If you’ve been waiting for a chance to use Skype on your iPhone over AT&T’s network to save on international calls or supplement your calling plan’s minutes, your day has come. After a little nudge from the FCC, the company has reversed its ban on VOIP apps on its data network, and will now let you Skype away until you run out of people to call or things to say.
at&t
AT&T Refuses To Give $3 Credit For Lack Of Service
By 10.5.09
AT&T loves your money and will not give up that money no matter what, even if it means making you waste nearly an hour of an AT&T employee’s time, which surely must be worth more than three dollars. We guess it’s the principal; as long as AT&T refuses to admit they’ve got problems, the problems don’t exist.
Call Drop Rate For iPhones In NYC Is 30%, Says Apple Genius
By 9.30.09
Hey AT&T, maybe you should offer some sort of congestion pricing on your iPhone plans in places like New York City. We’ve heard/read all sorts of anecdotal reports on dropped calls before, but today Engadget reported that an Apple Genius said a 30% drop call rate is average for the area. If that’s true, it seems like false advertising to charge for a full-time calling plan that you can only use about two-thirds of the time.
AT&T DSL Customer Sold Wrong Series Of Tubes
By 9.30.09
Richard is annoyed at AT&T. Due to what we will optimistically call a mixup, he didn’t exactly get the DSL service he ordered and was paying for. While he has straightened things out with the company, he wants to keep other customers in his area from having the same experience.
AT&T Whines To FCC That Google Voice Violates Net Neutrality
By 9.27.09
On Friday, AT&T filed a letter with the FCC accusing Google Voice of violating network neutrality principles. Google Voice doesn’t work with certain numbers that AT&T, as an old-fashioned landline and mobile provider, does.
AT&T Robocalls Me Again For No Apparent Reason
By 9.25.09
Wow – just got another robocall from AT&T telling me that it was an important message and that I should call them. Either something is wrong with my account that yesterday’s CSR couldn’t figure out, or something is wrong with AT&T. Either way, annoying.
AT&T Keeps Calling To Say I Qualify For Free Upgrade From My iPhone 3GS?
By 9.23.09
AT&T has called me repeatedly over the past few weeks and months for some mysterious reason.
Live In An AT&T Dead Zone? There's A Fix, But It'll Cost You
By 9.21.09
It’s no secret that AT&T’s cell network sucks (and, yes, that is the scientific term for the state of the company’s infrastructure). Fortunately, AT&T has come up with a solution to dead zones and overtaxed circuits: The AT&T 3G MicroCell, a router-like device that will let you experience the magic of using your mobile phone in your very own home! Of course, magic doesn’t come free — or cheap. AT&T is testing the MicroCell now, and is charging subscribers $150 for the box, plus $20 a month for the magic of, you know, using your own freaking phone in your own damn home.
FCC Proposes New, Awesome, Net Neutrality Rules
By 9.21.09
The FCC today proposed new rules to protect and preserve “net neutrality,” the idea that ISPs must treat all users the same and not prejudice against different types of customers. In a speech, Chairman Julius Genachowski supported adopting the “Four Freedoms” first articulated by the FCC in 2004 (PDF) not just as principles but as formal rules, and adding two more: “non-discrimination” and “transparency.” The big networks are, naturally, incensed.
MMS For iPhone Rollout Begins, 2 Weeks Early
By 9.12.09
Reports are showing up online that AT&T is beginning a slow rollout of official MMS functionality to seemingly random iPhone users, from Manhattan to Idaho. The official start date is September 25, but it makes sense that the company would implement the change gradually to make sure the network can handle it.
Sprint Opens Mobile-to-Mobile To All Providers
By 9.10.09
If you’re a Sprint customer using the company’s Everything Data Plan, you can now call any mobile phone on any network without using up any of your plan minutes. Good news? If you’re on the carrier’s $70 a month plan, which has 450 included minutes along with unlimited data service, it could be — if you don’t roam into areas where there’s no Sprint coverage (where the meter will start running) and if you have a lot of regular contacts on other cell networks.
AT&T Network Struggling In iPhone-Dense Urban Areas
By 9.6.09
MMS is finally coming to the iPhone in two and a half weeks! Yaaay! Wait, iPhone users, why are you still sad? What’s wrong? What are you doing with that AT&T voodoo doll?
AT&T To Offer Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Access To Windows Mobile Users
By 9.2.09
If you have a WinMo smartphone, you’re in luck. (Wow, I never thought I’d be typing that.) Starting September 14th, AT&T will open up its approximately 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to Windows Mobile customers with “qualifying plans.” According to AT&T, that should mean most WinMo customers as “most [already] have a qualifying data plan.”
DirecTV Double Bills 75-Year-Old Widow, Won't Fix It, Then Debits Huge Cancellation Fee
By 8.31.09
Here’s a lovely story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A unnamed 75-year-old widow says AT&T called her to offer their new U-Verse service with bundled TV, Internet and phone. She signed up, only to receive a phone call letting her know that the TV service wasn’t available in her area yet, but would she like to sign up with DirecTV instead? She agreed, but DirecTV started doublebilling her as soon as her service started. After a few months of the runaround from DirecTV she called to cancel.
AT&T To Require Smartphone Data Plans For Smartphones
By 8.23.09
Bad news, smartphone-owning AT&T customers. Starting September 6, customers will not be permitted to use a smartphone on the network without purchasing a smartphone data plan. Exceptions: unlocked phones and customers who currently have a smartphone (think Blackberry or Palm) but use a non-smartphone data plan.
Apple, Google, And AT&T Respond To FCC's Google Voice Questions
By 8.22.09
Apparently, Apple didn’t reject the Google Voice application for iPhone. They “[continue] to study it.” Yesterday, Apple, AT&T, and Google all turned in their responses to the FCC’s questions as part of the investigation into the bannination of Google Voice from the iPhone App Store.
Class Action Suit Against Apple And AT&T For Lack Of MMS On iPhones
By 8.21.09
No matter how awesome the iPhone is at multimedia, gaming, or taking money out of your wallet and mailing it to AT&T and Apple, it still doesn’t let you use multimedia messaging service (MMS)—you know, that thing where you send a photo to a friend over text message. Earlier this year AT&T finally said it would happen by the end of summer, but now a group of customers in Louisiana are tired of waiting.
AT&T: Sorry Your Finger Slipped, We're Still Charging You $1.99
By 8.20.09
Hey, AT&T customers: be very, very careful when dialing three-digit numbers. If you’re trying to dial, say, 211 or 311 (local government information), 611 (AT&T Wireless customer service) or 711 (TTY relay), and you dial 411 for directory assistance by mistake, you’ll be charged for it even if you realize the mistake and hang up immediately. And you’ll need to live with the consequences of your error, since, according to reader Stephen, AT&T will not refund these charges.
