And the fun just goes on, and on, and on.
Following this morning’s news that Sprint is suing AT&T/T-Mobile in an attempt to block their proposed merger, AT&T has just returned with a response. As you might expect, it pretty much boils down to “Yeah, yeah, see you in court. Oh, and here are some reasons we’re awesome.”
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Sprint’s clearly no fan of the pending AT&T/T-mobile merger: in recent memory, they’ve pledged to complain to Congress, commissioned a study to illustrate how awful it would be, and cheered on the Department of Justice as they filed an antitrust suit to halt the proceedings.
Now, instead of just sniping from the sidelines, Sprint is taking a more active stance on situation. Their first step: filing their own lawsuit against AT&T, T-Mobile, and Deutsche Telekom. → Read More
In spite of the antitrust lawsuit recent filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, AT&T has been hard at work to make sure their pending T-Mobile acquisition doesn’t fall apart. Sources close to the situation say that AT&T is reportedly working on a “two-track plan” to address the DoJ’s concerns and make sure the merger goes through.
While Reuters can’t confirm with certainty the specifics of the plan, AT&T is said to be preparing itself to make concessions in an effort assuage federal fears that the merger will reduce competition and raise wireless costs. Among the concessions on the table are the sale of T-Mobile’s assets and the possible retention of T-Mobile’s value-oriented rate plans. → Read More
It’s no surprise whatsoever that Sprint isn’t down with the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, and with good reason. There’s no telling just how severe the effects of this deal may be on Sprint, but we know for sure that it won’t be good. So with no other option, the carrier has campaigned against the merger since day one. We’ve seen statement after statement, release after release… but this time Sprint is taking a new approach.
Today Sprint threw their weight behind a study which debunks claims made by AT&T and the Economic Policy Institute that this merger will create “tens of thousands of jobs,” and even goes so far as to say the deal will result in a reduction of American jobs. → Read More
Following today’s reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a complaint opposing the $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T, the big blue carrier has issued a response stating plans to ask for an expedited hearing “so that the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed.”
The DOJ cites antitrust issues in its complaint, saying “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market.” But AT&T begs to differ. → Read More
It’s coming! It’s finally coming!
After months of gallivanting around the world with launches everywhere from South Korea to Canada since May (plus a one day delay thanks to Hurricane Irene) Samsung’s Galaxy S II Android superphone is finally heading to the US.
As expected, Samsung used their press gathering in New York today to announce aesthetically unique Galaxy S II variants for three major US carriers: T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T. Verizon, meanwhile, is holding out for something else. → Read More
If you’ve ever called your carrier about spotty coverage, then chances are you’ve heard the party line: “we’re working to improve the service in your area.” It’s delightfully vague — you know that your concerns are being considered, just without any concrete timeline for improvement.
Today, AT&T has announced their intention to make those mythical service improvements more transparent. They have launched eight microsites for major markets that focus on service enhancements made in the past year. → Read More
Surprise! Even a clever little gimmick like a dedicated Facebook button can’t save a bad phone from an early demise.
After just 36 days on the shelves, a trusted source close to AT&T tells us the carrier is already prepping to ditch HTC’s so-called “Facebook Phone”, the Status. The reason? The thing just isn’t selling. → Read More
The upcoming iPhone 5 will almost certainly be a single phone that supports multiple networks, namely CDMA (such as the one used by Verizon or Sprint in the United States) as well as GSM (which is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.).
This has been rumored before, and even at one point half confirmed by a Verizon executive, but nothing like some good old evidence from the field to turn a rumor into a near-certainty. → Read More
January 19, 2011. It’s a day I’ll always remember. It’s the day I finally got to destroy a Horcrux that had been bringing misery into my life: AT&T.
That’s the day I finally cancelled my AT&T service after years of dropped calls, non-existant service, gross over-charges, and all around frustration. I even did it before I knew for sure that Verizon was getting the iPhone. I had had enough. That I got to cancel it by way of Google Voice, adding insult to injury, was just icing on the cake. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions, technology-wise, I’ve made in the past few years. And today it’s looking even better.
