Category Archives: AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Cancels Discounts on Lifeline Phone Services for Cheap Home Phone Service Users

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AT&T Lifeline Phone Service

 

These times do not seem favor AT&T low income phone service subscribers. They are receiving a financial blow from AT&T. The MPSC (Missouri Public Service Commission) has allowed AT&T to cancel discounts given to poor and disabled customers on lifeline phone services.

AT&T has Given a Reason

AT&T filed its response in this regard to the Missouri Public Service Commission and stated a reason for this decision. According to the company, no more than 6900 low income phone service subscribers are receiving discounted life line phone services. The number of such users has come down by almost 85% since 2008. It appears as if low income phone service subscribers are also switching to wireless phone services. They no longer seem to be interested in discounted lifeline phone services on their wire-line.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noticed more than 59% of cheap home phone service subscribers reside in wireless only households. CDCP had confirmed the fact in 2015. This is possibly why AT&T seems to have made this decision.

The Office of Public Counsel Is Not Happy With This:

The office of Public Counsel responsible for taking care of the public’s interest argued against this decision by AT&T before the Public Service Commission. In accordance with the Acting Public Counsel, Mr. James Owen, “We heard from people who still use it and were asking us to stop” it.

Acting Public Counsel James Owen is Mainly Concerned About Old and Handicapped People:

This is true. He expressed it openly and said that they may find using a cellphone difficult or confusing. This can make life difficult for them to get connected with their near and dear ones or emergency services as cellular phone services in some rural areas can be problematic.

Mr. Owen Lost the Argument Because…

AT&T did everything right from the factual point of view and used the law accordingly. The company said that the discounts on lifeline phone services are being provided by some wireless phone service providers throughout its area. Therefore, anyone losing the lifeline discount on their AT&T home phone can get a Lifeline discount for cellular phone services.

This is Exactly Where AT&T Won the Argument:

According to the federal rules, any low income phone service provider can drop its own lifeline service if some other carrier is providing it to users. This left the Public Service Commission with no choice but to rule the argument in the favor of AT&T and allow the service provider to cancel the discount on lifeline phone service to cheap home phone service users.

Some Final Words

It is a tough blow to the poor families using discounted landline services of AT&T in rural areas. Hopefully, it does not make their life difficult and they find it easy to switch to wireless services and get the same kind of discount. It will be too early to predict the impact of this service on poor families residing in rural areas. Therefore, only the time will tell after the company stops providing the discount on lifeline services in July 2017.

AT&T

AT&T’s No to Participate in Lifeline Program Frustrates Low Income Customers

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AT&T's no to Lifeline Program

Carriers in the United States are locking horns with each other for increasing their consumer base and ROI. Some of the carriers are being praised for their sincere efforts whereas AT&T is receiving severe criticism from some customers and public advocacy groups.

So, what’s the story behind the criticism?

A&T, headquartered at Whitcare Tower from Downtown, Dallas, Texas, United States, is one of the 86 service providers that have refused to participate in a government’s subsidy program aimed at triggering significant reduction in the cost of broadband internet used by low income phone service users. It is a subsidy program for poor families to cover the cost of residential phone service or cell phone service to stay connected with their families, friends, jobs and even emergency services. The program had been expanded recently to include broadband internet services as a medium for closing the digital divide.

AT&T Informed FCC:

AT&T informed the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) via a letter stating AT&T’s own low cost broadband program named “Access from AT&T” as a much better and reliable way of ensuring universal access to internet services. “Broadband internet should be a part of the lifeline program but the present structure of the program excessively pressurizes providers on an administrative front”, says AT&T.

AT&T’s think tank refused to stipulate in this regard. The company also refused to reveal the number of low Income phone service users/families participating in AT&T’s ‘Access from AT&T” program.

AT&T Has a Reason of its own:

Lifeline had been introduced in 1985 with the objective of making home phone service for low income families and individuals more affordable to help them stay connected with their families, friends, jobs and emergency services. The Lifeline program was subjected to expansion of vital wireless services like prepaid cellphone and texting during the tenure of President George W. Bush. This is exactly when the FCC announced an expansion for covering broadband internet services and announced the modernization of Lifeline program by setting up a NEV (National Eligibility Verifier) for checking consumer eligibility for home phone service for low income in order to fight abuse and fraud. The National Verifier is not going to be rolled out to every state in United States before 2019. This is one of the two reasons why AT&T does not want to participate.

