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A woman named Justine Ezarik showing her 300-page iPhone bill in a box in a YouTube video titled "IPHONE BILL".

A 300-page iPhone bill from AT&T Mobility mailed in a box[1] was the subject of a viral video by Justine Ezarik which quickly became an Internet meme in August 2007.[2][3][4] Stories of unexpected billing issues began to circulate in blogs and the technical press after the Apple iPhone's heavily advertised and anticipated release,[5][6] but this video clip brought the voluminous bills to the attention of the mass media. Ten days later, after the video had been viewed more than 3 million times on the Internet,[7][8] and had received international news coverage, AT&T sent iPhone users a text message outlining changes in its billing practices.[9] Two months later, the information technology magazine Computerworld included this event in its list of "Technology's 10 Most Mortifying Moments."[10][11]

Background

The original iPhone.
Further information: iPhone

Apple released the iPhone in the US with a software "lock" so it could only be used on the AT&T Mobility network.[12] After purchase, buyers activated their iPhone's AT&T service contract using the Apple iTunes software,[13] during which buyers had the ability to choose their billing preference; however, if no option was specified during activation, AT&T defaulted to detailed billing.[14] Detailed billing itemized every data transfer, including background traffic for e-mail, text messaging, and Web browsing,[8] even when the phone is off.[15] This generated a large number of entries on the detailed bills.[5]

After a month's time,[16] as early adopters started receiving their first monthly bills, stories of unusually large and expensive iPhone bills began to circulate. The 300-page bill was exceptional, but other heavy users received 50- to 100-page bills.[17] One of the first to attract wider attention was from Ben Kuchera, gaming editor for the technology-related website Ars Technica, who, in an August 11 blog posting, described his 34-sheet, double-sided bill and another 104 page bill sent to a colleague,[5][6] writing, "while many of us have had smart-phones for some time, we’ve never seen a bill like this."[18] However, it was the release of Ezarik's video that acted as a catalyst to bring widespread media attention to this aspect of the iPhone story.[19]

Video

Ezarik, a 23-year-old[19] Pittsburgh-area graphic designer, sketch comedian, and blogger, received her 300-page bill on Saturday August 11, 2007,[20] and decided to use it as a prop for a self-produced video shot in a coffee shop.[21] She posted the edited one-minute clip to several popular Internet video hosting services by the following Monday.[21] In the first week, the video received over 500,000 total views on YouTube, 350,000 views on Revver, 500,000 views on Break.com and 1,100,000 views on Yahoo Video, as self-reported by the four popular internet video sites as of August 22. Total views were reported to exceed 8 million by the end of 2007, but Ezarik claimed she only earned US$2000 from the video, because only the views on Revver generate compensation for the creator.[22]

Portions of the video were also televised along with one-on-one interviews with Ezarik by several national and local news programs in the United States, including CNN,[23] Fox News Channel,[24] WTAE-TV,[21] and WPXI-TV.[25] ABC News Now also included independent reporting by an ABC News Radio reporter in their video interview.[26] In print media, the video's story was featured nationally in USA Today with independent reporting from major daily papers in New York, Los Angeles, several other large cities in the U.S., and in the United Kingdom, even though the iPhone was not available outside the U.S. market at the time.

Ezarik's internet video commentary focused on the unnecessary waste of paper billing. In the video she highlights the physical size of the bill, not the amount due. "I have an iPhone and I had to switch to AT&T. So, that's wonderful. Well, I got my first AT&T bill, right here in a box", she says at the start of the video.[21] The rest of the video, set to the distinctive music used in American iPhone television commercials, shows her opening the box and flipping through the pages in fast motion.[27] The clip ends with the on-screen caption "Use e-billing. Save a forest."[5]

