Data Congestion AT&T’s Fault?

If you own or know someone who owns an iPhone – or is simply an AT&T customer for that matter – there’s no doubt you’ve heard at least one story about slow data transfers, dropped calls and other network service problems brought on by massive data usage.

At least that’s the reason AT&T CTO John Donovan gave during a keynote address to a CTIA Wireless audience earlier this month. But now one blogger is pointing the finger directly at AT&T, saying the company is its own worst enemy.

Blogger Brough Turner blames configuration errors for at least some of the problems AT&T customers have been facing over the past year. Turner says “specifically, congestion collapse induced by misconfigured buffers in their mobile core network.”

Turner cites an experiment that resulted in “terrible throughput and extreme delays ... appear[ing] to result from overly large buffers in the routers &/or switches in AT&T's core network.” Those with a solid understanding of some of the science behind the issue can find Turner’s in-depth observations of AT&T’s network by clicking here.

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