AT&T wireless service, for which we pay $59 per month, is pathetic in Warsaw Missouri. Lately the service is terrible almost everywhere.

iPhone (or, more specifically, iPhone users) are strangling the AT&T network. It’s not a pretty picture for AT&T.

AT&T must know what their customers think of their network. If AT&T customers are telling me their tales or woe, they’re telling AT&T. If I were handcuffed to a two-year contract where I was paying big bucks (you can easily end up paying AT&T $150 a month), I’d be pretty emotional if I found out I was lumbered with the appalling levels of service that some folks seem to endure.

We started with Cingular wireless and the service was great everywhere in the country. Even back in the old analog phone days (yes, we’ve been with them quite a while) the service and coverage areas were great.

Then AT&T got involved. Before the iPhone we were already suspect of AT&T service. One of the largest predatory lenders had a seat on the board of directors at AT&T. The company was sued for failing to pay taxes on phone service, claiming they were an advertising company instead.

How did that shady deal take place? Apparently when someone used a pay phone (good luck finding one now) AT&T forced the caller to listen to an advertisement first.

The FCC sued, AT&T lost the suit, and paid for the dumb idea.

Who was the big loser in that deal? Rural telephone companies and children. Part of the surcharge was supposed to go to rural schools.

In another suit, AT&T Inc. paid $550,000 to settle claims that it erroneously billed nearly 50,000 people in Pennsylvania for long-distance service. Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said investigators determined that AT&T, for approximately three months in 2004, erroneously billed nearly 50,000 people $3.95 per month for a discount long-distance service plan, although those people claimed they were not AT&T customers or had canceled the service.

When a predatory lender and former CEO of Household International is on the board of directors the company is bound to suffer. The news said this about Aldinger in May 2009:

In the recent Household Financial securities lawsuit jury trial (about which refer here), among the individual defendants who were found to have acted recklessly in making public disclosures was Household director William Aldinger. As a result, Aldinger not only faces the prospect of having to pay monetary damages; he also faces further questions about his continued service on other corporate boards.

As reflected in a May 12, 2009 Chicago Tribune article (here), Aldinger serves on the board of four other publicly traded companies: Illinois Tool Works; AT&T; Charles Schwab Corp.; and KKR Financial Holdings LLC. As the article notes, “the verdict raises the question of whether Aldinger should have to resign from the boards.”

Now, in September 2009, our AT&T wireless service is right where we did not want it to be. Our fears have been realized. Service is terrible. “Waiting for data service” seems to last forever. Data transmission is slow. Dropouts are frequent.

Now I will pay my recent AT&T bill of $170.

By the way, how much did William F. Aldinger III earn as a director of AT&T in 2008? $263,042 is your answer.