Carrier News
Verizon Early Upgrade Promotion – Are You Eligible?
May 26th
The document posted above comes from Gizmo Fusion and has been floating around many Smartphone blogs and forums over the past few weeks. As you can see, the document states, “Select high value and high risk Postpay customers are eligible.”
In case you are wondering, Postpaid means you pay for your usage at the end of the month. Basically anyone who is not Prepaid. Now what does Verizon consider to be ‘high value’ and ‘high risk’? So far, I have 3 friends who are Verizon subscribers who got 3 different answers from customer service. One was told they are eligible for the promotion, another was told they are eligible for a $50 discount toward any Smartphone, and the last was told they are not eligible.
It seems like the only way you Verizon subscribers can find out if you are eligible for the promotion is to call and have them input your contract info. My question is, if you don’t come up as eligible and you threaten to cancel your contract to go buy an iPhone, will you be moved into the high risk category?
If you are planning on upgrading your device before June 30th, put a call in to Verizon and find out what your status is. Feel free to post your findings in the comments below.
Pic via: Gizmo Fusion
Telus “Unleashing” Something Soon, Likely Desirable
May 26th
The HTC Desire has been out for a while now in Europe, and is considered the good looking, mainstream cousin to Google’s more nerdy Nexus One. With its Sense UI, trackpad addition and brighter screen, its a fair improvement over most Android devices on the market.
Now, the Desire has been teased on Telus before, but it’s even more prominent now. Telus’ website has a ticker now, counting down to a certain time on June 8th when something will be “unleashed.” This will likely be the HTC Triumph, which is the Desire re-branded.
Though I can’t find the ticker anywhere on the site, I’ll take it for granted it’s there for some of you, and will likely be there for others soon.
T-Mobile Thinks Your Family Will Love The myTouch 3G Slide
May 26th
Say Hello to T-Mobile’s new bread and butter, the Android powered myTouch 3G Slide. It is hopefully positioned to win back the market that was lost during Microsoft/Danger fiasco of last year, when its servers crashed and consumer mayhem ensued. The above chart confirms what we posted last week of a June 2nd roll-out date. Hit the break for some more highlights of the slide
- The carrier’s Florida region has sold the most myTouch devices to date (47,262), but when you take a look at individual markets, Kansas City East has pushed the most with 6,911.
- The Slide is being billed as the “first phone truly designed for Family customers.“
- As with the original myTouch 3G, T-Mobile will be aggressively pushing a full suite of branded and customized accessories for the Slide. In fact, it’s asking reps to shoot for three or more accessories sold “out the door” with every phone.
- You’ll see a ton of Slide advertising, both in-store and out on the town. A ton of it.
- 4,000 T-Mobile employees are being designated as myTouch “Champions,” including 2,200 in retail stores. These folks will know everything about the phone and work to “foster myTouch fanatics.” Careful what you wish for, guys!
- Long-lead press (meaning print magazines, primarily) have been clued in to the phone since way back in March. Lucky devils.
- The official launch is June 2, but it’s a rolling launch — there won’t be demo devices in the field until the 7th, for instance, and the ad campaign doesn’t kick off until the 16th.
- June 19 is designated in all caps: “STAY TUNED — THIS WILL BE BIG.” We don’t know what this is all about; an upgrade to Android 2.2, perhaps? Yet another new myTouch model?
- Overall, T-Mobile’s looking for 8 percent of its sold devices (its “handset mix”) to be myTouch 3G Slides. Seems reasonable.
The big question that remains is will the myTouch 3G win back the customers who may have already ditched town for the Kin? Or could this be the sure hit that T-Mobile needs? Let us know what you think!
[via Engadget]
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Public Mobile Readies Launch, With New Tricks Up Their Sleeves
May 26th
So, you’re another start-up carrier, launching in an already-saturated cellular market that is the GTA corridor. Offering a mid-range $40 “Unlimited” plan just wont cut it when competing with the incumbents. So what do you do? You undercut the competition and go cheaper. With the launch date finally here Public is offering a new unlimited offering, targeted at the “low-income value conscious” customer. The new plan is as follows:
$24/month for unlimited local calling with call waiting, call forwarding, and conference calling all included. Call display and voice mail can be added together for $8/month.
Public Mobile CEO Alek Krstaji had this to say:
“We want to offer all the value we can in the marketplace. 38-percent of Canadians don’t have a cell phone because of unpredictable prices. We want to make owning a cell phone affordable, and give everybody the chance to talk. Owning a cell phone shouldn’t be a luxury. Thousands of customers signed up early, and on the first day of our network operation, they are able to use their Public Mobile phones”.
In addition to the $24 per month, Public Mobile has stated a few other enticing promotions to come, including unlimited international long distance.
As we know, wireless competition in Canada specifically Toronto is on fire, and for the first time in a long time the Big Three are finally realizing they need to be aggressive to maintain clientèle. Their discount brands have been aggressively trying to stave off any defections: Fido has reintroduced their City Fido plan, allowing 2000 minutes/month for $40 in a larger service area in Toronto than Mobilicity or WIND and Koodo is introducing BlackBerry service soon with their 8530. I’ll be interested to see what happens with the back-to-school hot season.
