This is just one of the slides from the buildout slides that shows how the merger will make AT&T better in several states, including Texas, Michigan and West Virginia. The merger with T-Mobile will definitely call off the commercials that T-Mobile likes to tout that their HSPA+ “4G” is faster than AT&T’s 3G. Even AT&T got in on the mess, calling T-Mo out and saying their “4G” wasn’t real 4G. I guess all this bickering was the pre-marital arguing and all will be forgiven for this un-holy monopoly marriage. It will combine AT&T’s 700MHz spectrum and T-Mobile AWS spectrum. T-Mo was also the last GSM competitor to AT&T, so now AT&T will be the only GSM provider in the US. T-Mo customers don’t fret just yet, it is said this purchase will take 12 months, so you have got some time. The only problem is, your customer service levels will DROP, so say goodbye to that. Oh, and the other burning question that all of the T-Mo customers have: There will be NO iPhone for you. (The GSM radios in the iPhone are not set for the T-Mo towers.)

The funny part about this is, the Sprint rumors we were hearing last week, are obviously off the table now. And Sprint has something to say about that!

Feel free to leave comments and questions below!

via [TechCrunch][PCMag][Engadget][Veronica Belmont] … i could go on and on

Well with no attendance of Apple at MacWorld for the last 2 years, it seems there isn’t any Apple news coming out at all, except for this little nugget. It seems the Wifi hotspot feature that is going to be standard on the Verizon iPhone, will soon be standard as well on the AT&T iPhone as well. The developers have seen the beta version of iOS 4.3, and it seems to be good. With this update, the software does allow for the iPhone to become a hotspot, but that doesn’t mean anything on the carrier side. So one half of the idea is soon to be. It sounds like Apple will be releasing the 4.3 update on Valentines Day. The good thing is, it seems that AT&T agreed to add this option to the iPhone and well, all other smartphones that support it. In a press release from last week, it seems that date will be February 13th that this goes live. The package will be an extra 2GB for $20/month. So it seems that the 14th release date of the 4.3 seems to be right in line with the new option. So this seems to be getting more expensive to have an iPhone and have it run its full capacity.

$39.99/month minimum Voice Plan

$25/month for 2GB of Data

or

$15/month for 200MB of Data

or

$30/month for ‘unlimited’ (for original customers who are grandfathered in, or those who lost it and get it back)

Then there is texting:

$20 for unlimited

Then however you want to connect to your iPhone and share the data:

$20/month for tethering

or

$20/month for wifi hotspot

CRAP!

via [Engadget]

Starting in mid-April, the iPhone exclusive carrier will be rolling out the 3G microcells we saw being tested in select cities last year. Basically this little guys gives you 5 bars in your house or place of business over your internet connection. This is part of plan that At&t is working on to improve it’s network issues that have become synonymous with it’s 3G data connection. The best part about this is, there isn’t any extra charges to use this device, all you have to do is purchase the device for $149.00. There is a premium optional package that you can add to your current wireless plan, so that you can use the microcell tower as an unlimited source for minutes, and not have to count it against your regular minutes. If you opt for this, you can get a $100 mail in rebate card, to bring the final cost down to $49!

Basically this device uses your internet to create a secure connection to the At&t network and rebroadcasts it as a personal 3G tower that you can control. The box gives you control over who is able to connect, and you can have up to 4 devices connected at once. All you have do is log into your At&t account and add approved At&t numbers to the list, and then when they come into your microcell, they are automatically connected, unless of course they are already on a call that was already on a cell tower, but it will switch once the call is over.

This is also just in time for the upcoming iPad release and possible iPhone update coming in June. Apparently At&t is looking to change their image on their poor network issues with the roll-out of this microcell; but also changing the way the iPhone connects to the 3G network. It seems some At&t network guys flew out to Cupertino to show the Apple guys some down and dirty on how the connections work and possibly relieve the load that the iPhone puts on the 3G network.

