Video: iJustine Gets Her First (Huge) iPhone Bill

The humdrum act of opening a phone bill doesn't usually attract a lot of attention. But when Justine Ezarik, 23, of Pittsburgh, Penn., paged through the first AT&T (T) bill for her new Apple (AAPL) iPhone in front of a video camera, people took notice. As of this morning her one-minute six-second film clip had been viewed 96,674 on her website and widely reposted on the Internet (the YouTube version is pasted below).

Ezarik, a freelance graphic designer known on the Web as iJustine, was trying to make a point about how large the bill was -- not in terms of money ($274.81), but in terms of size (300 pages). It came, as she puts it in her video, punching the words for emphasis: "In. A Box"

As others have noted, AT&T feels inexplicably obliged to report in printed form every phone call and data transfer, even the ones that are free. In the case of Ezarik, who told Gizmodo she sent 30,000 text messages that first month, the result is page after page of itemized $0.00s. Perhaps not the best use of dead trees, especially in the service of a company (Apple) whose board includes Al Gore.

AT&T offers an e-bill option, but not as a default. If the company wasn't already considering changing its billing practices, Ezarik's video should be persuasive.

Ezarik, who has achieved dubious fame appearing live 24/7 on the Internet on Justin.TV, may have finally found a cause other than her career worthy of that million-dollar smile. "Use e-billing," reads the tag line on her post. "Save trees and lives. MMmmmkaaay?"

Below the fold: the YouTube version of her video.

Comments

[Jim]

And Apple is getting a cut of that $274.81 this month.

iPhone is a CASH COW for Apple.

[rc]

30000 = 1000/day, I'll give her 10 hrs of sleep, so that 1000 / 14hrs = 71/hr, what is this girl doing?? Did she make any calls? Does she work?

[Michael]

If you send a text message to multiple recipients, I think it splits those out on the bill.

[imom Ezarik]

Jason Peters ...you missed the point...but I feel bad that you are missing a lot of other things too!

[Carole]

How ridiculous to get notoriety because you did 30000 text messages and as a result get a 300 page bill. You can say that ATT doesn't need to itemize everything, but what really should be said is that this woman should have already selected an e-bill instead of trying to make someone else look foolish.

[Geoff]

Not sure what the FCC or the FTC requires but those two government agencies may require itemization of all billing activity regardless or whether a charge is associated with it. Just something to keep in mind.

[Lucas]

Does the wording in the article "Ezarik, a freelance graphic designer known on the Web as iJustine" mean anything to you guys? It means she is one of those artistic farts who either works for herself or has so much freedom as to not be strapped down by the corporate plow. Congrats to her on her bill and her phone, but honestly I have had enough of "graphic artists" At least 50% of them are freeloaders on today's society and really they should have gone to a four year college instead of a two year "Graphic Design" school. I'm tired of my "artistic" friends who think others should pay for their bills (not referring to the article) and take care of their living expenses while they are "establishing themselves as an artist." Why don't they support me while I am establishing myself as an engineer, or others as they are establishing themselves as lawyers, doctors or real estate agents.

[KD]

Justine looks great. Id' rather watch her than boring 300 page bill.

[shannon]

my first iphone bill was huge too...and i was not anticipating $250...even doing every type of wireless math i could.

at any rate, it's so much more intuitive and less frustrating than any phone ever!

[troublewithbatteries]

Don't forget the $80 a year for professional battery replacement!! (not so intuitive battery replacement!) Honestly I like a device that makes me think a little, Apple's take all the thinking away for a premium cost to you! If it's solid it may be worth it, but honestly I'll take the stupid cover apart, buy and solder my own battery in for cheap! Oh yeah, just what we all need on top of are other monthly bills, more monthly bills for individual services used on our phones. Give me a break corporate greed monsters! Most anything you pay a monthly service fee or usuage fee for is great profit for companies, and more money out the door with nothing to show for it for consumers. I like owning and not being raped by monthly fees.

[BikerDan]

@ Lucas: Bitter, much?

[Jace Henderson]

Why is she complaining? All she has to do is sign up for e-bill on the AT&T website and opt out of a printed bill. If she wants the first two pages that only list charges she can print them from the website. Same old junk from these tree huggers. They just want to complain.

[bigjohn]

LOL.. Trouble with Batteries.. What do you do to yours??? I have a Gen 1 through 5 iPod, I've had two treo's and countless cell phones. Out of all of my phones and iPods I replaced ONE battery and that was on a samsung phone. Not on the iPod, what the hell are you doing to your batteries??

