Sprint, the nation's third largest wireless provider, is not happy about AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile. Once AT&T and T-Mobile are officially merged, the only major players in the U.S. wireless space will be AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
The problem is, Sprint isn't that much of a "big player" anymore. The network has been falling behind the success of AT&T and Verizon (both of which sell the iPhone), and there isn't much traction left for Sprint to make a dent in AT&T and Verizon's market share.
Well, no one saw that coming. Out of nowhere, AT&T has bought T-Mobile and become the largest wireless provider in the U.S.
It was originally thought that Sprint and T-Mobile would merge, but network incompatibilities made that idea look less and less attractive. Instead, AT&T and T-Mobile have shacked up to become the big kid on the block. Combined, AT&T and T-Mobile account for 130 million wireless customers in the United States, blowing by Verizon's 90 million users.
The question on our mind is: What does this all mean for the iPhone? LTE? What if we actually start getting reception in our own homes...
AT&T announced today that they will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in cash and stocks. A deal that shocked, you, me, and our grandmothers.
But what does this mean for T-Mobile subscribers? Will they finally get the iPhone? No. Well, not yet at least...
If you're a heavy user of MyWi, the most popular jailbreak app that allows tethering, then watch out because AT&T is coming after you. According to various reports from MyWi users, AT&T has been sending SMS and emails warning them that they have to activate the official tethering option if they want to tether their iPhone.
Additionally, the email AT&T sent to some MyWi users warns them that if they don't hear from them before March 27, those users will automatically be enrolled in the 4 GB DataPro plan, which is required for activating the official tethering option...
So last month, AT&T, reeling off the loss of iPhone exclusivity, went into all out panic mode and started treating customers like human beings for once.
They started offering some customers the unlimited data plans again, added an extra 2GB to the DataPro tethering plans, created a new Mobile to Any Mobile feature, and they even offered to pony up 1,000 bonus rollover minutes just to show us how much they care.
I have to admit; it was bizarre to see AT&T get all courteous with their customers. Just a few minutes ago, AT&T made good on their promise of an extra 1,000 roll over minutes as I was alerted by text message much in the same way as the initial offer...
It's no secret that Verizon and AT&T are at war. They are constantly battling over the best network, and ultimately the most customers. Even though Verizon has generally had a larger customer base and better call quality, AT&T has generally had faster 3G speeds (depending on location) and of course the iPhone.
That all changed on February 11th of this year, when Verizon launched their version of the iPhone 4. But it seems snagging Apple's popular smart phone wasn't enough for Big Red. They took this wireless war to a tiny little battlefield called predictive text...
4G Android handset users are pretty upset over their not so 4G upload speeds. This past month, AT&T rolled out their first pair of 4G phones which operate on the carrier's 4G HSPA+ network. Even though AT&T has upgraded their entire network to HSPA+, it is only available in areas that have the new backhaul to support it.
How fast are these 4G devices? AT&T is claiming that in areas where 4G is lit up, they are seeing download speeds of up to 6 Mbps. There is no mention of upload speed. But Android users are flocking to web forums, claiming their 4G phones are losing to 3G iPhones in data speed tests....
Verizon might win the coverage war, but AT&T takes the crown for the fastest data download speeds. That is, of course, according to Metrico Wireless. An independent mobile device performance evaluation company out of Maryland, Metrico has been advising companies on launch readiness of their wireless products and services for years.
According to their latest report, which includes thousands of field tests between 5 U.S. cities, AT&T clearly has the faster data. Metrico ran more than 10,000 web page downloads in Dallas, New York City, Seattle, Chicago, and Baltimore. They also ran more than 2,000 data download and upload tests, as well as over 4,000 voice calls...
We've gotten questions from readers asking if iOS 4.3 will be compatible with all iDevices. Sadly, the answer is no. The public release of iOS 4.3 that Apple announced at their iPad 2 event will only work on certain iDevice generations.
Most notably, 4.3 will not be installable on the Verizon iPhone. Because the Verizon iPhone runs on a different baseband and has different bugs to fix, Apple has to release a separate 4.3 build for that device. (Which they haven't announced yet.)
Hopefully your iDevice isn't on the 4.3 incompatibility list...
With Apple officially seeding iOS 4.3 GM to developers yesterday, Cupertino also updated its site with details regarding features the upcoming iOS 4.3 software brings. As we mentioned earlier this week, one of the features iOS 4.3 will finally bring is the long-awaited Personal Hotspot feature to AT&T iPhone 4 owners.
Although Verizon's version of the iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot feature supports five simultaneous devices, once AT&T iPhone 4 owners get the iOS 4.3 update, they will only be able to connect three devices at once.
I think we all assumed that AT&T would support the iPhone's Personal Hotspot feature that comes bundled with iOS 4.3, but its availability has been confirmed by an AT&T spokesperson.
As we informed you yesterday, iOS 4.3 will makes its way to the public on the same day that the iPad 2 is released.
AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom has confirmed that the company's Personal Hotspot support will go live once Apple makes iOS 4.3 available on March 11...
Until today, one of the most compelling reasons to switch to Verizon for the iPhone was that big red still offered unlimited data plans, whereas AT&T had long been on a tiered pricing model. It seems the gap between the 2 carriers is getting a bit smaller as according to Verizon CFO himself, Verizon is going to stop offering unlimited data plans to its customer as soon as this summer.
A few weeks ago, we reported about Verizon's plans to throttle data speed and start compressing images and videos in order to allow available network capacity to benefit the greatest number of users...