AT&T subscribers who previously had unlimited data plans back in the iPhone 3G era and have managed to hang onto that plan are in for their first price increase in seven years, a source with knowledge of the matter has informed 9to5Mac.
Update: AT&T has now publicly announced the change. Additional information has been added below.
T-Mobile has announced its latest “un-carrier” initiative, dubbed “Un-carrier Unwrapped.” Rather than a permanent addition to the company’s offerings, Un-carrier Unwrapped is a month-long event during which the carrier will gift its subscribers and new customers with special deals and benefits.
The first of those was announced today: unlimited LTE data for all subscribers on Simple Choice post-paid plans for the next three months.
Apple’s massive new iPad Pro is only available with built-in cellular connectivity in the pricey 128GB configuration, but all four of the major carriers in the US are offering the $1,079 tablet at discounts on contract or through installment plans. Here’s where you can find the iPad Pro 128GB + Cellular and how much you should expect to pay:
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When the iPad Pro goes on sale later this week, Apple won’t be the only retailer carrying the massive new tablet. Ordering from Apple.com may be the most convenient way to ensure your new iPad is delivered on day one, but Apple Stores and authorized resellers including select carriers will be selling the iPad Pro as well. Here’s what we know so far:
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Apple has released the second beta version of iOS 9.2 to users running the iOS public beta. The pre-release software was pushed out to developers yesterday alongside new versions of OS X, Xcode, and tvOS.
In this new beta, users will find the ability to take advantage of AT&T’s NumberSync offering, which allows other devices such as a Mac or iPad to make and receive phone calls using a customer’s iPhone number without actually being connected to the phone.
Apple has built support for AT&T’s NumberSync technology into iOS 9.2 beta 2, which was released to developers earlier today. Currently Apple’s Continuity feature allows users to use their Mac, iPad, or iPod touch to make phone calls as long as the computer (or other iOS device) is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as their iPhone.
The software upgrade will allow users to enable Wi-Fi calling on all of those devices and make and receive calls without the need to be on the same network, or even in the same area.
Below you’ll find steps to setup and start using the feature now.
Wi-Fi calling – the iPhone feature Apple introduced in iOS 8 – is a really handy feature, routing phone calls over Wi-Fi when the mobile signal is poor or non-existent. There’s just one problem: it’s illegal for U.S. carriers to support the feature because it breaks the TTY text-chat protocol used by some hearing-impaired users. AT&T asked the FCC to grant it a waiver to switch on the service, and now Verizon has done the same.
The two companies have, however, adopted different positions on the service …
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Developer Simon Gladman today demonstrated (via Jeff Benjamin) the use of the iPhone 6s display as a way to compare weights of an object, here denoted in a percentage of touch, on Apple’s 3D or Force Touch display.
The app called “Plum-O-meter” for obvious reasons is currently a jailbreak option for tinkerers. I think it is unlikely that this will hit the Official App Store because it likely makes private API calls to acquire the data. However, it does show yet another device the iPhone could one day replace. Full video follows.
Update: Huawei, which announced a “Force Touch” phone a few weeks before Apple, has a scale app on their phone. Hadn’t seen this, where’s the App Store app then?
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta6beOvyhYE&start=95]
Apple has been building Continuity features into its software that let you make phone calls and send messages from iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches through your iPhone for a while now, and today AT&T is announcing a new network-level advancement called NumberSync capable of doing that for all connected devices.
With NumberSync, AT&T customers will soon be able to use what’s called mobile twinning to share a single phone number with multiple SIM cards in smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and other connected devices. The goal is to let you send and receive phone calls or messages from all your connected devices without relying on a specific app or operating system feature.
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When Apple introduced the iPhone 6s at its September 9th special event, it billed the new model as the “best phone for traveling around the world,” thanks largely to support for “23 bands of LTE wireless networking.” But that day, the new iPhone’s tech specs page told a more complex story: Apple advertised a seemingly U.S. and Puerto Rico-specific A1633 iPhone 6s with 23 LTE bands (including AT&T’s exclusive band 30) but no CDMA support, while Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and every international carrier outside China got an A1688 iPhone 6s with 22 LTE bands and CDMA support. Clearly, the “best phone for traveling around the world” would be the international A1688 version, right?
