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There is an old country expression:

Never tie a rabbit to a cow if you want to see how fast the rabbit can run!

But this is exactly what Apple has done by chaining itself and its I-Phone customers for five long years to Moo Bell--my name for the new AT&T, a reconstituted behemoth with sluggish connection times.

Steve Jobs jumped into bed with Darth Vader, I quipped the other night during CNBCs On The Money program.

He sold out Apple customers by relegating them to a second class network, I asserted.

Even Steve Jobs is disappointed with the slow connection speeds. Reportedly, AT&T has a faster data network available, yet it relegates Apple's I-Phone users to a slower one.

It's unclear at this time whether starting I-Phoners on slower connections is "an upgrade play"--a way of setting the stage to sell the faster routing at a premium price.

By signing an exclusive five year deal with A T & T, that locks-in users of the I-Phone, presumably for that period if they want their communications devices to fully function, Jobs has consigned Apple customers to the equivalent of Cellular Slavery, I pointed out.

The enforceability of the five-year commitment is being called into question on practical and legal grounds.

Hackers are at work trying to "break the code" to enable I-Phoners to connect through carriers other than AT&T, and members of Congress are also exploring the claim that Apples exclusive with A T & T operates in restraint of trade.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books and more than a thousand articles. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, (See: here "> here .