As for the second reason, “It makes little sense to spend resources on implementation of a soon-to-be-replaced administrative rule for a new service when we are already offering low-income consumers a better deal through our Access from AT&T program,” Says Joan Marsh, Senior Vice President at AT&T Washington, D.C. She said this while addressing AT&T’s team on a Public Policy blog.

Customers are Frustrated:

This is true. AT&T’s refusal to participate in Lifeline’s broadband program has frustrated many customers. And Jessica Gonzalez, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of California based NHMC (National Hispanic Media Collation), is one of them. According to Jessica Gonzalez, AT&T and the rest of the broadband service providers must participate because “it’s the right thing to do and it demonstrates corporate responsibility.”

She further added that corporate programs like “Access BY AT&T” require low income phone service users/families use credit cards. Such programs most of the time have very narrow criteria for eligibility and disappear immediately after the expiration of FCC’s merger conditions.

Final Words:

AT&T has made its decision. The company has openly refused to participate in the Lifeline program. This has frustrated a lot of poor customers. The move does not look good for the company as it may shrink it’s consumer base. However, it is too early to predict the results of this decision taken by AT&T. For now, just wait for the right time to see the impact.

Keep coming back to us as we will keep you updated in this regard on a timely basis.

AT&T

AT&T Conducts first Public 5G Demonstration on 5th December 2016

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AT&T 5G

All telecom service providers in the United States are competing hard for growth in the wireless sector in one way or another. AT&T has recently launched an application called DirectTV Now. But the company is not stopping there. Now the company claims to have become the first US carrier to conduct a 5G business customer trial in Austin, Texas.

AT&T’s Announcement on 5th December 2016:

AT&T announced its very first public 5G demonstration in collaboration with Ericson and Intel on 5th December 2016. Successful streaming of 4K HD videos, real time camera feeds and speeds of almost 14 gigabytes per second were the main highlights of this demonstration for AT&T’s Texas phone service subscribers. In addition to this, millimeter wave (mmWave) technology was also demonstrated at one of Intel’s Austin based offices in Texas. This technology is fully capable of powering a 5G network experience.

AT&T Says:

AT&T is very positive in regard to this 5G public demonstration. It takes technology completely out of the labs and into the field to determine the level of its capability to serve real world customers.

Multiple enterprise proof of concept use cases will be tested by utilizing the bandwidth speed of more than a gigabyte per second in this whole process. This is specifically going to include the following for Texas phone service subscribers.

  • Access to internet
  • VPN
  • UCA (Unified Communications Applications)
  • Streaming of 4K HD videos

Rick Hubbard, Senior Vice President of Networking Product Management at AT&T Says:

The company is expecting mmWave technology to become a vital and integral component of 5G. The trial will be key to significant acceleration of AT&T’s 5G work. The trial will definitely highlight the way technology acts in a real time commercial environment. He said this in a statement. Availability of 5G in full strength promises electric fast internet speed. This speed could easily be 10-100 times faster than LTE. It means Texas phone service users will be able to download any full length High Definition movie on their smartphones in just a few seconds instead of minutes.

QUALCOMM is Working Towards Ensuring Transition to 5G:

The chip giant is also working in this direction. The main objective of QUALCOMM is to aid in the transition to 5G. The company unveiled its plans in this regard during the month of October 2016. The company has clear plans of expanding its reach in the camera space. Successful development of hardware and software designed for various types of video and image devices beyond the cameras of mobile devices will play an important role in this process.

Introduction to the 5G modem chipset for connected cameras was also the part of this announcement.

Final Words:

Competitors like Verizon Wireless are yet to conduct their 5G trials in the year 2017. Now all the carriers are expecting 5G to spark an increase in the sales of smartphones and mobile services to a significant extent.  It is not going to be that easy for any company and especially for AT&T. AT&T will first have to convince municipalities to allow for the installation of 5G equipment. Most importantly, millions of towers will be needed.

AT&T, Home Phone

Charleston Area Administrative Bigwigs Welcome AT&T’s Ultra-Fast Internet Service Expansion

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AT&T’s Ultra-Fast Internet Service Expansion

 

Good News:

There is a good news for AT&T South Carolina Phone Service Subscribers.  The company has recently launched ultra-fast internet services in some parts of the Charleston area. The one Gigabyte connection is available for Charleston area houses, apartments and a number of locations known for small businesses on a 100% fiber network.  AT&T’s plans to expand access to super fast internet to a number of locations in Goose Creek and North Charleston are in progress. The company has selected the Charleston area from one of its selected 44 metros across the USA. AT&T’s super fast internet service is currently available for its customers in all of these 44 nationwide metros.

