Monthly Archives: July 2017

AT&T, Time Warner

AT&T To Split Its Telecom and Media Divisions after Time Warner Merger

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AT&T - Time Warner Merger

The first announcement about its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner was made last October by AT&T.

Since then, the two companies have been under a great storm of controversies and talks and the merger has greatly been doubted by far.

With President Trump’s statements against the merger and the opposition by Democrats, the merger seemed to be an impossible deal.

However, with the recent oversight given by the CEO of the huge prepaid phone service provider, Randall Stephenson, things seem positive about the merger talks.

The Oversight

The oversight given by the giant mobile and affordable telephone service provider tells us that the company is going to split its telecom and media assets after merging Time Warner Inc. Thus, AT&T is planning on running as two separate divisions after the merger.

According to experts, the company will be split into two different units with the telecom services and DirectTV by AT&T in one unit and the assets from Time Warner media in another.

Under the Time Warner media unit, the company is said to include channels like HBO, Warner Bros., CNN, etc. by Time Warner.

With this split, it has been announced that the chief strategy officer of AT&T, John Donovan will be promoted to the position of CEO of the telecommunications unit of the company. On the other hand, the entertainment chief of the giant prepaid phone service provider, John Stankey will head its media assets.

It has been mentioned that Randall Stephenson will still be the CEO of the giant mobile and affordable telephone service provider. And besides this, no other leadership decisions have been made yet.

This has been confirmed by AT&T spokesperson Larry Solomon. “No decisions on organizational structure or leadership have been finalized,” he told CNNMoney in an e-mail. “Randall and [Time Warner CEO] Jeff [Bewkes] are working through that. Randall will remain chairman and CEO of AT&T once the deal closes”, he added.

This shows that Stephenson is going to head the giant prepaid phone service provider with two unit chiefs working under him.

While talking about the merger, Stephenson said, “This is a perfect match of two companies with complementary strengths who can bring a fresh approach to how the media and communications industry works for customers, content creators, distributors and advertisers”

The merger talks have been on since last year and things have started to heat up lately. With the giant prepaid phone service provider still waiting to complete the Justice Department’s antitrust review, the big merger has been pending.

However, AT&T seems all set to play its cards as soon as the merger is finalized.

In A Nutshell

To sum it all up, the AT&T and Time Warner merger is going to be a big deal as can be inferred from the rounds of criticism, hype, and controversies that the matter has been dragged through.

The two huge companies are planning on changing the world of telecommunication and cable TV through this merger. Though the merger is still pending to be finalized, we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out for the telecom market in the US and for the two companies involved.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile to Raise the Price of Its Premium Unlimited Data Plan

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T-Mobile

The US telecommunication market is often stirred with a buzz every now and then. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint – the four major telecom companies of the US are always up to one thing or another.

Something similar had been recently witnessed when the T-Mobile and Sprint merger talks heated up. And now, as things seemed to have settled down a bit, T-Mobile has made another move!

The third largest mobile prepaid phone service provider has announced and confirmed a rise in the prices of its premium unlimited data plan.

The Increase in Price

The price of T-Mobile’s One Plus unlimited plan has been increased by $5. Thus, the add-on features of the One unlimited plan of the once cheap phone service are now available at a raised price of $10 per month.

These add-on features include the HD video option, preventing customers from being pushed to 480p video quality.

This hike in prices made the $70 One Plus Unlimited Plan by T-Mobile available for a total of $80 every month. This price is inclusive of all the taxes.

The plan has usually been liked by customers because of the high-quality internet service that it offers. The plan offers unlimited HD video streaming and unlimited usage of the mobile hotspot feature of which the first 10 GB are available at LTE speed.

Also, customers can enjoy features like in-flight Wi-Fi from Gogo and around 256 kbps to 128 kbps speed of international data.

The changes have put question marks on high-quality yet cheap phone service provided by T-Mobile as the plan has become expensive now.

The change in the plan was first brought to light by Reddit users and the company confirmed these changes after a while.

Why the Change?

According to a spokeswoman from T-Mobile, the change in the One Plus unlimited plan by the prepaid phone service provider, depicts the end of the promo period. The changes are also considered as T-Mobile’s move to match its rival Verizon’s unlimited plan.

This is because the HD video and hotspot features available with T-Mobile’s plan are similar to that of Verizon’s. However, when it comes to comparing the plans on the basis of price, AT&T is still the most expensive telecom vendor with an unlimited plan of $90 per month.

There is still an intense competition going on among all the telecom giants and such changes are a result of the competitive vibe going on in the market.

The change in the plan might be the end of a promotional period but officials from T-Mobile declined to acknowledge the raised price of the unlimited plan as part of another promotional period.

So, with the raised prices on its premium unlimited plan, T-Mobile has made it to the hot news once again! It’s yet to be seen whether things work out in favor of the mobile prepaid phone service provider or not.

With hiked prices, customers might react in certain negative manners but as it is one of the best data plans by the company, they might still stick to it! So, let’s wait and see how this move by T-Mobile plays out!

