The Latest AT&T Phone News

[Poke]

AT&T sues former employees over phone unlocking hack scheme

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/18/atandt-sues-former-employees-over-phone-unlocking-hack-scheme/

 

[Poke]

Android 5.1.1 finally rolls out to Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge on AT&T

http://www.neowin.net/news/android-511-finally-rolls-out-to-samsung-galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-on-att

 

[Poke]

AT&T accuses rival carriers of launching Wi-Fi calling without FCC approval

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/2/9438391/att-complaint-fcc-wi-fi-calling

 

[Poke]

AT&T rolls out Android 5.1.1 Lollipop for Samsung's Galaxy S5

http://www.neowin.net/news/att-rolls-out-android-511-lollipop-for-samsung039s-galaxy-s5

Earlier this month, Google began rolling out the latest version of its Android OS to some of its Nexus phones and tablets, and other firms have also started outlining plans to upgrade their devices.

But while Android 6.0 Marshmallow is now available to manufacturers and carriers around the world, many continue to drag their feet in upgrading eligible devices to earlier Android versions that have already been around for months.

 

[Poke]

AT&T will offer Microsoft's Lumia 950 online on Nov. 17 and in stores on Nov. 20

http://www.neowin.net/news/att-will...-950-online-on-nov-17-and-in-stores-on-nov-20

After what may have seemed like an eternity to some, AT&T has finally announced that it will be bringing Microsoft's Lumia 950 to the masses starting on November 17th. The device was first announced alongside its supersized sibling, the Lumia 950 XL, on October 6.

 

[Poke]

AT&T to Increase Cost of Unlimited Data $5 in February

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-to-Increase-Cost-of-Unlimited-Data-5-in-February-135750

As AT&T continues to try and drive its grandfathered unlimited data customers to the company's metered data plans, insiders have learned the company will be imposing a $5 rate hike on these users starting in February. Anonymous sources tell 9to5Mac that the $30 price point will be bumped just $5 to $35 a month, and while this is the first hike in 7 years for the plan, it does "open the door to further tinkering later down the line."



AT&T has been waging a quiet war on unlimited data users ever since the company grandfathered many of them after switching to shared data plans back in 2010.


This has at times involved going so far as to block Facetime from working unless users upgraded to capped plans, or even throttling users to 5 GB of usage -- even when the network wasn't facing any meaningful congestion.

Facing new net neutrality rules, and both FCC fines and FTC lawsuits thanks to these efforts, AT&T has embraced a simpler motivator-- a vanilla price hike.

AT&T isn't alone. Verizon recently announced it would be jacking up the price of its grandfathered unlimited data users $20 per line. And while unlike AT&T and Verizon T-Mobile still sells unlimited data plans to new users, those plans recently received a relatively quiet price hike of $15, from $80 to $95 per month. A study last year found that just 22% of Verizon users remained on grandfathered unlimited plans, compared to 44% for AT&T and 78% for both Sprint and T-Mobile (who both advertise unlimited as a differentiator).

 

[Poke]

AT&T is ditching two-year contracts for good in January

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/30/10690078/att-ditching-two-year-contracts-in-january


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AT&T is preparing to permanently rid itself of two-year contracts at the start of 2016. Engadget was first to report that the number two US carrier will soon allow customers to purchase smartphones (and dumb phones, for that matter) only through the company's Next installment plan or by buying devices outright. As of January 8th, two-year contracts, which AT&T has gradually been working to phase out, will no longer be available — at least for regular consumers. An AT&T spokesperson confirmed the news with The Verge.

With $0 down for well-qualified customers, the ability to upgrade early and down payment options available with even lower monthly installments, our customers are overwhelmingly choosing AT&T Next. Starting January 8, AT&T Next will be the primary way to get a new smartphone at AT&T. This does not apply to business customers under a qualified wireless service agreement.


Corporate accounts will be able to stick to the traditional, subsidized two-year contract upgrades. Earlier this year, AT&T's third-party resellers stopped offering two-year contracts, leaving the company's own stores and website as the only places where you could sign up for or renew them. But now that option is going away, too. It's really not a terrible thing. Though their names are incredibly confusing, AT&T's Next plans aren't what we'd consider a bad deal, unlike the two-year contracts that were the industry norm before T-Mobile went off course and ditched them. Over time, everyone else has followed. We've reached out to AT&T for confirmation on the rumored plan.

Update December 30th 2:25PM ET: AT&T has confirmed the end of two-year contracts and we've added the company's statement.

