AT&T Will Pay Me

Approximately zero percent of the population seems to understand what AT&T is trying to say with its bizarre ad campaign about how "I need a phone that works where I live, a place called Bizarreportmanteauplacename," probably because the ads are really dumb. What they mean, for the record, is that AT&T's phones operate on the GSM standard which is much more widely used outside the US. Thus, an AT&T phone will (for an appropriate fee) work pretty much wherever you want to go. A Verizon phone, by contrast, will not.

Given that most Americans don't do much international travel, this probably isn't a compelling consideration for all that many people, but if you do go abroad regularly it's a big difference.

Comments

But most of the ads I've seen use US-specific names, like combinations of California, Kentucky and Kansas. So what's the point in using all-US places if its a GSM vs. CDMA campaign?

I'd just assumed it was to get across the general idea of portability, not a "You can go anywhere in the world" thing.

Posted by ryan | December 3, 2007 12:08 PM

Verizon now has a "world edition" phone, which somehow works on both kinds of networks.

Posted by right | December 3, 2007 12:17 PM

OT- your link to Lindsay Beyerstein doesn't work -

Posted by Bloix | December 3, 2007 12:22 PM

It's all well and good that AT&T works in Bizarreportmanteauplacename, but I'd like it better if it worked in my goddamn house. I have to go outside to have a phone conversation, and it's cold now, which means I never talk to anyone.

Posted by SDM | December 3, 2007 12:24 PM

I think this new ad campaign is hilarious. I'd been a Cingular customer for over 5 years, and my little sister who went to college in a rural area in another state had been on my family plan for almost two. Within 6 months of AT&T taking over Cingular our phones were cut off because a "significant portion" of calls on my plan originated outside of my calling area. It took a week to get the phones reconnected. Yeah, a phone that works where I live. Ha.

Posted by brooks | December 3, 2007 12:27 PM

combinations of California, Kentucky and Kansas

Kancalifucky?

Posted by croatoan | December 3, 2007 12:28 PM

Was this post really an ad paid for my AT&T or Apple?

Sorry to be so mistrustful but in this culture a lot of things are not as they seem.

Posted by kafka | December 3, 2007 12:39 PM

It doesn't do much good to have a phone that theoretically works when you're traveling as long as actually using it incurs per-minute charges that quickly make flying to talk to the person a cheaper solution.

Posted by KCinDC | December 3, 2007 12:39 PM

The real advantage of GSM is that you can drop a prepaid local SIM module into your precious iPhone and make local calls to your friends in farfaraway. You AT&T phone is locked so that you specifically cannot use it this way. No, their plan is for you to pay roaming charges on all your farfaraway phone calls, as if they were routing all your phonecules back thru Chicago, and back out to your local friends.

Depending on your usage, it would be cheaper to rent a local GSM phone and SIM card for this purpose.

Posted by mark | December 3, 2007 1:10 PM

Oh! I thought they were just being nonsensical. The ad should suggest that this is a way in which AT&T differs from its competitors, because I assumed they were all identical in this as well as every other respect.

Posted by Cryptic Ned | December 3, 2007 1:19 PM

AT&T's other ads are "More bars in more places"™ so I think this is clearly just an extension of that campaign with a Wes Anderson supplied comedic veneer.

Posted by Dan | December 3, 2007 1:24 PM

Hey guys, you are all missing the point. I too thought these ads were stupid at first, that is until I realized how much time I was staring at billboards trying to figure out the 3 cities. That's when it struck me as a brilliant ad campaign. It's no "Can you hear me now?" campaign but its pretty good at doing what it is supposed to do, mainly get you to associate cell phones with ATT.

Outside of its brilliance as a campaign, it's completely stupid, but that's what helps it be brilliant. I hope they beat it to death and 3 years from now we're looking at AkFarKane trying to figure out really obscure cities. Now that could be fun. Akron, Fargo, Spokane.

Posted by kj | December 3, 2007 1:35 PM

Yes. The irony of AT&T advertising itself as convenient to customers is considerable. Damn I hate those f*ckers.

Posted by mpowell | December 3, 2007 1:39 PM

Thanks for explaining that ad. I figured it was just a really stupid way of saying they had a good network (which isn't true from what I've heard).

That or it's just the service to use if you compounding words.

Posted by Greg Sanders | December 3, 2007 1:42 PM

Yeah, cell phones work everywhere (and T-Mobile also uses GSM), so what's the unique selling proposition?

Posted by beowulf | December 3, 2007 1:53 PM

To SDM,
on your phone not working in your house,
hence you talk less when it is freezing outside.

Some people view this as an feature, not a bug.
Insert suitable Mencken or Ambrose Bierce quote...
here.

I will admit that such people may have had the foresight to not buy said cell phone in the first place. I will also suggest that only the truly wealthy can afford to have no cell phone

Posted by catclub | December 3, 2007 1:54 PM

Huh, catclub? I don't have a cell, and have never seen the need for one. Exactly what are the good for besides letting people call you at their convenience rather than your own?

Posted by AlanC9 | December 3, 2007 2:07 PM

When I saw this ad campaign I associated it in my head with Thomas Friedman's "the world is flat" crap. Like maybe some ad guy decided that was a meme that's out there and AT&T should try to tap into it, or something.

Also, Matt's Lindsay Beyerstein link is never going to work. Its brokenness seems to be some sort of unalterable physical constant, or maybe fixing it would make the Internet fall apart. Or something.

Posted by guyx | December 3, 2007 2:33 PM

A prepaid foreign phone is almost always cheaper, if you make more than a couple of calls. Also, receiving calls is free on European cells.

Still, if you call AT&T, they will sometimes give you the code to unlock your phone. It's a lot lighter just carrying around one phone, one charger and 2 SIM cards, rather than 2 of everything.

Posted by faux facsimile | December 3, 2007 5:43 PM

Considering that my AT&T GSM phone barely works in my neighborhood (just south of San Francisco), it's reception in Europe is not much of a selling point for me.

Posted by david in norcal | December 3, 2007 8:07 PM

I want to take the opportunity to attack Matt for his blatant AT&T whoring. AT&T clearly is not saying anything about the GSM standard, because the bizarreportmanteauplacenames are all for places that are all in the US. As I understand it, the general consensus is that Verizon works much better in most places in the US than AT&T. So the commercial is clearly based on nothing at all, and is just stupid.

The fact that Matt is trying to sell us this bullshit is shameful.

Also,

Exactly what are they good for besides letting people call you at their convenience rather than your own?

Surely you can at least imagine times when it would be useful to either a) get in touch with somebody while not at home; or b) have someone be able to get in touch with you while you're not at home? I was late to get a cell phone, and I understand the drawbacks, and also realize that it's possible to get along without one. But I am astonished that, in all seriousness, someone could try to claim that they can see no possible uses of a cell phone at all. Anti-cell phone snobs are incredibly irritating, at least as irritating as iPhone shills like Yglesias. A plague on both your houses.

Posted by John | December 4, 2007 10:21 AM

"think this new ad campaign is hilarious. I'd been a Cingular customer for over 5 years, and my little sister who went to college in a rural area in another state had been on my family plan for almost two. Within 6 months of AT&T taking over Cingular our phones were cut off because a "significant portion" of calls on my plan originated outside of my calling area. It took a week to get the phones reconnected. Yeah, a phone that works where I live. Ha."

Given that Cingular and adopted the AT&T name, it looks like you've been d*cked around more than you think.

Posted by Daniel Nexon | December 6, 2007 5:14 PM

That should have been "acquired AT&T and adopted the AT&T name." Odd.

Posted by Daniel Nexon | December 6, 2007 5:17 PM