AT&T

Star Trek The Next Generation (STTNG) fans will remember the Borg and their motto: Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. One can almost imagine similar sentiments regarding AT&T’s $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA. The merger (purchase) would create the largest mobile network in the U.S. It would also mean that there will be [...]

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Here’s an interesting pair of AT&T related news.

AT&T Welcomes Spring with New Smartphone Prices (AT&T Press Release)

AT&T lowered the prices of a variety of smartphones Samsung Captivate (Android), BlackBerry Torch, Samsung Focus (Windows Phone), and LG Quantum (Windows Phone) are all priced at $49.99 with a two-year contract. The BlackBerry Curve 3G is priced all the way down to $29.99. Note that these are all 3G phones.

Meanwhile, ars technica reports that:

AT&T admits to slowing down the Motorola Atrix and HTC Inspire (ars technica)

This explains why we’ve been seeing reports of slower than 3G data speeds on these two Android-based 4G capable phones. It is fascinating to note that the slow data rates is apparently due to a firmware modification that AT&T now says it will “fix”.

When Deutsche Telekom announced on Sunday that they plan to sell T-Mobile USA to AT&T, one immediately thought of the T-Mobile users who will be affected by the acquisition, but more than one million customers of Simple Mobile have the potential of also being affected. Simple Mobile is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), which basically means that the service they sell actually uses another carrier’s network, and Simple Mobile is one of the few MVNOs of T-Mobile.

Of the MVNOs, Simple Mobile is, in my opinion, near the top of the list because it provides nationwide voice and data service. Simple Mobile has simple rate plans, they have a $40 per month unlimited talk and text plan, a $50 per month unlimited talk and text plan with 100 MB of data, and a $60 per month unlimited talk, text, and data plan. All of the plans are no-contract and pre-paid.

Simple Mobile sells a few handsets, but for the most part they sell SIM cards that you can use with any GSM phone. Of course, if you intend to use their 3G data network you will need a phone that works on T-Mobile’s data network, and you can use their SIM with T-Mobile’s 4G network where it is available.

Last year when I got the HTC HD7 from T-Mobile I purchased a Simple Mobile SIM to use with my Nexus S, and I have been using it every month since. While I have the service automatically renewed each month, I could opt to not pay certain months and re-enable the service on other months. Because I carry phones that have both a T-Mobile and Simple Mobile SIM, it can easily compare the two, and I can say that the Simple Mobile service is not limited in any way. In fact, my Nexus S displays T-Mobile as the network it is connected to with the Simple Mobile SIM in the phone.

I have been very happy with Simple Mobile since I signed up with them and I would be sad to see them go away. While my particular situation makes it handy to have an extra SIM card, I think that Simple Mobile’s rate plans are pretty attractive. Simple Mobile is one of the few MVNOs to offer mobile broadband, h2o wireless is a MVNO of AT&T and they provide 1 GB of data per month for $50. Simple Mobile has not made any comment about the AT&T’s plans to acquire T-Mobile.

After Japan’s mega-earthquake, the island of Maui in the State of Hawaii was under a Tsunami warning like most of the Pacific Rim during the evening of March 10 and early into the morning of March 11. Maui county emergency officials had standardized on AT&T Wireless service and iPhones for their work. That decision caused them a big problem as reported by KITV news.

Maui Mayor Says AT&T Failed During Emergency

AT&T Wireless service failed statewide the evening of March 10 soon after news of the earthquake and the possibility of a Tsunami was announced. AT&T told KITV that the call volume that evening was 5 to 6 times normal call volume. AT&T blamed their network failure on this increased call volume. It is interesting that Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon phones continued to work through the evening although officials asked everyone to not make calls except in emergencies.

AT&T said that the T-Mobile purchase will increase capacity by 30% as if that would help anything. Capacity will increase by zero because T-Mobile will presumably bring over much of their current customer base for which the network is configured. The more likely scenario is that AT&T’s already overtaxed networks will cause current T-Mobile customers to also lose service during an emergency.

That said, no mobile service provider is immune from network failures. As I write this, Verizon Wireless has been out of service for over 5 hours in my area. I called to confirm the outage. The courteous but otherwise uninformative customer service representative could not tell me:

- The cause of the outage
- How widespread the outage is
- When service would be restored (not even a ballpark figure)

I found this Mashable item republished by CNN quite interesting because of one sentence.

CNN: Why AT&T bought T-Mobile

Mashable: Why AT&T Bought T-Mobile

AT&T may be talking a lot about 4G in its press release, but T-Mobile has no LTE technology or infrastructure to offer.

This is interesting since T-Mobile USA has been claiming it has the largest 4G network. It is true that they do not use LTE technology (T-Mobile uses HSPA+). They also just turned on the ability to boost their 4G network to 42Mbps in three cities.

T-Mobile Makes America’s Largest 4G Network Even Faster by Lighting Up 42 Mbps Speed in Las Vegas, New York and Orlando

T-Mobile says that 25 markets will have this increased 42Mbps option by mid-2011. This seems like considerable “infrastructure” to me.

Even a Windows Phone fan like me can’t help but see the irony in this new pair of phones heading to AT&T.

LG Thrill 4G with 3D display, HTC HD7S Windows Phone headed to AT&T

On one hand we have the LG Thrill 4G Android-powered (OS 2.2 not 2.3) phone with a glasses-free 3D display and 3D camera. On the other hand we have the HTC HD7S powered by Windows Phone 7 which will ship with the NoDo update that adds the long awaited copy/paste feature. Which one will generate more interest? I wonder

That said, I’d glad to see another 3D camera option available for the U.S. consumer.