Wrong. This week, Apple started selling a SIM-free, unlocked iPhone that works with “any supported carrier worldwide, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint in the United States.” Hidden inside a text link titled “Learn more about the SIM-free iPhone,” Apple notes that the SIM-free iPhone 6s is model A1633 — the AT&T version, not the one sold internationally. How could this make sense?…
AT&T was officially granted an FCC waiver this week to enable Wi-Fi calling for its customers with supported devices like iPhones running iOS 9. Wi-Fi Calling first appeared during the iOS 9 beta period and remained functional for those who enabled it previously, but AT&T stopped sign-ups for the feature once iOS 9 was publicly released due to requirements set by the Federal Communications Commission.
While AT&T has officially turned on Wi-Fi calling for its subscribers, the carrier is doubling down on its position that rivals T-Mobile and Sprint have deployed and marketed Wi-Fi calling features for a while without proper FCC approval. At issue with the FCC is how Wi-Fi calling lacks support for teletypewriter (TTY) devices. And although AT&T has been cleared to turn on Wi-Fi calling without meeting that requirement, it wants in FCC investigation into its competitors’ behavior.
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AT&T has called out two of its competitors, Sprint and T-Mobile, over their decision to offer Wi-Fi calling support on smartphones without first getting proper authorization from the Federal Communications Commission in a letter to that organization’s chairman.
According to AT&T, the FCC has been too slow in issuing a waiver that would allow the company to bypass certain requirements for hard-of-hearing users—a move that’s necessary for Wi-Fi calling to work.
While the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus aren’t supposed to start arriving to pre-order customers until this Friday, at least one lucky AT&T customer got a surprise today. A Twitter user by the name of @MoonshineDesign based in San Diego today received her iPhone 6s in the new Rose Gold color variant. According to her tweets, she ordered the device through AT&T.
Sprint has officially confirmed our report last week that it will start selling the Apple Watch from its retail locations as of the arrival of the iPhone 6s/Plus on Friday. The confirmation is in an Apple Watch tab on its iPhone 6s pre-order page.
We’re expecting the Watch to go on sale at other carriers, and it seems a near-certainty that all the major carriers will begin selling it on the same day. T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted that his company will be selling the Apple Watch, though without naming the date.
Apple has been gradually rolling out sales of the Watch to other retailers, including Best Buy, department stores and computer stores.
AT&T today has revealed a slight change to how it is handling throttling users grandfathered into unlimited data plans. Up until today, AT&T has throttled unlimited data users when they hit 5GB of usage and are in a congested area. As a reader has pointed out to us this evening, however, the carrier has updated its website with a new policy for throttling those on an unlimited data plans…
On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus announcement day, Apple increased the pricing of its AppleCare+ protection plan from $99 to $129. We’ve since discovered that Apple has additionally discontinued its combined plans for the Apple Watch and iPhone. Since the launch of the Apple Watch earlier this year, Apple offered combined packages that allowed a customer to protect both devices on a single plan. Now, customers must purchase both plans separately. The combined packages did not bring any discount or value over purchasing the plans separately, so the discontinuation of the program does not come as a major change for consumers. Apple has told employees that customers who have already purchased the combined plans will not be affected through their deals.
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Update: The chart above was updated to reflect Sprint’s just announced iPhone Forever upgrade plan pricing. Sprint is offering $22/month regular pricing ($15 for those that trade-in a device) through its iPhone Forever Upgrade program. Customers can upgrade every time there is a new iPhone, but they’ll have to pay off the remainder of the retail price to keep it. Yearly cost for all plans added.
With the launch of its new iPhone 6s lineup this week, Apple is competing directly with its carrier partners by introducing an iPhone Upgrade Program that aims to rival similar offers from T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and others. Customers pay monthly instalments for 24 months, and they can optionally trade-in or pay off the device after 12 months to upgrade to a newer model. Apple’s own upgrade program offers some perks for consumers— the ability to get an unlocked device and use the carrier of their choice, for example— but how does it compare to the upgrade/financing programs from the other guys?
Below we compare the upgrade programs of the various carriers for an entry-level 16GB iPhone 6s and also take into account limited time promotions and other perks to find out who offers the best overall value.