 

[Poke]

AT&T Brings Back Unlimited Data, But Only For Its TV Customers

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/...ted-Data-But-Only-For-Its-TV-Customers-136052

AT&T Wireless is bringing back unlimited data, with a catch. According to an AT&T announcement this morning, AT&T's offering unlimited data to new customers for the first time in years, but only if they subscribe to both AT&T wireless and AT&T TV services (via either DirecTV or U-Verse). Users who sign up for AT&T TV services can get unlimited voice, text and data for $100 per month, plus $40 for each additional smartphone.


Users can also add a tablet to the plan for $40, though it's $10 per month via AT&T's metered mobile share plans.
AT&T dropped unlimited data years ago, and obviously now wants to use unlimited data as a way to drive users toward AT&T's own television services. Obviously if you're out of range of AT&T's U-Verse platform, or can't get a clear shot at DirecTV's satellites, you'll have to remain on metered plans.

AT&T has yet to indicate whether or not this will be a limited-time promotion. Also worth noting: if you cancel TV service at any time, you lose unlimited data (just in case you were hoping you could sign up for a month, then cancel but keep your unlimited data plan).

"Our new unlimited plan is our best offer yet. It’s the perfect reward for our valued customers who like to take advantage of our integrated offers of TV and wireless services,” AT&T Mobile CEO Ralph de la Vega said of the company's sort-of return to unlimited data.

Of course like most unlimited data plans, AT&T's unlimited data plans still have limits. The company clarified in September of last year that it was now throttling unlimited data users for the remainder of their billing cycle after they consume 22 GB. This policy took effect after the telco was sued by the FTC and fined by the FCC for lying about throttling unlimited data users after consuming 5 GB.

Complete details of AT&T's new unlimited wireless LTE data promotion can be found via the company's full press release.

 

[swampman]

AT&T is ditching two-year contracts for good in January

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/30/10690078/att-ditching-two-year-contracts-in-january


Share on Facebook Tweet Share (63) Pin
AT&T is preparing to permanently rid itself of two-year contracts at the start of 2016. Engadget was first to report that the number two US carrier will soon allow customers to purchase smartphones (and dumb phones, for that matter) only through the company's Next installment plan or by buying devices outright. As of January 8th, two-year contracts, which AT&T has gradually been working to phase out, will no longer be available — at least for regular consumers. An AT&T spokesperson confirmed the news with The Verge.

With $0 down for well-qualified customers, the ability to upgrade early and down payment options available with even lower monthly installments, our customers are overwhelmingly choosing AT&T Next. Starting January 8, AT&T Next will be the primary way to get a new smartphone at AT&T. This does not apply to business customers under a qualified wireless service agreement.


Corporate accounts will be able to stick to the traditional, subsidized two-year contract upgrades. Earlier this year, AT&T's third-party resellers stopped offering two-year contracts, leaving the company's own stores and website as the only places where you could sign up for or renew them. But now that option is going away, too. It's really not a terrible thing. Though their names are incredibly confusing, AT&T's Next plans aren't what we'd consider a bad deal, unlike the two-year contracts that were the industry norm before T-Mobile went off course and ditched them. Over time, everyone else has followed. We've reached out to AT&T for confirmation on the rumored plan.

Update December 30th 2:25PM ET: AT&T has confirmed the end of two-year contracts and we've added the company's statement.

Unless I'm misunderstanding things, I personally won't like this at all. What this means is from now on, I'll have to pay full price $700+ for a new iphone instead of the $200 with contract? I may be changing providers.

 

[mruk69]

All four of the top carriers have ditched 2 year contracts.

 

[Tyralak]

Unless I'm misunderstanding things, I personally won't like this at all. What this means is from now on, I'll have to pay full price $700+ for a new iphone instead of the $200 with contract? I may be changing providers.

To who? They're all doing this now.

 

[swampman]

Then I guess I'm stuck. Just have to wonder if this will have a negative outcome for Apple. I know I won't be buying a new iphone every 2 years anymore.

 

[n0qcu]

The reality is that in the long term this actually will save you money.

Sent from my iPhone using Chrome.

 

[Juan]

Then I guess I'm stuck. Just have to wonder if this will have a negative outcome for Apple. I know I won't be buying a new iphone every 2 years anymore.

You always were paying for the phone..verizon dropped their bills 20 dollars when they pulled this

 

[Tyralak]

Also, as soon as your phone is paid off, your bill goes down. I'll be just fine with my Note 4 for quite a while. We have four smartphones on our plan. As soon as they're paid off, our bill will go down by a LOT.

