AT&T fraud - slowing the EDGE network

Speaking of fraud and the occult inflation of diminished quality, my wife's Blackberry Pearl web browser is now useless in the Twin Cities. It loads very slowly and frequently gives up.

On the other hand, my iPhone 3G performance just keeps improving.

It's not coincidental ...

AT&T slowing EDGE to force customers to switch to 3G?

.... Been holding on to that now-antique EDGE device to keep from extending your contract with AT&T? Well, if you've been experiencing some sluggishness -- and not just general EDGE sluggishness, mind you -- you might have more to blame than just those recent outages.

Open for Business reports that AT&T has been quietly lowering EDGE signal strength to give more 3G love to all you iPhone 3G and Bold users. To add to the shadiness of the situation, AT&T reps are all offering up the same solution -- buy a 3G device.

Unsurprisingly, AT&T's Mark Siegel has denied Open for Business's claims, and says that the mega-carrier is not requiring anyone to switch to a 3G phone. We'll put on our Sherlock Holmes outfits and try to do some digging, but it's not like we actually expect these guys to admit to a move that would definitely lead to a lot of backlash."

Once upon a time, in a different era, I thought we had too many lawyers and too many class action lawsuits.

Oops.

Come back lawyers! Come baaaacccckkkkk....

In the meantime, we'll see if AT&T will pony up a full discount on a new phone, and if they don't we'll open a ticket with the state Attorney General (currently Lori Swanson in Minnesota).

Sometimes these AG offices can be surprisingly effective. AT&T has been running a mobile phone rebate scam for years, but the NY AG's office (yay Cuomo!) just whacked them for it.

So when we contact Lori Swanson's Minnesota office we'll be sure to mention that we were hit by both AT&T mobile scams (EDGE and rebate card)...