at&t

Japan's NTT Docomo plans to offer 112.5Mbps LTE speeds

BARCELONA, Spain--Think Verizon Wireless or AT&T's 4G LTE network is fast? Check out Japan.

NTT Docomo's CEO, Kaoru Kato, said he plans to offer download speeds of 112.5Mbps to his company's customers. The higher speeds should come shortly, he said. NTT Docomo is Japan's largest wireless carrier by customer base.

By comparison, Verizon and AT&T boasts speeds of 20Mbps on a good day and an uncluttered network. In practice, the speeds are more in the high single or low double digits.

LTE, Kato said during a keynote address at Mobile World … Read more

Wireless carriers seek cross-border spectrum cooperation

BARCELONA, Spain--Mobile network operators traditionally use Mobile World Congress to call for lower taxes and more wireless spectrum. This year, a new word has entered the wish list: harmonization.

The mobile industry today must deal with a hodgepodge of electromagnetic frequencies that differ from carrier to carrier and country to country. Franco Bernabe, chief executive of Telecom Italia, wants to see not just more spectrum for wireless operators, but also spectrum that's not so fragmented.

"It's not just about having the right amount of spectrum. It's critical that the spectrum is harmonized on a global basis,&… Read more

AT&T, General Motors to sell 4G LTE-connected cars next year

BARCELONA, Spain--General Motors cars rocking their own 4G LTE connection will hit the road next year.

AT&T and GM's OnStar service unit struck a deal to bring millions of connected cars to the market, starting with the 2015 fleet, which comes out late 2014. GM said most Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac cars will get wireless connections.

It's the latest win for AT&T, which has been particularly aggressive in going after the connected car business, a lucrative one in which the company believes it can eventually generate a billion dollars in revenue. Furthermore, the … Read more

Mozilla, AT&T show WebRTC phone-Web communications link

BARCELONA, Spain--Mozilla, Ericsson, and AT&T announced today they're demonstrating technology to place Internet-based voice and video calls that bridge traditional telephone services and the Web.

The demonstration, at Mobile World Congress here, uses the nascent WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) standard to set up browser-based communications between different devices.

The "proof of concept" links a Web app with a person's existing phone number and "shows how consumers can easily take and receive video calls from their mobile phones or desktop browser using WebRTC or share their Web experiences with friends or family who might … Read more

Ruling means AT&T can sue LCD makers over alleged price-fixing

AT&T's claims in a lawsuit over price-fixing LCD displays have been partially reinstated by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Yesterday, AT&T won the right to have its claims reinstated based on Californian law and the purchase of panels made outside of the state, which reverses a previous, lower-court judgement that dismissed AT&T's allegations. The U.S. phone carrier is now able to sue companies including Taiwanese AU Optronics Corporation and South Korean firm Samsung Display Co., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics.

In July, Toshiba, LG Display … Read more

Unlocking Ma Bell: How phone phreaks came to be

Imagine a day when it cost an arm and a leg to use the phone, especially for long-distance calls. Then imagine that buried deep within the telephone network infrastructure was a flaw -- a hole that allowed those who were aware of it, and capable of exploiting it, to make all the free calls they want.

These days, phone calls are free -- or nearly so -- and hackers put their energies into computer networks, jailbreaking iPhones, and other more modern pursuits. But back in the 1950s and 1960s, a new group of people emerged, people who were fascinated by … Read more

Wireless carriers again brace for massive Northeast storm

Wireless carriers hope they can weather Nemo better than Sandy.

With a massive blizzard hitting the Northeast region just months after superstorm Sandy devastated the area, the carriers are working to avoid the same kind of mass outages that previously struck their networks and left hundreds of thousands of people without service.

AT&T said it has an "arsenal of disaster response equipment and personnel on standby." The company has topped off its fuel generators at various cell sites, installed and tested high-capacity backup batteries, as well as "Quick Connect Generator Plugs," and staged additional … Read more

Sprint Q4 loss widens to $1.32B as Nextel customers flee

Sprint probably can't wait to excise the Nextel part of its business.

The Overland Park, Kan., wireless carrier reported hefty fourth-quarter subscriber losses on the Nextel side, with more than 1 million customers leaving the service, easily offsetting the gains made on its core Sprint business. In total, it lost 337,000 net customers.

Sprint posted a loss of $1.32 billion, or 44 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $1.3 billion, or 43 cents a share. Revenue, however, rose to $9 billion.

The results were better than expected. Analysts, on average, forecast a per-share … Read more

AT&T adds four markets to 4G LTE network

AT&T announced today that it has added four new markets to its 4G LTE network.

Now, customers in Albany, N.Y.; Calhoun and Dalton, Ga.; and Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Va. will be able to experience the carrier's faster network speed.

With these four new areas, this brings AT&T's total coverage to 141 markets, which includes 170 million people.

While it's great to see AT&T's network expanding, the numbers still lag behind those of Verizon Wireless. Its 4G LTE network covers 476 markets and 273.5 million people.