Although AT&T executives initially dismissed technical issues that popped up during the early days of DirecTV Now as no big deal, the company’s top tech executive admits now that the company wasn’t prepared to deal with the streaming service’s rapid growth. [More]
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Appeals Court Resurrects Federal Government’s Lawsuit Over AT&T’s Old “Unlimited” Plans
By 5.10.17
The years-long dispute between the Federal Trade Commission and AT&T over the wireless company’s old “unlimited” data plans is still not dead. A federal appeals court has zapped new life into the lawsuit, meaning there’s still hope that AT&T users who saw their data throttled despite having unlimited data plans may someday get justice. [More]
4 Misleading Things ISPs And The FCC Need To Stop Claiming About Net Neutrality
By 4.28.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Net neutrality is a handy name for a pretty simple principle: the idea that the company providing your internet access should deliver you the online content of your choosing, when you choose it, without interfering. And since 2015, it’s been the law of the land. Now we stand to lose it once again — but the arguments that industry and some regulators are making against it are disingenuous at best, and a pack of lies at worst. [More]
AT&T Users Have No Way To Know How Much Data They’re Tethering, Despite 10GB Cap
By 4.28.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
When AT&T resurrected unlimited data plans, it also introduced a feature it had shunned the first time around: letting subscribers use their phone as a mobile hotspot (AKA “tethering”), but only up to 10 GB per month. But there’s a flaw in AT&T’s execution that prevents users from knowing how much tethering data they’ve actually used. [More]
AT&T Now Throwing In HBO For Free To ‘Unlimited Plus’ Subscribers
By 4.5.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The battle for unlimited data customers continues to heat up. Only weeks after dropping its price on “Unlimited Plus” plans, AT&T is now giving these subscribers free HBO, even if they don’t have an AT&T or DirecTV pay-TV plan. [More]
AT&T, Feds Settle Dodgers Lawsuit Over SportsNet LA; Blackout To Continue
By 3.24.17
The Department of Justice and AT&T settled a lawsuit claiming DirecTV — which AT&T purchased in 2015 — colluded unlawfully with other carriers about their negotiations to carry SportsNet LA, the only cable channel in Los Angeles to air most Dodgers games. But that doesn’t mean the cable provider will be adding the channel to its lineup anytime soon. [More]
Verizon, AT&T Pull Ads From Google, YouTube After Ads Run Next To Offensive Videos
By 3.23.17
Days after Google began apologizing to advertisers that stopped running YouTube ads after learning their brands were being featured alongside offensive and hateful videos, Verizon and AT&T say they are also pulling the plug on ads with the tech giant. [More]
Why Are So Many Tech & Telecom Companies Bad At Respecting Your Privacy?
By and 3.23.17
The 21st century world is all about data: who has it, how they use it, when they share it, and how much they make from selling it. Despite the proliferation of terms of service and privacy policies, the companies responsible for handling our data are largely doing a poor job of telling us what they do with it. [More]
17,000 AT&T Technicians Go On Strike Amid Contract Dispute
By 3.22.17 — Updated: 3.24.17
UPDATE: On Thursday morning, AT&T said that the walkout was over. [More]
DirecTV Admits Errors In Regional Sports Fees; Will Issue Credits To Affected Customers
By 3.15.17
We recently pointed out that DirecTV is assessing its “Regional Sports Fee” — the surcharge for carrying local sports channels in a particular area — unevenly, meaning you could be paying as much as $87/year more than your friend around the corner for the exact same TV package. At the time, DirecTV could not offer a reasonable explanation for this disparity, but the company is now apologizing and saying it will credit the bills of affected customers. [More]
FCC Investigating AT&T’s Massive 911 Outage
By 3.9.17
Federal regulators are looking into the source of an outage that left millions of AT&T wireless customers in 14 states and the District of Columbia without access to 911 emergency services for several hours on Wednesday. [More]
DirecTV’s Regional Sports Fees Make No Sense; You May Be Paying $87/Year More Than Your Neighbor
By 3.8.17
“Regional Sports Fees” — one of those add-on charges that cable and satellite companies tack on to raise the price of pay-TV plans without having to change the price they advertise — have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in recent months. Comcast is being sued over this fee, and lawmakers have asked cable providers to explain these charges. As irritating as this surcharge may be, an analysis of how DirecTV assesses these fees raises questions about the motives of the nation’s largest satellite TV provider. [More]
Sprint Reportedly Talking To White House About Possible Merger With Comcast Or T-Mobile
By 3.6.17
In recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly mentioned promised investments and jobs from Sprint and its parent company Softbank. Now the wireless provider is reportedly hoping to eventually turn that goodwill — and the Trump administration’s light-touch approach to regulation — into a mega merger, possibly with T-Mobile, Comcast, or others. [More]
FCC Chair Claims Broadband Investment At Historic Low Level Because Of Net Neutrality; That’s Not What The Numbers Say
By 2.28.17
This morning, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made a claim that net neutrality, which hasn’t even been in place for two years, has driven investment in U.S. broadband to historically low levels. However, the actual numbers given by the nation’s largest cable and telecom companies don’t appear to back this up. [More]
FCC Chair Ajit Pai Has No Plans To Review AT&T/Time Warner Merger
By 2.27.17
In recent years, the FCC played a key part in blocking the mergers of AT&T and T-Mobile, and Comcast and Time Warner Cable, while also using its regulatory leverage to place pro-consumer conditions on the mergers it did approve — like getting Charter to agree to not use data caps for seven years. However, the FCC will apparently give AT&T its wish and not even chime in on the pending merger of AT&T and Time Warner. [More]
AT&T Tweaks Unlimited Data Plan To Better Compete With Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile
By 2.27.17
It’s been two weeks since Verizon’s surprise announcement that it was bringing back unlimited mobile data plans kicked off a huge flurry of activity, with all four national carriers introducing or improving their own offerings. But a point-by-point comparison of all four left many folks wondering: Is AT&T even trying? AT&T apparently wondered that too, and so is tweaking their plan once more. [More]
AT&T: It’s Fine For Us To Buy Time Warner Because We’re Too Small To Hurt Competition
By 2.22.17
AT&T’s plan to buy Time Warner — the parent company of several cable networks, not the cable company that Charter snapped up last year — was greeted with a surprising amount of skepticism right from the start. Even though AT&T is sidestepping a lot of regulatory scrutiny by not seeking FCC approval of the merger, lawmakers have continued to ask why this merger would benefit anyone other than the shareholders of these companies. AT&T’s response: Competition or prices won’t be affected because we’re such a small-time player in the pay-TV business, and Time Warner’s viewership numbers are low. [More]
Confused By All These New Unlimited Mobile Data Plans? Here’s What’s Up
By 2.17.17 — Updated: 2.27.17
It’s amazing what competition can do to a marketplace: In the span of a week, all four national wireless carriers have either introduced, enhanced, or dropped prices or restrictions on unlimited data offerings for mobile customers. But that’s a lot of change all at once — so what does it mean for you, the actual subscriber? [More]
