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AT&T Servers Down Due to Volume, Activation Process Stalled

Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 12:30 PM - by

AT&T's backend servers haven't been able to keep up with demand, according to Apple Store employees at the Flatiron Crossing Apple Store in Broomfield, CO. While iTunes itself is up and running, customers on hand to buy an iPhone have been told by Apple employees that the AT&T-controlled activation part of iTunes has apparently crashed, preventing the activation process from completing.

The result has been a stalled selling process so far, but Apple is letting those customers who were able to buy their iPhones take them home for the final step in activation when the servers are back up and running. As we were compiling this story, however, the rest of AT&T's backend went down, prohibiting even the selling process from taking place.

In the first two hours and twenty minutes, only about 20 iPhone 3G units had been sold at the Flatiron Crossing location, according to our observations.

Neither AT&T nor Apple's PR folks have returned our requests for comment and more information.

8 comments from the community.

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dux5 said:

member since 02 Jul 2002 with 112 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:41 pm

funny story, I've been attempting to re-activate my original iPhone since updating it 3 hours, 40 minutes ago. I finally gave up and ran an errand, grabbing my work phone on the way out the door and completely miffed. I turned on my work phone (also AT&T) to find that I had no cell signal. Suddenly I didn't feel so bad about my bricked iPhone, since I knew it was nothing more than an iPod with a pretty screen anyway.

AT&T just ensured that I will not be going 3G and waiting out my contract's expiration so I can move to a new carrier.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:51 pm

I guess demand is good!

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tbone1 said:

member since 13 Jul 2001 with 3981 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jul 11, 2008 1:04 pm

Given what I've heard from former coworkers at AT&T, this is no surprise at all.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:33 pm

I'm not sure this is correct. We'll find out later, but I hate to say: I think it's Apple...

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:36 pm

I have downloaded and installed the 2.0 update on my v1.1.4 8GB iPhone, at 8:15 PST. Activation has been a huge delay, I have kept hitting "OK" to the error message that says "Server timed out, try again later or check to be sure your internet connection is active." I have continued over and over to retry for just over two hours and just a few minutes ago at 11:20 PST I got the screen on the iPhone that shows the planet earth and it said "You can drag around icons ...etc." and then "Your iPhone is activated" now my music and movies are syncing. and iTunes says "Restoring movies and videos."

Good luck to everyone else. Just keep trying.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:00 pm

Hi again, I'm the same new member that posted at Jul 11, 2008 2:36 pm above. Once the Phone was activated, iPhone appeared on right pane of iTunes, but when I clicked on iPhone, the main window of iTunes was blank for another half an hour, and iTunes was still trying to access the iTunes store. After 30 minutes, there is a new "Applications Tab" on the main iTunes screen, and things seem normal again, and I'm now trying to sync the 8 apps I got yesterday.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Jul 11, 2008 6:12 pm

According to the AP, it was Apple's iTunes that was crashed as well.

I am a Macintosh user and long time fan. I couldn't care less about phones and MP3 players, so I get a real kick out of this mania!!

http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20080711/4876dac0_3ca6_15526200807111158095042

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diverreb said:

member since 11 Feb 2002 with 14 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:32 pm

Apple blew it big time.... I can almost understand the servers getting crushed because they underestimated the demand..... Not really, because they had a month or two to get ready.... It would have been simple for them to release the Update for existing phones a few days early to relieve the pressure on the servers, but they chose not to. Big operational blunder. That being said they knew they had a huge problem by 9:00 AM EST. As it continued to snowball they did nothing to acknowledge the problem.... Like if we don't comment on it, it will go away. No one new what was going on. The boards were all full with the issues people were having.

Customers were/are furious. Phones were locked up by the Update.

What Apple should have done was post on the main page of there Website what was going on and told the public that their phones would be locked up if they tried to update. A note about server volume and to please wait a day or two wouldn't have hurt. Communication and honesty would have gone a long way to calm customer irritation. Apple failed to do either.

Not having near enough phones for the roll-out was another misstep. You don't make friends by keeping people waiting in line for hours on end only to be told...Sorry no phones left.

Apple's Grade Today: F

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