A new survey from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) compared annual costs around the world for consumers who have cellphones, and the U.S. is in the top three for most expensive. How expensive? DSLReports notes that “on average, the OECD found that Americans pay $635.85 on cell phone service, compared to $131.44 per year in the Netherlands or $137.94 per year in Sweden.”
at&t
Three Ways To Use Google Voice On Your iPhone
By 8.12.09
Apple may not feel like you’re ready to take advantage of Google Voice, but luckily Jobs and his legion can’t lock you out of every potential way to access the service. (Yet.) Here are three paths to GV you can use today, no permission needed from the Applelord.
Is The FCC's iPhone Investigation Really About Number Portability?
By 8.6.09
There’s been a lot of talk online the past week about extending the principal of network neutrality to wireless networks, which may be partly why the FCC has asked Apple, Google, and AT&T to answer some questions about the rejected Google Voice iPhone app. Todd Barr at Bandwidth.com thinks that the reason may actually have to do with the concept of number portability.
Sprint, AT&T Won't Tell Identity Theft Victim Where Thief Resides
By 8.6.09
Fearing his identity would be stolen, Mike put out a fraud alert on his credit report to insure he’d be contacted whenever new credit applications went out under his name. The move paid off because someone snagged his social security number and tried to open accounts with AT&T and Sprint.
What To Do When The AT&T Rep Won't Help You
By 8.4.09
Last week we wrote that AT&T charged Spoco’s Amex card twice for the same payment, but their CSRs refused to investigate the issue for him. After we posted his story, AT&T took notice and reversed the charge. That raises the question these stories always raise, which is, “How do I get the same result if my problem isn’t published on Consumerist?”
Try To Get DSL From AT&T, They Dare You
By 8.4.09
The person who blogs at MichiganTelephone just tried to help his friend sign up for DSL from AT&T last week. Their experience was so full of fail that now his friend doesn’t even want to bother trying anymore. Yes, a customer came to AT&T ready to sign up, and AT&T drove him away. Michigan telephone wonders, “Does AT&T have a death wish, or are they really just that incompetent?”
Help Friends Conserve Cell Minutes By Changing Your Voicemail Greeting
By 8.2.09
David Pogue’s continuing crusade against useless voicemail instructions knocked loose an excellent suggestion for anyone willing to re-record their voicemail greeting. Too often the standard voicemail greeting is: “Hi, you’ve reached so-and-so. Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you.” Why not make it more useful, something like: “Hi, you’ve reached so-and-so. Please press star (or whichever command applies to your carrier) to leave a message.”
FCC Asks Apple, AT&T To Explain Why They Rejected Google Voice App
By 8.1.09
Apple (and AT&T) may have finally pushed too far with this week’s rejection of the Google Voice App from the iPhone App Store, for no reason other than it “duplicated functionality” already offered—for a price—by AT&T. According to mocoNews, the FCC has asked Apple and AT&T to provide answers about how apps are approved, why they’re denied, and particularly how much say AT&T has over things iPhone-related.
Apple Blames Jailbreaking For Recent AT&T Visual Voicemail Outages
By 7.31.09
Apple’s not through with their blitz against jailbreaking, with this newly updated support doc that says, among other things, that the recent Visual Voicemail outages from AT&T were caused by—and happened to—hacked iPhones.
AT&T Charges Customer Twice, Refuses To Investigate It
By 7.29.09
We think AT&T just stole about $157 from commenter Spoco. They applied the payment as always via his Amex card, but then said that it was declined and auto-debited it a second time a month later (+ late fees, of course). The only problem is, it wasn’t declined, and Spoco has proof. He just can’t get anyone at AT&T to care.
By 7.29.09
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AT&T users in parts of the Northeast and Midwest had a massive mobile data outage (both 3G and EDGE) this morning. Voice reception was not affected. One user reported receiving a $25 credit after calling AT&T to find out what was going on, so it may not hurt to ask. [Business Insider]
Free Wifi For All At Barnes & Noble Stores
By 7.28.09
The new ebook offering from Barnes & Noble may not be that compelling–it’s all the DRM badness of Amazon, but not always the lower prices–and yet something awesome has come out of it. Starting immediately, all customers can access free Wi-Fi in any B&N store.
Who Killed The Google Voice iPhone Application?
By 7.28.09
You can download a mobile Google Voice application for Blackberry or Android, but not for the iPhone. Apple rejected Google’s official application, and has been removing other apps using Google Voice functionality from the App Store. Now, why would they do such a thing? You know the answer. AT&T told them to.
AT&T Charges You A Fee For Getting A Discount
By 7.27.09
Reader “ValentineHumphrey” has a part-time job with a company that gets a 25% discount from AT&T. It sounded like a good deal until she found out there was actually a fee for signing up for the discount. What?
AT&T Lifts 4Chan Block, Was To Stop DDos Attacks
By 7.27.09
AT&T released a statement about their temporary blocking this weekend of troll haven 4chan for its customers. The company said the temporary block was to stop DDos attacks on one customer emanating from IP addresses associated with the site. After the threat was over, the block was lifted. Here’s the official release:
AT&T Reportedly Blocks Wildly Popular And Deeply Offensive Website
By 7.27.09
UPDATE: AT&T has a statement. They said the temporary block was to stop DDos attacks from IP addresses associated with img.4chan.org. After the threat was over, they lifted the block.
Get Ready For More AT&T Data Slowdowns
By 7.22.09
Oh jeez, AT&T, don’t you have enough on your plate? You can’t handle your iPhone customers as it is. TechCrunch says some customers’ voicemails go missing for days or even weeks, you can’t enable MMS because there’s no room for it on your system, and the “faster” 3GS isn’t any faster at all on your network. Now comes word that you’ll be the one providing so-called “connectitivty” for Barnes & Noble’s new ebook reader coming out next year. The result: more congestion for every AT&T customer.