[XianStudio]

Hey Lucas -

About your "freeloading graphic artist comment" - It was a 4 year program and alot of money for me to EARN my Graphic Design B.A. from a very well known university in Washington D.C. - then I did the corporate route for almost 10 years working for idiots like you -- then I started my own graphic design studio 4 years ago -

Also - "Graphic Designer," not "graphic artist." Artists create for creation sake and are not always paid for it - while graphic designers are commissioned to create and paid quite well.

Your comments are out of place and clearly come from an ignorant individual.
------------------------------------

[Mark]

The minute AT&T doesn't list every bit of activity on a bill, there will be a crap-load of people complaining about that.

Most people like attention. Whether they get it via the car they drive, the clothes they wear, the phone they own, or the youtube videos they produce, it's all about getting noticed. Heck, some folks get attention by posting controversial blog comments. :)

[Isecondmark]

I second Mark on his comment about most people liking attention. It's in the way that we get the attention that is different. Personally, I am anti-fashion (clothes, cars, computers that is) but in terms of making waves, that is what I do best, call it rebllious or attention grabbing or just personality trait.

[lucas]

TO Xianstudio,

Yes, I do realize that some individuals get a 4 year degree for graphic (this or that) design. I was referring to my expierence with the "artistic" crowd in general, and I apologize if I hurt the more professional crowd. Only people inside the graphic world or closely related to it would have known the difference between graphic this and graphic that. I grew up in rural america. Do you know what a springing heifer is? Or what a shot of oxytocin is or what it does without looking it up? Forgive me if I don't know the difference between Graphic artist or graphic designer..sounds like the same thing to someone outside that industry.
- To BikerDan... sure, everyone gets bitter now and then, and we all have our favorite types of people and things to criticize.

[Yalocin]

Now come on guys - give the lady some slack, she's the product of the "Me Generation" and therefore has a RIGHT to do all this stuff, like text messaging, iPhoning, YouTubing, etc.
I remember when a degree actually meant something, like for things that were important - engineering, science, Mathematics, etc. Now you need one to "design" bathrooms and comic book covers; higher education has come a long way! I bet you can even get a 4 year degree for iPhone usage, at some college.

[Shawn King]

"But when Justine Ezarik, 23, of Pittsburgh, Penn., paged through the first AT&T (T) bill for her new Apple (AAPL) iPhone in front of a video camera, people took notice."

LOL Come on - no one give's a rat's hind patootie that she was paging through her iPhone bill. She's a gorgeous green eyed blonde - she could have *read* the phone book and a hundred thousand (mostly males) people would have happily watched.

And Philip, you really need to clean up your blog/news site's (you still have never clarified what this site is) comments. Allowing the patently offensive yahoos to post is a sure way to lose any intelligent readers you may have. You wouldn't want this blog/news site to turn into Digg, would you? :)

ex ped: Sorry. I was away from my computer. I think I've purged the offenders now. Strange how the sight of a pretty young woman will stir up the misongynists on Yahoo. --Philip Elmer-DeWitt

[Backglass]

Hello? Idiots? She isn't complaining about the AMOUNT of the bill, but the SIZE of the bill...300 pages of wasted paper, delivered in a box. I am sure she is used to high phone bills. The iPhone is a runaway hit...be sure to watch AAPL around Christmas. :)

[XianStudio]

Lucas -

Isn't a Springing Heifer a cow/heifer who is within 2 to 3 weeks of her due date. I think her udder is starting. “spring up”, getting ready for parturition. Oh, and I believe the shot of oxycontin helps with the contractions. But, hey you were right, I had to look it up ..

Now - we both learned something today.
Thanks for responding and congrats on the calf.

[Shawn King]

"Strange how the sight of a pretty young woman will stir up the misongynists on Yahoo."

LOL If you think that's strange, you need to get out more. Men have always reacted that way to women they can't have. :)

[Neil Anderson]

Three hundred pages! Per month? Wow. Stephen King move over.

[David]

Can we please cool-it with the battery? Some anti-Apple website posted WRONG information that stated the battery had to be replaced after 400 charges.. the correct statement is that the battery has 80% of the charge after 400 charges.. it is not dead! you still have 80% of the original capacity.

[Little Jimmy]

OMG She's HAWT!

[InRussetShadows]

I'm interested in why AT&T does this. I doubt seriously that it's by choice. It smells like some kind of law somewhere mandating this kind of itemization.

This was just a dumb stunt.

[Jace]

If she hadn't received that bill the caption would have read something like this:

"I spent $600 on a phone and they wouldn't even give me detailed billing."

[Rolo H]

Yes, the blonde is beautiful :). And no the FCC is not mandating that all activity appear on a bill. Be reasonable, there must be an alternative to sending 300 pages of information most people won't read since it is of no consequence ($0 charges). Would a 20-50 page bill be acceptable? I'm not a tree-hugger nor do I play one on TV, but come on the trees do help more when they're alive.

