues.