You see, after months of AT&T being out of sight, out of mind, they stormed back into my brain last night when I read on Engadget that they would be removing individual text messaging plans in a few days. In AT&T marketing parlance, this is called “streamlining”. In my parlance, this is called “bullshit”. → Read More
Tired of waiting for AT&T to launch their first LTE devices? Yeah — so is AT&T, it would seem. So much so, in fact, that they’re prepping to launch their first LTE devices early next week… before their LTE network is even officially fired up.
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AT&T’s legal team probably didn’t have too restful a weekend. On Friday afternoon, the legal firm accidentally posted a partially redacted letter to the FCC revealing the original cost of its planned LTE build-out at $3.8 billion. That’s quite a difference from the $39 billion it would cost to achieve the same goal through a T-Mo acquisition, and many found the revelation incredibly suspect, enough so to possibly derail the merger.
And if that wasn’t enough to start out the weekend, AT&T then had to file eight federal suits to keep a law firm from blocking the deal through arbitration. → Read More
A partially-redacted letter from AT&T lawyers to FCC officials was accidentally posted on the FCC website today, and it reveals quite a bit about AT&T‘s strategy for its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. Unfortunately, the filing has come and gone on the website, but the folks over at Wireless Week took down some notes for us. → Read More
You’re all aware of the increase in “hacktivism” and malware we’ve been seeing over the past few months, and as it turns out, the carriers are aware of it, too. Just yesterday, Sprint announced the availability of its McAfee security apps for Android, and today AT&T is looping in Juniper Networks for its new mobile security platform. → Read More
The FCC has just informed good ol’ big blue that its proposed acquisitions of T-Mobile and Qualcomm’s 700MHz spectrum will be informally reviewed together, rather than as separate transactions.
This wouldn’t really be a big deal except for the fact that AT&T may be biting off more than it can chew. By reviewing the two proposed acquisitions together, the FCC is forcing AT&T to justify such massive purchases of spectrum. → Read More
AT&T and mobile social games company ngmoco, which is owned by Japanese gaming giant DeNA, have just announced a pretty significant agreement to bring the Mobage social gaming platform to AT&T Android customers.
According to a release, Mobage will serve as a hub for AT&T Android users to discover and play games, as well as connect and communicate with other players worldwide. AT&T says the agreement is the first of its kind between ngmoco and a U.S. wireless carrier. → Read More
T-Mobile’s customer base has been dwindling for a while now, but the migration from pink seems to be slowing with just 50,000 customers bouncing out of there in the second quarter. That’s compared to the 90,000 T-Mo customers that jumped ship last year.
With this past quarter’s losses, T-Mobile’s current subscriber base comprises 33.6 million people — quite a bit less than AT&T’s 90+ million subscribers. → Read More
The mystery machine that Jordan introduced us to last week has appeared again, but maybe not in the way we expected. Instead of posing for the camera again, the Atrix-esque handset has popped up in AT&T’s billing system, which seems to confirm that the device has been provisioned with a special tracking code unique to LTE devices. → Read More
Ever since it was first spotted this past winter, we’ve wondered how long it would be before we’d have an Xperia Arc of our own to not notice in our pockets. For months rumors flew about which U.S. carrier would be lucky enough to nab the svelte smartphone, with AT&T emerging as the fan favorite. Well, summer has come, and so has the answer — the Xperia Arc is, carrier-wise, flying solo. → Read More
The HTC Status might be a sort-of-weird, kind-of-gimmicky (with its dedicated Facebook button and all) little piece of kit, but it’s got at least one thing going for it: it’s the only phone on AT&T running on the latest (phone-friendly) version of Android: v2.3, or “Gingerbread”. Not for long, though.
AT&T has just confirmed that all of the Android phones they released in 2011 will be getting the upgrade treatment.
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