Category Archives: Technology
AT&T shareholders vote against Net Neutrality
A proposal asking that AT&T commit to operating its wireless network without the ability to privilege, degrade or prioritize any traffic was defeated by a vote of 94.1 percent against to 5.9 percent in favor.
AT&T changes smartphone data plans
It seems that AT&T has changed their smartphone data plans. More bandwidth is always good, right? Well…
Old plans (for the iPad):
250MB: $15/mo ($60/GB)
2GB: $25/mo ($12.50/GB)
New plans:
300MB: $20/mo ($66.67/GB)
3GB: $30/mo ($10/GB)
5GB: $50/mo ($10/GB)
It seems to be only a better deal if you buy the higher tiered data plans. The low usage people seem to get hosed. For a company that had to institute caps to control their out of control data usage, you’d think they’d make the cheaper plan, well, cheaper to encourage less 3G/LTE usage.
[this post censored by the US Attorney General and the MPAA]
Sprint confirms iPhone
Turns out that rumor posted a while back was actually right. Now to see if this helps or hurts AT&T in their bid to buy T-Mobile. 🙂
Shaw Cable takes some pointers from AT&T
The folks up in Canada are also fighting the usage based billing battle, and it seems like Shaw Cable’s competitor to Netflix isn’t subject to the provider’s normal usage caps:
Causing the issue are promises that “the only limit is the number of hours in your day” unlike bandwidth capped streaming from unnamed services like Netflix. While Movie Club viewing over the internet on a PC, tablet or other device is capped just like any other service, access via the cable box is not metered.
This sounds suspiciously like U-Verse TV and phone, which do not count towards caps even though they use IP traffic because people use AT&T’s DVR and the telephone jacks on the Residential Gateway to access those services. I’m taking dibs on when AT&T starts doing something similar.
Starbucks has faster Internet than 84% of the US
When is AT&T going to spend the money to bring its customers the same Internet experience that Europe and Asia have?
AT&T/T-Mobile merger: will it expand rural broadband?
How exactly will it expand broadband access?
Now Kerfoot is just the kind of person AT&T Inc. has in mind as the telecom giant pushes expanding rural broadband as a major benefit of its proposed $ 39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA. AT&T officials say the merger will allow the company to vastly stretch out its broadband network into rural areas, offering new customers access to high-speed mobile Internet for the first time. This kind of expand is a part of a push to cover 97 percent of the U.S population.
Unless they’re planning on giving up on wireline for rural users and expecting that they use LTE…wait, that’s exactly that they’re going to do. And since there’s not enough RF spectrum in the world for everyone, there’ll inevitably be caps (much lower than what AT&T’s currently doing for U-Verse/DSL, even). How is being able to use up your LTE cap in even less time than it takes to use your U-Verse cap any better?
(Not to mention that their 3G coverage map still doesn’t cover their entire wireless footprint as of this writing, so there’s not much expectation that their LTE coverage will be any better at some future time.)
Stuff for the wish list
Tech companies support AT&T/T-Mobile deal
Here’s something (kinda) unexpected–tech companies lending their support to the T-Mobile deal:
Eight technology giants, including Facebook and Microsoft, and 10 venture capital firms, filed letters supporting the acquisition late on Monday. The letters, filed with the Federal Communications Commission, lent their support to AT&T’s argument that the T-Mobile deal will help the company extend its next-generation data network across the country, helping to meet the growing need for wireless broadband services.
Which would be good for the next-generation smartphone apps. Unless AT&T doesn’t bother increasing their caps for the LTE network, much like the situation with Verizon’s LTE plans. It’s not really in tech companies’ interest over the long term.
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