Sprint this afternoon announced the 'Sprint Family Share Pack,' a new shared-data plan that offers double the high-speed data of its two largest competitors, at a cheaper price. The plan, which will become available later this week, will enable customers to have as many as 10 mobile phone lines share 20 gigabytes of data for just $100 a month. More details below...
It looks like Verizon isn't the only carrier planning to throttle select unlimited LTE customers in the near future. A leaked internal memo surfaced today, confirming that T-Mobile will also begin slowing down the connections of some of its subscribers later this month.
According to the memo, throttling will only apply to heavy data users that are using their connection for peer-to-peer file sharing and unapproved tethering. Like Verizon, the carrier claims the move is part of a larger effort to improve its overall network performance...
It appears that Sprint may have some new competition in the T-Mobile suitors club. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that French telecom Iliad has offered to buy T-Mobile U.S., putting in a bid of $15 billion cash for a majority 56.6% stake in the carrier.
Like T-Mobile in the United States, Iliad is the fourth largest wireless provider in France. Founded by billionaire French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, the company has climbed its way to the top by offering better pricing and customer service than the competition...
According to a new report, T-Mobile is set to begin allowing the purchase of accessories on EIPs (or equipment installment plans) later this month. Citing a leaked internal memo from the carrier, TmoNews says that the new option will be available on July 20th.
The move will enable customers to pick up their favorite accessories, such as Beats headphones or Bluetooth speakers, without having to pay a large sum of cash up front. As it does with smartphones, T-Mobile will split up the price into small, monthly payments...
T-Mobile has kicked off a press event in Seattle, Washington tonight that it is calling 'Uncarrier 5.0.' The provider has used similar uncarrier events in the past to announce industry-changing initiatives like 'Jump' and 'No ETF fees,' so that should tell you what we could see tonight.
John Legere has been on stage for a few minutes now, and has already made a number of announcements. Perhaps the biggest one we've heard thus far is a new program called 'Test Drive,' which will allow customers to borrow an iPhone 5s free for a week to test out T-Mobile's network...
AT&T has confirmed with ITWorld that it has suffered a security breach where customer information was accessed. The breach actually occurred back in April, but was only disclosed this week by the company in a filing with California regulators.
According to the report, personal information—including social security numbers and call records—was accessed for an unknown number of customers in the breach. It's believed the attack was part of an effort to obtain unlock codes from the carrier...
AT&T has increased its activation fees for customers who opt for two-year contracts. The increase is only a couple of dollars, from $36 to $40, but when you consider that you have to pay that for every device, every upgrade, it starts to add up.
The move is part of a larger effort by the carrier to push more subscribers away from the traditional contract/subsidy model, and towards Next. The upgrade program allows customers to get a new device every year for $0 down, and zero fees...
As reported by the Mexican publication El Universal, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) has ruled that Mexican carriers are no longer allowed to make use of the "iPhone" name, since it violates the phonetically identical sounding "iFone" trademark owned by a small call center in Mexico. The trademark is filed under Class 38, which covers telecommunications services.
To be clear, Apple will still be able to sell the iPhone in Mexico and use its own trademark as it sees fit, but carriers won't be able to. The basis behind the ruling is that, since Apple is not considered to be a telecommunication services provider, it is acquitted of being at fault. Instead, the IMPI has placed the blame directly on Mexican carriers, which do provide telecommunications services…
Somewhere during the craziness of Apple confirming the Beats acquisition deal yesterday, T-Mobile announced that it will be hosting a media event next month. The carrier sent out invitations for an Uncarrier 5.0 event, to be held in Los Angeles on June 18.
The invite, posted above, reads 'we don't play it safe and sound,' but offers few clues on what T-Mobile is going to announce. In previous 'Uncarrier' events, however, the company has addressed various parts of the wireless business that most annoy consumers...
Verizon Wireless has announced the roll out of its Voice over LTE technology - better known as VoLTE - will begin across the US later this year.
The new technology will move Verizon's LTE service past data and will offer an HD Voice experience, using the AMR-wideband standard. "This solution provides the best voice quality available now and allows for future interoperability with others using the standard," Verizon claims.
Following in the footsteps of T-Mobile, Sprint announced this week that it is now offering up to $650 in equipment trade-in and early termination fee credits to new subscribers. The goal of the promo is to entice customers to switch over from their current carriers.
Folks looking to cash in on the 'Framily Switching Bonus' offer must port their existing phone numbers from another company to Sprint. They must also trade-in their previous handsets for new smartphones, and subscribe to one of the carrier's new Framily rate plans...
Folks with an iPhone on T-Mobile might be interested to hear that there’s a new hacked carrier update available that promises a number of enhancements. It was created by the same folks who brought us that slew of carrier update hacks for Sprint, Verizon and AT&T iPhone models last summer.
This time around, the developers say that the modded update includes a variety of things like boosted data speeds and signal reception (depending on your location). It also adds several native T-Mobile features to your iPhone like the ability to view account balance, texts sent and other usage info...