Apparently I fall into the "less than 2%" of AT&T's customers who are affected by this glitch.

Should I still be paying $30 even though AT&T is not providing me an adequate service?

It seems to me like any person affected by this should not be charged for data every day that this persists, at least.

The goal (for me, but there are other uses): custom theme stacks icons so that dock reflections work properly. There are more reasons to do this though, such as making icons display correctly in categories. You could also use this to fix jailbroken apps which don't have nice iPhone style icons.

1. Locate your app's folder. If the target app is a stock/jailbroken one, you're going to look in /private/var/stash/Applications/yourApp. If it's an AppStore app, look in /private/var/mobile/Applications (you just have to look through the folders to find it).
2. Get the app's icon. Inside the app's folder you'll find another folder called "appname".app, inside this folder look for a file called "icon.png". If you can't find that, you can look at Info.plist which should give you the name of the icon file.
3. Copy the icon to your machine.
4. Try to look at it. If you can see the icon skip to step 7.
5. This is the mac-only solution. I don't know what to do if you're trying to do this on a windows machine. It looks like your icon is encoded with apple's weird proprietary format. That won't work, so you need to fix it. Go here and download the link in the 2nd response.
6. Open a terminal window and run ./fixpng "path/to/icon.png" "path/to/fixedicon.png" - hopefully you'll now have a readable png image.
7. We're going to need the mask images that the iPhone OS uses. These are located on the iPhone at /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/Other.artwork. Copy the "Other.artwork" file to your machine.
8. To extract this file we'll use another tool. Go download iPhoneShop. (you will need the latest version of the java runtime installed too)
9. Put the Other.artwork file into the same folder as iPhoneShop, and create a new directory called "pngs"
10. Use the following command to extract the Other.artwork file - "java -jar iPhoneShop-0.6.jar ARTWORK Other.artwork export pngs"
11. The three files you will want are "AppIconMask.png", "AppIconOverlay.png", and "AppIconShadow.png".
12. Open your image editing program of choice, and open the app icon you grabbed. I used Photoshop CS4
13. Change the size of the icon to 59x60 with the icon at the top center.
14. Add the AppIconShadow behind the app icon layer, and the AppIconOverlay on top of it
15. Add the AppIconMask as a layer mask to both the icon and the AppIconOverlay. In Photoshop this is done by clicking the layer mask and using Image/Apply Image...
16. Depending on the app, you may or may not need to use the AppIconOverlay, just check what looks right visually
17. Save the icon as a PNG with the alpha layer. In Photoshop you can do this by using "Save for Web & Devices..." and then save as a PNG-24 with transparency enabled.
18. Now, either make a theme (I'm not going to describe how to do that) or overwrite the icon_b.png file in each stacks directory (located in /private/var/stash/Applications/Stack#.app with your new icon.

Ta-da, success! I'm pretty much positive that almost no one will be able to follow this whole tutorial... but I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

This is the low down on our tools for use with the 3.1 firmware from Apple, please read the whole post in full before attempting anything. Because of changes with Apple’s update techniques (that complicate the 3GS upgrade process) this will be a multipart release, starting with the initial release of PwnageTool for Mac OS X - this application supports the iPhone 1st Generation (2G), the iPhone 3G and the iPod touch 1G. NB: THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT THE 3GS OR 2G/3G IPOD TOUCH. redsn0w for Mac OS X and Windows will follow sometime in the near future, please don’t bug us about it - we’ll release when we have something ready.

1. GOLDEN RULE: If you are using a 3G iPhone with ultrasn0w and rely on ultrasn0w to obtain cellular service, then you should only upgrade to 3.1 with a PwnageTool created .ipsw. - Stay away from Apple’s direct updates as described here and here please get up to speed on the whole subject by reading the information contained in these posts.
2. If you have an original iPhone (1st generation) then 3.1 unlock works with this PwnageTool release.   iPhone 3G users upgrading to 3.1 will need to continue using ultrasn0w with a PwnageTool created 3.1 .ipsw
3. Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
4. Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
5. At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the 3.1 capable version of PwnageTool.
6. This app is suitable for the recent 3.1 release.
7. This version of PwnageTool will NOT work for the iPhone 3GS.
8. PwnageTool WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), Original iPod touch (1st Generation) and the iPhone 3G.

Baseband 101

The ‘baseband’ is the generic nickname given to the internal components of the iPhone that handle the phone calls and Internet access. This ‘baseband’ is a tiny and unique independent computer system that runs inside your iPhone, it is separate to the main system that handles the applications (such as email and google maps) and it talks to the main part of the phone over an internal communications network. Think of it like a cable modem or other peripheral that is attached to your home PC that needs occasional updates. When a software update is released and presented to you within iTunes the baseband is sometimes updated (to fix bugs or add new features). The 3.0 update for the iPhone 3G contains such an update, so running the vanilla updater straight away with iTunes will reprogram and update the baseband.

