"Don't blame the iPhone," that's what AT&T representatives said about the wireless data outage on AT&T's network Monday.
iPhone users were among many smart phone subscribers complaining of a noticeably slow AT&T data network on Monday, but a spokesman for the company said the issue had nothing to do with the onslaught of people activating their iPhones.
Voice service and text messaging was not impacted. But some customers using AT&T's 2.5G and 3G wireless networks complained that they could not get any data service on their mobile handsets. All smart phones, including the iPhone, were affected. The only exception was Research In Motion's Blackberry devices, which routes Internet traffic through RIM's own servers. (RIM has had its own network issues and outages.)
The problems were a result of a computer glitch that forced wireless traffic in Texas to be rerouted to other parts of AT&T's network, according to Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T. Subscribers mostly in midwestern and western states were impacted, whereas subscribers in other parts of the country were not affected to any large degree, he said. Service is working normally as of Tuesday afternoon, he added.
While some people have speculated that AT&T's network issues were due to the pressure of thousands of people activating their new Apple iPhones over the weekend, Siegel said that was absolutely not true. AT&T has spent $50 million over the past few months to upgrade the capacity of its data network in anticipation of the iPhone, which launched Friday night. And he said the network is able to keep up with the demand.
"More and more people use wireless services everyday," he said. "Yesterday was no different than any other day when people sign up for new service with AT&T. There was a technical issue in the network, but it had nothing to do with the iPhone."
And even though Siegel is adamant that AT&T's network is up to the demand for the iPhone, many people, including CNET News.com's own Declan McCullagh, experienced huge problems activating their new iPhones. But as of Tuesday, AT&T says those issues have been solved and activation should be smooth sailing for any new iPhone users.
No. 2 overall & online
No. 3 overall
More advertising dollars are flowing to the Internet, in a trend that started years ago. Advertising Age has come out with its annual look at the United States top-100 advertising spenders. There are few surprises, but it's confirmation of what you've probably been seeing and expecting. Internet ads now account for 5.5 percent of total spending by the top 100 advertisers in the U.S. That adds up to nearly $10 billion, and the Internet's about even with radio and ahead of outdoor.
What are the biggest losers? TV's share of ad spending has been dropping annually for 16 years, after it peaked at nearly 70 percent. TV now accounts for less than 59 percent of American ad revenue. Newspapers had a serious drop of revenue in the 1960s, then slowly began to recover, only to fall off a cliff following 2000. That year papers collected 16 percent of all ad revenue; in 2006 it was less than 12 percent. Since 1970, magazine ad revenue has been fairly flat, but that means not keeping ahead of inflation. Glossy print still is No. 2 in total ad dollars garnered. That leaves the Internet as the only clear winner among major ad media.
The big advertising spender is Proctor & Gamble, which leads at $4.9 billion. Second and third are AT&T with slightly more than $3.3 billion and General Motors with just less than $3.3 billion. These are followed by Time Warner, Verizon Communications and Ford Motor.
Other carmakers on the list are Toyota Motor at No. 12, DaimlerChrysler at No. 14, Honda Motor at No. 21 and Nissan Motor at No. 23--all spending well more than $1 billion annually. Other big spenders are No. 12 Sony at nearly $2 billion and No. 15 Sprint Nextel at more than $1.7 billion.
Tech brands? Microsoft is No. 45, Dell is No. 47 and Hewlett-Packard is No. 51. Each company spends less than $1 billion. Apple ranks No. 89, while Philips Electronics barely makes the list at No. 98.
Of the big 100 spenders, Vonage spent the most online in 2006 with $185 million, more than a third of its total amount spent. The No. 2 online spender was AT&T at nearly $170 million. They were followed by Dell, Walt Disney and Verizon.
TV is still leading the Internet by more than $50 billion. Anybody predicting the Internet and TV ad dollar curves will ever intersect? That'll depend on whether TV retains control of the most prized copyrighted material or whether Internet sites begin to compete with live sports and original programming with big-name stars.
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