Richy Adler – Page 26

AT&T Throttling Data News for GoPhone Prepaid Plans

I remember when AT&T promised to throttle unlimited plan users with iPhone and other smartphones in the U.S. but then the company seemed to change its mind about this. Now it looks like AT&T throttling data plan is set for GoPhone prepaid data plan users. There are people, even AT&T iPhone owners, who prefer going with prepaid plans.

The most recent changes added by the Big Blue mobile company are related to AT&T GoPhone throttle “improvements” as the carrier decides that it’s time to offer its subscribers some “happy holiday” season greetings with low 128kbps download speeds. According to the new report, AT&T is no longer planning to cut off any GoPhone prepaid user if he or she reaches the certain data allotment [this relates to those people who use too much data within the billing period].

AT&T throttling prepaid plan can be implemented as follows. Let’s say you have the AT&T iPhone and you are a prepaid use with 2.5GB of data plan. Once you reach your 2.5GB data you will not be cut off even if you still have 7-12 days left on your bill, but your download speeds will be throttled. Previously you would have been capped by AT&T once reaching your data plan limit.

The changes are applied to both 1GB prepaid plan that costs $45 and 2.5GB data plan that costs $60 per month. You still have unlimited data but only a certain amount of it is now high-speed.

New Cell Phone Unlock Rules Accepted by Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon

Did you know about the new unlocked iPhone rules? Roaming the web, I found an interesting story that reports about major American wireless companies agreeing on the new cell phone unlock rules in the U.S. What is this agreement about? How has the unlocked policy and rules changed for ordinary users like you and me?

According to the report, American mobile operators are truly eager to make the unlocking procedures simpler. They are also going to standardize the unlocking policies for smartphones and tablet devices across the country. It is not clear when exactly AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular are going to implement their agreement in practice so users have to wait till everything becomes simple, clear and easy for all ordinary users.

The cell phone unlocking law allows users to unlock their iPhones and other mobile gadgets in the U.S. It is legal and officially allowed by Apple and carriers that agree to support CTIA principles.

These principles are announced to public but we can only guess how carriers agree to act in the future. The unlocking principles include:

clear explanation of the carrier’s unlocking policy to customers
agreement to unlock the prepaid smartphone upon customer’s request [within the year from the moment of device’s activation]
agreement to unlock postpaid data plan subscribers upon their request [after the contract it over]
agreement to unlock the devices within the two business days after receiving unlock request from a subscriber
agreement to unlock handsets of deployed military
agreement to notify subscribers when they can be unlocked

Of course, not all these rules fully operate nowadays. American carriers are eager to unlock your smartphone upon your request but only one your contract is over or you pay the early termination fee in case you are still on contract. Users still have to contact mobile companies and find out if they are eligible for unlock or not and not all carrier’s employees even know what the unlock is.

But if your iPhone is locked to AT&T all you need is to choose the unlocking package for your device and provide us with your IMEI number. Everything else we will do for you and your iPhone will be permanently unlocked.

Users will surely win when they get public information about cell phone unlock rules directly from their mobile company. Carriers agreed to move on sticking to the CTIA and the future looks bright.

To Buy iPhone 6 or Wait for iPhone 7 Release Date in 2015?

With Black Friday and Christmas holiday seasons coming soon users question whether they should purchase iPhone 6 / 6 Plus or wait for iPhone 6 release.

Apple is most likely working on its next iPhone 7 by now as it has successfully released two new smartphone models, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, in September. Every designer now wishes to introduce his personal iPhone 7 concept, give Apple advice on what to do next and attract the attention of people.

While the iPhone 7 release date 2015 is still a year away from now, we can only take a look at the concepts and try to imagine what the eight-gen model can be. Customers are now buying iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6 and catch great dealson earlier iPhone versions, and designer Martin Hajek continues to present his vision of the new iPhone concept.

There are no iPhone 7 rumors yet, but as Hajek sees it, the next handset should get curved edges and updated design. The well-known designers’s concept is based on the current iPhone 6 and its design.

You can see the big screen without any bezels at the bottom and top of the iPhone 7 concept. Some designs comes without bezels at all where the display becomes the full front iPhone’s face. As you can notice on the images of the iPhone 7 concept design, Hajek played with different parts of the smartphone and relocated the speaker, added different toggles but left the Home button on its place.

Take a look at the pictures and get an idea on how designers see the next iPhone 7.

AT&T Bill Credit iPhone 6 Offer For Purchased Device

AT&T bill credit iPhone 6 offer to any costumer $50 bill credit who buy a new iPhone from Apple’s online and retail stores for the next two months. The promotion will be applicable for those who upgrades to any iPhone that Apple is selling at this time. Although this information does not included in the AT&T’s Next plan fine print.

