A resurgent housing market and stronger economy, along with our growing need for speed and connectivity is the reason why demand for US broadband is booming. Here are some numbers to give you an idea as to who is winning and who is losing. Read more »
The carrier says by mid-June it will allow use of FaceTime over cellular for its unlimited plan customers. A broader rollout for even more video chat apps is coming by year’s end, however. Read more »
Reports are surfacing that AT&T plans to discontinue Facebook’s HTC First phone, which just launched last month. The carrier had already dropped the price of the phone to 99 cents, it announced last week, and could spell bad news for Facebook’s mobile plans. Read more »
AIO Wireless, a new pre-paid services company that is an AT&T subsidiary, launches today. The plans are simple and you can even get an iPhone, but you won’t get LTE data. Read more »
If you’re one of CenturyLink’s 5.8 million broadband subscribers, you’re probably fuming because your service is out. Such nationwide outages are rare, but that doesn’t make it any less painful for customers. Read more »
AT&T’s exclusive LG Optimus G Pro arrives on May 10. An early review unit shows another contender for the flagship phone market but there’s a few design decisions that puzzle me. Read more »
T-Mobile’s deal to join with MetroPCs closed and on Wednesday morning, the newly combined company started trading on the NYSE under the ticker TMUS. Read more »
The LG Optimus G Pro arrived in Asia early this year and it’s a hot seller. No wonder AT&T wanted an exclusive for this smartphone. If larger phones appeal, this 5.5-inch beast is worth the look. Read more »
Guess who’s getting a gigabit network now? Residents of Omaha, Neb. woke this morning to news they are getting a fiber-to-the-home network. From CenturyLink. Read more »
AT&T might be trying to one-up Sprint’s current $100 promotion in the form of a smartphone trade-in program. With it, AT&T will take any relatively new smartphone and offer customers at least a $100 instant credit. Read more »
AT&T’s home automation and security packages is now available in 15 markets and will appear in more soon. It’s impressive, integrated and AT&T promises it will one day be open. Read more »
Not only does Austin eventually get Google Fiber, but as of last night, Time Warner Cable customers in the area will get free Wi-Fi around the city. Ain’t competition grand? Read more »
Communications service providers (CSPs) can deliver highly reliable, low-latency, secure networks between highly distributed user populations and applications running at remote cloud data centers. Because of this, they offer tremendous advantages for enterprises looking to adopt public and private cloud computing. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 is nearly ready to launch in the U.S. as three carriers updated details about pricing and availability. At the turn of the month, you could have a Galaxy S 4 on your choice of T-Mobile, AT&T or Sprint. Read more »
Utilities are increasingly embracing the tools needed to manage big data, and on Monday data warehouse software firm Teradata said it’s teamed up with power grid giant Siemens for a better way to manage the massive data flowing off the smart grid. Read more »
The mobile platform wars escalated once again in the first quarter of 2012 as BlackBerry finally took the wraps off its much-anticipated new operating system. Meanwhile Android continued to build on its dominance both worldwide and in the U.S., cementing a two-horse race with Apple. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With both AT&T and Google planning a fiber-to-the-home, gigabit network in Austin the stage is set for a test of broadband deployment models that could determine how fiber is rolled out elsewhere. Read more »
Hot on the heels of Google announcing plans to build a gigabit fiber to the home network in Austin, AT&T has said it plans to do the same. Read more »
As Google Fiber heads to Austin, Texas, a quick look at the pricing reveals that GooFi may be harder to sell to happy AT&T customers, but is way cheaper than Time Warner Cable. Read more »
The rumored deal will become a reality later this year, assuming there are no regulatory problems. It would give Ericsson a market share of over 25 percent in IPTV and multi-screen systems and services. Read more »
The announcement of Facebook Home this week has elicited applause, shock, horror, and disapproval. But it may not matter much anyway as the numbers suggest its reach will be modest at best. Read more »
Starting April 12, you can get the HTC First from AT&T: An LTE, Android 4.1 phone with Facebook Home as your launcher. AT&T hasn’t provided many specs, but some nosing around on the HTC site yielded quite a few. Read more »
AT&T previously announced it would sell the Samsung Galaxy S 4 for $249.99 with contract. But which model is that? Turns out it’s a 32 GB version, while a 16 GB edition can be had for $199.99 with contract. Read more »
Verizon has unsurprisingly scotched Tuesday’s rumor of a record-breaking takeover – in concert with rival carrier AT&T, no less – of Vodafone. Voda’s shares have dropped a couple percent in response. Read more »
AT&T does have an exclusive, at least at time of launch, on the 64 GB HTC One smartphone. The carrier announced a contract price of $299 for that model, while $199 buys a 32 GB version. Pre-ordering earns a free wireless HDMI adapter. Read more »
An AT&T promotional video for the new HTC One smartphone shows an exclusive: Only AT&T will carry the 64 GB model of the phone. That may be good for AT&T, but it’s bad for consumers and for HTC. Read more »
AT&T may be the first in the U.S. to offer Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 phone, but it won’t come cheaply: The carrier starts taking pre-orders on April 16 for the $249.99 (with contract) handset. Read more »
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he was stepping down from the role today. Let’s take a look back and see how he did against our hopes for him back in 2009. Read more »
Will T-Mobile or AT&T get the BlackBerry Z10 out the door first? AT&T starts pre-orders tomorrow so it’s going to be close. Regardless, $199.99 with contract may be a tough sell. Is the new Z10 priced too high? Read more »
No U.S. carriers have officially announced their BlackBerry launch plans yet, but reports indicate that AT&T will kick off sales on March 22. Once sales begin, how many subscribers will switch from iPhone or Android? Read more »
Austin has pretty fast cellular network speeds normally, but how will SXSW crowds affect the experience. GigaOM and RootMetrics want to find out, and we need your help. Read more »
IBM’s mobile first strategy is not only about mobile, but about IBM’s attempt to remake the entire IT infrastructure at many companies to use the cloud, data, and real-time nature of social networks to serve customers. Read more »
The cable industry has tweaked its justification for capping broadband, but a report from the Open Technology Institute is having none of it. Read more »
Skype is the largest international voice provider in the world, and this year saw it continue to steal minutes away from carriers. Skype calls accounted for 167 billion minutes in 2012. Read more »
An executive at a firm ISPs hire to audit their broadband meters says most of his clients so far haven’t built accurate meters. Read more »
Forget getting a gigabit in one city in all 50 states of the U.S. The real gigabit challenge is helping the existing ISPs think like innovators, not like utilities. Read more »
Germany’s top court has decided that internet access is so essential to modern day life that when someone gets cut off they deserve additional compensation. What happens if U.S. courts make such a decree? Read more »
AT&T had another record quarter of iPhone sales, and while it didn’t come close to the huge new subscriber growth of arch-rival Verizon, AT&T beat its competitor out in overall smartphone sales. Read more »
On Wednesday, the carrier said it would open the capability to iPhone or iPad users on tiered data plans. The update will be rolled out sometime over the next couple of weeks. Read more »
The mobile platform wars heated up in a big way as 2012 came to a close. Among other trends, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8, Android’s dominant market share grew, and mobile commerce reached record highs during the holidays. Read more »
