Well everyone is raging about the new iPhone and how fantastic it is. Web Analytics Guru, Eric Peterson, has one and there is even a story I've blogged about a guy who has had his fingers reshaped and thinned in order to use the phone easier. Now apart from the cost of the phone (serious surgery costs), here is the environmental and stupidity cost - A 300 PAGE PHONE BILL!!
Article from The Times Online by Jonathan Richards
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Owners of Apple's iPhone have been in revolt over the size of the bills they receive from their network, some of which run to hundreds of pages.
One 23-year-old was so incensed with the 300-page bill she received from AT&T, the official network of the iPhone, that she made a video of it and posted it on YouTube and other sites. The clip has now been viewed more than three million times.
Justine Ezarik, a graphic designer (and 'Lifecaster') from Pittsburgh, said that her bill was so voluminous that it arrived in a box rather than an envelope. "Save a forest – use e-billing," a slogan at the end of her 60-second video read.
AT&T's bills are larger than normal because they detail every event that has taken place on the network, even if no charge has been occurred.
Many entries simply record, for instance, that a 'data transfer' has taken place – a reference to an iPhone having logged on to the internet - even though, on an unlimited data plan, internet access is free.
In an interview, Ms Ezarik reportedly admitted to sending 30,000 text messages a month, but her experience was by no means unique.
Several bloggers have posted about receiving bills of 50 to 60 pages in length. Mike Brophy, on his blog, General Theory of RIAtivity, showed a picture of a Maltese terrier sitting on his 127-page iPhone bill. "Seems like a real waste of paper (even if it's recyclable), gas and labour to transport this monstrosity of a bill to my mailbox," he wrote.
Yesterday, AT&T sent a text to all of its iPhone customers saying that as of the end of September, they would receive summarised bills. "We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemised detail," the text read, advising customers that they could view comprehensive billing details online.
Customers who wished to receive a full paper bill by post could do so for $1.99 (£1) per phone line, the company said, and there would also be an option to switch completely to electronic bills.
Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesperson, told the New York Times that because of the "high data usage" of many iPhone customers and the "potentially voluminous bills that can cause," it made sense to switch to electronic bills.
The company had been planning to switch to summary bills, he said, but had decided to take the action sooner partly in response to the outcry from customers, which prompted one newspaper to write the headline: "How many trees did your iPhone bill kill?"
The iPhone, which was out in the US in June, is due to be released in Europe at the end of the year.
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