Carriers

FCC approves AT&T’s $1.3 billion acquisition of Leap Wireless

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Last summer, AT&T announced that it had reached an acquisition deal with Leap Wireless. The company said that it would be buying out the provider, which owns and operates the popular prepaid carrier Cricket, for $15 per share—equal to $1.3 billion. All it needed was approval from the FCC.

And it just got it. Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission gave AT&T's acquisition proposal a thumbs up, ruling that "the public interest benefits of the proposed transaction outweigh the likelihood of significant public interest harms." So what does this mean for everybody involved?

T-Mobile plans to have most of its 2G network upgraded to LTE by mid-2015

Cody Lee ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

T-Mobile announced today that it has plans to upgrade its entire 2G/EDGE network to 4G LTE. The carrier, which is the fourth largest in the US, says it hopes to be halfway complete with the upgrade by the end of 2014 and expects to be substantially complete by the middle of next year.

The promise to quickly bring its network up to speed with its competitors should help appease customers, who complain of lower speeds in rural and suburban areas. While T-Mobile currently has LTE in many major US cities, a lot of its coverage map is still made up of EDGE and HSPA...

T-Mobile tweaks Simple Choice plans with more data, international texting

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

T-Mobile announced this weekend that it would be making some changes to its existing Simple Choice plans. All of the plan options will now include more data and unlimited international texting from the US, in addition to unlimited domestic talk, text and data.

Pricing tiers still start at $50 per month, except now you get a full 1GB of LTE data at this price, instead of just 500MB. And it goes on from there. You now get 3GB of unthrottled LTE data for $60 per month, instead of 2.5GB, and you get 5GB for $70 per month...

AT&T’s LTE-Advanced network now live in Chicago

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Folks living in and around Chicago will be happy to hear that AT&T has souped up its network in the Windy City. Using an LTE-Advanced technology called 'carrier aggregation,' the company has bonded two 4G networks together in the area resulting in a big boost in performance.

So essentially, AT&T is taking two, single one-way highways and merging them into one, single two-way highway, allowing for more bandwidth and theoretical download speeds of up to 110 Mbps. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of devices that support the beefier network...

AT&T adds free international messaging to Mobile Share plans

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Following T-Mobile's lead, AT&T announced today that it is adding unlimited international text messaging to all of its Mobile Share and Mobile Share Value plans. The free package will allow subscribers to send text and multimedia messages from the US to over 100 countries.

Additionally, the carrier introduced a new World Connect Value package for international calling. With it, post-paid AT&T customers can make one cent -per minute calls from the US to more than 35 countries, including Canada, Mexico and the Virgin Islands, for $5 per month...

AT&T tops Verizon in customer service survey, T-Mobile most improved

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

J.D. Power and Associates published its bi-annual report on wireless customer care performance this week, ranking the top 4 US carriers based on various stats related to customer service.

The marketing research firm asked more than 7,000 subscribers how satisfied they were with the customer service they received from their cell phone provider, and here is how they scored...

AT&T launches new family plans with ‘best-ever’ prices

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

In an effort to fend off T-Mobile's 'Un-carrier' attack, and stay competitive with Verizon, AT&T announced a new set of family plans this afternoon. The plans include unlimited talk and text and then a bucket of 10GB of data that can be shared by all of the accompanying devices.

But the big news here is the pricing. AT&T is saying that these new plans come with the best-ever prices, and at first glance, they do look appealing. For instance, the entry-level option costs just $130 per month with unlimited talk, text and then 10GB of data for 2 smartphones...

T-Mobile ventures into personal banking with new Mobile Money service

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Over the past 9 months or so, T-Mobile has been calling itself the "Uncarrier." It's a marketing strategy, for sure, buts it's certainly been living up to the moniker by dropping contracts, offering free international data, and waving early termination fees for new customers.

But this morning the company announced its most un-carrier move to date: Mobile Money. That's right, T-Mobile is getting into the personal banking business with a new service that combines a branded prepaid Visa card, a smartphone app, and a no-fee checking account...

FCC chairman talks AT&T’s controversial ‘Sponsored Data’ program at CES

Cody Lee ∙ January 8, 2014

AT&T raised more than a few eyebrows on Monday when it announced a new 'Sponsored Data' program. The goal of the program is essentially to offer a way for companies to pick up the tab for 4G data usage whenever specific products or services are being used.

Initial feedback to the announcement has been a mix of "what an interesting idea" and complaints from net neutrality advocates. And today, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler chimed in, using his time at CES to discuss his off-the-cuff thoughts on AT&T's proposition...

T-Mobile drops another bombshell: we’ll pay your ETFs to switch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 5, 2017

Last month, T-Mobile's John Legere hinted that his company was planning another 'uncarrier' event. The outspoken CEO sent out a tweet saying something like "time to eliminate another customer pain point? Time for Uncarrier 4?"

Well three weeks have gone by and we haven't really heard anything else from Legere on the matter, until just a few minutes ago when he took the stage at T-Mobile's CES event. As promised, he dropped another 'uncarrier' bombshell...

AT&T announces new sponsored data service for mobile devices

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Today at CES, AT&T announced an interesting new service called Sponsored Data. The goal of the new service is essentially to offer a way for companies to pick up the tab for 4G data usage whenever specific products or services are being used.

How does it work? Well the carrier says that if the service is in effect, users will see a "sponsored" symbol in the status bar on the screen of their device. And this will indicate that all data charges are being redirected to the sponsoring company...

T-Mobile CEO teases ‘Uncarrier 4’ event, promises to eliminate a customer pain point

Cody Lee ∙ December 18, 2013

Get ready US carriers and subscribers, it looks like T-Mobile is about to introduce another game-changer. The company's outspoken CEO John Legere tweeted out this morning that it's time for them to 'eliminate another customer paint point.'

He followed the comment by teasing 'Uncarrier4,' which is believed to be an upcoming media event T-Mobile is planning to make some sort of announcement. In the past, the carrier has held 'Uncarrier' events to unveil things like its Jump plan...