Thursday, December 30, 2010

The future is already here – it's just not very evenly distributed. (An open letter to AT&T)

Dear AT&T,

Attached you'll find a picture my wife and I took on a boat traveling through Vietnam's Mekong Delta.  Our abilities with our new camera are admittedly lacking, so it's hard to make out the orange life vests lining the boat's ceiling and green jungle in the background, but then, this is my blog, not a court of law.  The real crux of this photo is the 5 bars you see on my iPhone: I had good reception throughout the Delta -- much, much better than I get in America's second most density populated big city*.
AT&T, I've loved my iPhone these past 2 years, but long for a phone call that doesn't end mid-sentence, and will be thrilled to move to a network that can compete with the 3rd world the moment my contract expires.
  -- kieran

* - These kinds of comparisons hinge on the definition of terms like "big city," of course, but scan through Wikipedia's density stats and look for a city you recognize that isn't NYC.  And if you haven't tried AT&T in San Francisco, don't bother.