Back when AT&T first started rolling out its nationwide LTE network in late 2011, it was at least a year behind Verizon. In fact, when the third-gen iPad launched with LTE last year, we were hard pressed to recommend an AT&T model simply because LTE coverage was so lame compared to Verizon.
But things have changed. Thanks to aggressive pushes into new markets, AT&T and Verizon are now pretty much nose-and-nose when total number of LTE markets is compared.
Some lucky folks at Verizon were recently able to upgrade to a new phone without losing their unlimited data plan. Color us totally jealous.
This was the result of a glitch, said Verizon, and not a change in policy like some may have mistakenly hoped for.
Verizon told AllThingsD on Monday that it would, however, honor the unlimited plans of customers that were able to upgrade without the dreaded limited data plan of doom.
The iPhone 5s was hard to find this weekend but Apple certainly had no problem with the supply of the iPhone 5c. Early estimates showed the iPhone 5s outselling the 5c by a considerable margin on launch weekend and it’s still outselling its cheaper sibling nearly 3 to 1 a week later according to the newest data from Localytics.
Over the past few years, Apple has always told people when they can start preording the next iPhone after it has been announced. This year, though, Apple is allowing preorders of only the iPhone 5c, and not allowing preorders of the iPhone 5s at all. And even on the iPhone 5c side of things, Apple is being a little obtuse, not actually clarifying when on Friday, September 13th preorders will begin. But now, thanks to the big mouths of Apple’s carrier partners, we know exactly when.
AT&T has decided that it wants to make its 4G LTE service available to over 270 million Americans by the end of 2013, but with limited wireless spectrum available in the areas it needs to improve, the company has decided to strike a deal with its archenemy Verizon.
To expand its coverage AT&T has purchased $1.9 billion worth of Verizon’s lower 700MHz band B block wireless spectrum. The extra wireless spectrum will give AT&T access to cover 42 million people in 18 states.
If you’re hoping to pick up one of Apple’s new iPhones next Friday, but you need a little cash to put towards it, then it might be worth heading down to your local Walmart with your old smartphone. The retailer is set to launch its own smartphone trade-in program, which will give you between $50 and $300 when you hand over your old device and sign into a new plan.
Verizon has today announced that it has reached a deal to acquire Vodafone’s 45% stake in the company for £130 billion. The buyout consists primarily of cash and stock, and was unanimously approved by the board of directors of both Verizon and Vodafone. It’s expected to be completed in 2014 following regulatory approvals.
Apple has confirmed to CNBC that a new iPhone trade-in program will be available in Apple Stores across the United States today — less than two weeks before the Cupertino company is set to announce the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.
Customers will be able to exchange their old Apple smartphone for a gift card, which can then be redeemed against a new device with a new two-year contract.
For the last four years, T-Mobile has been just battered by the iPhone. Unable to ink the same deals with Apple as AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon to get the Jesus Phone on their networks at a subsidized price, T-Mobile tried to sell itself to AT&T, only to have the deal killed by the FCC.
In desperation, T-Mobile tried a new approach: they decided to call themselves an “Un-carrier” and start offering untraditional no-contract, upgrade-anytime-you-want plans. And you know what? It’s really paying off for them.
Football season is only a month away, so the NFL has completely rebuilt its NFL Mobile app for iOS and Android with a redesigned look that gives football fans quick access to breaking news, scores, and video highlights.
As part of the update, the NFL has folded in functionality from its Verizon-made app, which gives Verizon subscribers the ability to pay for premium features such as live streaming NFL games on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday nights and NFL RedZone on Sundays.
Since the dawn of time, Verizon has dominated customer satisfaction rankings thanks to its network reliability and customer service. Sadly, the king has been overthrown as AT&T topped J.D. Power’s latest rankings for wireless care satisfaction for the first time ever.
Thanks to Samsung and the International Trade Commission, Apple will be banned from importing the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 into the United States from Sunday, August 4. The Cupertino company has been trying to fight the ban since it was confirmed last October, but it’s had little success.
Now it is seeing unlikely support from Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle, which all agree that the use of standards-essential patents to ban products should not be allowed.
You can’t get Altec Lansing’s new The Jacket iMW455 Bluetooth speaker/speakerphone from anyone other than Verizon, which explains the red and black skins the Jacket comes with.
