The CRN article last week by Kevin McLaughlin, "AT&T Faces Potential 'Operation Chokehold'" discusses Dan Lyons' (a.k.a. the fake Steve Jobs) AT&T customer "call to action" asking they simultaneously launch data hungry mobile apps to overwhelm the NYC AT&T network. The goal was to shame the carrier into building more capacity.
As McLaughlin quoted me in the 5th paragraph of his article, Lyons displays a fundamental lack of network infrastructure understanding. I believe, however, with this charade, he is entirely on the wrong side of the chokehold problem.
In my opinion, Apple has created the "chokehold," not the greedy carrier (Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the carriers, I could go on for pages about their sins, but not my focus here.) I blame the Apple campaign "There is an app for that!" While brilliant marketing, the pressure to have the largest number apps in one's app store was the net result and thus the race to the bottom on quality.
In general, the best written mobile apps utilize the network the least. Understanding, when and how to use the transport is the "Black Magic" of mobile app development. The shear number of mobile app suddenly available on the iPhone App Store (now in excess of 100,000) tells me that the vast majority do not uphold any quality standard of performance.
The carriers have gotten so fat on overpriced all-you-can-eat unlimited data plans, that the heavy usage apps are their comeuppance! You can be sure the price of these plans will adjust to pass the costs along to the consumer.
