Items tagged with (NYSE:T)
AT&T is the second largest wireless carrier in the United States with millions of customers under its umbrella. But the company is now coming under fire for its decision to sell location data pertaining to its wireless customers. While AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all said they stopped selling phone location information to other companies, AT&T has announced that it wasn't illegal for it to sell the data. AT&T is claiming it did nothing wrong, just as the FCC has started an investigation into the practice. The telecom giant has argues that its sale of assisted GPS or A-GPS data that is used with 911 location services doesn't violate U.S. law. The reason...
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We are just at the early stages over the shift from 4G LTE wireless coverage to 5G. So far in the United States, only AT&T and Verizon have lit up their 5G mobile wireless networks, but coverage is limited to just a handful of cities and 4G LTE-trampling speeds are spotty at best. However, once 5G networks become more prevalent and start blanketing the U.S. with coverage, we may see a shift in the pricing strategy of carriers. In fact, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson remarked today during the company's earnings call that its 5G subscribers are almost entirely limited to businesses, which are using it as a LAN replacement. However, the real eyebrow-raising comments came...
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T-Mobile has announced something, and it's anyone's guess if it's an elaborate April Fool's prank kicking off a bit early or if it's just a hardcore troll of AT&T's 5G E service. At any rate, it's natural to be dubious of this but the T-Mobile Phone BoothE is also sort of plausible so here is what T-Mobile has to say about it. The T-Mobile Phone BoothE is "the next evolution in telecom" and will launch in New York City, Washington D.C., and in Seattle with more locations to come. The BoothE is a "vertical vestibule" that anyone around long enough to remember the days of public phone booths will recognize. Here's hoping that the BoothE aren't frequented by the sort of folks who can't...
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Although rumors of a price hike from AT&T for its popular DirecTV Now streaming packages were brewing earlier this week, the company confirmed the move today. After raising prices by $5 back in July 2018 shortly after its merger with Time Warner was approved (and after it promised to lower prices for customers), AT&T is delivering a double whammy today. For starters, pricing for its DirecTV Now streaming plans are increasing by a whopping $10 across the board. With the $10 increase taken into account, this is how much existing customers can expect to pay for their current DirecTV Now plans: Live a Little (65+ channels): $50/month Just Right (85+ channels): $65/month...
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When it comes to AT&T's fake 5G network -- as it calls it, 5G Evolution (5G E) -- there seems to be universal backlash against the company's marketing and the confusion that it sows with Fourth place wireless carrier Sprint has already filed a lawsuit against second-place AT&T for these deceptive practices, and now it is once again calling out the company in an open letter [PDF]. Sprint even uses AT&T own words against, as the wireless carrier acknowledged that it was trying to craft its own 5G narrative. "Every company is guilty of building a narrative of how you want the world to work. And I love the fact that we broke our industry's narrative two days ago, and they're...
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AT&T has been hit with backlash from nearly every corner of the tech sphere for its 5G Evolution (5G E) branding, which has almost universally been deemed misleading to customers. In fact, Sprint filed a lawsuit against AT&T over its 5G E campaign, stating in its filing, "AT&T has sought to gain an unfair advantage in the race to 5G by embarking on a nationwide advertising campaign to deceive consumers into believing that its existing 4G LTE Advanced network is now a 5G network." In the end, this all comes down to AT&T's customers and how they're either positively or negatively impacted by the company's fake 5G branding. But if you take AT&T's...
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AT&T is giving a status update of sorts on its nascent 5G wireless network. The second-place U.S. wireless carrier first lit up its network in December in the following markets: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, San Antonio and Waco. 5G service is currently limited to select AT&T customers, who are all accessing the network using Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot. AT&T today announced that it will expand its 5G footprint later in 2019 with the addition of two more cities: Chicago And Minneapolis. These are key markets for AT&T to spread its 5G goodness, and join other previously announced...
