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The iPhone 5 may prove so popular that many people may willing to upgrade early and pay full price for the device, the chief executive of AT&T said.

Randall Stephenson, speaking today during an analyst conference, said anecdotally that the carrier is seeing "a lot" of people show willingness to buy the new Apple devices outside of their upgrade cycle. That means they pay $649 for the 16GB version of the phone versus the $199 it costs when subsidized for AT&T contract customers.

But Stephenson cautioned he doesn't yet have any data, and … Read more

Apple said today that the iPhone 5 notched more than 2 million preorders in its first 24 hours, more than doubling the tally of the iPhone 4S last year.

The iPhone 4S saw 1 million preorders over its first 24 hours.

It's not a huge surprise that the preorders are so high; Apple's Web site was overwhelmed on Friday, and the carrier stores began to push back their delivery estimates toward the end of the day. The iPhone 5 is benefiting from pent-up demand among consumers who had sought a new design, bigger display, and a 4G LTE … Read more

An LTE-enabled iPhone 5 may prompt AT&T customers to jump ship to Verizon, says Jefferies & Co. analyst Thomas Seitz.

In an investor's note out today, Seitz said that the new iPhone is likely to be LTE capable, a view shared by many analysts and Apple watchers. If so, Verizon stands to attract at least some customers away from AT&T.

Verizon's LTE network currently reaches around 230 million people across 337 markets, more than all of the other U.S. carriers put together. By year's end, Verizon is aiming to cover an additional … Read more

The software locks that wireless operators put on devices, such as the iPhone, may violate state and federal antitrust laws, but there isn't much consumers can do about it.

In this edition of Ask Maggie, I answer a reader's question about whether consumers could sue their carriers to force them to allow people to take their iPhone 4S to any carrier they want, given that this particular phone uses the exact same hardware on every carrier. And I explain why consumers aren't likely able to sue AT&T over its new policy to restrict the Apple … Read more

The home of the Giants baseball team looms large at the edge of the San Francisco Bay. Yet for data-hungry baseball fans, this is no ordinary ballpark. The country's second-largest wireless carrier has the naming rights, which means that detailed attention to great wireless data connections comes with the turf.

Each day, thousands of fans connect to the ballpark's free Wi-Fi network, and to 3G and 4G carrier networks. Hidden in the architecture are Wi-Fi access points and 3G/4G transceivers that work with the thick bundles of wiring organized in the stadium's balmy interior.

A lot goes on behind the scenes, and I was lucky enough to join the ballpark's chief information officer and some of AT&T's crew on a tour of the network-coverage underbelly of my neighborhood ballpark. The slideshow below tells the tale.

… Read more

If you wish your Nokia Lumia 900 did a little bit more, you may be in luck. Nokia began rolling out another update today to its premier, polycarbonate smartphone that includes a few little enhancements like the popular and ever-useful muting of calls when you flip the phone face-down.

In addition, Nokia has also improved camera performance when you press the hardware button that launches the camera app, even when the phone's locked. The Lumia-maker also said that it has made the boot sequence more reliable on startup after you've completely drained your battery.

Unfortunately, these aren't … Read more

Huawei and AT&T are teaming up to bring forth a sequel of the AT&T Fusion, an entry-level Android GoPhone. The A&T Fusion 2 recently cleared the FCC; the files include elements as rich as a consumer-ready user manual.

That user manual tells us that the Android follow-up will has a microSD card, an FM radio, 3G speeds, and the Swype virtual keyboard. A blurry image of the phone's back shows a 3.2-megapixel camera without flash.

So far it isn't clear what differentiates the Fusion 2 from the original, but it's … Read more

It was only a matter of time that AT&T drop the price of the Nokia Lumia 900 in a move that's great for consumers and perhaps not so good for Nokia.

Starting today, the Lumia 900 costs just $49.99 with a new two-year service agreement, down from its already-inexpensive $99.99 price tag when the smartphone first debuted in April.

The Lumia 900 has a terrific 4.3-inch screen, LTE speeds, and an 8-megapixel camera. It also runs Windows Phone 7.5, and like all other existing Windows phones, will not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 8 OS … Read more

Forget pretty in pink. How about fiery magenta for the color of your next Nokia phone? AT&T announced today that it will release a version of the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows phone in a bright "pink" shade, starting July 15.

The magenta Lumia 900 joins the black, cyan, and white versions of the phone. Customers will be able to buy the raspberry-colored handset online for $99.

The Lumia 900 will receive the Windows Phone 7.8 update -- which will include a new start screen and flip-to-silence -- as well as access to some Nokia extras … Read more