Articles about AT&T

Concern has mounted in the US after the Senate and then the House voted to permit ISPs to sell customers' browsing histories and other data without consent. In response to these concerns, major ISPs have spoken out to say they will do no such thing.

AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have all published statement that aim to calm fears that may have arisen this week. All three insist they do not sell customer data and have no intention of doing so. Whether customers are convinced by the pleading, however, is a different matter entirely.

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From the day I received the Oct. 14, 2016 letter about billing changes, AT&T U-verse and Internet cancellation was inevitable. I had auto-pay set up to a credit card, but the service provider wanted access to my bank account, which I didn't want to give. "Beginning in December, your credit card will be charged eight days after your Bill Cycle date", the correspondence reads. The change meant AT&T would take payment on the 8th of the month rather than the 21st. Since the company bills a month in advance, the new date would work out to about six-weeks in fees paid ahead for future service. On principle, being an independent-minded "don't tell me what to do" Mainer, I considered other options.

Ironically, the launch of another AT&T service, DirecTV Now, on October 30th, made the decision to cancel super easy. After several starts and stops, the Wilcox household has finally cut the cord for good. DirecTV Now is the nudge, but other streaming services make a big difference, too. Much has changed since the last cord-cutting effort, in November 2015, which we abandoned after about 7 weeks. The quality and quantity of original programming from Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix is greater and hugely enticing 12 months later.

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In one of the biggest media acquisitions of all time, AT&T wants to buy Time Warner, in what is an $85 billion deal. This will enable the carrier to expand beyond being a telecommunications company and allow it to offer the media company's wealth of content to its customers, as it is currently the parent company of CNN, TNT, HBO and Warner Bros.

AT&T will pay $107.50 per share of Time Warner's stock, which is a large premium compared to what the stock was trading for the previous week. Overall, the deal is valued at $109 billion, when the media company's debt is taken into account.

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San Diego, Calif. As a general rule I never connect to public WiFi networks, which is fine except when attending an event at a hotel ballroom where T-Mobile cellular is like an apparition dancing around a Halloween grave. So as Wendell Brooks, CEO of Intel Capital, begins his speech, I sit typing narrative offline rather than tweeting live. There’s irony, I suppose, reporting old style, about investments in new innovations.

Welcome to the trials and travails of the Intel Capital Global Summit, which kicks off today and goes through October 26. Looking at the lineup, I expect to hear about newfangled tech that would make news reporting so much easier if available—although 4G cellular data would be good enough for today.

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The world woke this morning to news that a trunk had been driven through a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France. With 84 people killed and many seriously injured, people around the world are not only shocked and appalled, but also concerned about friends and family in the area.

As has become worryingly common, Facebook today activated its Safety Check feature to allow people in Nice to let those they know that they are safe. In addition to this, Google and a number of phone providers are offering free calls and texts between the US and France.

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AT&T has revealed that its network is constantly under the threat of attack by cybercriminals looking for ways to breach its security.

Each day the company detects over 30 billion malicious scans being deployed to find weaknesses in its network. Cybercriminals often use such scans to detect security vulnerabilities that could be exploited in future attacks. Researchers at AT&T also noted how the number of ransomware attacks increased significantly, with as many as 1.5 million new attacks occurring between 2013 and 2015.

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Most smartphones can double as Wi-Fi hotspots nowadays -- depending on your cellular plan, of course. For instance, I have an unlimited data plan from Verizon that prevents me from using the hotspot functionality of my iPhone. In order to get that feature working, I'd have to move to a tiered plan -- they'd have to pry my unlimited plan from my cold, dead hands. A dedicated hotspot device is my best option.

Even if you can use the hotspot feature on your phone, you may still want to opt for a dedicated device. Why? It won't drain your phone's battery and might offer better performance. Today, AT&T announces a hardcore and rugged hotspot called the Unite Explore. It even doubles as a battery pack to charge your devices!

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Despite accusation to the contrary, AT&T and Verizon have not been throttling the connections of Netflix customers -- but Netflix has. The streaming video service has admitted that it has limited the video quality that can be accessed by AT&T and Verizon customers for over five years.