 

[Patrick Smith]

Then I guess I'm stuck. Just have to wonder if this will have a negative outcome for Apple. I know I won't be buying a new iphone every 2 years anymore.

You still pay full price. The contracts just had the subsidy built in to your wireless services.

 

[Poke]

AT&T adds 2.8M wireless customers, hints at big plans for DirecTV

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/26/10835610/att-q4-2015-earnings-directv


Announcing its Q4 2015 earnings this afternoon, AT&T said it added 2.8 million wireless customers, though wireless-driven revenue was down compared to the year-ago quarter at $18.9 billion. AT&T is adding plenty of non-smartphone devices to its network, but it's also losing some postpaid customers, with postpaid sales dropping by 27 percent. That doesn't look so good compared to AT&T's rivals.

Q4 post-paid phone net adds $TMUS +917k $VZ +449k $S +366k $T -256k Big4 1.48m vs 1.34m last yr

— Walt Piecyk (@WaltBTIG) January 26, 2016

The company's performance fell in line with Wall Street expectations on the earnings side, with EPS (earnings per share) of 65 cents. But AT&T was slightly flat on revenue, posting $42.1 billion versus analyst aims of $42.75B.

The company boasted of strong prepaid performance (469,000 adds), tallying 1.4M for the year between Cricket and GoPhone. Those customers aren't as desirable as postpaid subscribers, but it still seems to go against T-Mobile's claims that it's winning the prepaid wars.

On the video side, 214,000 satellite video customers were added in Q4 — a strong showing for DirecTV, which AT&T paid $49 billion for. But overall video subscribers fell by 26,000, a change a spokesperson attributed to "a deliberate shift to satellite" and moving away from U-Verse, AT&T's other, older video offering. The company has tried to increase appeal around combined smartphone and satellite packages by bringing back unlimited data as an option for customers who get both services from the company. "We think we are a company with no obvious peer," CEO Randall Stephenson said during AT&T's earnings call. "This is only our first move," Stephenson said. Already, 500,000 people have signed up for the revived unlimited data plan.

Update January 26th 5:45PM ET: The article has been updated to reflect that AT&T's postpaid customers are not all smartphone users.

 

[Juan]

They lost post paid cellular phone customers but gained more cellular data customers to make up for it

 

[Poke]

AT&T Close to Launching New Internet Video Service

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Close-to-Launching-New-Internet-Video-Service-136154

AT&T this week confirmed the company will take the wraps off its new Internet video service sometime within "the next 45 days." Speaking on the company's earnings call yesterday, AT&T said the project will involve taking DirecTV content and delivering it to the company's wireless subscribers. The move follows on the heels of a promotion that involves offering unlimited LTE data to customers who bundle DirecTV or U-Verse TV service.

According to AT&T, the service will incorporate the company's controversial sponsored data program, which exempts some content from AT&T usage caps:quote:He also added that AT&T will try out new ways of paying for these services. For instance, as AT&T brings more DirecTV video content to mobile devices, customers could expect to get some of this content for free or for a reduced price as the company experiments with sponsored data plans.But as AT&T experiments with new revenue streams and tries to sell the benefits of its $69 billion acquisition of DirecTV, it's quietly hoping nobody notices the company lost postpaid wireless, television, and net broadband customers last quarter. That's something yet another ISP-curated "me too" streaming video service isn't likely to fix.

 

[Poke]

Android 6.0 Marshmallow OTA begins for LG G4 on AT&T

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Android-6.0-Marshmallow-OTA-begins-for-LG-G4-on-AT-T_id78160

Having made its way to LG G4 customers on T-Mobileover the past few days, Android Lollipop's roll-out to theflagship device now extends to those on AT&T.
Last week, T-Mobile customers were able to grab Android 6.0 Marshmallow via the LG Bridge software before the official over-the-air update process began shortly after. Those rocking an AT&T handset need not mess around with Bridge, for the update is available OTA as of now. If you do want to update immediately, fire up the Settingsapp on your device and navigate through About Phone --> Update Center --> System Updates --> Check for Update. As ever, you'd need more than half of your battery life available, and a Wi-Fi connection to process what is quite a sizable (971 MB) bundle.

Even if you don't follow the above instructions, the release has begun, so a notification should arrive to your AT&T LG G4 in the very near future. Though a smooth update and installation should be a formality, you may wish to back up your data before proceeding, particularly if you have information that you don't wish to lose.
The G4 model number H810 is the intended recipient of the update, and AT&T has added a support page to its website which you can find at the source.
If you do update to Android Marshmallow on the AT&T G4, be sure to let us know how you get on via the comments.
source: AT&T via Android Central