Early iPhone adopters are starting to receive their first bills from AT&T. And, as many are reporting, these bills are unnaturally bulky, taking anywhere from 30 to 50 pages to tell you everything you've done with your iPhone since activating the smartphone.

One bill, sent to video blogger and graphic designer Justine Ezarik of Pittsburgh, took 300 pages to itemize every text message (30 to 35 thousand of them per month) she sent, every kilobyte used for Internet surfing and data usage, and every voice call she made. The bill was so heavy; it arrived in a box and cost AT&T $7 to deliver.

On Monday, Ezarik posted a video on YouTube, with the iPhone commercial’s music playing in the background (a nice touch), whereby she flips through every page in her massive bill and shows off the box it came in (see picture below). The video has received 140,900 viewings as of this morning.

At the end she posts the message: "Use e-billing. Save a forest."

If Apple and AT&T maintain their current policy of delivering such detailed phone bills, there may not be any trees left, not to mention a single forest.

While most people can accept the activation fees and taxes that have made most initial iPhone bills higher than they'll be in coming months—Ezarik's (who is new to AT&T) bill is for a hefty $275, for example; and that's with all-you-can-eat text messaging—the general consensus among iPhone users appears to be that the actual physical bills themselves are an excessive waste of paper, annoying, and have got to stop.


Justine Ezarik Un-Boxing Massive iPhone Bill

Of course, those who've been Cingular (now AT&T) customers for years are used to having every single detail of their bill mapped out for them. AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel explained this policy to a number of different news outlets over the last couple of days. "If you do a lot of wireless data and consume a lot of bandwidth, that part of your bill is going to be bigger," Siegel said to the Cox News Service.

My bill, for instance, which covers three phones, delivers as much detail for a Treo 750 as it does for the iPhone. However, because the iPhone is so easy to use for accessing the Web (e-mail is another matter entirely), it's become my go-to smartphone for that purpose, on top of trying out new iPhone-specific services and applications. So, while my wife's handset and the Treo both accounted for 8 pages of my 34-page cell phone bill, the iPhone covered the remaining pages, more than twice that number.

Siegel added customers can choose to receive less detail on their paper bill or even not to receive a bill in the mail at all. Rather, they can call AT&T or go online to change to electronic billing: "It needs to be up to the customer — how much or how little detail they want," Siegel noted. "If you don't want it, that's fine. Just let us know."

Placing the onus on the consumer, in my opinion, is a being a little disingenuous. If AT&T wants to improve its relationship with customers, then it should - at the least - make summarized phone bills the rule rather than the exception, by turning less detailed bills into the default option. Why not e-mail the bills directly customers iPhones?

Or, perhaps, AT&T could send a basic phone bill to subscribers on paper and post the details online by default. In a world where data usage is exploding, as smartphones and Internet-ready feature phones are becoming more and more popular, the problem will only get worse if AT&T doesn't do something soon.

As independent analyst Rob Enderle said to USA Today, ”Not only does it cost AT&T more to do this, it just upsets customers. It's bad business."

As America's largest mobile operator, AT&T would be setting a good example that other carrier's could follow. It would also save itself a lot of money. Heck, it could choose to pass those savings onto the consumer, or, even use the extra cash to make improvements to its wireless network.

While excessively detailed phone bills existed before the iPhone, because it is a cultural touchstone and the most hyped mobile-device ever, this particular smartphone has attracted a great deal of attention to the matter.

You've got at least a couple of hundred thousand people, many who have little or no experience e-mailing, texting, or accessing the Web from a mobile handset, receiving their first bills nearly simultaneously. And when they do, the bills aren't just higher than they thought they'd be, they’re so detailed it's annoying, and, for some, intimidating

Still Far From Paperless World
Years ago, there was much talk about the paperless office, about how computers and the Internet would reduce the need for paper, if not make paper as the main medium for carrying information obsolete. Well, if you look around, it is easy to see the opposite has happened. We use more paper than ever in our work places and receive more junk mail than ever at home, for example.

It would be nice if a carrier-giant like AT&T stepped up after the outcry over the iPhone bills to demonstrate that it’s a company that cares about the environment and what its customers think. It would be good PR and good for business.

That's a win, win, win situation.

Upfront iPhone Costs
Late in June, Apple and AT&T started selling the iPhone after months (if not years) of build up and hype. Today, the 4GB model still sells $499 and the 8GB version for $599. Monthly usage plans range from $59.99 to $79.99.

All plans feature unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls, unlimited data usage (i.e. e-mail and Internet), roll over minutes, 200 SMS text messages, and Visual Voicemail, which allows you to see who left messages and listen to them in the order you choose. You can choose to pay extra for more or unlimited text messaging.