Verizon, Verizon Wireless

Verizon Charging Extra for Anti-Spam Features That Other Carriers Offer For Free

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Verizon Anti Spam

Verizon has come up with yet another feature that has landed them into yet another controversy. The headlines have it that the mobile prepaid phone service provider is going to charge its customers for anti-spam features.

The matter of controversy here is that the other giant mobile and affordable telephone service providers are providing the same services for free. So, what is Verizon up to? Is the anti-spam feature provided by the telecom giant really worth paying a price for?

Verizon’s Anti-Spam Feature

Quite recently, Verizon announced a new subscription service that will help customers cut down on the robocalls and other automated spam calls and messages. To get the service, customers have to get the Verizon Caller Name ID app.

The app developed by the giant prepaid phone service provider tells its customers whether an incoming call is fraudulent, automated, a robocall, or spam. This saves the customers from being plagued by answering unnecessary calls.

The surprising and confusing fact about this service by Verizon is that the telecom behemoth is charging $2.99 per month for it.

This is a bit confusing for customers wondering why they have to pay $3 every month for this feature while the other affordable telephone service providers are giving it away for free. Carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile are delivering anti-spam features for free which is why Verizon’s paid subscription could be criticized.

Verizon’s Caller ID App

Verizon customers can get the caller ID feature by Verizon on both Android phones and Apple iPhones. This feature lets the customer decide whether or not to pick up the call and customers can easily reject the spam or robocalls to save a great amount of their time and money.

The Verizon Caller Name ID app for iPhone is available on the App Store from where it can be easily installed and the service can be used. For Android users, the spam detection tool can be picked from the Verizon app folder inside the smartphone. The Android version of the app is available only for the 18 Android phones eligible under Verizon’s mobile and prepaid phone service.

Through the app, the customers can see the caller ID and details of the numbers that are not saved in their phones. These details include the name of the people and businesses, location, and their contact details.

The app also allows customers to report the unwanted numbers by identifying them.

Quite similar features are offered by the other mobile and affordable telephone service providers as well but they are available for free and might be a little different from Verizon’s app.

According to Verizon, “Available for $2.99 per month, Caller Name ID is a premium experience delivering the right information at the moment it’s needed, including a “risk meter” for Android customers showing the likelihood of fraud.” 

In a Nutshell

As the anti-spam feature by Verizon comes with a price, it is more likely that the customers will pass on using the app. Chances are that most of the customers switch to other mobile prepaid phone service providers to get that feature for free. No doubt that Verizon will keep a close watch on its customers to see if this is a feature that would chase away subscribers.

AT&T

AT&T Soon To Start With Extra Charges for Privacy

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AT&T

So now, as per AT&T, its customers will have to pay extra for their own privacy! And that is evident from the latest buzz going on in the world of telecommunications.

The famous mobile phone service provider has been in the news for its merger talks with Time Warner that has been under a cloud of doubt. Amidst all the chaos that the telecom giant has been facing because of the merger talks, the company has announced that its ‘privacy surcharge’ is going to make a comeback.

The Announcement

The announcement is said to have been made by a senior executive from AT&T and is something that the company has already tried and tested in the previous year.

Last year, the huge mobile and cheap local phone service provider started charging for the privacy of its customers if they opted out of the Internet Preference program by AT&T.

The charges were quite high and hiked the monthly bills of the customers to a sum ranging between $531 and $800 in the first month. The changes were made quietly by the company and were quite criticized by customers and privacy advocates.

“We got an enormous amount of criticism from privacy advocates when we rolled out in Austin, Texas, an ad-supported Internet service…Privacy advocates screamed about that,” said Bob Quinn, the Senior Vice President of AT&T, talking about the previous year’s privacy charges.

To avoid the heavy criticism and to seek the regulatory approval for the AT&T – Time Warner merger, the mobile and phone service provider had stopped with the continuation of those charges.

The company has stated that the new privacy charges are a way to give more control to the customers. However, the expensive charges are an exact opposite of this statement.

Also, it has been seen that even after being charged extra to protect the privacy of customers, the mobile and cheap local phone service provider doesn’t really stop collecting data from their customers.

When the privacy charges were deducted by the telecom giant in the previous year, the company suggested them as a discount to the customers. So, it can be said that the company is actually trying to manipulate the customers and privacy advocates by counting the vague positive impacts of the increased charges.

The statements don’t make a difference to the fact that paying extra for their privacy is what lies as a great burden on the shoulders of customers.

If the phone service provider is planning on continuing with the privacy surcharge, it is going to come out as an expensive service for the customers because the charges paid can reach a sum of $800 annually which is a ridiculously big amount.

In a Nutshell

It’s hard to believe that with all the chaos of accusations from Democrats, pending approval from Trump for the merger with Time Warner, and a lot of other things going on, AT&T has come up with the privacy charges announcement.

If the company sticks with its plan to charge extra, we will have to wait and see how it goes for AT&T. As the similar move had been criticized by customers before, the odds are less in favor of the famous phone service provider this time too.

So, let’s wait and see how it goes!