All of late released iPhone models, including the 5c, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, are qualified for this deal. But there are strict requirements for them. The device must be for sure purchased on an existing line. As for upgrading it must be paid using AT&T’s Next plan. Of course The iPhone must be active and also useable for the next 45 days. The promotion will be available till the December 31st.

Here you can check the promo text that is shown on Apple’s web store during the iPhone checkout process when user select the AT&T Next option:
$50 Bill Credit Offer: Ends 12/31/14. Must remain in active and in good standing on Next for 45 days to receive bill credit on your AT&T mobility bill within 3 bill cycles. Upgrades only. Requires iPhone to be purchased via AT&T Next and activated on a qualifying AT&T voice and data wireless service plan. Offer may not be combinable with other credits, discounts and offers. Offer and terms subject to change and may be discontinued at any time without notice.

It looks like a great deal to use AT&T bill credit iPhone 6 offer for people financing their favorite iPhone purchase through AT&T’s Next installment plan.

AT&T Launches New iPhone Next 24 with Longer Instalment Plan

Have you not got the new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus yet? Since the holiday season is coming and a lot of users are dreaming about finding the new Apple smartphone under their Christmas tree, U.S. carriers continue to surprise and present new offers: lower-cost data plans and deals. The new AT&T Next 24 plan, for example, comes with a longer instalment plan.

This upcoming AT&T Next iPhone plan comes with 30-month instalment option which is longer than it was previously available. Starting on November 9, 2014 customers can get AT&T Next 30 months of instalment payments with a down payment of $0.

Right now the same plan offers only 20 or 24 months of payment period which will soon be expended to 30 months. This interesting and just-in-time-for-holidays AT&T iPhone data plan suggests the payments between $10-$50 and this includes the opportunity to upgrade to the next iPhone 7 [or whatever Apple calls its next 2015 handset] after 14 months. Of course, the device will have to be in a good condition so that the user gets to use this option.

According to AT&T CMO David Christoper, consumers have enjoy the new AT&T Next plans and thanks to the big choice of instalment options Americans can select the gadget based on their budget.

Users who wish to switch to AT&T from another American mobile company can get a $150 bill credit, according to the company’s policy and current deals. So keep an eye on November 9 as this is when the new offer becomes available across the USA.

Apple Black Friday Deals 2014

Unlike huge retail stores, Apple doesn’t like to release its own Black Friday ad and each year the Cupertino-based tech giant offers its Apple Black Friday discount not even a day or couple of days before the event, but a few hours before the stores open.

Apple Black Friday 2014 date is the same as in other stores across the United States. It is November 28 and this year, according to some sources, the iPhone maker is going to open its retail stores an hour or two hours before its regular operating hours.

Black Friday 2014 Apple Store schedule sounds like 8-9 am across the country. A year ago, Apple also opened the stores earlier than usual. We don’t know about Apple Black Friday deals for 2014 yet as the company won’t publish the ad and name the pricing. It can offer some discounts to customers through gift cards or store pricing. Back in 2013, the company offered $50-$150 gift cards to its American consumers. Maybe this year the situation will repeat and users will get the gift cards and not direct discounts.

Black Friday 2014 Apple offers are to come soon as the main shopping holiday is coming in a couple of weeks from now.

Do you believe this year’s holiday season can offer nice discounts on Apple hardware or only gift cards in the U.S.? What would you like the company to offer you, as a customer, on Black Friday, November 28?

What If AT&T iPhone Locked After Factory Unlock

Factory unlocked iPhone locked after update to iOS 8 is the issue that appears with the AT&T iDevices that run iOS 7 and upgraded to iOS 8. iOS 8 was released by Apple and had several updating, the last one is 8.1 version.

For users that decided to unlock AT&T iPhone or upgrade to iOS 8 should know this important information. Not to be relocked after updating to iOS 8.1 you need to activate iPhone after unlocking via WiFi.

Here we have short guide how to activate AT&T iPhone locked after update to iOS 8. Not to get into iOS 8 update iPhone relock problem follow this steps. Please note that iOS 8 is a little bit buggy. With this issue you can use again factory iPhone unlock service but you can pay twice to resolve this problem . we will provide you with correct AT&T iPhone activation after unlocking and helps your device to stay unlocked for long time. And also never again become relocked even after iOS 8 upgrading.

Important Note: We are not responsible for such iOS 8 bug and the service can’t be refunded if factory unlocked AT&T iPhone got locked again after updating / restoring the firmware.

