Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T would like to sell you a computer to go along with your phone.

But don’t look for any really good deals. The carrier will be selling netbooks on contract, but the purchase price will remain close to what you’d pay for a netbook without a contract.

Unlike in Europe, where some netbooks are nearly free with data plans, AT&T says it does not intend to fully subsidize netbooks in the United States. Instead, it will introduce session-based prices, day-pass and weekly data-access plans for customers who prefer to buy their netbooks at full price. At the same time, it will continue partially subsidizing netbooks when combined with a two-year wireless-data contract.

“We want to give customers a choice in how they use their netbook,” says Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T emerging devices. “But free netbooks from AT&T on contract is not part of the plan.”

Netbooks have become one of the fastest-growing categories in the PC industry. They are largely used for social networking, surfing the internet and checking e-mail, so telecom carriers such as AT&T bet they can piggyback on netbooks to attract more customers to their data plans. AT&T, for instance, is offering netbooks with two-year data contracts, similar to how it sells cellphones.

Currently AT&T offers netbooks such as the newly launched Nokia Booklet 3G, Samsung GoTM Netbook and Acer Aspire One.

It’s a strategy that has worked in Europe. In Germany, for instance, T-Mobile launched the Acer netbook for 1 euro plus a 35-euro-a-month, two-year data contract.

But U.S. consumers are unlikely to find such deals. Take the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 that AT&T offers for $150 with a two-year contract. Customers can pay $35 a month for 200 MB or $60 a month for a 5-GB data limit. That means a total cost of ownership of $990 to $1,590 over two years. By contrast, you can buy the same netbook without a data contract for $450 on Dell’s website.

That comparison may not entirely be accurate, says Lurie. “This is not just about having a computer, it’s about having a mobile computing device,” he says.

For instance, subscribers who pay $35 a month or $60 a month on a two-year contract will also get free access to AT&T’s 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots nationwide.

That’s a deal that daily or weekly pass customers won’t have, says Lurie.

See Also:

• The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time
• Nokia Reveals Netbook Pricing, Introduces New Handsets
• AT&T Offers Netbooks With Small Subsidy, Fat Contract
• The Next Netbook Trend: Cellphone-Like Contract Deals
  

Photo: Dell netbook Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The incessant whining about AT&T’s network coverage is especially loud here in San Francisco, and that’s largely because a lot of hipsters, techies and workaholics here own data-sucking iPhones. Fortunately, AT&T says it’s been investing in upgrades to improve bandwidth in the Bay Area.

Some highlights from AT&T’s press release:

• Approximately 850 local cell sites have been upgraded to include 850 MHz, the majority occurring last quarter
• In 2009 so far, AT&T has added nearly 40 new cell sites in the Bay Area and added significant backhaul
• HSPA 7.2 slated to roll out in the Bay Area next year
• Since 2008, AT&T’s network in the San Francisco area has experienced a 3G data traffic increase of 2,000 percent
• Investments between 2008 and the third quarter of 2009 total nearly $65 million

“We know there are still challenges in the area, and these upgrades and investments will continue,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement.

A 2,000-percent traffic increase? Yeesh. That’s believable, because it’s as easy to spot an iPhone here as it is to find a liquor store in the Mission. It’s no wonder San Francisco coverage was so slow in the global iPhone 3G speed test we led last year.

Are you seeing any improvements in coverage, San Franciscans? I generally get 3G coverage more often than before, but my reception is still horrible in my apartment (in the Richmond district). Still challenges in the area indeed.

See Also:

• In Escalating War Against Verizon, AT&T Is Getting Tone Deaf — and …
• AT&T Plans 3G Network Upgrades, 4G Rollout
• Verizon Leads, AT&T Runs Last in Wired.com’s 3G Speed Test …
• Wired.com’s iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Network Weaknesses

Photo: rnikko/Flickr

(Thanks, Seth!)

Verizon and its army of magical Christmas elves aren’t taking the latest lawsuit from AT&T lying down. The carrier issued a memorandum of law responding to AT&T’s temporary restraining order attempting to block its coverage map-based ads.

The statement reads, in part, “AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s ‘There’s A Map For That’ advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.”

Verizon insists that its claims are entirely true, depicting a 3G network that cover five times the area of its competitor. “Despite the far smaller size of its 3G network,” Verizon wrote. “AT&T has spent tens of millions of dollars making its 3G network, which it dubs the ‘Nation’s Fastest 3G Network,’ the centerpiece of its national advertising since at least the summer of 2008. AT&T now is attempting to silence Verizon’s ads that include maps graphically depicting the geographic reach of AT&T’s 3G network as compared to Verizon’s own 3G network because AT&T does not like the truthful picture painted by that comparison.”

Sure, Verizon’s doubled down on the 3G map ads in response to AT&T’s false advertising lawsuit, but eventually the company’s lawyers had to file a response and, well, ain’t nobody backing down in this one. Here’s the freaking introduction:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.

Yeah. It’s gonna be like that. Verizon goes on to argue that even AT&T concedes the maps are accurate, and that pulling any of the ads off the air without proof that they’re misleading consumers would be unfair, and that at the very least both parties need time to investigate further. Honestly? We’ve read it over a couple times now and while the legal arguments are certainly interesting, it’s hard not to get the impression that Verizon drafted this response with publication in mind — check out this quote:

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.

See what we mean? Now, we still think there’s some merit to the idea that Verizon’s ads improperly conflate 3G coverage area with 3G service quality, but that’s really not what AT&T’s arguing — hell, it’s busy pimping EDGE. We’ll see if these two can solve their differences and get back to work, but we’ve got the feeling this thing ain’t over yet.

Update: Here’s the PDF, in case you’re interested.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Verizon responds to AT&T’s Map For That lawsuit: ‘the truth hurts’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That successor to AT&T’s wildly popular LG Shine that we spied back in August has finally popped official today, becoming the Shine II (surprise, surprise). It’s a very evolutionary set — if you squint, you can’t see much difference from the original — but this might be a situation where it’s in AT&T’s best interest not to mess with success just as long as they don’t end up pulling a RAZR over the next several years. It’s got a 2 megapixel cam, a mirror-finish 2.2-inch LCD, GPS, 3.6Mbps HSDPA, and microSD expansion to 16GB; look for it on November 22 for $119.99 after rebate on contract. Perhaps more notably, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 has migrated from T-Mobile over to AT&T today with the same EDGE data and optical pad as its cousin; it’ll be hitting in the “coming weeks” for $99.99 after rebate. Of course, the Bold 9700 hits on the 22nd for a hundie more, so there’ll be some soul searching among AT&T-based BlackBerry lovers over the next few days, we suspect.

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry Curve 8520, LG Shine II coming to AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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