Her other comments also followed along the same lines. In a blog posting, she wrote, "apparently, they give you a detailed transaction of every text message sent and received. Completely unnecessary."[2] She told the USA Today reporter, "This is so silly, there's no reason they need to send you this much information."[3] Ezarik is a heavy user who typically sends and receives tens of thousands of text messages a month, which generated an exceptionally long bill – 300 double-sided pages that had to be sent in a box with postage charges of US$7.[28] In media interviews, Ezarik was asked the amount due, and answered that her first bill was for US$275.[3]

She had no complaints about the iPhone itself, saying, "I made the video only to point out the comical aspect of my phone bill being delivered in a box. As for the iPhone? I love it."[29]

Reaction

Justine Ezarik and her iPhone in 2008

Company

AT&T Mobility, the mobile phone service provider for the iPhone, said through spokesman Mark Siegel that the size of this bill was exceptional. "We're not sending lots of boxed bills to customers", he told the USA Today reporter. The billing is the same for all AT&T mobile users, but the popularity and functionality of the iPhone has given it new visibility. "It's no different than with any other bill for any other device or any other service that we offer", Siegel said.[5]

Later, on August 18, AT&T issued a statement saying: "Our customers have the option of receiving a bill that is detail-free. Also, we have for years encouraged our customers to switch to online billing because it is convenient, secure and environmentally friendly."[30] Then, on August 22, AT&T sent the following text message to iPhone users: "AT&T free msg: We are simplifying your paper bill, removing itemized detail. To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless. Still need full paper bill? call 611."[8][31] Ezarik was quoted as saying, "Looks like they may have got the message", in response to AT&T's action.[8] Company spokeswoman Lauren Garner, however, said public reaction was not the reason for the company's switch from detailed to summary billing, saying, "this was something we planned all along."[27][32]

Industry

AT&T may not have anticipated the downstream effects of iPhone customers' high data usage.[9][33] Adam Zawel, a spokesman at Boston-based InMobile.org, an online community for wireless executives, speculated that more than "business as usual" was involved with the large bills: "I suspect a messy combination of CRM strategy and billing system limitations", referring to customer relationship management, a comprehensive term covering the way an organization interacts with customers. He said the detailed billing is probably intended to prevent expensive calls to customer-care centers.[34] Instead, AT&T call centers were flooded with complaints about the size of the bills.[35]

Rob Enderle, a Silicon Valley tech analyst, told ABC News the voluminous bills are just another problem with the iPhone service, citing connection problems, customer support, coverage and "now bills that look like books." He said the large bills not only make no financial sense, they annoy customers as well.[28] Internet reporter Dana Blankenhorn went further, stating that the size of the bill illustrated a problem with the telephone companies' "event based" or connection-oriented business model, and used it to argue for open spectrum in a radio frequency spectrum auction in the U.S. scheduled for 2008. He contrasted how in telephone billing every action is a separately billable event, while the Internet model is based on a flat fee for best effort delivery in connectionless mode transmission.[36]

Environmental

Enderle also echoed Ezarik's environmental activism, saying, "AT&T should get a new tagline — use AT&T, kill a tree."[28] The USA Today story was also titled "How many trees did your iPhone bill kill?"[3] According to blogger Muhammad Saleem, Apple's aim to have 10 million iPhone users by the end of 2008 would require the logging of about 74,535 trees annually, assuming an average 100 page monthly bill.[27][37][38] An editorial in The Blade, an independent newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, called the detailed billing "absurd and environmentally wasteful"[39]

Apple Inc., the developer and retailer for the iPhone, has positioned itself as an environmentally responsible company since 1990,[40] and former U.S. Vice President, now environmental activist, Al Gore sits on its board of directors.[41] The company has adopted the green computing model in its new products, in particular their new iMac, so Apple customers may have been surprised by AT&T's legacy business practices.[42][43] One million iPhone customers had reportedly complained to Apple about the size of the iPhone bills,[29][35] although it should be noted that Apple had not yet shipped one million iPhones at the time.[44] Customers who read the entire bill found the following statement at the very end: "The New AT&T is going green."[42]