There was a rumor earlier this month that Sprint and T-Mobile were discussing a merger. I pointed out that this would involve trying to get a large number of different communication protocols under the same umbrella and didn’t make much sense. Sprint, for example, still has seperate lines of CDMA and iDEN phones even though their purchase of Nextel was completed way back in 2005.

Sprint & T-Mobile USA Merger Would Involve Dealing with CDMA, iDEN, GSM, EVDO, WiMAX, UMTS & HSPA+

The news of AT&T buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG makes more sense since both AT&T and T-Mobile have GSM voice networks. Note that they use different frequencies (850/1900 by AT&T and 1700/2100 by T-Mobile). GSM phones sold in the US generally provides overlapping support of these frequencies for roaming, however. The two companies different 3G networks will present more of a problem for current customers. This is why jailbroken/unlocked iPhones sold by AT&T only provide support for the slower EDGE network when used with a T-Mobile SIM.

AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for about $39 billion (Reuters)

AT&T Buying T-Mobile USA in $39 Billion Deal (Business Insider)

The good news for consumers is that there will be just one nationwide GSM carrier in the U.S. now. It means that you don’t have to choose between carriers to get a specific GSM phone.

The bad news for consumers is that there will be just one nationwide GSM carrier in the U.S. now. It means that there is no competition in that space. We will probably see fewer smartphone and tablet models appear after the merger is complete.

The merger will probably hasten the consolidation in the smartphone platform space. Focusing on fewer and specific platforms will be one way to reduce marketing, pre-sale, and post-sale support costs. Android and iOS (iPhone/iPad) will definitely be among the survivors. RIM’s BlackBerry is the likely third survivor. Symbian has essentially dropped out of the race. HP’s webOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone will be in a battle for platform survival going into the mid-2010s. RIM’s weakening BlackBerry position may give the Microsoft/Nokia alliance a chance to battle for the #3 spot.

Yesterday I reported on AT&T and Verizon free text message and voice call service for their U.S. customers making calls to Japan to contact people affected by last week’s mega-earthquake and the devastating tsunami that followed it.

AT&T & Verizon Offer Free Calls & Texting to Japan: Verizon Makes it Easy. AT&T Makes it Hard. Why AT&T?

Let’s add information about calls to Japan on Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s network to complete the roundup of the big four U.S. national wireless carriers.

Sprint: Sprint Offers Fee Waivers and Credits for Wireless Calls and Texts To and From Japan

Sprint is waiving and/or crediting calls to Japan retroactively to March 11 and will continue to provide free calling and texting until April 10. They also provide some good advice in stating: During times of emergency, it has been shown that text messages may go through when calling capabilities aren’t available and may help free up networks for critical communication between first responders, other emergency personnel and aid workers.

T-Mobile: T-Mobile USA Waives Call Charges to Japan and Wi-Fi Calling and Text Messaging Charges to and From Japan

T-Mobile is also waiving fees for post-paid customeres retroactively to March 11. Their free calling period ends March 31. This applies to both voice calls and text messages.

To summarize: Sprint’s and Verizon’s free calling and texting period to Japan is March 11 throught April 10. AT&T and T-Mobile’s free calling and texting period is from March 11 to March 31. Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon are simply waiving charges. AT&T requires you to call to ask for a wavier after you receive your bill.

It is good to see that all of the big four mobile carriers are trying to do the right thing. It would be nice if AT&T joined the other three in simply waiving the charges instead of making customers who may be under great stress to remember to call them for the waiver.

AT&T had 100% of the U.S. iPhone market share (not counting the stray jailbroken and unlocked units on T-Mobile) until last month. The speculation for years preceding Verizon’s iPhone availability had been one of mass defection from AT&T to Verizon. Based on the information from Chitika (an analytics firm) as reported by MacRumors.com, this was not the case.

Approximately 1/8th of U.S. iPhones in Use Now on Verizon

Initial reports of Verizon’s 12% marketshare just one one month after it began selling the iPhone is very impressive. However, as MacRumor noted Chitika’s metrics seems highly variable with recent updates placing the percentage at around 10%. Moreover, a water cooler sampling indicates that most Verizon iPhone purchases were not defecting from AT&T. This is good news for Apple since it means overall iPhone sales growth instead of a zero-sum game between AT&T and Verizon.

The two biggest wireless carriers in the U.S. are offering free calls to Japan for a limited time period. AT&T uses business-speak and calls it “billing relief”. Verizon, thanksfully, writes in simple english and calls it “free calls”.

AT&T Offers Wireless, Wireline Billing Relief for Consumers Calling and Texting Family, Friends in Japan

AT&T Wireless is providing free calls for up to 60 minutes between the dates of March 11 (the day of the Tsunami) and March 31. AT&T wireline customers need to call AT&T to get the 60 minutes of adjust billing (“billing relief”). Text messages can also be sent for free up to March 31.

Verizon Offers Free Calls to Japan From March 11 to April 10

Verizon is providing a much longer free calling period to Japan. Their free calling period also started on March 11 (like AT&T) but is free until April 10 (10 additional days). This is true for both wireless and wireline calls. There does not appear to be a need to contact Verizon for these free calls (unlike AT&T). Text messages are not mentioned in the press release body. Howver, the releases subtitle states: Verizon Wireless Customers Can Text to Japan for Free.

Note to AT&T: You are dealing with customers trying to make contact with collegues, friends and loved ones during on ongoing disaster of epic proportions. They really don’t need to worry about calling you to get “billing relief”. Please take a look at how Verizon is handling the situation and emulate them.