You can check to see when your city becomes available by heading over to At&t

via [AppleInsider]

via [AppleInsider]

He is even trying to free up the TV airwaves to make sure we are the world leaders in the next 10 years! Guess what? More whining and moaning from the cable companies. An economist for the Brattle Group, Coleman Bazelon, even said that if the freed up space from the TV airwaves, which by the way aren’t even being used at this current time, would be worth an estimated $64 billion dollars if they were used for wireless, where as they sit right now, only $12 billion. Are you freaking kidding me? That sounds like elementary economics to me, but NOOOOOO, cable companies don’t want to lose their strong hold. We can’t take a freaking penny from them, even if it did better mankind, it’s all about the money going into their pockets.

I honestly don’t understand why this country is still run by stuffy old white men who are cheating on their wives, squandering billions and billions of dollars on themselves, instead of speeding up the technology curve, that we are falling BEHIND the rest of the world.  I just pray that this reaches the masses, and even President Obama or Julian Genochowski:

Dear Mr President or FCC Chairman,

Thank you for pushing to have broadband to the curb, to All equally. Broadband is the future, and we as America have fallen behind, because we have allowed large corporations to squander our money on yesterday’s technologies and outdated utilities. No longer should we stand by and watch the money be wasted. Thank you Mr. Chairman for looking into revamping the USF. It needs a new direction, and we need to open innovation to everyone. We cannot be stifled by the AT&T’s and Comcast’s who ‘own’ the lines. They have to understand that innovation can come from a 12 year old child in Chicago or even a 65 year old man in Utah. We cannot block the lanes of traffic and create these so called ‘fast lanes’ that only the super rich can afford to travel on. We don’t have highways that we drive on and pay for and get no speed limits. We all drive on the same highway and we have speed limits and if you feel the need to drive faster, then you pay for going faster. That’s the way the internet should be. If I want to go faster, then I should be charged a little more, but I don’t get any special treatment. (that sounded good in my head.. after thinking on ti, i don’t know..)

I got a little carried away there, sorry. My point is, Mr Chairman, Mr President, please keep pushing and keep fighting for broadband to the curb. Make sure we keep Net Neutrality as the rule. We cannot and will not be told what we can and cannot do on the internet, just because some guy at the top wants to make the rules, because ‘they’ built the roads, and in the end just wants to put more money in his pocket. Call the cable companies and tell them that they can free up some of their airwaves for future wireless technologies, we can be the leaders in wireless technology in 10 years!

Thank You

Rusty Greer

via [Wall Street Journal] & [Engadget]

photo credit: ismashphone.com

The good thing is, I’m not a newby iPhone user and I have jailbroken mine. (Mind you, I don’t know how it actually works, but at least I can download the software and get out from the apple chains!!!) I actually updated my carrier file to 5.0 before Apple updated to 3.1 and I’ve had tethering enabled for quite a while now, and it didn’t require a jailbreak! Before that, I was using iPhoneModem 3.0, which I still use every now and then if I don’t have the USB cable.

There are plenty of other options out there as well, and a few that made it into the iTunes App store, but were eventually pulled. To be honest, I really don’t use the option that much, as I am either at work, home or even school where there is wireless that I can hope on. The only time I don’t use work or school and iPhone modem instead is when I want to do some financial transaction.

You can see where this post got inspired from:

via [Digg] via [iSmashphone]

]]> http://iknowrusty.com/2009/11/where-fore-art-thou-tethering-for-the-iphone/feed/ 0 http://iknowrusty.com/2009/09/att-responds-via-youtube/ http://iknowrusty.com/2009/09/att-responds-via-youtube/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:56:39 +0000 RustyG http://iknowrusty.com/?p=183 So after thousands of people have blasted At&t for their poor service and slow roll-out of MMS and myriad of other issues, they have released a video by Seth “the blogger guy”. He was in another video when they released the Free Wi-fi hotspots back in July.. Watch here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5yIVgj0VVA

via [tuaw.com]