Security

One security conscious commenter on the Engadget consumer electronics blog addressed the privacy implications of the oversize bills given the limitations of personal paper shredders, by speculating on whether it would be more practical to dispose of these large bills by burning them to protect personal information.[45] An editor for the libertarian monthly Reason also speculated about the usefulness of the detailed information to government investigators.[46] The original Ars Technica blog posting, on the other hand, dismissed privacy concerns, showing that the detail pages do not contain sensitive information.[47]

Other outsized iPhone bills

Press accounts of this story also included related details and comments:

  • The founder of a Tampa, Florida think tank received a 42-page bill, and told a reporter, "it's ridiculous."[48]
  • An Oak Harbor, Ohio, teacher called his 52-page bill, "the biggest phone bill I've ever gotten in my life."[3]
  • A partner of a Macintosh consulting firm, called his bill "60 pages of nothingness"[42]
  • A business consultant from Virginia received a 62-page bill, and asked a reporter, "Why would you send bills that large?"[49]
  • A software company owner near Seattle, Washington posted on his blog a picture of a Maltese dog sitting on his 127-page bill spread out on the floor.[7][8] and asked, "Has anyone on the Apple Environmental Team seen an AT&T bill?"[41]
  • "The Packet Rat" columnist wrote in Government Computer News that his wife received a 150-page boxed iPhone bill, and commented "OK, how many trees did they have to kill to send out the first month's bills?".[50]

