at&t

Surface Pro launches February 9

Tuesday's CNET Update is counting the converts:

Stories from today's tech news roundup:

- Microsoft announced that its Surface Pro tablet will hit stores Feb. 9. Unlike the Surface RT tablet, this Pro version will run any Windows program.

- A new report out says that Apple still holds the lead for U.S. smartphone sales, and that there are more people converting from Android to iOS.

- Verizon released iPhone sales data in its fourth quarter earnings report. Apple will release its earnings report Wednesday afternoon.

- AT&T announced it will spend $780 million to buy the U.S. carrier Alltel, … Read more

AT&T spends $780 million to buy more spectrum

AT&T is spending $780 million in cash to scoop up more wireless spectrum.

The company announced Tuesday that it is buying the U.S. retail wireless operations of a carrier called Atlantic Tele-Network or ATNI. As part of the deal, AT&T will acquire wireless spectrum licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 585,000 subscribers.

ATNI operates under the Alltel name in the U.S. Its network covers roughly 4.6 million in rural areas in six states including, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina.

The spectrum licenses that AT&T is … Read more

Verizon Q4 loss doubles, pushed by Sandy, pension costs

Superstorm Sandy and mounting pension costs took a toll on Verizon.

The New York telecommunications provider posted a fourth-quarter loss of $4.22 billion, or $1.48 a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $2 billion, or 71 cents a share. The results were affected by costs associated with Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the Northeast region late last year, and by a change in the valuation of its pension liabilities owed to its employees. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 38 cents a share.

The pension liabilities cut into earnings by $1.55 a share, while the early … Read more

AT&T eyes international expansion for growth

AT&T is interested in buying a European carrier for growth, according to the Wall Street Journal.

With the U.S. market about to get more competitive, AT&T is looking at markets in Europe where it can upgrade technology and roll out new services and pricing strategies, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unnamed sources. It reported that AT&T is studying potential acquisitions, and could strike a deal by the end of the year. In particular, AT&T is looking at the U.K., Germany, and the Netherlands.

While the U.S. carriers have … Read more

AT&T opens FaceTime to all tiered-data customers

AT&T said today that it will allow any wireless customer with a tiered-data plan to use Apple's FaceTime videoconferencing app over AT&T's cellular network.

This is yet another change to AT&T's policy for this app, which when it was first introduced on the iPhone 4 was restricted to Wi-Fi networks only. In Apple's iOS 6 release of software, all FaceTime enabled iPhones were then capable of operating the app over a cellular network. Initially, AT&T still restricted usage to Wi-Fi.

In August, AT&T started to open … Read more

BlackBerry 10 to be carried on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile

With BlackBerry 10's big debut coming at the end of this month, three major U.S. carriers have confirmed that they will carry devices on this new platform, according to Reuters.

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile USA all said that they plan to support BlackBerry 10 handsets on their networks.

"We're extremely optimistic that it's going to be a successful product and our business customers are extremely interested in it," T-Mobile USA chief executive John Legere told Reuters.

Verizon's chief executive Lowell McAdam also confirmed the carrier will support BlackBerry 10 devices. And … Read more

AT&T's New York network is 'crap,' T-Mobile CEO says

T-mobile CEO John Legere delivered quite the show at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Not only did he unveil plans for the carrier's own 4G LTE network; Legere also derided rival AT&T's wireless network in New York City as "crap."

Attending the press conference in Las Vegas, CNET's Roger Cheng documented the spectacle via Twitter, noting that T-Mobile's CEO seems determined to revamp the reputation of the carrier.

"If you thought T-Mobile went away, think again," Legare said. As it tries to bring back the "cool" … Read more

T-Mobile already has 1.9 million iPhones on its network

LAS VEGAS--For a carrier that doesn't actually sell the iPhone, T-Mobile certainly has a decent amount of them on its network.

There are 1.9 million iPhones on T-Mobile, and the carrier has a monthly run rate of 100,000 new iPhones coming in, Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray told CNET.

The amount of iPhones coming in has accelerated since T-Mobile began actively looking to poach customers dissatisfied with AT&T's service, or looking for a more competitively priced plan. The carrier launched a campaign in September to get customers to make the switch, and even featured … Read more

AT&T sells record 10M smartphones in 4th quarter

The fourth quarter was good to AT&T.

The carrier said this morning that in the final quarter of 2012, it sold a record number of smartphones -- 10 million. That topped its previous quarterly high of 9.4 million, set in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The three-month period just ended included best-ever quarterly sales of both Android and Apple smartphones, AT&T said.

"We had another incredible quarter of smartphone sales as the mobile Internet continues to drive strong growth in wireless," Ralph de la Vega, chief executive officer for AT&T Mobility, … Read more