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In the old days, buying and paying for a new iPhone was simple: you typically paid $1-200 up-front, then the rest of the purchase cost was absorbed by carriers into the monthly rates they charged for their contracts. There was no easy way to tell how much of that monthly payment was for calls/texts/data and how much was paying off the balance of the cost of the phone.
Today, things are very different, with carriers being much more transparent about what you pay for your contract – if you choose to have one – and how much you pay for the iPhone itself. The WSJ has put together a simple infographic outlining the main options open to you …
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National carriers across the US have been adding features that make it easier to use their service in Mexico and Canada as a growing trend, and today AT&T has announced enhancements to its pre-paid GoPhone plans to include 4GB of high speed data use in Canada and Mexico as well as the United States. The new AT&T GoPhone feature goes into effect on August 21st and is supported on the carrier’s $60 pre-paid plan without making any changes.
In addition to 4GB of 4G LTE data for use across North America where available, the GoPhone plans include unlimited talk and text in the US, Canada, and Mexico as well. AT&T’s $60 GoPhone plan is reduced to $55/month for customers using the carrier’s Auto Refill automatic payment feature.
For post-paid subscribers, AT&T supports international calling and texting to Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands on its 15GB and 20GB Mobile Share Value plans that it simplified over the weekend. More similarly, T-Mobile enhanced its own plans last month to support 4G LTE data use in addition to text and calls in Canada and Mexico without international roaming fees.
Starting tomorrow, AT&T will be revamping its Mobile Share Value plans by adjusting data tiers and plan prices for new and current subscribers. At the low end, AT&T is consolidating a few data tiers into just two options with different price points. Meanwhile, AT&T’s double digit data tiers are also being reduced, and some subscribers can potentially end up with more data at no extra cost per month or get a better rate on even higher data tiers.
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As we reported last week, the latest beta version of iOS 9 includes support for Wi-Fi Calling on AT&T for the first time. This feature, which is exclusive to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, allows users to place cellular calls over a Wi-Fi network in situations where they have a poor cell signal.
At the time of the beta’s release, AT&T had not yet flipped the switch to enable the feature on their end, but 9to5Mac readers report that they are now seeing Wi-Fi calling go live on their devices. You can find full instructions below for how to setup Wi-Fi calling and find out if it’s currently available in your area.
Verizon will launch brand new, simpler data plans and kill subsidies as expected from August 13. Today, the company introduced a set of plans which will require customers to pay for their smartphones in monthly installments, or buy them outright, instead of having the cost subsidized.
It seems AT&T thinks throttling the data speeds of customers without telling them about it isn’t such a big deal. The Federal Trade Commission sued AT&T back in 2014 for “deceptive and unfair data throttling” after the company imposed caps on unlimited data contracts, beyond which it reduced their data speeds by almost 90%. The Federal Communications Commission joined the party last month, fining AT&T $100 million – and The Hill reports that the carrier now wants that fine reduced to just $16,000.
The Commission’s findings that consumers and competition were harmed are devoid of factual support and wholly implausible,” the company wrote in its filing. “Its ‘moderate’ forfeiture penalty of $100 million is plucked out of thin air, and the injunctive sanctions it proposes are beyond the Commission’s authority.”
The FTC had stated that it could legally have imposed fines of $16,000 per affected consumer, but that would have resulted in an “astronomic” fine, so chose to limit the total penalty to one large enough to deter future violations. AT&T had originally claimed that it was doing nothing wrong, but Ars Technica notes that the company amended its policy in May so that throttling was applied only when the network was congested.
AT&T has not offered unlimited data plans to new customers for some years, but has a small-ish group of customers who remain on grandfathered plans which remain valid for as long as the customer retains the plan.
Apple last month removed subsidies from both AT&T and Verizon iPhones, moving to plans where customers pay the full cost of the phone on an installment plan.
Photo: Re/code
Summer for T-Mobile this year has meant announcing a series of promotions and plans dubbed #UncarrierAmped. Today, the company launched the latest, and last of these moves. This time it’s all about Apple. John Legere announced in a blog post that the company is adding Apple Music to its Music Freedom free music streaming service and is going to offer this year’s — as yet unreleased — iPhone to anyone buying an iPhone 6 over the next couple of months.
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