See also

References

  1. ^ Martin, James A. (September 5, 2007). "Sexy Portable Storage : The 300-Page iPhone Bill". Washington Post. Retrieved October 2, 2007. Justine Ezarik, a graphic designer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, posted a 1-minute video on her blog that shows her opening up a 300-page iPhone bill from AT&T--which was mailed in a box.
  2. ^ a b Keizer, Gregg (August 16, 2007). "A 300-page iPhone Bill? : iPhone owners rail at AT&T for paper waste with overly detailed bills". Computerworld. PC World Communications. Retrieved August 19, 2007. One blogger, in fact, is in the middle of her 15 minutes of fame after posting a video that shows her unwrapping a 300-page AT&T bill.
  3. ^ a b c d e Graham, Jefferson (August 15, 2007). "How many trees did your iPhone bill kill?". USA Today. Gannett. Retrieved August 19, 2007. Justine Ezarik, a Pittsburgh graphic designer and active Internet blogger, got her first bill on Saturday. She says it was so huge — 300 pages — it was delivered in a box.
  4. ^ "Pittsburgh Ranked Third 'Bloggiest' City". WTAE-TV News. November 9, 2007. Retrieved November 18, 2007. Pittsburgh native Justine Ezarik's video blog about her 300-page iPhone bill became an Internet [h]it.
  5. ^ a b c d e Ho, David (August 16, 2007). "A 300-page iPhone bill? Too much information, users say". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Cox Newspapers. p. C1. Retrieved October 2, 2007. Internet message boards and blogs are buzzing with talk of paper iPhone bills dozens and even hundreds of pages long.
  6. ^ a b "Singing the iPhone Billing Blues". TelecomWeb News. Free Press. August 17, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007. The first flock of iPhone fanatics have gotten their first bills this week — some of them 300 pages long and delivered in a box, others for $3,000 or more.
  7. ^ a b Richards, Jonathan (August 23, 2007). "Dear iPhone owner: your 300-page bill". The Times. London: Times Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved August 23, 2007. Mike Brophy, on his blog, General Theory of RIAtivity, showed a picture of a Maltese terrier sitting on his 127-page iPhone bill.
  8. ^ a b c d e Hafner, Katie (August 23, 2007). "AT&T's Overstuffed iPhone Bills Annoy Customers". The New York Times. Retrieved August 23, 2007. Ms. Ezarik, 23, made a one-minute video that shows her flipping through the voluminous bill and posted it to YouTube and other video-sharing sites on Aug. 13. The video has since been viewed more than three million times,
  9. ^ a b Quinn, Michelle (August 23, 2007). "AT & T to keep iPhone bills brief". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 4, 2007. But the company hadn't anticipated how much iPhone users would do with their new gadget, which combines a cellphone, Web-surfing device and iPod.
  10. ^ Haskin, David (October 17, 2007). "Technology's 10 Most Mortifying Moments : iPhone Bills Kill Trees". Computerworld. Retrieved November 30, 2007. The company's extraordinarily detailed billing process resulted in some users receiving bills this August that ran dozens or even hundreds of pages long, as captured in blogger Justine Ezarik's video of her unwrapping a 300-page phone bill. (It came in a box.)
  11. ^ Reedy, Sarah (August 15, 2008). "Billing confusion a pain for wireless customers and customer service". Telephony Online. Penton Media. Retrieved August 17, 2008. When the first version of the iPhone came out, in what Computerworld magazine called one of "technology's 10 most mortifying moments", consumers with 300-page bills voiced their disdain in what became a viral video on the Internet.
  12. ^ Krazit, Tom (January 9, 2007). "Finally, Apple answers call for iPhone". CNET News. Retrieved September 17, 2007. In one of the most anticipated gadget announcements in recent years, Apple Computer at Macworld on Tuesday introduced the "iPhone", a mobile device that CEO Steve Jobs promised will reinvent the phone. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Pogue, David (June 27, 2007). "The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype". The New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2007. In the last six months, Apple's iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google.
  14. ^ Perenson, Melissa J. (August 23, 2007). "The 300-page iPhone bill to disappear". PC World. Network World. Retrieved September 22, 2007. 'What we've had until yesterday was the detailed bill as the default option,' explains AT&T Wireless spokesman Mark Siegel.
  15. ^ Bennett, Andrea (December 19, 2007). "Tips for using cell phones overseas". Travel and Leisure. CNN. Retrieved December 28, 2007. ...novel-length bills in the mail (customer Justine Ezarik posted a YouTube video of herself opening a 300-page bill that AT&T sent to her in a box). What's the problem? It turns out that the iPhone automatically checks e-mail and performs other Internet data updates, even when the phone function is off.
