iPhone Users: I’d Call AT&T Customer Service, But I Can’t Get a Signal

Remember the old days (like 10 years ago) when a cell phone was used as an advanced version of two cups and a string, only without the string?

Now that smartphones are employed as pocket laptops, videogame consoles, audio/video receivers, Web browsers, texting-and-tweeting machines, and – oh, yeah – telephones, cell networks are struggling to keep up with the demand for data.

The New York Times reports iPhone owners, who use “10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user,” have been most affected – and most frustrated – by the data bottlenecks.

This might be bad news for Apple, but it’s worse news for AT&T, the (thus far) exclusive carrier of iPhone service. Apple’s brand loyalty has been tested a number of times, but it’s never been seriously threatened. (Case in point: how many iPods have you replaced, even after they died before their time?)

iPhone owners weren’t exactly AT&T fans when they learned about its exclusivity deal, and the brand hasn’t improved its reputation since. The partnership is set to expire sometime next year, and AT&T is in danger of being tagged as a stodgy old-technology brand that can’t keep with the demands of new-technology products.

Meaning: once the iPhone deal expires, AT&T might end up the exclusive carrier for a phone more its speed: the marketed-to-seniors-and-Luddites Jitterbug.