AT&T continues its push to move customers away from standard two-year plans (that include subsidized device prices) and toward plans where the customer owns pays full price for her phone, but gets a discount on her monthly data rate. Yesterday, the company announced that it would allow certain contract subscribers to ditch their contracts without penalty — if they switch over to the AT&T Next plan. [More]
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Curious Which Mobile Phone Bills Are Highest? Survey Says: Verizon!
By 1.16.14
Ever wonder how your phone bill stacks up against the average? Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re actually getting a decent deal, or if you’re being suckered into something ridiculous. Thanks to some newly published survey data, now you can see how your own bill compares to everyone else’s. [More]
AT&T Ejects Party-Crashing T-Mobile CEO
By 1.7.14
While some at T-Mobile might still have some emotional scars from its failed engagement to AT&T, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has no such connection, having joined the company in 2012, after federal regulators nixed the marriage. Since then, the leather-jacketed MIT grad has occasionally taken to picking on the Death Star and its stuffy reputation. The latest stunt involved crashing AT&T’s private party at CES on Monday. [More]
AT&T Finally Tries To Get Content Providers To Pick Up Tab For Customers’ Data
By 1.6.14
For years, AT&T execs have talked about the idea of shifting some of the cost of wireless data use to developers and content providers whose sites and services eat up large chunks of bandwidth. Today, the Death Star finally announced that it will be putting some of that data burden on these content providers with something called “Sponsored Data.” [More]
AT&T Offers “Up To” $450 For T-Mobile Customers To Switch, But Is It Worth It?
By 1.3.14
You know those former couples who broke up before getting married and now one of them is a little too obsessed with how the other is doing? That seems to be the deal with AT&T and T-Mobile, with the larger wireless provider now trying to seduce customers away the smaller company with the lure of hundreds of dollars in credits. But is the offer worth making the switch? [More]
The Pros And Cons For Consumers Of Ending Wireless Phone Subsidies
By 12.26.13
While many overseas wireless providers choose to not subsidize customers’ new phone purchases in exchange for locking the consumer into a contract, it’s still the prevailing model among three of the four major wireless companies here in the U.S., with T-Mobile the sole provider offering only non-contract plans (sort of). But with AT&T recently dipping its toes into the water to encourage customers to buy their own phones, the market may be in for a major change. [More]
AT&T Offers $70 (Sort-Of) Gigabit Internet… If You Let It Snoop On Your Browsing History
By 12.11.13
AT&T has finally kicked off its gigabit Internet service in some parts of Austin, and is offering people high-speed fiber access “for as low as $70 a month.**” See those two stars? They’re kind of important, as the only way you’re getting that $70 price is if you sign up for a program that gives AT&T access to your web browsing habits so it can serve you up even more ads. [More]
AT&T Now Has LTE Roaming In Canada, But Oh Boy Could It Cost You
By 12.9.13
Thinking of visiting our neighbors to the north? If you’re an AT&T customer, you may be interested to know that the company is now offering LTE roaming, and AT&T is currently the only American wireless provider with such an arrangement. But what you need to know is that it doesn’t come cheap. [More]
AT&T Tells Shareholders: We Don’t Have To Disclose What We Do With Customers’ Data
By 12.6.13
Is AT&T cooperating with government intelligence offices like the National Security Agency and sharing its customers’ information with those groups? Sure, it’s fully willing to admit that. But that doesn’t mean it should have to disclose to shareholders exactly what it’s doing with that data, or so it said in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. [More]
AT&T To Offer $15/Month Discounts To Customers With Out-Of-Contract Phones
By 12.5.13
Want some more evidence that the failure of the AT&T/T-Mobile has resulted in something resembling actual competition among wireless companies? Months after T-Mo’s shift to an “un-carrier” model, in which the price of a monthly subscription is listed separately from the cost of the phone (and where subscribers who own their phones only pay for service), AT&T is following suit by reshaping its plans to offer discounts to customers with out-of-contract phones and AT&T Next members. [More]
Porn Troll Lawyers Hit With Legal Fees For Bullying Defendant
By 10.31.13
Back in 2012, John Steele of Prenda Law — a firm that specializes in threatening to sue alleged porn file-sharers in order to force a settlement — was publicly bragging about his success, referring to himself in an interview as “the original copyright troll.” Recently, things haven’t gone so well, due in no small part to a disastrous attempt to sue Comcast and AT&T for phony claims of “hacking” one of their client’s websites. [More]
It Was All For The Best That T-Mobile And AT&T Never Got Hitched
By 10.11.13
Back in 2011, T-Mobile and AT&T announced plans to join together in wedded merger-mony, until bankruptcy liquidation do they part. But then their love affair was ended as the Justice Dept. and FCC both made it clear they disapproved of the union. Here we are, nearly two years on and some are making the argument that it was all for the best that T-Mobile didn’t end up moving into the Death Star. [More]
Why New Fiber Networks Are Required To Shatter Monopolies Of Comcast & Other ISPs
By 10.2.13
It’s one thing if a company earns a dominant market share in a region because consumers have voted with their wallets and decided that Company X is the best around and it’s the only one they want. It’s another when, in the case of the cable industry, that monopoly isn’t earned, but is instead the result of outdated regulations that force a certain company on consumers based on ZIP code. The introduction of higher-speed fiber-optic networks like Google Fiber and AT&T’s new experiment in Austin may shatter the concrete feet of a cable colossus like Comcast. [More]
Ad Watchdog Voices Concerns About Claims Made In Comcast, T-Mobile Commercials
By 9.17.13
It’s not just consumers that watch TV commercials and exclaim, “I question the factual basis of the claims made by the company featured in this advertisement!” Sometimes, it’s competing businesses — especially those who feel they’ve been smeared in the ad — that take exception to what’s being said. In just the last two days, CenturyLink and AT&T each won minor, non-binding victories in disputes against Comcast and T-Mobile, respectively. [More]
AT&T Apologizes For Reminding Customers It Sells Smartphones On 9/11
By 9.11.13
Sigh. Just… sigh. Why can’t companies just refrain from hitching their apple wagons to tragic stars? Following yesterday’s story about a golf course offering a $9.11 special in honor of 9/11, AT&T is apologizing for using 9/11 memorial imagery to remind everyone on Twitter that it sells cell phones. [More]
T-Mobile Sues AT&T Subsidiary Over Its Use Of Magenta
By 8.28.13
Chances are you probably don’t even know about AT&T’s Aio Wireless prepaid service, as it’s currently only available in a handful of markets. But the folks at T-Mobile have sued the subsidiary now before the world gets confused by two phone companies that use similar colors. [More]
Al Jazeera America Sues AT&T Over U-Verse Snub
By 8.21.13
Given that it’s only been on the airwaves since yesterday, you probably haven’t had a chance to check out Al Jazeera America, and if you’re an AT&T U-Verse customer, you can’t watch the new news channel because the cable company doesn’t carry it. However, Al Jazeera’s owners say AT&T is contractually obligated to carry the station and have filed a lawsuit to prove their point. [More]
Wireless Plan Comparison Calculator Shows Just How Screwed Up Phone Prices Are
By 8.19.13 — Updated: 2.17.14
Do you think you’re paying the best possible price for your wireless service? Given that there are around 700 different permutations of plans available just from the four national wireless carriers, it can be complicated to figure out whether you’re getting the most for your monthly subscription. [More]
