Andre Yoskowitz
29 Dec 2009 0:52
Earlier today, AT&T halted online sales of the iPhone in New York City, prompting giant media scrutiny which almost unanimously agreed that the carrier was trying to halt extra traffic to their already overworked networks. NYC is the most populous iPhone ownership city in the United States.
The carrier has still not explained the halting of the sales, but has quietly returned the phone to its website.
Recently, AT&T said that about 3 percent of its users account for just under 50 percent of all data use, and pointed to iPhone users without needing to say the name of the popular device.
When asked about the brief suspension all the carrier said was: "We periodically modify our promotion and distribution channels."
The Consumerist quoted CSRs as saying that "New York is not ready for the iPhone, you don't have enough towers to handle the phone." Other CSRs were quoted as saying that NYC had depleted its stock of available iPhones online. Clearly, they have not.