A California cell phone conspiracy theory

Last week was big for cell phone news, you betcha.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a front page story about AT&T's atrocious signal coverage in the Bay Area, and how that's driving a huge and hopeful hunger for the soon-to-be-available iPhone over Verizon.

Flip a few pages (I know, I know, who reads actual printed newspapers anymore?) and we find California's newly-reminted Gov. Jerry Brown issuing his first executive order.

From an article print-headlined State to take away 48,000 cell phones:

The governor ordered state agency and department heads to collect half of the approximately 96,000 state-issued cell phones used by public employees, a move he said will save California at least $20 million a year. Brown also plans to return his own state-issued cell phone, said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor. Each cell phone costs an average of $36 a month, according to the governor's office.

Thirty-six bucks a month? Those sure aren't iPhones ... and, indeed, Westrup indicated that "Sprint and Verizon are the state's primary wireless providers."

Maybe that's the story behind the story, then? Brown is acting to stem the tide of state-employed Verizon subscribers expected to "lose" or "drop" their current cells and "need" an iPhone for a replacement?

Now that's forward-thinking governance...




Thanks to Spuz (Bernhard Benke) for the old-school phone image...