[Via The Globe and Mail]
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Rogers Handset Protection Program is Live, But Will it Blend?
May 25th
You finally got your shiny new iPhone 3GS or Blackberry 9700, the two “it” devices of today, running on one of the country’s strongest 3G networks. It’s setup, you’re happy, Rogers is happy, and all is well in contract city.
But, what happens if you accidentally drop the phone and it shatters into a million pixels? It’s a common situation that has plagued cell phone owners for years now. As physical damage is not covered under the standard one-year manufacturers’ warranty, and sourcing a technician to fix it can get pricey (sometimes not far from the cost of the device itself), you are left scratching your head asking yourself “what now?”
Today on Rogers’ Redboard blog, with the help of Tom “Will it Blend?” Dickinson, they kicked off their new campaign with a humorous depiction of what happens when a phone get’s “blended.”
Take a look:
[Click here for Mobile friendly viewing]
You can read more on the Handset protection program here
[Via Rogers Redboard]
Follow me on twitterBeauty Is In The Eye Of The Monopoly: AT&T Turns on WiFi in Times Square, New Yorkers Cringe
May 25th
Yes, Times Square is likely the most densely-packed spot in America for AT&T usage. So the fact that AT&T is turning on free WiFi to take some demands off their 3G servers in the heart of Manhattan makes sense. But this will not likely spark a WiFi revolution, as everyone knows it is easy to overload fragile routers as well (see any Apple-centric conference).
But AT&T admits their network in New York City is under-powered and over-extended. They are doing things to improve their overall service (improving HSDPA+ service throughout the country; providing unlock codes for their phones). They really have nowhere to go but up, and the WiFi addition is certainly a start.
But this doesn’t help anyone except tourists; though, indirectly, this will alleviate the load of other, connected 3G towers. Hopefully it will improve things. And it’s free.
Good for them, let’s see where they go from here.
(via Mobile Crunch)
Telus To Support the iPad 3G As Well?
May 25th
To date the only Canadian carrier to confirm their support of the infamous iPad 3G is Rogers Wireless. Other than being a revolutionary device, one of its key features is the new, smaller MicroSIM card (which will also be featured in the iPhone HD). Low and behold, Our friends at Mobile Syrup received spy-shots of the new MicroSIM with Telus branding. Could this be a sign of a pending announcement? Or simply stocking early for the sure-hit iPhone HD?
[via MobileSyrup]
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Motorola Shadow In the Nude
May 25th
Not that I’m in the least interested in this phone (read: I want it NOW!) but this is a strange animal: a Droid follow-up that looks like an EVO 4G, no hardware keyboard, and a modified MOTOBLUR running on Android 2.1.
I’m sure it will sell a million copies when it comes to Verizon, but don’t say I told you so when you discover that Motorola has locked down the device and won’t allow rooting or custom ROMs installed on it (see Milestone).
(via Engadget)
Blackberry 9800 Slider Heading To AT&T- Further Confirmation *Updated*
May 23rd
Update – Fresh off the BlackBerry rumor page we have some new info on this device, or is it devices? Well, here it is. This part we can’t can confirm, but we’re hearing rumbles that ATT has already started hands on training for the 9800(that might be where the AT&T splash screen comes in). Another interesting rumor is this, ‘Yes there might be a CDMA…Yes T-Mobile might get it.’ This isn’t exactly the first time we heard about a CDMA model, but will it happen? What do you think, could these rumors hold true? Could it very well be a four-way battle with VZW, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile? It’ll be interesting to see what happens. PS: Camera is rumored to be a 5MP.
We’re back again. We have yet another present for you guys, and this time its carrier specific. As you can see from the picture, it looks like this particular device is ready to get up and go on AT&T.
This particular picture also tells us that this device might be in the late stages of design and testing. If you don’t know that much about prototype BlackBerry devices, on early test devices, they usually don’t have a specific carrier as the splash screen on boot up. Rather just a “Property of Research In Motion” splash screen. So, that is yet another sign that this particular device might already be in testing for AT&T. We’ll keep you guys updated if we get anymore info on the release of this bad boy, but until then have fun drooling over the latest pictures.
AT&T Changes Early Termination Fees
May 22nd
Follow the leader, eh?
Anyway, it seems like AT&T is raising the ETF for some and lowering it for others. Curious plan. I wonder if this is some kind of ploy to get people on quick messaging and other simpler devices (where presumedly they make more money). I can’t tell if it affects existing customers or only new ones.
As of now, it seems like my commitment to AT&T has risen to $650 from $350 (two iPhones on a family plan…, and a third being added in June). I’m becoming very wary of this horrible carrier attitude. I guess the $10 a month reduction isn’t enough for me. $15-$17 would make it better, but since the announcement has been made, there’s no hope of that number rising.
The final line “We appreciate your business and we will continue to work hard to earn it” is the promise. By raising my fees, they had better be getting their network in gear to justify it. I’ve already put enough hope in AT&T.
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