Mr. John Mitchell Has Something to Say in This Regard

The number of customers interacting with their connections through increasingly data intensive ways is going up by each day, says Mr. John Mitchell, Regional Director of External Affairs at AT&T’s South Carolina office. AT&T’s South Carolina phone service users are beginning to stream content directly from the comfort of their devices. They are enjoying interactions with their personal and professional connections using live videos. Taking this into account, the company has chosen the Charleston Area for its super fast internet service.

Mr. John Tecklenburg was Excited

We are super excited at AT&T’s decision to expand its ultra-fast internet speed service to the Charleston area. This is very good news for the local business community of Charleston, said Mr. John Tecklenburg, Mayor of Charleston. He further added that the expansion of AT&T’s ultra-fast internet services in Charleston will be a solid platform for our local businesses to seek the much needed ultra-modern technology for success in 21st century economy.

Linda Page echoed the Views of Mr. John Tecklenburg and Mr. John Mitchell:

Expansion of AT&T’s super fast internet service will definitely ensure a significant increase in the number of economic opportunities for the growth of our small local businesses and home phone service users in South Carolina, said Linda Page, The Mayor of Mt. Pleasant. More importantly, this decision taken by the company will play a huge role in order to ensure the delivery of high speed internet services in rural areas across South Carolina.  She further added that the use of the latest technology will help drive a lot of technical innovation and Job creation on every front.

This seems to be one of the best technical initiatives taken by the company for ensuring ultra-fast internet services for home phone service subscribers in the South Carolina, Charleston area. All the internet customers on 100% fiber will have full access to the latest Wi-Fi technology. This will help them relish faster Wi-Fi speed as well as broad coverage of everything from the comfort of their home, says AT&T.

Summary:

All of the Charleston Area administrative big-wigs have welcomed this decision of AT&T wholeheartedly. The service has been launched by the company in the Charleston area, South Carolina. Now it will be very interesting to see which way the expansion progresses.

AT&T

AT&T Plans to Expand Superfast Internet Services in Michigan City, Indiana

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AT&T Faster Internet Services

Good News from AT&T

Nowadays, AT&T is doing a lot of positive things for its customers. Now AT&T has expanded its internet access for its Indiana phone service customers in Michigan City. The company is currently serving almost 44 metropolitan areas in the United States and plans to increase this number up to 67 markets in the time to come.

Take a look at the offer

AT&T is specifically offering internet connections of 1 Gigabit to residential areas of the Michigan City area and apartments. Small businesses are also on their radar. The company will serve them on its fiber network specifically powered by AT&T Fiber.

The Service is Already Available in Many Areas

AT&T Indiana phone service customers living in some of the areas mentioned below are already getting this service:

  • Hammond
  • Munster
  • Crown Point
  • John

The think tank of AT&T is also thinking about providing this service in the areas of Merrillville.

This was the Reaction

Like all good or bad news, this one also received a lot of reaction from every corner of the country. AT&T’s 100 percent fiber network to serve its local phone service Indiana customers will be a stepping stone in the direction of growing our economy as well as improving the quality of life in Michigan City, Indiana. Additionally, access to super fast internet will certainly be a great help for:

  • Creating new opportunities for jobs
  • Improve and increase the chances of access to better education
  • The growth of small businesses

All this was said by Mr. Ron Meer, The Mayor of Michigan City, Indiana, through a news release.

This is What AT&T Officials Think About it

The company has specifically taken its local phone service to Indiana customers into consideration through this service. It seems to be a strategic move of AT&T to outpace its market competitors. Coming back to the point, AT&T officials had their own say in this regard. According to Mr. Bill Boards, The President of AT&T, Indiana, all of the Indiana phone service customers of AT&T interact with their connections using more data intensive ways. And this number is increasing day-by-day.

More importantly, most of the customers nowadays like to stream content directly using their devices. They are using live videos as a preferred medium of interaction with their friends and families. This is why AT&T has decided to introduce its superfast internet services for its local phone service to Indiana customers residing in Michigan City. Mr. Bill Boards, The President of AT&T Indiana, said all this through a news release.

For More Information

You can get more information in this regard on AT&T Fiber. If you are searching for an apartment or a condo on a 100 percent fiber network, then you should go to the AT&T company website for more information.

