Thank You Thomas Carter!

My disdain for AT&T goes way back. I'd sign up for a home phone plan with an agreed upon international calling plan. Then after a few months a phone bill would arrive for $300. Somehow - the calling plan to New Zealand had "reset" and I'd been charged $1 a minute for overseas calls - for a month. And after four weekends of calls, it added up.

Then the dance would begin. I'd call AT&T, tell them about our calling plan, they'd tell us we canceled it, I'd tell them we didn't, they'd admit they couldn't prove I canceled the plan, and credit the charges and reset the calling plan. I'd do this 3-4 times a year. Waste an hour or so on the phone. Great way to spend a Saturday morning.

An associate of mine is the technology manager for an architecture firm in Charlotte, NC. He had the misfortune of sending a 6MB (not GB) file to his office, using his cell phone as the modem. With no data plan - care to guess how much AT&T charged him?

$360. Yep. $60 per MB.

Good thing he didn't download a Podcast. At that rate, an hour long episode of The Totally RAD Show (180MB) would have set him back nearly $11,000.

My friend called AT&T and tried to negotiate. A monthly data plan was $25. But the AT&T rep told him they didn't care since they were being bought by Cingular. No negotiation. He needed to pay the $360. Oh - and did he want a $25 data plan?

He canceled his AT&T account that month. Paid the $150 penalty. Moved to T-Mobile. Never looked back.

And yet, my distain for AT&T has recently subsided. While I have a first generation iPhone (wait for it...it's unlocked with the Ziphone hack) I've watch scornfully from the sidelines while others upgrade their official AT&T iPhone and now have Exchange support. On the other hand, I can't upgrade mine (yet) because it'll brick my phone. I need to wait till the updated hacks are released.

But then - just as I was about to hold my nose and move to AT&T and buy a new iPhone, I found out something interesting. The Exchange support already works with the $30 a month data plan with a first generation iPhone. BUT - if you buy a new (3G) iPhone and you want Exchange support - your data plan is now $45 a month. Nice.

The AT&T rep told me that AT&T didn't realize that Apple would automatically support Exchange on the first generation iPhones. D'oh! And AT&T isn't too happy about this little factoid. So it seems AT&T haven't yet learned their history lesson of working with Steve Jobs. Yes, the same Steve Jobs who ironically, was helping college students hack AT&T payphones so they wouldn't have to pay for long distant charges. Did I mention that you can use VOIP (like Skype) with the iPhone? D'oh! D'oh!

Anyway, if you already have an iPhone and you're considering upgrading to a new 3G iPhone for the Exchange support:

Don't buy a new iPhone. Upgrade your first generation iPhone and Exchange support should already work.

I really don't understand. Does anyone enjoy being an AT&T customer?

And here's the kicker: if you bought the first generation phone, and AT&T wireless plan, and now want to upgrade - he new iPhone is cheaper, right? "Twice as fast, 1/2 the price", right?

"If you are not currently eligible for the upgrade price, but your account is in good standing, you have two uptions: wait until you are upgrade eligible or pay a discounted early upgrade price of $399 for 8GB (black) and $499 for 16GB (black or white). A two-year contract is required. Additional discounts are not available for iPhone 3G."

$399 for a phone that costs a new customer $199?

I'm staying with T-Mobile. As for AT&T? They've been screwing their customers long before the Carterphone Decision.

Speaking of the Carterphone Decision, July 2nd was the 40th anniversary.

Thanks Thomas Carter.

Dear AT&T: Bite Me.