Articles about AT&T

Smarting over its loss in court -- a customer awarded $850 for shady throttling practices -- AT&T has taken the brazen step of threatening that person with termination of service if he doesn't agree to a settlement. Matthew Spaccarelli of Simi Valley, Calif. won his case in late February, and possibly laid the groundwork for thousands of other suits.

In a letter on Friday, AT&T uses Spaccarelli's own admission of tethering his device as grounds for termination if he does not agree to settlement talks. The carrier promises no additional compensation above the $850 already due and asks for confidentiality that settlement discussions are underway.

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Wow, it's like magic. Apple frequently uses that word or some extension, right? Calling iPad "magical". Well something magical happened to an iPhone 4S one of my family members owns. Upgrading to iOS 5.1, which Apple released today, changed that cute signal indicator from 3G to 4G. What an upgrade! All for free, too.

But wait! My speed test isn't any faster. It's still slow mo as ever. I conducted three speed tests in a row from my apartment. Ah, cough, cough -- .16Mbps, .94Mbps and .60Mps downstream. Woohoo! Gimme some of that 4G, AT&T!

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AT&T is publicly conceding defeat after treating its long-time customers like second-class citizens, merely because they have an unlimited data plan. On Thursday the company announced changes to its throttling policy, boosting the throttling level to 3GB for customers using the HSPA+ network, and 5GB for those on its LTE network.

There is no other way to describe this than a win for consumers. AT&T was left to defend an untenable position where current customers paid $30 for 3GB of unthrottled data, yet long-time customers paying the same price were essentially cut off at 2GB. The position has already gotten the company sued once, and a judge found AT&T's practice unfair and awarded the plaintiff $850.

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The practice of data speed throttling and the reasons behind it look less sanguine now following the results of a study showing that on average there is little difference between the data usage of the top five percent on both tiered and unlimited plans. So now what's the excuse?

I have been beating the drum against throttling for much of this month on the pages of BetaNews. First was my response to AT&T's unfair treatment of long-time customers. Then Cisco came out a week later with a study that shows consumers are using more data than the carriers lead us to believe. AT&T of course responded to this, blaming you for its bandwidth issues.

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The question I have: Why doesn't it matter?

Over the weekend, iPhone 4S and I spent some quality time together. My interest: How does the user experience compare to Galaxy Nexus? There certainly are differences, but the most startling, at least in San Diego, Calif., is data speed. Verizon's LTE network kicks ass, while AT&T's HSPA+ -- on iPhone 4S -- does not. Hey, why walk 30 miles to work when you can drive there?

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Cisco's release of its study on mobile data usage proves that throttling at 2GB is not going to work. AT&T's response to it? Woe is us! Data's increasing exponentially, and we're trying!

AT&T says that its data traffic increased 20,000 percent since 2007, with the amount of bandwidth consumed doubling every year since then. "The growth is now driven primarily by smartphones", senior executive vice president John Donovan writes in a blog post. "Add to that new customer additions and the continuing trend of upgrades from feature phones to smartphones, and you have a wireless data tsunami".

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Long-time iPhone users, take note. If you have unlimited data, you want to read this: the company will throttle you for more than 2GB of usage in any given month. Do you feel better now about the thousands you've handed over to AT&T for the past several years?

Users are alerted to the throttling via text message. "Your data usage is among the top 5 percent of users. Data speeds for the rest of your bill cycle may be reduced", it reads.

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This morning, before the opening bell, AT&T announced calendar fourth-quarter earnings and record iPhone sales -- 7.6 million. Combined with Verizon's number that works out to 32 percent of iPhones sold during the quarter. Sprint will announce earnings results on February 2, conceivably pushing the number close to 40 percent. Apple CEO Tim Cook has called China Apple's second-most important market. Want to guess which is first?

For AT&T, iPhone was huge during fourth quarter. The carrier sold 9.4 million smartphones, and 80.5 percent of them were iPhones. The number was smaller, but still substantial, for Verizon: 54.4 percent. While Android sales paled by comparison, AT&T doubled them year over year -- not surprising with Samsung's aggressive marketing campaign for Galaxy S II and mid-quarter's introduction of LTE models HTC Vivid and Galaxy S II Skyrocket.

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Like lots of people, I was ready to buy Samsung Galaxy S II from AT&T yesterday. Based on information released during the launch announcement late last month, the hot smartphone was scheduled to release on September 18. The day has passed with no sale, and AT&T customers are livid. So now, the wireless carrier has given people yet another reason to complain. Can you say screw up?

Somebody wants this phone. As I write, 2,763 people have responded to our poll: "Will you buy Galaxy S II?" Hot damn, 75.43 percent plan to do so within 3 months. Only 8.72 percent responded: "No, I'm getting iPhone". In the interests of communicating when the phone will be available and to let AT&T know just how angry people are, I'm posting this followup to yesterday's "Say, AT&T, where's Samsung Galaxy S II?". I don't have the when yet, but I expect an answer from AT&T, which I asked before starting to write.

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The Federal Communications Commission told AT&T Friday that it had received enough information on its proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile, and would restart the clock on its review. The agency had already spent 82 days of the 180 it typically takes for large deals.

FCC officials "stopped the clock" in July, saying they needed more information on the economic modeling of the deal vis a vis its possible anticompetitive effects. Competitors such as Sprint have been the most vocal about the negative effects, even equating it to the return of "Ma Bell."

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Likely aiming to clear its inventory of the now two-year-old iPhone 3GS model, Best Buy said Monday that it would offer the device for free with a two-year contract with AT&T. The 3GS had previously sold for $49.

The offer is available from Best Buy's website and in store. It is unclear what type of stock the retailer is working with, but it's likely supplies are limited.

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