| 300-page iPhone bill | |
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| Directed by | iJustine |
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Running time | 1 minute and 6 seconds |
A300-page iPhone bill fromAT&T Mobility mailed in a box[1] was the subject of aviral video made byYouTube personality Justine Ezarik, best known asiJustine, which became anInternet meme in August 2007.[2][3][4] Ezarik's video focused on the unnecessary waste of paper, as the detailed bill itemized all data transfers made during the first billing period of theoriginal iPhone, including every email and text message. Stories of unexpected billing issues began to circulate inblogs and the technical press after the iphone's heavily advertised and anticipated release,[5][6] but this video clip brought the voluminous bills to the attention of themass media.
Ten days later, after the video had been viewed more than 3 million times on the Internet[7][8] and had received international news coverage, AT&T sent iPhone users atext message outlining changes in its billing practices.[8][9] Theinformation technology magazineComputerworld included this incident in its list of "Technology's 10 Most Mortifying Moments".[10][11]
Apple releasedthe iPhone in theUnited States in June 2007. It came with a software "lock" so it could only be used on theAT&T Mobilitynetwork.[12] After purchase, buyers activated their iPhone's AT&T service contract using the AppleiTunes software,[13] during which buyers had the ability to choose their billing preference; however, if no option was specified during activation AT&T defaulted to using detailed billing.[14] Detailed billing itemized every data transfer, including background traffic fore-mail,text messaging, andweb browsing.[8] This generated a large number of entries.[5]
After a month's time[15] as early adopters received their first monthly bills, stories of unusually large and expensive iPhone bills circulated. The 300-page bill was exceptional but other heavy users received 50- to 100-page bills.[16] One of the first to attract wider attention was from Ben Kuchera, gaming editor for the technology-related websiteArs Technica, who described his 34-sheet, double-sided bill and another 104-page bill sent to a colleague;[5][6] he wrote, "While many of us have had smart-phones for some time, we've never seen a bill like this."[17] However, it was the release of Justine Ezarik's video that acted as a catalyst to bring widespread media attention to this aspect of the iPhone story.[18]
Justine Ezarik, then a 23-year-old[18] Pittsburgh-areagraphic designer andsketch comedian whovideo blogged with the nameiJustine, received her 300-page first iPhone bill on Saturday, August 11, 2007,[19] and decided to use it as aprop for a self-produced video shot in a coffee shop.[20] She posted the edited one-minute clip to several popular Internetvideo hosting services by the following Monday.[20] In the first week, the video received over 500,000 total views onYouTube, 350,000 views onRevver, 500,000 views onBreak.com, and 1,100,000 views onYahoo Video, as self-reported by the four popular Internet video sites as of August 22. Total views were reported to exceed 8 million by the end of 2007. Ezarik said she earned $2,000 from the video from Revver.[21]
Portions of the video were also televised along with one-on-one interviews with Ezarik by several national and local news programs in the United States, includingCNN,[22]Fox News Channel,[23]WTAE-TV,[20] andWPXI-TV.[24]ABC News Now also included independent reporting by anABC News Radio reporter in their video interview.[25]
Ezarik's Internet video commentary focused on the unnecessary waste of paper billing. In the video she highlights the physical size of the bill, not the amount due. "I have an iPhone and I had to switch to AT&T. So, that's wonderful. Well, I got my first AT&T bill, right herein a box," she says at the start of the video.[20] The rest of the video, set to the distinctive music used in American iPhone television commercials, shows her opening the box and flipping through the pages in fast motion.[26] The clip ends with the on-screen caption, "Use e-billing. Save a forest."[5]
Her other comments also followed along the same lines. In a blog posting she wrote, "Apparently, they give you a detailed transaction of every text message sent and received. Completely unnecessary."[2] She told aUSA Today reporter, "This is so silly, there's no reason they need to send you this much information."[3] Ezarik is a heavy user who typically sends and receives tens of thousands of text messages a month, which generated an exceptionally long $275[3] bill – 300 double-sided pages that had to be sent in a box with postage charges of $7.[27]
AT&T Mobility, themobile phone service provider for the iPhone said through spokesman Mark Siegel that the size of this bill was exceptional. "We're not sending lots of boxed bills to customers," he toldUSA Today. He said that the billing is the same for all AT&T mobile users, but the popularity and functionality of the iPhone gave it new visibility. "It's no different than with any other bill for any other device or any other service that we offer."[5]
Later, on August 18, AT&T issued a statement saying: "Our customers have the option of receiving a bill that is detail-free. Also, we have for years encouraged our customers to switch to online billing because it is convenient, secure, and environmentally friendly."[28] Then, on August 22, AT&T announced via text message to iPhone users that it was removing itemized detail from paper bills.[8][9] Ezarik responded, "Looks like they may have got the message," in response to AT&T's action.[8] Company spokeswoman Lauren Garner claimed public reaction was not the reason for the company's switch from detailed to summary billing, saying, "This was something we planned all along."[26][29]
AT&T may not have anticipated the downstream effects of iPhone customers' high data usage.[30][31]
Internet reporter Dana Blankenhorn stated that the size of the bill illustrated a problem with thetelephone companies' "event based" or connection-orientedbusiness model and used it to argue foropen spectrum in aradio frequencyspectrum auction in the U.S. scheduled for 2008. He contrasted how telephone billing considers every action a separately billable event, while the Internet model is based on aflat fee forbest-effort delivery inconnectionless mode transmission.[32]
Theinformation technology magazineComputerworld reported on the incident, saying the company's "extraordinarily detailed billing process resulted in some users receiving bills that ran dozens or even hundreds of pages long." It published the gaffe in its list of "Technology's 10 Most Mortifying Moments".[10][11]
Rob Enderle, a Silicon Valley tech analyst also echoed Ezarik's environmental activism, saying, "AT&T should get a new tagline – use AT&T, kill a tree."[27] TheUSA Today story was also titled "How many trees did your iPhone bill kill?"[3] According to blogger Muhammad Saleem, Apple's aim to have 10 million iPhone users by the end of 2008 would require the logging of about 74,535 trees annually, assuming an average 100-page monthly bill.[26][33][34] An editorial inThe Blade, an independent newspaper inToledo, Ohio called the detailed billing "absurd and environmentally wasteful".[35]
One security conscious commenter on theEngadgetconsumer electronics blog addressed the privacy implications of the oversize bills given the limitations of personalpaper shredders, by speculating on whether it would be easier to dispose of these large bills by burning them to protect personal information.[36] An editor for thelibertarian monthlyReason also speculated about the usefulness of the detailed information to government investigators.[37] The originalArs Technica blog posting, on the other hand, dismissed privacy concerns, showing that the detail pages do not contain sensitive information.[38]
Press accounts of this story also included related details and comments:
When the first version of the iPhone came out, in whatComputerworld called one of "technology's 10 most mortifying moments", consumers with 300-page bills voiced their disdain in what became a viral video on the Internet.
The new iPhone has been staggering users, first with its gizmo-good-looks, then with its functionality and now, about a month after it was launched, with its bills.
First billing cycle arrives looking more like a novel then a bill.
At the end of the bill, if anyone actually reads that far, the phone company has an announcement to make. "The New AT&T is going green".
Brophy's blog post asked "Has anyone on the Apple Environmental Team seen an AT&T bill?" Former Vice President Al Gore, an environmental activist, sits on the Apple board.
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