AT&T wireless

NEW YORK--The nation's second largest wireless phone company came to the Big Apple this week to strut its stuff.

At an event in a swanky boutique hotel in midtown Manhattan, AT&T representatives displayed several new handsets that are launching soon or have just launched on the carrier's network. Included in the lineup were several new smartphones, such as the hot Nokia e71x and the BlackBerry Curve 8900, which goes on sale Friday.

In addition to its new smartphones, AT&T showed off some new budget-friendly phones, such as the $20 Samsung Magnet and the new… Read more

Getting a jump-start on CTIA 2009, AT&T Wireless announced on Sunday night the upcoming availability of two messaging-centric smartphones: the Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro.

The two devices are expected to be in stores and online in the coming weeks, joining the carrier's four other new releases, the Samsung Impression, the Samsung Magnet, the LG Neon, and the LG Xenon.

The Nokia E71x has long been rumored for AT&T and is largely like the unlocked Nokia E71, which we reviewed in July.

The AT&T version comes in a sleek black and is … Read more

Apple's iPhone 3G apparently created a summertime switch itch: 30 percent of all the smartphone's buyers bailed on their existing carriers in order to purchase the device, according to an NPD Group report released Monday.

AT&T has been the iPhone 3G's exclusive carrier in the U.S. since the smartphone was released in June.

According to the report, which covers June through August, 47 percent of those switching to AT&T to get the iPhone 3G came from Verizon Wireless, 24 percent from T-Mobile, and 19 percent from Sprint.

"While the original iPhone … Read more

As per usual, at the most inopportune time when I was already running late, I decided to sync my iPhone as I was getting ready to leave home today. Like clockwork, iTunes asks me if I'd like to update to Firmware 2.1. Would I? Unlike last time, I actually downloaded the update and took off to make my a Saturday class.

During a break, my fellow iPhone-laden class attendees got out their iPhones to check email, text messages and voicemail and the discussion turned to Firmware 2.1.

"Did you get it?" one fellow classmate asked … Read more

Correction, 7:30 a.m. PDT Wednesday: This report mischaracterized the iPhone 3G's influence on AT&T's second quarter. The phone's launch came after the quarter's close.

AT&T reported nearly a 5 percent increase in second-quarter revenues, as it headed into the launch of the iPhone 3G.

The telecommunications powerhouse, which is the exclusive U.S. carrier of Apple's popular smartphone, reported that iPhone 3G sales nearly doubled within the first 12 days after its July 11 launch, compared with the initial launch of the iPhone in 2007.

"In the days … Read more

I've written before about AT&T Wireless' terrible international roaming rates for the iPhone. Well, imagine my surprise to discover that its roaming rates for its wireless cards is even worse. How much worse? Consider the bill I received from AT&T today:

Yes, that's really $1520.76 for one month's usage of my wireless card. But the shocking thing is that $1450.19 of it came from using the card for under three hours to pull down a total of 96 megabytes of data. That's roughly $15 per megabyte. What a bargain!

Given … Read more

Strength in its wireless operations helped propel AT&T to healthy earnings growth for the first quarter.

For the period that ended March 31, the telecommunications giant reported net income of $3.5 billion, or 57 cents per share, on revenue of $30.7 billion. Net income was up 22 percent from the year-ago quarter, while revenue rose 6 percent.

Income for AT&T's wireless segment nearly doubled, leaping 95 percent from a year earlier to $2.9 billion. Revenue for the wireless business was $11.8 billion, up 18 percent. The company also reported gains in … Read more

Some AT&T wireless customers in the Midwest and Southeast are having trouble accessing 3G and EDGE data services on certain handsets, the company confirmed Thursday.

Problems were reported as early as 6:30 a.m. EST, according to Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman. Siegel was not able to say how many subscribers have been affected or what exactly is causing the problem.

He also couldn't specify which specific handsets were having trouble accessing the data network. He would only say they were smartphone handsets. Some users on blogs and message boards have reported that the … Read more

The ubiquity of the cell phone has finally prompted AT&T to pull out of the pay-phone business, the company announced on Monday. By the end of 2008, AT&T says, it will have exited the business completely.

The nation's No. 1 wireless-network operator, AT&T says it expects independent operators to pick up service contracts on its pay phones, which, over the past 10 years, have shrunk in number to about 1 million nationwide from 2.6 million.

For some local operators, AT&T's exit could be good news because, in a few … Read more