For those who are going to order iOS 8 AT&T iPhone factory unlock service you need:

Step 1. Before placing order for iPhone unlock please install iOS. In this case it is recommended to use WiFi update better than iTunes update.

Step 2. After running the new iOS 8 you can order factory unlock for locked AT&T iPhone .

If you have already unlocked your iPhone using factory unlocking service but still on iOS 7, please do the following :

Step 1. After receiving email that your iOS 7 iPhone has been unlocked, you should activate new unlocked status.

Step 2. Remember on this case use Wi-Fi iPhone activation guide not iTunes.

Step 3. Find an active WiFi connection.

Step 4. Take the original SIM card or remove the carrier your iDevice are locked to and insert other SIM that was not supported before.

Step 5. On the screen you’ll see table “Activation Required”

Step 6. Connect your iPhone to active WiFi network and iOS system will do all the work needed and then activate your new status.

Step 7. After you iDevice has beeb activated you can install iOS 8 using WiFi or iTunes. You got rid from relocked problem.

How to Switch Between 2G / 3G and LTE on iOS 8.1 iPhone

How can you turn off LTE on iPhone iOS 8? Is there an easy way for iPhone switching between 3G and LTE for your cellular data? Read this instruction and you’ll be ready to switch your 2G / 3G / 4G for cellular connection. There is nothing complicated about this. It is as simple as when you switch on LTE iPhone 6, 6 Plus iOS 8 – 8.1 etc.

If you remember previous iOS 7 system and how iPhone switches between 3G and LTE, such option was gone after iOS 8 update. Apple has decided to remove it and users who liked to turn off 3G connection and use 2G slower network instead when being in the areas with poor 3G coverage couldn’t do this any more in iOS 8. Thus it became hard to preserve your battery life and use reliable connection on the new operating system introduced by the Cupertino-based giant in September 2014.

How to Change 3G to 4G LTE iPhone on iOS 8.1

Step 1. Make sure you have installed iOS 8.1 as this feature doesn’t work on earlier iOS 8 versions.

Step 2. Open Settings on your iDevice.

Step 3. Select Cellular / Mobile menu.

Step 4. Click on Voice & Data.

Step 5. You will see the list of available connections, including 2G, 3G and 4G LTE. Select the option you wish to use.

Step 6. Your gadget will now use the right speed for your cellular data.

P.S. If you don’t see the menu for Voice & Data you have to connect to iTunes and choose Check for Updates to select your carrier settings. Download the most recent settings and you’ll get the option.

FTC Suing AT&T for Unfair Data Throttling

Users who complain about AT&T iPhone unlimited data throttle or other device data throttling from this carrier are not alone as this problem was noticed by the Federal Trade Commission. The result is predicted: the FTC filed AT&T data throttling lawsuit accusing the well-known American mobile company in “unfair data throttling” towards its customers.

It is true that all U.S. carriers are fighting for subscribers and each year this war is getting tougher and tougher. The companies come up with new promotions and deals trying to attract new consumers and keep their current subscribers interested in staying with the particular network.

AT&T data throttling is nothing new. All carriers promise to throttle unlimited data plan users for overusing data in busy hours. Still some companies finally realize that such a plan might not serve them well.

According to the FTC [the Comission posted their official announcement in Twitter and through other sources], the carrier promised users unlimited data and instead slowed speeds offering unfair data throttling.

As the FTC notes, the carrier doesn’t throttle data speeds for subscribers who are not using the unlimited data plans. As AT&T says in return, that the claims made by the FTC are “baseless” and the carrier is “transparent” with its contracts and U.S. law.

Have you suffered from AT&T iPhone unlimited data throttle issue or not? What do you think about the FTC’s claims and this lawsuit?

It Was Announced About The AT&T Insider Data Breach

AT&T confirmed on Monday this month that had suffered a AT&T insider data breach. AT&T issued a warning to consumers about an insider that illegally accessed the personal information of an unspecified amount of users. In a letter to the Vermont attorney general, officials for the carrier said a former staffer accessed customer account information, including not only driver’s license and Social Security numbers.

The U.S. carrier apologized for the incident and claimed that the employee who did this no longer works for AT&T for violated the company’s privacy and accessing the account information of customers. The company reported that the violator looked through without proper authorization Customer Proprietary Network Information (or CPNI).

CPNI includes information of phone calls such as destination, duration and time. There is no number many customers whose accounts were affected by the breach. The carrier has also alerted those whose information may have been compromised. At least AT&T is being honest about AT&T insider data breach October and offers them a free one-year subscription to a credit monitoring service. The AT&T company recommends that customers change their usernames and passwords as a precautionary measure.

And this AT&T violator data breach October is the second time this year the company admitted to suffering a security breach. The first occasion was in June.