AT&T

AT&T (NYSE: T) has made a couple of big announcements today: Free nationwide directory assistance if you listen to some ads and the results of a survey of small businesses.

Let's start with the free directory assistance. It works pretty well from my three tests this morning. The ads were short and meaningless; one was for a law firm and the other two were for some other company I can't even recall their name. The ads appear to be geographically targeted but there is NO call-to-action. I've already forgot the names of the companies and its been only a few hours. I am sure that AT&T will get a good sell-in on these ads as "new" or "revolutionary" but without a call-to-action, I can only imagine that there will be low rates of continued advertisers. Also, the ad appears immediately when you connect to the service. Why not wait until they figure out what I am calling for first? It would certainly be a stronger ad if they targeted it to what I am asking about, right?

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AT&T has announced this morning that they have boosted the 3G coverage in, and around, NYC. With the addition of 200 third-generation (3G) cell sites, AT&T has expanded its mobile broadband network in Bay Ridge, Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Flatbush, Flushing, College Point, Bayside, Throggs Neck, Tremont, Fordham, City Island and Baychester. In New Jersey, the 3G network is also now available in Edgewater, Weehawken, Hoboken, Jersey City and Bayonne.

Of course iPhone owners need not worry! You get nothing. Deal with Edge - it's the best AT&T could do.

"We are staying ahead of the growing demand for fast, dependable wireless broadband access to feature-rich Internet content, such as streaming video," said Tom DeVito, vice president and general manager for AT&T's wireless unit in New York and New Jersey. He went on to say, "Imagine the thrill of using your wireless phone to show grandparents in Florida their granddaughter taking her first steps in Bayridge or Bayonne." Yep, that's it, that's the plan.

Side note - anyone else had enough of the absolutely pathetic AT&T wireless commercials running now? Must be made by the same team who created the gem, "xyz killed the algo".

Since the Cingular re-brand, AT&T has been doing everything possible to appeal to the younger, hipster set. While I think most of their efforts haven't reached their desired effect (see grandma saying IDK, My BFF Rose), they are now leveraging the current Superman strength of the Facebook brand.

I noticed the following advertisement outside the AT&T store in Union Square and saw two more large billboards in Times Square as well. Reminds me of the Palm advertising campaign in Chicago and NYC w/flickr/Google/eBay earlier this year.

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So the big news today is that AT&T is now going after their customers who illegally pirate and steal music. Techmeme has all of the various links and it appears that the LA Times has the lead.

Times staff writer James says, "AT&T Inc. has joined Hollywood studios and recording companies in trying to keep pirated films, music and other content off its network — the first major carrier of Internet traffic to do so. The San Antonio-based company started working last week with studios and record companies to develop anti-piracy technology that would target the most frequent offenders, said James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president."

I reviewed most of the links on Techmeme and I was very surprised to see that no one mentioned that the Apple deal might have something to do with this. In 2 weeks, nerds and geeks will line up for hours as if a new Krispy Kreme was opening to get their hands on an iPhone. Well what do we know about the iPhone? It comes with an iPod which (work with me here) holds songs from iTunes where you can buy music and videos! Hello!

Simple Columbo logic makes me realize that while AT&T is helping the industry on the whole, Apple will certainly benefit from this. While the stories seem to talk about hardwired home Internet connections, AT&T's recent completion of their Cingular acquisition makes me believe that Mr. Jobs should benefit nicely from this.

Even if Apple has nothing to do with this, they should certainly see a side benefit from it.

Duncan believes customers may switch to another provider, but that is much easier said than done. Basically it's either cable or dsl, dsl sucks because you need a local phone line and normally you have one cable provider only. So switching costs are very high.

I am not sure yet whether AT&T is doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I am torn in the middle. If a customer is using their service to commit a crime, don't they have a responsiblity to report that?

Is my viewpoint right or wrong? Do you think AT&T is doing the right thing or the wrong thing? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

With the news that hackers gained access to AT&T customer data this week, I started to really think about what companies lose when they "lose" customer data. It certainly does not seem to be a lot honestly. Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer for AT&T stated, "We deeply regret this incident and we intend to pay for credit monitoring services for customers whose accounts have been impacted. We will work closely with law enforcement to bring these data thieves to account."