AT&T's iPhone Mess

In mid-December, Fake Steve Jobs, the alter ego of widely read journalist and blogger Dan Lyons, posted the following appeal to his fellow members of iPhone Nation: "On Friday, Dec. 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data-intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network. …Join us and speak truth to power!" Soon thousands of hooligans—or if you prefer, frustrated customers paying AT&T (T) as much as $150 per month—took to Twitter and Facebook to join up.

Operation Chokehold might have been a landmark consumer uprising had the federal government not stepped in. Two days before the planned protest, Jamie Barnett, the Federal Communications Commission's chief of public safety and homeland security, issued a statement warning that to "purposely try to disrupt or negatively impact a network with ill-intent is irresponsible and presents a significant public safety concern." Doing so could interfere with 911 calls. Fearing a boomerang of negative publicity, the Chokeholders called off the stunt, but the popular backlash against AT&T raged on. On the Dec. 20 broadcast of NBC's , Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers noted that Google's new phone might pose a threat to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and added: "Also a challenge to the iPhone: making phone calls."