SIM Free/SP Unlocked/Factory Unlocked iPhone 3G

This applies if you bought your iPhone 3G for $$$$$$$. This model of iPhone 3G doesn’t have an Service Provider lock (aka factory unlocked) and you are able to put any SIM card into the phone and get service. Your phone is already unlocked so you do not need to worry about baseband updates, simply upgrade to 3.0 using iTunes and then use PwnageTool to create an ipsw and then use this to jailbreak your phone.

iPhone 2G (1st Generation)

Use PwnageTool to do the magic and then restore with iTunes using your newly created .ipsw ‘nuff said, you don’t need to worry about anything, the baseband will be unlocked, the phone jailbroken.

iPod touch 1G (Original iPod Touch)

Use PwnageTool to create a firmware image and restore with that .ipsw using iTunes.

iPod touch 2G

Sorry, no support at this time within PwnageTool, use Redsn0w for an earlier (pre 3.1) firmware release instead.

iPod touch 3G (New iPod Touch)

Sorry, no support at this time within PwnageTool

Unofficial Sapience Society Mirror: PwnageTool_3.1

Yeah, you. In a recent U.S. copyright filing, Apple apparently claims that the jailbreaking of iPhone operating systems leads to problems in the AT&T network, probably helping to explain the general unreliability network users have experienced. If “general unreliability” sounds a little harmless, keep in mind that Apple is also making the case that jailbreaking could make it possible for users to crash cell phone towers.

Of course, you can see why AT&T wouldn’t like this. But there may be more to the story. Apple’s comments apparently also noted that the altering of the baseband processor BBP of the Apple is what would allow people to crash the towers. Maybe not so coincidentally, “unlocking” the iPhone in this manner would also allow consumers to use networks other than AT&T.

Maybe “unlocking,” and not jailbreaking, is simply bad for business.

Potential Problems with Jailbreaking

Though “jailbreaking” sounds like something you’d do with a prison and not with a phone, it’s a relatively common practice. According to Apple, this is the problem, saying jailbreaking can lead to crashes, freezes, disruption of applications like YouTube, problems with security, and even a shorter battery life.

Apple’s claims about the disruption of the AT&T network mean that the problems with jailbreaking wouldn’t be restricted to your iPhone alone. This has lead many frequent “jailbreakers” to wonder about the real impact of their modifications to Apple’s software.

The Great Jailbreaking Debate

As Dong Ngo of CNet notes, hearing that jailbreaking can give other people problems – not just the jailbreakers – isn’t exactly fun news.

But there is a debate within the iPhone community about the validity of jailbreaking. Some people believe that, like tricking out a car, modifying software that you purchased is something that comes with your rights as a consumer. Others believe that the problems aren’t worth the benefits.It will be interesting to watch the progress of the iPhone and how Apple interacts with the users who like to modify its contents. There’s no doubt that consumers will always be looking for as much freedom as possible.

via Why Jailbreaking Your Own iPhone Can Be Bad News – For You | iPhone Auctions

My Response

See this is why I love and hate Apple. They file copyrights trying to make jailbreaking illegal, which is something that a lot of us (iPhone Owners) don't agree with... But it's for our own good! Apple seems to use this kind of emotionally spun logic to their favor all the time. They aren't "bug fixes", they are "compatibility updates".

The real truth is, jailbreaking your iPhone will not affect AT&T in any way whatsoever 99.99999% of the time. What it will do is the following:

1. Make your device unstable if you install the wrong or incompatible apps. You see this all the time where an app or tweak is only compatible with a specific firmware version or simply doesn't work because of a recent update. See: Supreme Preferences 3.0
2. Make your battery life shorter if you install apps that tweak how your iPhone is used such as: Backgrounder, Music Controls, and the AutoLock/KeepAwake SBSettings Toggles.
3. Stop your device from being included in baseband updates if you unlock your phone. This doesn't mean that you're attacking AT&T in any way, it just means you're using an old version of their baseband.

Of course there can be problems if you jailbreak your device, especially if you use untested patches, tweaks, and mods, but you're trading this risk for the ability to do a lot more with your phone than most would think is possible.

The real question is this: if jailbreaking iPhones is causing such widespread problems on the AT&T networks, why is it Apple who is reporting this issue to the FCC? Sure it's their device, but the negative effects are all on AT&T, not Apple. I submit to you that the reason why Apple doesn't want you to jailbreak your iPhone is purely so they can maintain their closed-source proprietorially induced mind control on you. So keep on jailbreaking until you're dead my friends.

Even more proof that the app store isn't perfect, Yelp was able to bypass apple's review panel and sneek add this feature to their app by including it via hidden easteregg which is only activated by running Yelp and shaking your iPhone (3GS only) three times. You know you've done it right when a message pops up informing you "The Monocle is activated. Yelp thought reality was boring so we augmented it." At that point a button appears in the upper right hand corner that says "Monocle", clicking this activates AR.