at&t

Sony just confirmed U.S. pricing and availability for its latest handset, the Xperia TL. You can expect the handset, official smartphone of the 'Skyfall" James Bond film, to cost $99.99 on November 2. … Read more

AT&T executives couldn't be happier with the company's progress in signing up customers to its Mobile Share Plan and its new LTE 4G wireless service, AT&T's head of mobility Ralph de la Vega said on the company's third quarter conference call with investors and analysts on Wednesday.

De la Vega was almost giddy when talking about the growth of the company's Mobile Share plan and how it's driving an uptick in data revenue.

"Two million customers signed up for Mobile Share in the first five weeks," he said. &… Read more

AT&T sold twice as many iPhone 5 smartphones as its main competitor, according to mobility chief Ralph de la Vega.

AT&T's closest rival, Verizon Wireless, said last week that it sold 651,000 iPhone 5 units in the third quarter. Based on de la Vega's statement, this means AT&T rang up sales of roughly 1.3 million units. Sprint Nextel reports its results on Thursday.

AT&T further cemented its lead as the preeminent iPhone carrier in the U.S. with 4.7 million iPhones sold in the third quarter. But … Read more

When it comes to Apple's iPhone, AT&T remains its strongest U.S. partner.

The Dallas-based telecommunications provider, second only to Verizon Wireless in wireless customers, said today it activated 4.7 million iPhones in the third quarter, with 18 percent new to the company. Still, that's short of what analysts were expecting, with the company blaming supply constraints for the shortfall.

Also disappointing was subscriber growth, with the carrier only adding only 151,000 so-called postpaid customers, who are seen as the most lucrative and loyal because they are committed for two years. That figure is … Read more

AT&T will sell Samsung Electronic's Galaxy Note 2 on Nov. 9 for $299 with a two-year contract.

Today's announcement follows T-Mobile confirming that it will sell the extra-large device for the same price starting tomorrow.

While the original Galaxy Note was ridiculed for its large 5.3-inch display, Samsung has pushed the device aggressively, now adding even more carrier support for the second, larger 5.5-inch version. The device sparked a new mini category dubbed "phablet," or a cross between a smartphone and tablet.

The Galaxy Note 2 will be available for preorder on … Read more

Sprint Nextel said today that it now covers 32 markets with its higher speed 4G LTE network.

The network now blankets several communities outside of Chicago, collectively known as Chicagoland, well as Wichita Falls, Texas, Hutchinson and McPherson, Kan., and New Bedford/Fall River, Mass.

Sprint is racing to catch up to larger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which last week week exceeded its 400-market target and has more markets covered than every other carrier combined. With consumers demanding a faster connection for Web browsing, music, and video, 4G LTE has become a bigger selling point.

The capabilities … Read more

A pair of iPhone owners are suing Apple to get their handsets unlocked.

Zach Ward and Thomas Buchar filed a putative class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Northern California on Friday alleging that the tech giant violated antitrust laws by locking iPhone buyers into voice and data contracts with AT&T Mobility. The plaintiffs claim that Apple violated the Sherman Act's prohibition on monopolization by not obtaining consumers' contractual consent to have their iPhones locked when the tech giant entered into a five-year exclusivity agreement with the wireless carrier in 2007.

To enforce the terms … Read more

How good is the iPhone 5's call quality, and most importantly, how it does it compare across carriers? We addressed some of the iPhone 5's call quality in our CNET review and follow-up stories, but let's take a listen to the Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T models side-by-side. Is there a difference in audio quality?

For our quick test, I made phone calls from the same street corner in New York to Brian Bennett upstairs, using all three carrier models both against my ear and held several feet away from me in speakerphone mode. I also made test calls from the same location on all three models to our San Francisco office's voice-quality-testing voice mail drop. For comparison purposes, I also threw in my AT&T iPhone 4S in all instances to see how it fared. … Read more

Samsung's rough 'n' ready Galaxy Rugby Pro is ready to rumble starting Sunday.

The Rugby Pro may be equipped to ward off the elements, like fog, dust, shock, salt, temperature, and fumbling 2-year-olds, but it also promises to be quite the accomplished smartphone. It runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, cruises the LTE fast lane, and has a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display.

You'll also find a 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capture and push-to-talk.