AT&T

WSJ: AT&T considering a merger in Europe

Faced with constraints on growth at home, U.S. carrier AT&T is reportedly considering entering new markets in Europe via a merger with one of the key players in a major European market such as the United Kingdom, Germany or the Netherlands, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The carrier is allegedly hoping to bring its technological expertise in building 4G networks to the table.

European telcos have been slow to roll out fourth-generation networks so AT&T through its European partner could help roll out the latest in 4G technology in order to then introduce "more lucrative pricing strategies". European carriers get most of their revenue from voice plans and text messaging, unlike in the United States where telcos have shifted to new plans that charge subscribers based on their data use... 

AT&T opens up FaceTime over cellular to all tiered data plans

AT&T has announced this morning that it will be once again be expanding support for iOS 6's FaceTime over cellular for its subscribers. It appears that all iOS users who are on a tiered data plan, will be able to utilize the feature from any FaceTime compatible device.

The carrier took quite a bit of heat last year when it initially announced that FaceTime over cellular would only be available to iOS users on its shared data plans. It later opened up the feature to legacy data plans, and then to LTE users. And now it's available for all...

AT&T’s ‘best-ever’ smartphone sales hint at 8M iPhones in Q4 2012

What can be divined from AT&T's announcement of record smartphone sales during the holiday quarter? According to one Apple watcher, the fact that the Dallas-based carrier sold ten million Apple, Android and Windows smartphones likely means the bulk - more than eight million - were iPhones. According to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, during the holiday quarter of 2011, the wireless company sold 9.4 million smartphones, 7.6 million of which were Apple's handset. Because of that trend, Munster is forecasting 8.1 million iPhones were sold during the fourth quarter of 2012...

AT&T and Verizon also looking into ending device subsidies

Last month, T-Mobile confirmed that it was ending device subsidies ahead of its official iPhone launch. The carrier hopes that customers will buy into the idea, which has them paying full retail prices for mobile devices in exchange for lower monthly fees.

Well apparently, the idea has attracted the attention of the big wigs at Verizon and AT&T. According to a new report, CEO's from both companies are intrigued by the theory, and will be watching T-Mobile's experiment closely over the next several months...

Walmart to begin offering the iPhone 5 through Straight Talk this week

Walmart and Straight Talk Wireless have issued a press release announcing that starting this Friday, the retail giant will begin offering the iPhone 5 through the popular prepaid service. The phone will come with a $45 unlimited talk, text and data plan, and no contract. And Walmart will be offering special financing for those who can't pay for the device up front...

AT&T confirms ‘best-ever’ sales of iPhone and Android smartphones

Ahead of its earnings call pertaining to calendar 2012 fourth-quarter results scheduled for January 24, carrier AT&T just announced, reporting 'best-ever' sales of Apple and Android smartphones. The Dallas, Texas wireless company sold a record ten million smartphones powered by Apple's and Google's platform during the holiday quarter of 2012 as Android and iPhone sales hit all-time highs. The figure beats the year-ago quarter when AT&T moved 9.4 million smartphones, 7.6 million of them being iPhones.

The “best-ever quarterly sales of Android and Apple smartphones”, according to AT&T Mobility President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph de la Vega, came down to an average of 110,000 smartphone sales each day. “These are the industry’s most valuable postpaid subscribers with average revenues twice that of non-smartphone subscribers", he noted...

Kantar: the iPhone is America’s top smartphone as Android falters

Apple's iOS is now the top-selling smartphone operating system in the United States, capturing for the first time more than 50 percent of sales, a new survey finds.

The improvement is the result of repeat iPhone buyers and new smartphone owners purchasing the discounted iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, researchers say.

Android sales fell to 41.9 percent of the US market, a 10.9 percent drop during the same three-month period ended November 25. Meanwhile, Microsoft landed in third place, registering just 2.7 percent of smartphones sold domestically...

FCC approves AT&T acquisition of WCS spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission made good on its promise this week, and has approved AT&T’s acquisition of licenses to the underutilized 2.3GHz WCS spectrum from Comcast, Horizon, NextWave and others. In all, the licenses cover 82% of the population, across 608 markets, and the carrier plans to use it to beef up its LTE network...

AT&T’s LTE launches in Green Bay, Springfield, Tucson, Melbourne and Oxford

Another week, another expansion of AT&T's fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network. Having rolled out LTE to customers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Nashua, New Hampshire and Grand Rapids last week, the Dallas, Texas-headquartered US wireless company Tuesday morning announced the addition of five new LTE markets.

Customers in Green Bay, Springfield, Tucson, Melbourne and Oxford should start seeing AT&T's LTE on supported devices. These latest additions expand the carrier's LTE coverage to 125 metropolitan markets. By contrast, rival Verizon Wireless claims 470 LTE-enabled markets...

AT&T adds 7 more cities to its LTE network

Following T-Mobile's lead, AT&T has just expanded its high-speed network to 7 new markets. Earlier this week, the carrier launched LTE in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. And now it's available in Reno, Nevada and a handful of other cities...

AT&T’s 4G LTE goes live in Wilkes-Barre, Nashua and Grand Rapids

Carrier AT&T this morning announced an expansion of its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio technology to three new markets. Beginning today, customers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Grand Rapids, Michigan should start seeing greater download and upload speeds when using LTE-enabled smartphones, tablets and other devices on AT&T's network.

Although Consumer Reports ranks AT&T the worst of major US telcos in terms of customer satisfaction and voice/data service quality, it's also the nation's leading LTE carrier overall even though in terms of coverage AT&T trails Verizon, which claims the nation's most robust 4G network...

AT&T seeing record smartphone sales in Q4 of 2012

AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega told investors today that the carrier is selling smartphones at a record pace in this last quarter of 2012. Because of this, the CEO says that the carrier now expects to sell 26 million smartphones this year, 1 million more than previously expected. And as you can imagine, this news bodes extremely well for Apple and its handset...