Many iPhone 4 upgraders surprised by eligibility date

by Justin Horn on Oct 7th, 2011 @ 4:30 am

Watching Twitter tonight I noticed a lot of people finding out they were not eligible until November (my girlfriend included).

Read this for more info on why your at&t upgrade eligibility date is different than your neighbors.

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at&t, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S

Major issues with iPhone 4S preorders, as expected

by Justin Horn on Oct 7th, 2011 @ 4:05 am

UPDATE 4:45 AM Looks like AT&T ordering is down. No iPhone 4S ordered. Giving up.

4:04 AM EST…  Still trying to order. Twice got very close, but both times got a error message.

Some have got through, so keep trying like I am.

Looks like an AT&T issue, keep seeing the following screen

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at&t, iPhone 4S

AT&T website offers to check upgrade eligibility when logging into account

by Justin Horn on Oct 5th, 2011 @ 12:37 pm

Looks like AT&T is ready to cash in on new 2 year contracts from iPhone 4S buyers.

When logging in to my account today I was presented the following screen right after logging in, before bring brought to the normal account page.



Clicking “Check Now” brought me to the next page below, where it clearly lets you know if you are eligible

Clicking continue here then brings you to the store page to shop for new phones.

 

 

 

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at&t, iPhone, iPhone 4S

AT&T service seems to be down again in Miami

by Justin Horn on Aug 26th, 2011 @ 12:01 pm

UPDATE @5:00PM EST And it’s down again, although calls seems to be working better, there is no data.

UPDATE @1:52PM EST Looks like AT&T is coming back online, it’s now working again for me with 3G data and phone calls without garbled audio.

UPDATE AT&T is responding to some tweets now and has released an official statement claming another “equipment issue” is to blame.  They also suggest turning off 3G, which did the trick a couple months ago, but is not working for anyone I know this time (see my results below).

@ATT:

@szeliu Yes – due to an equipment issue, but it’s only affecting 3G service. Switching to 2G should help as a temporary solution.

Official Statement (via Miami Herald)

Some AT&T wireless customers from mid-Broward County south to Key West may not be able to make mobile-to-mobile calls or receive calls to their mobile from a landline due to an equipment issue. Only mobile broadband/3G service is impacted; 2G service is not. Network technicians are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the service interruption.


 

It was just about 2 months ago when most of the South Florida area lost service with AT&T. Well now there is a new outage, which started sometime around 11:30 AM EST today.  Switching to Edge only on the iPhone doesn’t seem to be working the same magic as before. At one point I seemed to be showing “No Service” or “Searching…”, but after switching to Edge only I got 5 bars of signal, but with no indication of network (0, E, or 3G), just the bars.

I was able to get a call out, to Time and Temp, but the recording was so garbled I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Data doesn’t seem to be working on either 3G or Edge.

Even though I can’t call out on 3G and the phone shows “Searching”, the icon for 3G does shows up and I am able to use data…very strange.

I seem to be bouncing back and forth, on either Edge or 3G, between showing just signal bars and no indication of data connection and showing no bars, searching, and a 3G or E data icon. When showing bars only, I can make garbled phone calls. When showing searching for signal, but with the 3G or E symbol I can use data, but no phone calls.

 

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at&t

Will iMessage really affect AT&T’s SMS cash cow?

by Justin Horn on Jun 11th, 2011 @ 3:13 pm

A couple days ago I was looking through my AT&T bills to see how many text I send a month. I wanted to see if I could ditch the $30 unlimited shared text plan and go to the $5 for 200 plan after iMessages is released to the public. At the time I didn’t even look for the $5 plan, since I wasn’t going to switch off unlimited just yet, but then I saw the following tweet from Dan Frakes:

AT&T evidently discontinued the $5-for-200-messages plan—cheapest is now $10 for 1000. <headshake> iMessage can’t come soon enough.

Just checked it out, and sure enough the $5 plan is gone. At first I thought it was a response to the iMessage announcement, but then thinking cleary I knew AT&T couldn’t react that fast…even though it is in line with their normal dick moves. I did a little more research and it turns out the $5 for 200 and $15 for 1500 plans were killed in mid January of this year.

Further examination of my texting reveals I send about 2,000 a month, most (~70%) of which are to my girlfriend. The others are a mix of Twitter text (which I have now turned off), iOS users, and others.  Taking out all the people that will be on iMessages leaves me with about 150 – 200 text a month. Right now I’m paying $30 for shared text between my and Chiyin’s iPhone, so $15 per phone for unlimited messaging. Now let’s look at my text plan options.

Pay per text

This is really expensive, at 20 cents per text. So if I send 175 text a month on average it will cost $35 / month.

$5 – 200 Text Plan (no longer exist)

This plan would be perfect, $5 a month vs $15, too bad it’s been killed. If I was on a normal $20 unlimited plan, this would be an even bigger savings.

$10 – 1000 Text Plan (UPDATE: This plan no longer exist now, it’s all or none deal now. Shame on you AT&T, shame!!!)

Looks like this will be my only option. I won’t send anywhere near 1000 text a month, but price wise it’s the same to buy 1000 messages in a package or send 50 without.

So if both Chiyin and I switch to this plan, we’ll be saving $10 a month. Saving anything is nice, but I still feel like AT&T is winning. Text message is the biggest rip off in the wireless industry! Even though they are getting $10 less than before out of their cash cow, that $20 they are still getting is like printing money.  I can send 500 hundred emails without putting a dent in my 2GB data plan, but send 500 text and it will cost you at least $10. I know I’m picking on AT&T in this post, but it really applies to all wireless carriers.

With push notification and iMessage, traditional texting’s days are numbered, but until there is a mainstream ubiquitous system in place that works across iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone, traditional texting won’t disappear. I doubt iMessage will go open source, but there are other apps out there that are already filling this role, it’s just a matter of getting all your friends to use them. I’m now using WhatsApp [Website / iTunes], which works with iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia. It’s only a buck and works great!

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Apple vs ?, at&t, iOS 5, iPhone

AT&T to add unlimited Mobile to Any Mobile calling February 10th (Updated 2x)

by Justin Horn on Feb 9th, 2011 @ 12:22 pm

UPDATE Ars Technica confirmed with AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom, the qualifying voice plans include Nation 450 and 900, or FamilyTalk 700 or higher.

UPDATE 2 BGR got their hands on the internal memo with the details:

Looks like AT&T is getting a bit more nervous about losing its precious iPhone subscribers, with their above average monthly bills, to Verizon.

Loop Insight:

According to AT&T, unlimited calling to any mobile number is available to customers with an unlimited messaging plan and a qualifying voice plan. You’ll have to check to see if your current voice plan is supported for the new feature.

You can check if qualify for this new plan starting tomorrow on AT&T website: http://www.att.com/anymobile


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at&t, Verizon

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