A 300-page iPhone Bill?

Phone owners getting their first AT&T wireless bills have been posting videos and complaining on message forums about bills as thick as Moby Dick that detail every call, every text message, every moment spent on the EDGE network.

AT&T Inc. acknowledged that by default, customers receive these detailed paper bills, but said users can switch to a much shorter summary, or do away with paper entirely, at any time.

One blogger, in fact, is in the middle of her 15 minutes of fame after posting a video that shows her unwrapping a 300-page AT&T bill.

Justine Ezarik, a graphic designer from Pittsburgh, Penn., posted the one-minute video on her blog; it was uploaded to YouTube, where as of mid-day Thursday, it's been viewed more than 200,000 times. "I finally got my first bill from AT&T in a cardboard box containing 300 pages," she wrote in a blog posting. "Apparently, they give you a detailed transaction of every text message sent and received. Completely unnecessary."

An AT&T call-center employee has taken it upon himself to answer the allegations of the infamous 300-page iPhone bill, apparently in lieu of an official response from the telco. While not "defending" AT&T, he did say this:

As of August 10, "summary billing" has been the default format for paper bills, doing away with specific call and data-usage details. Anyone signing up for service or switching rate plans will get a summary bill, and—in what appears to be a 180-degree shift—will have to pay $1.99 per month to get the 300-page edition.

Since summary billing is still paper that comes in the mail, call-center employees are asked to encourage paperless billing. This is also an option customers can set online, and apparently choose during activation.