Carriers Archive

  • AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon break down ETFs for the FCC

    AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon break down ETFs for the FCC

    Early termination fees. No one likes them but they can sometimes be a necessary evil. If you become unhappy with your service provider or you are overwhelmed with lust for a new gadget on a different carrier, you pay the price. Carriers say that these termination fees, or ETFs, allow them to subsidize handsets and recover those costs over the course of a contract. Should a contract be broken, a carrier recovers those subsidies with an ETF. The FCC recently decided something was amiss with ETFs and probed carriers into explaining the rhyme and reason behind the fees. The carriers have finally spoken, albeit a little unconvincingly. Most of you are already familiar with why ETFs exist, but it is interesting to see the canned and obvious responses from the carriers.

    Full Story

  • Sprint suddenly gets all Captain Planet on us with green movement

    Sprint suddenly gets all Captain Planet on us with green movement

    Being eco-friendly should definitely be high on the priorities list for electronics manufacturers and service providers, so I'm pretty happy to see that Sprint is doing its part to make our planet a nicer place for future generations. Just in case you're the apathetic type when it comes to the three Rs (recycle, reuse, reduce!), Sprint has put some incentives into place for you.

    Full Story

  • LG Arena made official at AT&T

    LG Arena made official at AT&T

    Part of me feels like saying, "LG Arena! Last stop, AT&T!" After all, this handset has been announced well over a year ago and it's been available in other countries for quite some time. Of course, if you've been keeping up you'll know that Best Buy is getting the Arena very soon for a modest price with a contract. Need a reminder for the perks and features that come with this phone?

    Full Story

  • $2.2 billion liabilities: Japan’s wireless carrier Willcom files for bankruptcy

    $2.2 billion liabilities: Japan’s wireless carrier Willcom files for bankruptcy

    Wikipedia has a pretty useful list of countries by number of mobile phones in use, which shows that Japan (with around 100 million users) is the No. 7 in the world. The market is largely controlled by mobile carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank Mobile but seemed big enough to offer enough room for a number of smaller competitors, too. Yesterday, however, a company called Willcom (one of said smaller players) announced it had to file for bankruptcy. The reason: With just $54 million in capital, Willcom managed to amass a whopping $2.2 billion in liabilities. It's the biggest bankruptcy ever in Japan's hyper-competitive mobile industry.

    Full Story

  • T-Mobile getting some Palm webOS lovin’?

    T-Mobile getting some Palm webOS lovin’?

    Palm’s webOS is certainly one of the more polished operating systems out there; the others being the iPhone OS and Android. It’s clean, simple to use and attractive. However, it was available only on Sprint’s network for the longest time until recently when it arrived at Verizon on the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi [...]

    Full Story

  • Apple and global carriers raise OTA iPhone app download limit to 20MB

    Apple and global carriers raise OTA iPhone app download limit to 20MB

    One thing I really love about the iPhone is discovering a new app while I'm out on the town, ignoring friends and family for my phone. I'll check out reviews, look at some screen shots and take the plunge. Then the unexpected happens: the app won't download because the file size is too big.

    Full Story

  • Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 clears for landing at AT&T

    Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 clears for landing at AT&T

    When the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 was announced in November, my major concern was whether it was coming to the U.S., when it was coming and if it would be subsidized by a carrier. The good news is that it looks like the X10 will be hitting AT&T's shores this Spring.

    Full Story

  • Sprint tweets about Android 2.1 update, coming second quarter

    Sprint tweets about Android 2.1 update, coming second quarter

    If you own a HTC Hero or Samsung Moment, don’t get too jealous at DROID and Nexus One owners just yet. Sure, it might take a while, but Sprint is working things out so that its Android handsets receive the latest version of Android, 2.1. I’m sure this will be an OTA update like most Android [...]

    Full Story

  • Mobile companies band together and rise against Apple

    Mobile companies band together and rise against Apple

    When one thinks of mobile apps, it’s tough to think of anything other than the ones for the iPhone. There’s an app for that rings through our heads as TV commercials and websites reveal to us that the iPhone is the platform of choice when businesses want to develop mobile apps. Apple now has a [...]

    Full Story

  • Sprint applies pressure, but still bled quite a bit in fourth quarter

    Sprint applies pressure, but still bled quite a bit in fourth quarter

    Over the past few years, Sprint has definitely given itself a facelift and now has excellent pricing plans and some decent handsets. Sadly, things aren't turning around as quickly as Sprint would like since it has been showing some tremendous losses the past few quarters. The fourth quarter, however, shows that Sprint is slowly but surely easing its way to where it wants to be.

    Full Story

  • AT&T starts LTE field trials later this year, commercial deployment in 2011

    AT&T starts LTE field trials later this year, commercial deployment in 2011

    Are you as excited as I am about LTE and the blazing fast data speeds it promises? Sure you are. And while you’re undoubtedly holding your breath waiting for 4G service and handsets, AT&T is moving forward with field trials after announcing that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson will be providing its equipment. What’s in store for [...]

    Full Story

  • AT&T may have fibbed regarding Sling player for iPhone

    AT&T may have fibbed regarding Sling player for iPhone

    Just the other day, AT&T announced that it was able to work with Sling Media in order to optimize Sling player for AT&T’s 3G network. That’s good news for consumers and all, but it appears as though AT&T might have been doing a little posturing to make itself look like the good guy. After all, [...]

    Full Story

  • The More You Know: An Overview of the Major Carriers’ Early Termination Fees

    The More You Know: An Overview of the Major Carriers’ Early Termination Fees

    Turkey Day is just around the corner, which means that the annual American tradition season of losing one’s mind in exchange for slightly discounted goods will officially begin a week from today. Yes, I speak of the infamous day that is Black Friday. The very same day in which hundreds of thousands of Americans transform [...]

    Full Story

  • iPhone 3G and 3GS coming to Virgin Mobile Canada

    iPhone 3G and 3GS coming to Virgin Mobile Canada

    compare-iphones Virgin Mobile Canada has announced that it will begin to sell the iPhone 3G and 3GS in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online in Canada in the "coming months." VMC joins fellow Canadian carriers Telus, Bell Canada, Fido, and Rogers in becoming an authorized iThing dealer.

    Full Story

  • Sprint pushes OTA bug-fixin’ update to HTC Hero

    Sprint pushes OTA bug-fixin’ update to HTC Hero

    sprint-htc-heroSprint has pushed out an over-the-air firmware update for its popular HTC Hero 'droid handset. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with Android 2.0, but it does purportedly fix a pesky SMS bug which has been causing battery drain issues. Oh, and it also helps your favorite Hero play nice with daylight saving time. But apparently, that's just about all the update does.

    Full Story