Moral of the Story

This is certainly a big decision taken by AT&T on the strategic front to outpace the growth of its market competitors. However, this is just a beginning and it is too early to say if it’s a profitable move. In simple words, it is too early to predict the success or failure of this decision taken by AT&T to serve its phone service customers in Michigan City, Indiana. Only over time will we know what will happen because the introduction of AT&T superfast internet service in some part of Merrillville also depends on its success in Michigan City, Indiana to a large extent.

AT&T, Time Warner

The Expected Meaning of AT&T Acquisition of Time Warner for Customers

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AT&T, TimeWarner

 

AT&T, one of the premiere phone service providers in the United States, has agreed to acquire media powerhouse Time Warner for almost $85 billion. This is certainly one of the largest acquisitions of all time.

What is expected from this merger?

This deal is expected to help AT&T ensure a quality user experience because they access content through multiple devices like cellphones and tablets. They will be able to connect the dots as content flows across multiple devices. This deal will mainly help AT&T, one of the premiere phone service providers in US, data mine vital information about users such as location, devices as well as behaviour to deliver accurate content at the right time in the best possible manner. More importantly, it will make for a complete holistic user experience that could possibly ensure consumer friendly innovations, said Gartner Analyst, Mr. Akshay Sharma.

What This Deal Could Mean?

Increased targeted advertising plays the most important role in funding all the content consumed by users. In simple words, this deal between the two companies will make ad targeting more granular. This means that the customers accessing the same content from different devices and locations will get to see different commercials.

AT&T’s CEO Mr. Randall Stephenson Says…

This deal will be a great medium/platform for the two companies to move faster and operate better in a world where customers increasingly access all sorts of content using prepaid phone services on their mobiles. The world of distribution and content is converging. Keeping this in mind, we must move faster toward doing something totally unique, says he. He mainly stressed the concept and requirement of curating and formatting content in a totally different way for mobiles.

Benefit to AT&T

This deal will certainly add a lot of value to AT&T’s portfolio of mobile, broadband and satellite TV services through the addition of Time Warner’s content brands like HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros as the company has a huge network of almost 130 million mobile customers. In addition to that, this deal is all about AT&T attempting to get smarter instead of becoming a totally dump pipe provider. Now, all this clearly depends on content and the kind of user experience. In one way or another, it will be a kind of benefit for AT&T.

There is a Twist:

According to the critics, the deal between AT&T, a phone service provider, and Time Warner can result in less consumer choice, increase in prices and a threat to media plurality. Mr. Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential nominee, also supported critics with his opinion in this regard. As per his opinion, the deal would offer “Excessive concentration of power” to the combined company. If he wins the election next month then he will block the deal, says Mr. Donald Trump.

At Last:

AT&T will gain a lot of benefit from this deal to provide a quality user experience across multiple devices. However, considering the twists, it will not be easy for AT&T to close the deal easily. Moreover, it will be very interesting to see whether AT&T actually benefits from this deal or, if the opinion of critics proves to be right.

AT&T

AT&T Plans to Bring Faster Internet Services in Georgia for Businesses

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AT&T Internet Services

AT&T plans to introduce faster gigabit internet services. This is certainly a great news for businesses using the company’s local phone services in Georgia and particularly in Newnan.  This will be a great medium for businesses to upload and download at speeds almost up to one Gbps. This is almost 20 times faster than any cable based internet connection. All of the locations signaled ready for such fast internet services have been declared AT&T fiber ready designations.

With Internet Speed Increased up to One Gbps, Businesses Using AT&T Telephone Service Will Be Able to:

  • Download almost up to 8000 word processing documents in about one second.
  • Download an HD video of two hours in about 36 seconds.
  • Fully backup/restore a one terabyte hard drive within the time frame of 2.5 hours.

As for new service and designation given to locations, they will serve as an effective medium for business or property owners to determine whether or not their property/location is equipped for installing AT&T’s services.

A Move to Stay Alive in the Modern Competitive Market:

For a number of years, the company has focused on providing gigabit connections to business customers. But through AT&T business fiber, the company is speeding up the deployment process of these high-speed internet connections to its business customers.  The company is offering such fast and reliable connectivity solutions as an essential strategic move to stay competitive in the marketplace, says Mr. Bill Leahy, the president at AT&T Georgia.

The Viewpoint of Critics about Faster Internet Services:

The viewpoint of critics is very crucial in this regard. The availability of super-fast internet service is already limited to certain areas in each market. These places are perfectly connected with fiber-optic transmission cable. Critics view it as new upscale developments that are not broadly spread across cities or rural areas in Georgia.