  16. ^ "Opinion : Phone service". Daily News & Analysis, India. Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. August 27, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007. The new iPhone has been staggering users, first with its gizmo-good-looks, then with its functionality and now, about a month after it was launched, with its bills.
  17. ^ O'Brien, Terrence (August 14, 2007). "Girl Videotapes 300-Page iPhone Bill — Switched: Gadgets, Tech, Digital Stuff for the Rest of Us". Switched. AOL. Retrieved December 28, 2007. A 300-page bill is certainly uncommon, but 50-100 pages is fairly normal for heavy texters and mobile web users.
  18. ^ Ayres, Chris (August 27, 2004). "The iPhone bill that's as thick as a novel". The Times (London). News International. Retrieved December 28, 2007. 'While many of us have had smart-phones for some time, we've never seen a bill like this,' wrote Ben Kuchera on the Ars Technica website yesterday.
  19. ^ a b Lyons, Kim (August 16, 2007). "The blog is on". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Tribune-Review Publishing Co. Retrieved August 19, 2007. Ezarik, 23, of Carnegie, made national news yesterday with a video of her flipping through her 300-page bill from AT&T -- mailed in a box -- for her new iPhone.
  20. ^ Ragan, Steve (August 17, 2007). "Thirty thousand text messages equal a forest killing 300-page phone bill". Monsters and Critics. WotR Ltd. Retrieved August 19, 2007. The box arrived last Saturday and inside it contained her first bill after she purchased Apple's iPhone.
  21. ^ a b c d Stockey, Andrew (August 15, 2007). "Pittsburgh Blogger's 300-Page iPhone Bill Mailed In Box". WTAE-TV News, Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Channel. Retrieved August 19, 2007. "I have an iPhone and I had to switch to AT&T. So, that's wonderful. Well, I got my first AT&T bill, right here in a box", she says in the video.
  22. ^ Whitney, Daisy (December 8, 2007). "Online Fame Easy; Ads Harder to Get". TVWeek. Retrieved December 15, 2007. …8 million views across YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo and Revver. …only 300,000 views came via Revver, where she gets paid for her work. She pocketed a mere $2,000 from her biggest Web hit, she said.
  23. ^ Glenn Beck (August 16, 2007). "CNN.com — Transcripts". CNN. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  24. ^ Shepard Smith (August 17, 2007). "Video: iSurprise : Blogger shocked after receiving 300-page iPhone bill". Studio B. Fox News Channel. Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  25. ^ "Local iPhone Customer Gets 300-Page Phone Bill". WPXI Pittsburgh. August 15, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007. Channel 11's Andy Gastmeyer met with Ezarik...to discuss the bill.
  26. ^ "Getting the iPhone Bill". ABC News Now: Money Matters. ABC News. Retrieved September 22, 2007. First billing cycle arrives looking more like a novel then a bill.
  27. ^ a b c Levine, Barry (August 24, 2007). "AT&T Decides To Kill the iPhone Bill". CIO Today. Retrieved September 14, 2007. One blogger estimated that a 100-page bill, delivered monthly, would mean curtains for nearly 75,000 trees annually.
  28. ^ a b c Phillips, Ashley (August 14, 2007). "Bulky iPhone Bills Can Top 300 Pages". ABC News. Retrieved August 19, 2007. For a heavy user like Ezarik -- she typically sends 30,000 text messages a month -- an itemized bill was incredibly long and heavy. The postage on her bill was $7.
  29. ^ a b Littlejohn, Georgina (August 25, 2007). "300-page iPhone Bill". Hispanic Business News. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Retrieved September 4, 2007. One million iPhone customers across the US have filed complaints with manufacturer Apple about the size of their phone bills.
  30. ^ Brady, Jeff (August 18, 2007). "Woman mocks 300-page bill-in-a-box". WFAA-TV news (Dallas/Fort Worth). Retrieved August 22, 2007. AT&T issued a statement today saying: 'Our customers have the option of receiving a bill that is detail-free. Also, we have for years encouraged our customers to switch to online billing because it is convenient, secure and environmentally friendly.' 
  31. ^ Cheng, Jacqui (August 22, 2007). "AT&T says "No more 300-page iPhone bills"". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 22, 2007. Surely due to the recent flurry over massively large iPhone bills, AT&T has begun sending text messages to its iPhone users assuring them that 50, or 75, or 300+ page iPhone bills will no longer be sent to their houses (unless they want them).
  32. ^ Swett, Clint (August 23, 2007). "Long iPhone bills go away". The Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on January 21, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2007. But company spokeswoman Lauren Garner said the outcry had no bearing on AT&T's decision to send billing summaries rather than the full bills.
  33. ^ McNevin, Greg (August 29, 2007). "No More 300 Page Bills for iPhone Customers". Image and Data Manager, Australia. Knapp Communications. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007. ...the incident illustrates how the rollout of new technology can collide with old automated billing services if appropriate steps aren't taken.
