Hasta La Gadget!

“Settlement” and “needy schools” aren’t two things that most companies would like to see in a press release, but that’s exactly what AT&T is dealing with at the moment after it has paid out $8.2 million to settle a dispute involving the E-Rate program, which uses funds collected from phone customers to pay for hardware and connectivity service fees for schools and libraries. According to the Department of Justice, AT&T (or, more specifically, AT&T Technical Services Corp.) allegedly not only engaged in non-competitive bidding practices for E-Rate contracts, but claimed and received E-rate funds for goods and services that weren’t eligible for the program, and over-billed the E-Rate program for some of the services it provided. This resolution is also apparently specifically a result of a federal investigation into fraud and anti-competitive conduct in the E-Rate program in Indiana which, it seems, is still ongoing.

Filed under: Networking

AT&T pays out $8.2 million settlement over school E-Rate program originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah, wow’s the word from Motorola as they purportedly prepare to release the good (right), the fat (you guess), and the gaudy as the QA1, QA4, and VE66LX. Of course we don’t have much of anything in the way of specs — on any of them — but the QA4 is obviously an EV-DO set with a fairly big 2.8-inch touchscreen, the VE66LX, a gilded and gaudy take on the VE66, and the QA1? Well, it looks huge, and we’d guess it rotates rather than slides and judging by the branding all over it, is coming to AT&T. Hopefully more word soon on these three, though we’ve honestly no clue when that might take place.

[Thanks, robin of loxley]

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola’s QA4, VE66LX, and QA1 dash onto the scene, rumor-style originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Given the scrutiny which Barack Obama underwent, you’d expect Fringe‘s Olivia Dunham — who’s responsible for matters far more serious than “fixing economies” and “creating domestic stimulus packages” — to use some sort of highly specialized Sectera Edge for work. But given that AT&T sponsors her program, we suppose the FBI has made an exception here. As you can see, she (and her partners) were recently caught wielding Samsung’s BlackJack II (and getting perfect reception on AT&T) while investigating the spontaneous morphing of humans. Turns out, this nifty little live video trick helped lead to some resolution in her life, but we’ll spare you the spoilers.

Filed under: Cellphones

Screen Grabs: Fringe’s Olivia Dunham investigates zombies with Samsung BlackJack II originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a little under the radar, but AT&T Mobility’s been in contract talks with the Communications Workers of America on behalf of some 20,000 unionized workers, and things haven’t been going so well — in fact, the CWA just voted to authorize a strike if upcoming negotiations don’t improve. The union’s current contract actually expires tonight at midnight, but the strike won’t take place until the union’s executive board approves and the CWA president sets a date. For its part, AT&T says it maintains a good relationship with its unions — it has more unionized workers than any other carrier — and that the vote is just another part of the process, but that it’s prepared for all contingencies, including a strike. We’ll see what happens, stay tuned.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Communications Workers of America authorizes strike of 20,000 AT&T workers, could happen soon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As you may recall, one of the requirements that Verizon had to agree with in order to complete its little acquisition of Alltel was that it must offload some $3 billion in wireless assets to avoid becoming too monolithic, and it looks like there’s already a number of bidders angling for a piece of the action. The biggest of those, by far, is AT&T, which is apparently looking to pick up as big a chunk of the assets as it is able to and, according to The Wall Street Journal, it’s in a good position to do just that. Other interested parties reportedly include a joint bid from the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts & Co, a separate bid from Providence Equity Partners LLC, and at least one unnamed cable provider. Any of those bids, however, would still be subject to approval by the Department of Justice, with AT&T sure to draw the most scrutiny of the lot.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]

Filed under: Cellphones

AT&T reportedly eyeing post-merger Verizon Wireless assets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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