Don’t like red or black? No problem — because, like a moulting lobster, The Jacket’s special trick is its ability to swap skins. The speaker comes with the two free skins, with more colors available for a price — though we’re not yet sure which colors or how much.
AT&T’s new early upgrade program is “calculating, sneaky, underhanded,” according to a new print ad from T-Mobile that will be published in USA Today.
AT&T Next is designed to let customers upgrade their smartphone more often — once every 12 months — and it is a direct competitor to T-Mobile’s new Jump plan. But T-Mobile has been quick to make its feelings about Next clear, accusing AT&T of trying to take more money from its customers.
That didn’t take long. Following AT&T and T-Mobile’s lead, Verizon has announced a plan for early upgraders that theoretically allows users on their Share Anything plans to update their phones every six months.
Consensus right now is that iPhone growth is slowing, but that didn’t stop Verizon by growing iPhone activations by 44 percent in the last quarter, beating estimates of activated iPhones by as much as half a million.
As a response to T-Mobile’s new Jump plan that allows customers to upgrade their smartphone once a year for free, AT&T announced Next two days ago, which offers similar perks as Jump but at a much higher cost.
T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere has already launched an AT&T Next bashing campaign to go along with the anti-AT&T rant filled keynote he delivered on July 10th. According to an email exchange with CNET, Legere views AT&T Next as just “a poor copycat” of Jump that’s designed to ripoff consumers more than ever:
Remember how desperate carriers were to get the iPhone on their networks? The billions Sprint and Verizon pledged to Apple in the hopes that they could promise a big enough order that Apple would have no choice but to give them the iPhone?
Looks like the laugh is on them. In fact, this year alone, Verizon might be on the hook for over $14 billion dollars in iPhones they are not likely to sell.
Apple has asked the International Trade Commission to postpone an import ban on the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 while a court considers its appeal. The ban is set to go into affect on August 5 — just under four weeks away — but Apple has argued that it will “sweep away an entire segment of Apple’s product offerings” and harm iPhone carrier partners.
Android has held a pretty sizable lead over the iPhone for a long time now, and in the United States, it would appear there’s little chance of that changing any time soon. But Apple’s smartphone is gaining ground on its rival, and it’s all thanks to T-Mobile.
Verizon Wireless has been hard at work rolling out LTE on its network over the past three years or so, but the company announced today that the nationwide 4G LTE rollout is ‘substantially complete.’
With support for over 500 LTE markets, Verizon’s 4G LTE network now covers 95% of the U.S. population. Verizon Wireless CTO Nicola Palmer says the company isn’t totally done just yet. As reported by PC Mag, Palmer says the company plans to add more services to LTE over the next few years and open new markets:
Best Buy has today begun a new nine-day deal that gives you $150 when you trade-in any working iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S. That’s enough to cover the cost of a brand new 16GB iPhone 5 on a two-year contract with a $50 instant rebate, which means there couldn’t be a better time to upgrade.
Update: This post is wrong. Once we downloaded iOS 7, it was clear that the carrier name is still very much a part of iOS, even though Apple didn’t show it in their keynote. Mea culpa!
With iOS 7, Apple is getting rid of the signal bars in the top left-hand corner and replacing them with five dots to represent signal strength.
This is a good move, because the iOS signal bars have been incredibly misleading for years, although it remains to be seen if the new dots will come with controversies of their own.
Here’s the thing I really found interesting about it, though. Notice there’s no room for a carrier name anymore. Apple has finally succeeded in removing every trace of carrier branding from every iPhone they sell.
Two months ago, Verizon announced that it wouldn’t allow customers to upgrade their iPhones early after twenty months anymore. It was a pretty hostile move: the subsidy you’ve paid for your iPhone has been paid off after twenty months, so Verizon was effectively saying that their new policy was to bleed you dry for an additional four months, no exceptions.
When we wrote about Verizon’s move, we said “And what Verizon tends to do, AT&T can usually be expected to follow. How long until AT&T ends 20 month eligibility for early upgrades too?”
The answer, as it turns out, is a little under two months.
A hacked carrier update that has the potential to deliver improved data speeds is now available to iPhone 5 users on Sprint. The modified update, which has previously been made available to devices on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, does not require a jailbroken device — just a Mac or PC with iTunes.