These Are Positive Technological Advancements:

This technological advancement is a good thing. Such investments in the field of information technology are critical to the health of Georgia’s economy.   As for a reason, all sorts of small and large scale companies are heavily dependent on successful transfer and utilization of information technology. Most importantly, AT&T’s investment in Georgia and its businesses using local phone services in Georgia will undoubtedly be benefitted by it.

As a Result of It: 

The cable companies have decided to make investments required for upgrading their equipment needed in order to maximize their internet speed. Moreover, a number of businesses are planning to switch to a new service provider for seeking faster internet services to better satisfy their customers. This is where AT&T can think about providing its faster internet services to all of the business using its local phone services in Georgia for staying viable among the competition in the marketplace. Apart from this, AT&T business fiber is available at select locations in Douglasville, Columbus, LaGrange and many more cities in Georgia.

Now only time will tell about the success of this technological advancement in the market from AT&T.

AT&T

AT&T Likely to Introduce AirGig in 2017 for Superfast Internet Speed Using Power Lines

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AT&T AirGig

Slow-as-snail internet connection at your home could now be the thing of past. AT&T is all set to provide electric fast internet speed to all its home phone service subscribers. AT&T, the Dallas based telecommunications giant, is planning to deliver super fast internet services through its latest project.

AirGig, AT&T’s Latest Project

On Tuesday, the company revealed its new project called AirGig. The company is focusing on delivering multi-gigabyte wireless internet speed at an affordable price. The company is planning to do so using power lines. As for launching its initial field trial, AT&T labs is expecting it will happen sometime in the year 2017.

This Will Set New Standards in Terms of High Speed Internet Connections:

The company is expecting AirGig to redefine industry standards in terms of high speed internet. This is likely to be totally different and innovative. AT&T is dedicating AirGig to delivering extremely quick internet services to all its home phone service users using a new technology that transmits signals over power lines. However, the signal will not go through the conductive power lines. Therefore, this is surely expected to be different from the efforts of Google and IBM for broadband through power lines in use for over ten years.

What Makes AirGig So Special?

A lot of things make AT&T’s AirGig project so special. Some of them are listed below. Let’s take a look:

  • This AT&T project, named AirGig, will use inexpensive plastic antennas for delivering data signals. These antennas will be stuck on already existing power lines, which will play a crucial role in the process of creating an electromagnetic field for the purpose of guiding the signals across the wires.
  • AirGig makes the best use of the prevalence of power lines in the United States. This may include over 200,000 miles of very high-voltage lines and local distribution lines of almost 5.5 million.
  • According to Mr. John Donovan, the chief strategy officer at AT&T, it can be deployed very easily as compared to the fiber. And it can deliver electric fast wireless internet connection to all of the home phone service subscribers of AT&T. Easy to afford plastic antennas make AirGig inexpensive to execute. However, he did not say anything about the exact amount of money to be charged to the users.
  • Fiber optic cable and cellphone towers are costly to install. This is why AirGig definitely has a distinct advantage over both of them.

 

Beneficiaries:

Without a doubt, AirGig will surely benefit local phone service subscribers of AT&T. AT&T itself will also be benefitted with this. As for reasons, take a look at them below:

  • This technology has everything necessary to widen the reach of AT&T. The company will be in a solid position to deliver service in rural areas that falls outside the geographic territories of its own. The same will stand effective for the overseas areas where AT&T provides local phone service.
  • This technology will help more internet users enjoy internet connectivity at superfast speed needed for streaming 4k videos on Netflix or chatting using technologies like Facetime.
  • People residing in the remote rural and global areas and regions that are cut-off from access to internet will also be the mainstream beneficiary of AT&T’s AirGig project.

At last, internet service in the past was as slow as snail. Much of the credit should be given to data delivery methods (Through Wires) and other technical snags interfering with emergency radios. All this collectively limited internet speed significantly.

However, the company is now aiming for a minimum LTE speed. This will ensure an amazingly fast internet connection for local phone service customers wanting to enjoy high bandwidth applications like virtual reality.

Summary:

AT&T is expecting to introduce AirGig technology in select cities of the United States by sometime in the year 2017. Potential customers have no choice but to wait for its lab tests to be successful. Moreover, the AT&T researchers are leaving no stone unturned to overcome some challenges relevant to such approaches carried out in the past. Following are the two challenges:

  • Achieving Gigabit-per-second speeds
  • Keeping deployment costs low

AT&T’s AirGig project is still undergoing tests in the experimental stages. Let’s hope they are successful.