  34. ^ Thilmany, Jean (August 17, 2007). "iPhone: The 800-Pound Gorilla Spawns a 300-Page Bill". Destination CRM. CRM Media. Retrieved August 19, 2007. "Fear of customer-care calls is a huge driver of everything because they give someone like AT&T two whammies", Zawek says.
  35. ^ a b "300-page iPhone bill that's as thick as a novel". The Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd. August 28, 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2007. One million iPhone customers across the US have filed complaints with manufacturer Apple about the size of their phone bills.… AT&T Wireless, Apple's phone company partner, have been inundated with complaints from customers about the lengthy bills.
  36. ^ Blankenhorn, Dana. "The iPhone bill demonstrates need for open spectrum". ZDNet. CNET Networks. Retrieved August 19, 2007. It's the 300 page iPhone bill, in a box that cost $10 to ship, and nothing could better illustrate the need for open spectrum as we head into an election year. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  37. ^ Brenn, Max. "Massive AT&T iPhone Bills Considered Useless". eFluxMedia. Retrieved August 19, 2007. For these huge amounts of paper to be printed many trees have to be sacrificed and, according to blogger Muhammad Saleem, Apple's aim to have 10 million iPhone users by the end of 2008 would require the logging of about 74,535 trees annually.
  38. ^ Brown, Jorg (August 17, 2007). "iPhone Billing and International Issues". TidBITS. Retrieved August 19, 2007. This is an idiotic waste of paper (blogger Muhammad Saleem estimated it at nearly 75,000 trees per year)...
  39. ^ "A bill in a box is a waste". Toledo Blade. August 23, 2007. Retrieved September 14, 2007. IN THE cyberspace age, it is absurd and environmentally wasteful for telephone companies to give customers such detailed billing statements that they arrive in thickly packed envelopes or boxes.
  40. ^ "Apple — Environment". Apple Inc. Retrieved August 19, 2007. Apple recognizes its responsibility as a global citizen and is continually striving to reduce the environmental impact of the work we do and the products we create.
  41. ^ a b "AT&T drops iPhone bills that ran hundreds of pages". CNNMoney.com. August 23, 2007. Retrieved September 22, 2007. Brophy's blog post asked "Has anyone on the Apple Environmental Team seen an AT&T bill?" Former Vice President Al Gore, an environmental activist, sits on the Apple board.
  42. ^ a b c Barnett, Megan (August 14, 2007). "Daily Brief: Little Phone, Big Bill". Portfolio.com. Condé Nast. Retrieved August 19, 2007. At the end of the bill, if anyone actually reads that far, the phone company has an announcement to make. "The New AT&T is going green."
  43. ^ Hughes, Gina (August 13, 2007). "First iPhone Bills Arriving—and They're Pretty Heavy : Gina Hughes : Yahoo! Tech". Yahoo! Tech. Yahoo!. Retrieved August 19, 2007. Apple has modified its products as it attempts to build greener computers, but I think they forgot to tell AT&T about their latest environmental efforts.
  44. ^ "Apple Sets iPhone Price at $399 for this Holiday Season" (Press release). Apple Inc. September 5, 2007. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
  45. ^ Smit, Martina (August 24, 2007). "iPhone bill is as thick as a novel". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007. Another user remarks on the site engadget.com: 'I shred my bills when I am done with them. I am guessing a bonfire is more economical then buying an industrial sized shredder to deal with that pile of paper...'
  46. ^ Weigel, David (August 16, 2007). "Hit & Run > The Feeding of the 300". Reason Magazine. Retrieved September 20, 2007. I suppose if you're a federal investigator you're hoping some criminals bought into the iFad, because you can find anything about users' usage that you want.
  47. ^ Kuchera, Ben. "iPhone bill is surprisingly Xbox HUGE (lol)". Ars Technica. Retrieved September 20, 2007. Okay, so maybe we should be happy that the pages upon pages of info in this bill aren't going to send privacy advocates into seizures... {{cite web}}: Text "2007-08-11" ignored (help)
  48. ^ Bora, Madhusmita (August 16, 2007). "Business: iPhone bills land with a thump". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved August 19, 2007. AT&T took 42 pages to slap him with the $95 bill.
  49. ^ Kelley, Jeffrey (August 16, 2007). "AT&T users, may find a big bill in the mail". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved August 19, 2007. Henrico County resident Steve Kimball, for instance, received a 62-page bill this week.[dead link]
  50. ^ Fink, R. (August 27, 2007). "The Packet Rat : Commentary: The other shoe — measured by the ton — drops with the iPhone bill". Government Computer News. 105 Media, Inc. Retrieved September 4, 2007. 'OK, how many trees did they have to kill to send out the first month's bills?' the Rat half-growled, half-cackled as he contemplated the wood-pulp brick packed with 150 pages of hard copy.

Blogs

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