AT&T

AT&T activates 3.7M iPhones, more than 3 out of 4 smartphones sold in Q2

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Carrier AT&T just posted its calendar 2012 second quarter earnings, hours ahead of Apple's conference call after the close of trading today at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern. AT&T activated 3.7 million iPhones, 22 percent to new customers. The figure represents 77 percent of AT&T's total postpaid device sales and about 55 percent of its total phone sales to contract customers, but also a 14 percent quarter-over-quarter drop in iPhone sales...

Parts vendor offering new permanent unlock service for AT&T iPhones

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Apple N Berry is an online parts vendor that also deals in iPhone unlock solutions. We actually point to the store quite often when mentioning GEVEY Ultra products — they usually have them.

But now it's offering something much different than interposers. The vendor has just launched a new IMEI unlock service that, it promises, will permanently unlock all AT&T iPhone models...

AT&T announces shared data plans, available in late August

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2012

The nation's #2 carrier, AT&T Mobility, today announced shared data plans, in response to Verizon's shared data option which became available June 28. And just like the Big Red carrier's Share Everything plans, new plans from AT&T allow new and existing subscribers to share cellular data across smartphones, tablets and other devices, plus get unlimited talk and text.

According to a media release, current customers, including business users, won't be required to switch to the new plans. Should they decide to switch, they can do so without a contract extension. More importantly, AT&T says there will be no changes to its device upgrade policy...

AT&T CEO comments on FaceTime charging rumors

Cody Lee ∙ July 17, 2012

We were pretty excited when we found out that FaceTime-over-cellular was coming in iOS 6. Finally, users would be able to natively video chat away from Wi-Fi networks (without jailbreaking).

Needless to say, our excitement dropped off yesterday when we found out that there's a chance that AT&T is going to charge users separately for the feature, the way it does for mobile hotspot...

Here’s why we think AT&T might begin charging for FaceTime over cellular [Video]

Jeff Benjamin ∙ July 16, 2012

This video showcases the new pop-up dialogue box that interrupts you when trying to enable FaceTime over cellular in iOS 6 beta 3.

Apparently, AT&T has a scheme in the works to pry more dollars from their iPhone customers. As Cody noted via Twitter, perhaps they're thinking about rebounding after taking a hit on text messaging fees due to iMessage.

Take a look inside as we demonstrate the differences between an AT&T iPhone 4S, and a Verizon iPad 3, when attempting to enable FaceTime over cellular...

AT&T preparing to launch shared data plans

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Once Verizon announced its new 'shared data plan' strategy, we knew that it was only a matter of time before AT&T followed suit. As the two largest carriers in the US, the companies often take queues from one another.

AT&T's CEO all-but-confirmed the carrier's switch to shared data back in May of this year, but wouldn't give any specifics on a launch date. It can't be too far off though, as some users are already seeing the new plans...

AT&T opens up its Watson speech engine via SDK for iOS and Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Realizing Apple and Google are moving swiftly to mainstream speech recognition on mobile devices, U.S. carrier AT&T today announced that it is opening up its own Watson speech engine to iOS and Android platforms via a software development kit (SDK), now available on the AT&T Developer website.

Much like Apple's Siri or Google Voice Actions in Android (and Google Now), Watson takes input, analyzes it, performs one or more services and returns a result. Input can be audio files, speech, gestures, face recognition and text. Here's a video of Watson in action...

AT&T LTE now in 47 markets, still way behind Verizon

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 4, 2018

AT&T has added LTE coverage to six new areas today, bringing its grand total of LTE-covered markets to 47. The carrier flipped the switch for its new 4G service in Buffalo, New York, Wichita, Kansas and more. Keep reading for a full list of the new markets...

AT&T launching new smartphone anti-theft service on Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 6, 2012

Apple's Find My iPhone service is rather convenient for finding a lost device, but it falls short in theft prevention. See, thieves have figured out by now they simply need to shut down a stolen device to stop Find My iPhone.

Cabel Sasser thought of an interesting solution - a "Shutdown Requires PIN" feature in iOS Settings - and carrier AT&T's also been tackling this problem for some time.

It looks like the nation's leading carrier, which sold 17.5 million iPhones last year, has indeed come up with an effective remedy that might keep iPhone thieves on the grid longer: a block list of sorts on the network end...

How Steve Jobs really felt about carriers and why they’re still like Soviet ministries

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2018

Before wrapping up his career-defining iPhone presentation on January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs invited Stan Sigman, then the CEO of Cingular Wireless, to join him on stage and announce a partnership that would send shockwaves of fear throughout the wireless industry. For the first time in history, a telecom would work in concert with a phone vendor to make a revolutionary phone possible without messing the user experience with junkware.

Stigman even confessed publicly that he agreed to take on the iPhone without ever seeing it, "because of the confidence I have in Steve Jobs to deliver his vision". Notwithstanding, a trained eye could tell the two men were worlds apart.

One was an archaic executive stuck in the old days and the other a forward-thinking unconventional manager with uncanny ability to figure out what consumers wanted before they even knew it.

Here's a reminder of how Jobs really felt about carriers, the way they go about their business and how virtually nothing's changed...

AT&T asked RIM to make an iPhone competitor back in 2010

Cody Lee ∙ June 28, 2012

There's a new report out today that claims that back in 2010, AT&T went to BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, and asked them to create a touch-screen iPhone competitor.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. But perhaps the most important one is the fact that back in 2010, AT&T was still Apple's exclusive iPhone partner here in the U.S...

Sprint iPhone sells better at carrier-agnostic retailers than Apple Stores

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 26, 2012

Apple's iPhone sales in the United States have traditionally been strong at Apple Stores, likely due to the superior buying experience.

A new research has revealed a little known fact, that customers pick up a Sprint version of the device at carrier-agnostic retailers more often than at Apple's retail outlets.

It's got lots to do with high retention rates for rivals AT&T and Verizon resulting in little switching and Sprint just not having enough existing customers to walk through the door...