The hot blonde should go brunette and make a video showing her signing up for e-bill and promising all men who sign up for e-billing a video of her changing into her nightie. I bet that will save a few acres of trees. :)

[G]

People don't care about this because of the size of the bill. They care because she's a cute girl and that's all. The obsession with this talentless hack is utterly depressing.

[s]

it wasn't a complaint so much as it was a "this is crazy!". and it wasn't a shout for attention as justine makes plenty of videos. if anything this particular one became popular because her fans dug it. yeah, i made a digg joke, what?? and if you don't like it, stop seeking it out and commenting on it, because let's be serious, that's what you're doing.

[Easy E]

Its not like she went to 60 Minutes with this - it was posted on youtube...the same site where kids post clips of kicking one another in the nuts. Don't read too much into this. And besides, when was the last time any of you saw a 300 page phone bill?

[RF9]

30,000 text messages?
30,000 text messages!?!?
That's 1000 per day.
1000/16 waking hours in each day is 62.5
For 2-way text messaging that's sending 31 text messages per hour... or one ever 2 minutes.
And that's assuming she did it for 16 hours straight every day.

I'm sorry, but how did she have any time for work, let alone TV, movies, eating, bathing, and um... nevermind!?

[Blaine]

Easy E - i was thinking the same damn thing!

No kidding, she would almost have to be perpetually texting the entire month.

Anything to get some hits on ur blog and get link on cnn.com.

oh, yea - she is smokin hot

[Chris F]

you guys do realise that Justine is a lifecaster on justin.tv right? at any given time she has 200-800 peoples watching her live stream and sending her text messages. That combined with Twitter messages, I can easiily see how she could use 30,000 in a month. I've also watched her edit video for hours at a time, so to start ripping on someone when you know almost nothing about them is quite unfair.

Justine is far from the throwaway flash in the pan teen youtube stars that the web is flooded with. If all you know about her is this video, I would recommend you check out justin.tv and see why all the techies are into it.

[travis d.]

i don't care about her bill, seems like a gimmick to me. all i got to say is she is VERY attractive with her big eyes, Fine & Sexy Young thang - wow!! peace.

[john]

I am personally glad that AT&T prints all those things on the bill as a parent, it's good to know who my kids are texting and calling especially if they send 900 texts to a person in one day. Like my one child did. Luckily it turned out to be his girlfriend, but you never know.

[me]

I am a Graphic Artist, I received a 4-year degree from an accredited school. I also received a Master's degree. Don't be mad at the creative types who don't have to be lcoked into the corporate world. You like engineering, I like graphic design. That doesn't make me a freeloader. By the way, we don't all design comic book covers. Some of us work on Apple commericals.

[DD]

Based on those quick phone usage statistics, I'd say a fun thing to do would be to notify her company and let them know that there is no way she could possibly be getting any real work done.

This assumes of course that she actually works for a living.

Why do I get the feeling that mummy and daddy pay the bill anyway?

[clsbos]

Yep, she is hot!

[sep]

How do you send 1000 messages a day ?

[Devlin]

What I thought was funny about it was it comes out to just about 1.00 per page if you include shipping maybe more.

[bob]

at and t now going to put less detale in paper billing

[Johnny Being Good]

First...yes she is an attractive woman....makes the story appealing to read.

Second....any one that is employed..YAY...good for each of you contributing to the country...and global economy.

Now..why I really wanted to comment. The total cost of the bill.

Since I don't own, or know anyone that owns an iPhone and there are only two total amounts listed with the story and the comments, i used an average of $250.00 a month for a typical iPhone bill.

At the current Federal Minimum Wage rate of $5.85 per hour, working 40 hours a week for a month, and having deductions of single claiming no dependents, the iPhone bill would be 33.81% of your net monthly income. @ 6.55 per hour (the 2008 MWR[Minimum Wage Rate])would equal 30.21% of your net monthly income. At $7.15 2009 MWR = 27.28%. For your average iPhone bill to be less than 10% of your net monthly income, you would have to earn the equivalent of $20.00 per hour. All this is net monthly income, before mortgage, insurance, medical insurance, food, gas utilities. Most of the financila planners I inquired to suggest 5% to 10% budget for TOTAL monthly utilities, which communication would fall under.

My point is, this is just one more example of how we as Americans can try to live beyond our means. But we all have the right to do so.

Everbody have a good day!

[Carl]

Web 2.0 traffic generating activities brought to you by: iJustine

[ME]

Someone who HAS an iPhone..

Are the bills REALLY like that..still??

I really want one but not if the bills are like, over what it says on the pamphlet I got from AT&T.