AT&T

AT&T to light up LTE in 79 new markets by the end of summer

T-Mobile may be two years late to the LTE party, but it has some ambitious rollout plans for its 4G network. In a press release yesterday, the carrier said it hopes to cover 200 million+ subscribers with LTE by the end of 2013.

But not wanting to give up any ground to the Deutsche Telekom-owned company, AT&T announced today some enterprising rollout plans of its own. The carrier says it will add LTE to 79 new markets by the end of the summer...

AT&T and Boingo team up on free Wi-Fi roaming

U.S. carrier AT&T and Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless Tuesday announced a new partership to provide the telco's customers with free access to Boingo’s network of global Wi-Fi hotspots in major international airports. Los Angeles-based Boingo provides global Wi-Fi services at more than 600,000 hotspots worldwide, including hundreds of airports, thousands of hotels and tens of thousand cafes and coffee shops...

14 new markets receive AT&T’s LTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCb6pz0G_gE

Last time we checked, AT&T’s fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio technology covered 288 million people in the United States. Today, the telco is flipping the switch on LTE in fourteen new markets as part of its ongoing network expansion, so that number is bound to go up in the following days.

Unfortunately, AT&T (for now) shows no sign of updating its sales policies to match T-Mobile's new installment payment offering which entices people to buy the iPhone 5 separate of their wireless service for $99 down plus $20 per month over 24 months...

Eyeing the world’s #1 telco crown, AT&T signs up Verizon for joint Vodafone bid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HCRnC8fLA4

AT&T and Verizon, the two leading U.S. wireless carriers by subscribers and revenue, have reportedly joined forces in a massive bid to acquire London-headquartered Vodafone, a multinational telco which operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries. The transaction would easily dwarf the monumental AOL/Time Warner merger as Vodafone already is a huge corporation: it's the world's second-largest wireless carrier after China Mobile and commands 403 million subscribers worldwide.

This compares to AT&T's 107 million subscribers, Verizon's 116 million customers and China Mobile's 703 million subscribers. What's really interesting is Vodafone's existing U.S. partnership with Verizon Wireless: the nation's leading telco is actually a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone where the former holds 55 percent ownership and the latter controls the remaining 45 percent ownership of the joint venture.

As Europe has traditionally been Vodafone's stronghold, the deal would give AT&T a long-rumored entree into the European market while Verizon would get to control its own destiny without oversight from Vodafone...

AT&T will begin rolling out HD Voice support later this year

Last week, T-Mobile announced that it was finally going to start offering the iPhone. It will be selling all current models, with the iPhone 5 starting at just $99 down, and will support the handset's HD Voice (or Wideband Audio) feature.

In fact, once it launches the iPhone 5 later this month, T-Mobile will be the only US carrier to support its HD Voice option. But it won't be that way for long. AT&T announced today that it will be rolling out support for the tech later this year...

Comparison of iPhone ownership cost on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile

With yesterday's announcement that Apple's iPhone 5 will finally start selling through T-Mobile on April 12, we can now compare the total cost of ownership across the nation's four largest wireless carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

A bunch of outlets ran their spreadsheets to assess the current landscape, including Zagg, best known for its line of protective coverings for consumer electronics.

In figuring out how much one saves on T-Mobile over two years versus other carriers, Zagg concluded that T-Mobile’s contract-free iPhone 5 comes in at a very cool $580 cheaper over two years. However, the difference evaporates if you switch your significant other or an entire family of four to the nation's fourth-largest carrier...

iPhone and Galaxy owners are not that different

While iPhone and Galaxy S3 owners are often viewed as fans of rival teams, the two groups have more in common than Apple or Samsung would care to admit.

A new report finds owners of the two smartphones follow the same usage patterns, while maintaining some distance on hardware and carrier choices.

Based on surveys conducted in January and February, both iPhone and G3 owners follow a trend away from voice calls and emails to texting. Before anyone thinks the two will for a mutual admiration society anytime soon, there are some striking differences, as well...

AT&T’s LTE expands into new markets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjCvY4utV-o

Hot on the heels of announcing new 30/40/50GB shared data tiers on Monday, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T today said its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network has expanded coverage in Mobile, Bowling Green and the Waterbury and Meriden areas, including parts of Cheshire, Meriden, Prospect, Waterbury and Wolcott.

As part of the ongoing rollout across the country, AT&T's LTE now covers 288 million people in the United States. The carrier also flipped the switch on LTE in Dyersburg and Ripley, Sebring and Athens and announced a new prepaid option for its Wireless Home Phone service...

AT&T launches 30/40/50GB shared data tiers

The U.S. wireless carrier AT&T this morning introduced its data-hungry subscribers to some powerful new tiers.

Going beyond AT&T's existing options topping out at twenty gigs, the new options are now available to add thirty, forty or fifty gigabytes of cellular data to your shared plan of choice. Beware, however - these come at high prices.

The $30GB a month tier will set you back an unsettling $300 a month, with the 40GB and 50GB tiers commanding an alarming $400 a month and a whopping $500 a month, respectively. These prices include unlimited calling and texting. Should you need only data, AT&T will happily sell you data-only tiers for your tablet and laptop, with the top 50GB plan running $335 a month...

AT&T’s LTE is the fastest, Verizon rules coverage

Aren't you sick and tired of top U.S. carriers advertising their 4G LTE service as the nation's fastest and most reliable? This mostly false advertising has been ticking me off for quite some time, especially how T-Mobile promotes its 3G HSPA+ network as 4G. Time for a reality check.

Research firm Rootmetrics yesterday published the results of its survey of U.S. carriers and their fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks. Surprisingly or not, AT&T's LTE came on top as the fastest, but rival Verizon grabbed the title of the nation's best LTE coverage. More tidbits right after the break..

AT&T issues statement on unlocking policy

There's been a lot of commotion lately regarding the recent expiration of a DMCA exemption that makes the unlocking of smartphones illegal. The people are talking about it, the government is talking about it, and the word is, it could lead to new legislation.

Today, AT&T issued a statement on the topic, reassuring customers that the DMCA rule has no effect on its unlocking stance. The whole thing comes off as a bit garish, as no one was really worried about that in the first place. But it does offer clarity on their policy...

T-Mobile to AT&T: if our network sucks, why did you try to buy us?

Everyone loves a good fight, especially in the highly-contentious mobile carrier arena. Not to disappoint, spunky T-Mobile is expected to wallop one-time suitor AT&T in a series of upcoming newspaper ads.

The ads feature the corner of AT&T's recent 'Truth about T-Mobile' advertisements, asking readers whether the rival carrier may be getting nervous. In another, a snarky T-Mobile asks if their network performance is so bad, why did AT&T try to acquire the smaller network in 2011...