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The war of words between America's top carriers over 5G branding has now devolved into a lawsuit. AT&T started this whole mess then it decided to relabel its LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network as 5G Evolution (5G E). Competing carriers cried foul as 5G E is little more than extension of 4G LTE technology and is in no way true 5G. Sprint, the fourth-place wireless carrier, has now filed a lawsuit against AT&T for its blatantly misleading advertising. "AT&T has sought to gain an unfair advantage in the race to 5G by embarking on a nationwide advertising campaign to deceive consumers into believing that its existing 4G LTE Advanced network is now a 5G network," says Sprint in...
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AT&T has been catching a lot of flak for its 5G Evolution (5G E) nomenclature, which is the company’s consumer-facing name for LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) technology. 5G E in essence is an extension of existing 4G LTE technology and is not in fact true 5G. Last month, AT&T started applying 5G E network logos to Android phones that support its expanded network and now Apple is joining the fray. Apple made the change with iOS 12.2 Beta 2, which is now being distributed to developers and public beta testers. If iPhone and iPad Pro users are connected to a segment of AT&T’s network that has been upgraded to support the faster LTE-A speeds, the 5G E logo will be displayed....
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Every major wireless company likes to thump its chest and proclaim it is home to the best network, in terms of speed and coverage, but is there a clear winner? According to the latest USA Mobile Network Experience Report by OpenSignal, Verizon leads the way more often than not, though the results are a bit more surprising when you dig into the individual tests. OpenSignal tested wireless performance in five different categories—4G Availability, Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, and Latency Experience. Verizon won three of the five categories, those being 4G availability, videos, and uploads. Click to Enlarge (Source: OpenSignal) What's interesting, though,...
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Verizon is making it easy to rock out with your iPhone out, or with your Android device if that is how you roll. How so? Verizon has reached a deal with Apple to include an Apple Music subscription with its Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited Plans at no extra charge, starting tomorrow, January 17. That's a pretty nice perk, and it expands on Verizon's previous offer of six months of Apple Music included with its Unlimited plans. And while Go Unlimited customers are excluded from the expanded offer, they are still eligible to receive six months of Apple Music for free. "When we introduced six months free of Apple Music to Verizon Unlimited subscribers, we said it was just the beginning of a...
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AT&T is planning to replace the "4G LTE" logo on some smartphones with a "5G E" logo when they are connected to faster portions of its network, a decision that has caused a bit of an uproar on social media, and by the wireless carrier's competitors. The company's response to all that criticism essentially boils down to 'Sorry, not sorry'. "If I now occupy beachfront real estate in our competitors' heads, that makes me smile," AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan said at CES. What AT&T calls "5G Evolution," or 5G E, is not true 5G. It's still LTE, but with some optimizations to speed things up, otherwise known as LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro. From the outside looking in, it appears...
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Earlier today we reported that T-Mobile was taking AT&T to task for its decision to seemingly deceive customers by changing 4G LTE labels on consumers' smartphones to ”5G E” with a software update. 5G E stands for 5G Evolution, which in AT&T parlance is a speed-boosted extension of existing 4G LTE wireless technology. Now, the nation's largest wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless, is also calling out AT&T. While Verizon technically launched a 5G wireless network, it is limited to just a few cities in the United States at the moment and is only available for a fixed home broadband connection. So, while AT&T might have the only "true" operational...
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Out of the four major wireless carriers in the United States, it is fair to say that T-Mobile is the snarkiest, with social media often serving as a podium for company CEO John Legere's outspoken antics. It is sometimes funny and other times over the top. In a recent Twitter post, however, T-Mobile throws shade at AT&T over its "5G E" marketing, and it's both funny and over the top. What is ultimately at issue here is that 5G E, or 5G Evolution, is not true 5G. What AT&T refers to as such is basically 4G LTE with some speed optimizations, otherwise known as LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro. It's indeed faster than regular 4G LTE, but nowhere near the speeds that real 5G will eventually...
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