Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T has many strategies for trying to convince the US government to let it buy T-Mobile, but the one it emphasized was this — it would attempt to make remaining carriers Verizon, Sprint and even a handful of rural entities look like “intense competition.” Well, it seems that tack hasn’t quite had the impact that the board of directors was hoping for, because it just delivered a gigantic new document to the FCC, which portrays itself as the victim of its own success. AT&T says it had to deliver 8,000 times percent more mobile data in 2010 than it did three years prior — over 10 petabytes per month these days — and foresees that it will deliver that same amount of data “in just the first five to seven weeks of 2015.”

Meanwhile, T-Mobile is the knight in shining magenta armor to save AT&T from those “severe capacity constraints,” but since AT&T can’t let regulators think that T-Mobile’s departure from the arena will result in less competition, Ma Bell simultaneously bashes its prospective conquest for having a “diminished market role” in the telecom industry and “no clear path to deploy LTE” — even as it says that acquiring T-Mobile would result in the means to spread speedy Long Term Evolution across 97.3 percent of the general population. In case you’re keeping track, that’s up from the 95 percent the company last prognosticated. The seeming contradictions here are certainly amusing, but we have to admit the promised giant LTE network tempts us quite a bit. But is it worth building a GSM monopoly to do it? Envision the repercussions for yourself — both good and ill — by studying the following links.

Update: Fixed a few math errors — AT&T processed over 10 petabytes per month (not year) in 2010, and that was 8,000 percent (not times) the amount of mobile data it carried in 2007. For comparison’s sake, the entirety of YouTube was said to have streamed 31 petabytes per month in 2008, and Hulu did 17 petabytes per month over the same time period, according to a Cisco study.

Continue reading AT&T tells FCC just how important T-Mobile is, in 381-page redacted document

AT&T tells FCC just how important T-Mobile is, in 381-page redacted document originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Acquisition of T-Mobile USA by AT&T (PDF)  | Email this | Comments

We’ve been waiting for this one, the first indicator of the mythical Verizon iPhone‘s impact on the fortunes of the formerly exclusive Applephone carrier, AT&T. As it turns out, business is rolling along as usual over on the blue team, where AT&T spent Q1 2011 activating a total of 3.6 million iPhones, a nice round million more than the same period last year. Also interesting is AT&T’s note that somewhere around 40 percent of its smartphone sales come from Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 devices, leaving the iPhone to account for the remaining 60-ish percent. Taken as a whole, that group totaled up 5.5 million sales in the quarter, a new best for AT&T in the first three months of the year, and the smartphone segment is now said to account for 46.2 percent of the company’s postpaid user base. Jump past the break for more details in AT&T’s press release.

Continue reading AT&T reports best-ever first quarter for smartphone sales with 5.5 million, 60 percent of them are iPhones

AT&T reports best-ever first quarter for smartphone sales with 5.5 million, 60 percent of them are iPhones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  AT&T  | Email this | Comments

RIM's PlayBook tablet has already taken much heat for launching without crucial features. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The only way to access e-mail, calendar and contact information on the BlackBerry PlayBook without using a browser is with an app called BlackBerry Bridge, which links Research in Motion’s tablet to BlackBerry smartphones.

Too bad that AT&T subscribers can’t use it yet.

BlackBerry users on AT&T’s network are out of luck when it comes to Bridge, as AT&T is currently the only carrier that does not support the app on BlackBerry smartphones. That means they’re stuck with either e-mail access via web browser on the PlayBook, or sticking to their phones for native e-mail access.

As one Crackberry.com user noted, the flagship BlackBerry smartphone on AT&T — the BlackBerry Torch — can’t even be bridged.

Initial speculation on AT&T’s lack of support suggested the company didn’t want BlackBerry users to take advantage of tethering the PlayBook to their phone’s data plan without paying for it, as Crackberry.com’s Adam Zeis wrote.

But AT&T provided Wired.com with a statement, quashing the speculation:

AT&T is working with RIM to make the BlackBerry Bridge app available for AT&T customers. We have just received the app for testing and before it’s made available to AT&T customers we want to ensure it delivers a quality experience.

When asked if AT&T would charge its BlackBerry smartphone customers for using Bridge as a data-tethering connection to the PlayBook, AT&T would not comment further, restating that it “just received the app for testing.”

RIM has already taken flak for rushing the PlayBook to market without crucial features.

There is, however, an unofficial workaround for AT&T subscribers. Apparently, AT&T is only blocking the download of the app itself from App World, and not the actual bridging process between devices, as Crackberry.com points out.

RIM’s PlayBook has been heavily criticized for its lack of native e-mail applications. The company has tried to downplay its significance in press interviews, as evidenced by CEO Jim Balsillie’s comments in a recent Wall Street Journal interview:

“A lot of people who want [the PlayBook] will pair it freely and securely off their BlackBerries [by tethering it via Bridge]. Because it’s a full web [environment], you don’t need a specific mail client for all your Webmail, and most people do you use Webmail.”

Though RIM is still hedging its bets for the crowd that wants that specific mail client: A “a standalone, nonweb, nonpaired e-mail client” will be made available to the PlayBook within the next 60 days, Balsillie told The Journal.

See Also:

• Hands-On With the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet
• BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Lacks All the Right Moves
• Could Flash Be Holding Back BlackBerry PlayBook?
• G-Lab: BlackBerry PlayBook, Eye-Fi Mobile X2
• RIM Unveils Tethered Tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook
• PlayBook Shows Challenges of Bringing Flash to Tablets

AT&T is working with RIM to make the BlackBerry Bridge app available for AT&T customers. We have just received the app for testing and before it’s made available to AT&T customers we want to ensure it delivers a quality experience for our customers.

BlackBerry Bridge not available for PlayBook users on AT&T, unofficial workaround available originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  CrackBerry  | Email this | Comments

Looking forward to April 19th? If you just so happen to hold a Windows Phone 7 device on AT&T, you are now. According to a leaked memo posted up over at Winrumors, Ma Bell has just wrapped up its testing of the famed NoDo update, and if all goes well, it’ll be pushed to end users on Tuesday. Owners of the LG Quantum and Samsung Focus will see it first, while HTC Surround owners will need to watch this video on loop until “mid-May.” Just think — next week, you’ll be copying and pasting this very article as often as you please. Huzzah!

Update: Microsoft’s Eric Hautala confirms that the LG Quantum and Samsung Focus are getting updates ahead of the Surround — both are “scheduling” now — as the HTC handset requires “additional testing by both Microsoft and AT&T” before it gets pushed out. Also, these AT&T phones will get somethign called “WISPr,” which is a protocol that will automatically connect to AT&T WiFi hotspots in range. Sounds pretty cool.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

AT&T’s Windows Phone 7 NoDo update coming April 19th? (update: ‘scheduling’) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Winrumors  | Email this | Comments