In an astonishing revelation to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix -- a long-standing and vocal supporter of net neutrality -- fessed up to limiting mobile streams for some users to just 600 kbps. The reason provided for this is that the throttling prevents users from exceeding their monthly data limits... but the same throttling is not applied to Sprint and T-Mobile.

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Each carrier would like you to believe that its network is better than those of its rivals. It may be touted as the most reliable or the fastest but, at least in one regard, it definitely takes the cake. Such claims can be hard to believe though when they come directly from the horse's mouth. After all, it is easy to lead the pack when you decide exactly what the rules are.

RootMetrics has conducted its own tests to find out which major US carrier has the best cellular network and, based on its findings, Verizon comes out as the clear winner, well ahead of AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

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Modern smartwatches are hardly must-have devices. Most are simply extensions of smartphones, serving as nothing more than expensive accessories. In other words, many smartwatches aren't very useful on their own.

Some of these watches, however, have cellular radios, making them useful as a standalone experience. Heck, they could even replace smartphones for those with limited needs. Today, Samsung announces that it is bringing its standalone-ready Gear S2 classic 3G/4G smartwatch to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

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While Linux's share of the desktop pie is still virtually nonexistent, it owns two arguably more important markets -- servers and smartphones. As PC sales decline dramatically, Android phones are continually a runaway market share leader. In other words, fewer people are buying Windows computers -- and likely spending less time using them -- while everyone and their mother are glued to their phones. And those phones are most likely powered by the Linux kernel.

Speaking of smartphones, one of the largest cellular providers is the venerable AT&T. While it sells many Linux-powered Android devices, it is now embracing the open source kernel in a new way. You see, the company has partnered with Canonical to utilize Ubuntu for cloud, network, and enterprise applications. That's right, AT&T did not choose Microsoft's Windows when exploring options. Canonical will provide continued engineering support too.

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Every year, automobiles get more and more high-tech. The problem, however, is that brand-new cars can be quite expensive. If you buy used cars, it can take a while for the latest and greatest technology to trickle down to you. One way to add tech to your car is by upgrading the stereo, which can give you improved media compatibility and Bluetooth.

Have you ever dreamed about having Wi-Fi in your existing car? Well, now you can. Even if you have a ten year old dented sedan, AT&T has a solution for you -- the ZTE Mobley Wi-Fi hotspot. While tethering from your smartphone or carrying a dedicated battery-powered hotspot has been available for a while, this device is very unique -- it is powered by the car's OBD II port.

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What price is free? In the case of Windows 10, many argue that it means giving up a little of your privacy, and it seems that AT&T's free Wi-Fi hotspots also come with a hidden payload. Whilst visiting Dulles Airport, computer scientist Jonathan Mayer noticed that "the web had sprouted ads. Lots of them, in places they didn’t belong".

With time to kill waiting for a flight, Mayer set about investigating where these extra ads were coming from. It didn’t take long for him to discover that the AT&T hotspot he was connected to was the problem. He found that the hotspot was injecting a stylesheet which in turn pulled in advertising. But it didn’t end there...

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The NSA has been helped by AT&T for decades in spying on huge quantities of internet traffic new-disclosed documents reveal. The astonishing relationship between the National Security Agency and the telecoms company goes far beyond any sort of arrangement or co-operation that came from other firms.

Evidence published by the New York Times shows that the NSA had arrangements in place with AT&T and Verizon, but the partnership with AT&T proved particularly lucrative. The communications giant added surveillance equipment to at least 17 of its web centers and was used as a testing ground for new spying technologies and techniques. All this is revealed in a new batch of documents provided by Edward Snowden.

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T-Mobile has received some great news this week. The magenta carrier has finally overtaken Sprint, becoming the third-largest carrier in US. And its mobile network is said to be the fastest in the country, a title which will undoubtedly find its place in many comparisons against more popular rivals AT&T and Verizon.

Sprint's latest earnings report is what has actually confirmed T-Mobile as the third-largest mobile carrier in US, revealing 57.7 million subscribers to the latter's 58.9 million subscribers. The speed title comes from Ookla, the company behind renowned Internet speed testing app, and website, Speedtest.net, which has posted results for the four-largest carriers in US.

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