The LA Times Idol blog put the AT&T flap into some perspective:
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According to a network spokeswoman, more than 100 million votes were received after the May 19 final performance between Allen and Lambert. Even if the AT&T workers passed out 1,000 phones -- the company said it was "a small number" of devices, without offering specifics -- and coached each user to text 100 votes, that would add up to only 100,000 votes, or less than one-tenth of 1% of the votes cast.But a commenter asks a fair question:
Why does this article figure that one person could have texted a maximum of 100 votes on finale night?
Voting was open for four hours after the show.
Someone with a phone with free service, sending 10 texts at a time, could have send thousands of texts over those four hours.
Another commenter really gets into the math:
Sending out 10 at a time? You could do that in five minutes. I have an iPhone, which does not do blanket texts (that I've been able to figure out). It takes less than five seconds to send a text, times four hours, times 10. I'm no math whiz, but I have a calculator. At five seconds per text, that's 12 per minute, times 60 = 720 per hour, x 4 = 2,880 per four hours, x 10 = 28,800. Going at a moderate pace, one person could easily send 30,000 votes.
