The big four wireless carriers in the United States—Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint—announced Thursday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain an interesting plan for a new authentication system in apps based on mobile phone numbers.
Carriers
Verizon will stop limiting your video streaming quality for a fee
When Verizon brought back unlimited data plans earlier this year, the announcement was met with excitement as well as pessimism. The excitement was abundant for obvious reasons, but various catches such as throttling after 22 GB of use per month and limiting of video streaming resolution seem to have put a small damper on the Unlimited Plan excitement.
Canada’s top carrier is seeing “anemic appetite” for iPhone 8
The CEO of Canada’s biggest wireless company told investors and shareholders on a conference call they're seeing little demand for Apple’s iPhone 8, Reuters reported Thursday.
Chinese carriers block LTE access for Apple Watch Series 3 owners without explanation
State-owned carriers in China have cut LTE cellular access to Apple Watch Series 3, preventing owners of the device from signing up for a cellular connection service.
iPhone 8 pre-orders could start on September 15, shipments on September 22
The ultimate in tech bling, Apple's iPhone 8, is expected to be announced at the September 12 Steve Jobs Theater media event and now two German carriers claim that the company will be collecting pre-orders for the device beginning Friday, September 15.
Carriers apparently told to prepare for September 12 iPhone 8 unveiling
The general consensus among people in the know is that Apple will unveil new iPhone models next month and if the latest report is an indication, the OLED iPhone along with the iterative iPhone 7s/Plus devices could be announced at a media event on Tuesday, September 12.
Apple has been granted license to conduct 5G wireless broadband trials
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Apple and other companies a license to conduct trials of the emerging fifth-generation (5G) wireless broadband standard.
How to keep your US phone number when moving internationally
My family and I are moving to France for a couple of years, and while we plan on using a French cellphone plan, we also want to conserve our US phone numbers for when we return to the US on vacation, and more importantly for when we return for good.
I don’t really want to get into the reasons why we want to conserve our phone numbers because it is beyond the point. But if like us you want to live overseas while keeping your US phone number, know it is pretty simple to accomplish, in exchange of a small fee. Read on for the details.
What’s AT&T Stream Saver and how to turn it off?
Stream Saver is a new feature from AT&T that allows users to save cellular data by automatically streaming higher definition videos at a standard definition (480p). This feature has now officially been rolled out to all AT&T customers that are on a voice + data plan.
While Stream Saver can be a great feature if you're on a limited data plan, it can also be overkill if you have a large data cap, or even an unlimited one. If you fall under that category and want to keep enjoying videos you stream in their full resolution, it may not be a bad idea to disable Stream Saver which has been turned on by default for all eligible AT&T customers.
AT&T announces new unlimited data plan: 4 lines for $180
AT&T on Thursday announced that it is expanding its unlimited data plan offering to all customers. Starting tomorrow, all customers will be able to get unlimited talk, text and data on 4 lines for $180.
The move follows a similar one by the carrier's close competitor Verizon, who announced its own unlimited data plan earlier this week, and comes amidst strong pressure from both T-Mobile and Sprint.
Apple denies throttling LTE performance of Verizon iPhone 7
Bloomberg today shared research conducted by Twin Prime and Cellular Insights in a story suggestively headlined “Apple's Chip Choices May Leave Some iPhone Users in Slow Lane” which asserts Apple may have throttled LTE performance of the Verizon iPhone 7 handsets to make them perform about as well as the AT&T iPhone 7 models.
Apple in a statement shot down the report and denied throttling, insisting there's “no discernible difference” in wireless performance between various iPhone 7 models.
AT&T to throttle streaming video next year with new ‘Stream Saver’ feature
AT&T on Friday announced a new feature for its data plans called Stream Saver. The carrier calls it a "free and convenient, data-saving feature" that will cap most mobile video streams at DVD quality (or around 480p).
It sounds harmless at first, but customers who aren't concerned with data may not like that the feature will be enabled by default. To watch hi-def video, you'll have to opt out via the myAT&T app or the AT&T website.