Non-Deaf Douchebags and AT&T

[tongodeon]

stonedeafpilots has an article this morning about AT&T offering, then retracting a data-only plan for deaf customers, saying that hearing customers complained that deaf customers were getting “special treatment.”

Most articles I've seen seem to be criticizing the "Non-Deaf Douchebags" who, according to AT&T, are complaining about giving deaf people "special

Comments

[ikkyu2]

It seems fairly clear to me that the reason telcos feel threatened about data only is that it is not really much of a technological leap to take an unlocked phone and kludge up a VoIP program to run on it. That would mean that 'data-only' would be 'data + voice that you don't have to pay for', which in AT+T's business model is greatly inferior to 'data + voice that you have to pay for.' So I feel like I understand why they don't want to offer this yet and I definitely understand why they don't want to be first-to-market with it. (Although if they *were* first to market, they could probably capture the entire data-only market.)

The whole deaf-not deaf thing seems like a PR smokescreen to me; and a particularly stupid, ADA-violating one as well.

[usernameguy]

Mostly well said. This is AT&T's bullshit, not some nameless AT&T customers.

[sandwichgirl]

i was just thinking the other day how much i love the word 'douchebag.'

why should corporations be limited????

[drieuxster]

clearly if a corporation wants to represent things in a way that would be truthier in another historical timeline, on some other planet, why exactly should we be upset that they are actively engaged in a more creative interepretation of the contemporary conspiracy theories????

Clearly what AT&T is doing is showing that evil liberals are evil, and liberal, and that is an important patriotic duty in a time of being more patriotic...