AT&T, Home Phone

AT&T Charges Poor Customers Heavily for Super Slow Internet Services

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AT&T

AT&T, one of the premiere lifeline phone service providers in the USA, does not seem to be having good press in the market recently. On one side, T-Mobile is leaving no stone unturned to put AT&T in its sight, has strongly responded to AT&T’s decision to shut down its 2G services for IoT customers. Now the company seems to have decided to shoot itself in the foot by deciding to charge money to its lifeline phone service (low income) users for slow broadband services.

Let’s See What Issue Actually Is!

The Federal Communications Commission has clearly directed AT&T to ensure discounted high speed internet for lifeline phone service subscribers in Texas. The FCC mainly wants discounted high speed internet service for those users or families who are legally eligible for seeking food stamps.  In contrast to abiding by the directions issued by FCC (The Federal Communications Commission), AT&T is exploiting a loophole in the federal directive to perfection for refusing to deliver discounted high speed internet service to any qualified lifeline phone service subscriber.

What Else?

AT&T, a lifeline phone service provider for low income households in the USA, seems to be landing itself in hot water because the company had agreed to the discounts in order to receive the FCC’s approval for its DirectTV Purchase. In accordance to NDIA (National Digital Inclusion Alliance), a public interest group, this move has forced the company to ensure it would provide a $5 a month offer for customers to receive internet with speeds up to 3MBPS. The subscribers residing in low income neighborhoods have to pay for full service that also includes $30 introductory fees per month for using slow internet speed.

Now the company is not showing willingness to do so. AT&T has clarified its intention of not expanding its lifeline phone service beyond the terms of FCC directive, confirms NDIA.

AT&T Has Its Own Share of Solid Reasons:

The lifeline phone service provider has its own share of reasons in this regard. Let’s take a good look at all of them below:

  • Their broadband service in low income areas is much slower than one can ever imagine.
  • The program known as “Access from AT&T” hardly charges the amount of $5 or $10 fee on monthly basis. This fee entirely depends on AT&T’s network speed.
  • The lifeline phone services subscribers receiving 3 and 5 MBPS speed are charged $5 whereas those getting more than 5 MBPS speed are charged the amount of $10.

The Story Does Not Just End Here

To add more to it, the company has also confirmed that discounted high speed internet services are not available for the family’s residing in the areas with slow internet speed. This has certainly angered both cities and rural communities where the company has certainly failed very badly to upgrade its residential internet service with more speed. Moreover, the alliance finds AT&T’s response very negative for the users.

Summary:

Data filed with the FCC proves that AT&T is hardly providing more than 1.5 MBPS service in over 21% of the lifeline service blocks in Texas and Florida. Now it will be very interesting to see how the company deals with this self-created fiasco. It will also be interesting to find out whether the company provides discounted high speed internet services to the low income lifeline phone service subscribers or continues to exploit the loophole in an agreement signed with FCC.

AT&T

AT&T to Make Stronger Move Against Robocalls

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AT&T Taking hard on Robocalls

AT&T has come forward to take a firm step toward putting a check on robocalls. The announcement came just few months after AT&T’s CEO claimed that they cannot do anything to stop the unwanted calls.

Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T said that the company does not have authority to put a stop to robocalls, though the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) clarified that the carriers are allowed to provide robocall-blocking services to cell phone users. Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the FCC, last week addressed the carriers urging them to “offer call-blocking services to their customers now—at no cost to [consumers],” and the second largest carrier in the nation has thrown down its previous averseness.

In a latest statement passed by AT&T Senior VP Bob Quinn, he said Stephenson will lead the new “Robocalling Strike Force, the mission of which will be to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions to abate the proliferation of robocalls and to make recommendations to the FCC on the role government can play in this battle.” Stephenson got a letter from the FCC’s Wheeler that robocalls are having adverse effect on the industry as well as users. In response, AT&T has decided to take necessary action against these annoying and illegitimate calls.

The strike force will coordinate with carriers to make a “Do Not Originate” list for recognizing apprehensive calls that originate from outside of the country. The company also shared that it will “facilitate efforts by other carriers to adopt call blocking technologies on their networks.”

AT&T users can make use of Nomorobo call blocking, a free, third-party service that decreases robocalls and automated telemarketing calls to your VoIP landlines and does not include traditional landlines or wireless service. It recognizes calls from known robocallers and disconnects the call before you take it.

AT&T’s initiative is being appreciated by Wheeler and he has asked the rest of carriers to come forward.