AT&T reports initial iPhone subscriber numbers
5907
Blog: AT&#38;T said it signed up 146,000 iPhone subscribers in the first two days of selling the iPhone, but the true promise of the iPhone won't likely kick in until next year.
624945
AT&T will start sending iPhone customers thinner bills by default starting with their next billing cycle, the wireless carrier has told subscribers by text message.
547630
AT&T Inc.  on Tuesday posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on strong wireless subscriber growth, but results of the first two days of iPhone sales fell short of forecasts.
269575
(InfoWorld) - Apple'sÂ iPhone launchÂ has been marred by delays in AT&T's phone activation system, leaving some people unable to use their new toy throughout the weekend. People who buy the iPhone, which went on sale in the U.S. Friday evening, are required to activate it through Apple's iTunes software on their home computer. They choose a rate plan, authorize their credit card number, and the phone should be activated soon after. Apple has said the process should take only a few minutes for people being assigned a new phone number, and "up to six hours" for people transferring a number from another operator. But for some the wait has been much longer, according to postings on Apple's iPhone message board and elsewhere. "It has now been 48 hours and my iPhone is still the prettiest paperweight I own," wrote one frustrated user. "Nightmare indeed," said another. "I've been waiting 11+ hours now. I got the phone after a somewhat reasonable one-hour wait at the Albany, NY store, then spent 4+ hours talking to AT&T and Apple trying to get the thing activated." Others said their phone was activated in a matter of minutes. AT&T was not available to comment in Europe on Monday morning, and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An AT&T spokesman told the Wall Street Journal newspaper that most activations were occurring in a few minutes, and that the operator was working to fix the remaining issues. An unnamed source told the paper that about 2 percent of users were being affected. The delays cast a shadow over what appears -- so far -- to have been an otherwise successful launch of the iPhone. The device sells for $500 or $600 depending on the amount of memory on board, plus an activation fee and the cost of the service plan from AT&T, which for now has exclusive distribution rights for the iPhone in the U.S. When people buy a new cell phone the device is usually activated in the shop where they buy it. Apple and AT&T had billed the self-activation process as "another example of how AT&T and Apple have partnered to bring innovative new features to our customers." Opinions were divided as to where to lay blame. An iPhone buyer who claimed to work for AT&T said in a message posting that delays were inevitable and not the fault of either company. Thousands were trying to activate their new phone simultaneously over the weekend, the person noted, and the activation requests were lining up at AT&T's network switches "like 30,000 or so people throwing basketballs at one hoop and hoping to make it in." Others said AT&T should have lined up additional capacity for the activations. Some said they expected the problems to be ironed out by next week and the incident to be forgotten. "Activation is going to happen eventually. Why did you invest so much of your time and energy in this?" one person wrote on Apple's board. "Life is too short to worry about this type of thing." There were some other gripes about the iPhone, although it was hard to tell how widespread issues are. Several users complained that the phone's iPod function stopped playing music when they used it as the same time as the Safari Web browser or Google Maps. Others complained of a bug that caused the e-mails they sent via GMail to appear in their inbox. Other users, including a person who responded to a posting on the iPhoneFAQ.org Web, said they were unable to transfer an AT&T business account to their iPhone, and were told they would have to start a new, individual account.
639096
Blog: AT&T has released pricing information for the new iPhone with plans starting at $60 per month.
560272
Results also show that many are willing to switch to AT&T to get their hands on one.
295118
AT&T Inc. sold almost all its initial stock of Apple Inc.'s iPhone within hours of the device going on sale, an AT&T spokesman said on Saturday.
73587
Blog: Rumors emerge that the iPhone will be avaialble to prepaid AT&T users.
21565
AT&T Inc.  said on Thursday it  has hired 2,000 temporary store workers to handle its  much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first cell phone  from iPod music player maker Apple Inc. .
720658
(InfoWorld) - iPhone users across the U.S. were complaining Monday that AT&T's wireless data network was down. The network was down primarily in the West and Midwest, but by 7 p.m. on the East Coast, service was restored, according to Warner May, an AT&T spokesman. He said he didn't know when the problems started. AT&T had isolated the problem and was still working on it, he said. Voice and text messaging services remained fully functional but EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and 3G services were down, he said. While BlackBerry users had full service, users of other phones in addition to the iPhone were also affected, he said. "The iPhone was not the cause," he said. Several different online forums are full of iPhone users complaining of having trouble using the EDGE network. Posters claiming to be from Dallas, Cincinnati, Tuscon, Oahu, Hawaii, Seattle, and Portland were among the West coast users who say they couldn't connect to the network. Users in Pittsburgh and Indiana also said they couldn't use the EDGE network. A thread on Macrumors also describes users across the country having trouble.
83192
Owners of Apple's iPhone are beginning to receive their first monthly bill from AT&T since the new purchase and are discovering a number of mistakes on the wireless carrier's part. Most notably, AT&T is not removing prior data plans, charging users $20 for the iPhone data, as well as up to $50 for their previous package.
383991
More than a quarter of people who bought Apple Inc's  iPhone are using them on wireless networks other than AT&T's, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S., a "stunning" number that will pressure the company's business model, an analyst said on Monday.
82486
To hear other wireless carriers tell it, the introduction of Apple Inc.'s iPhone on AT&amp;T Inc.'s network is no real threat.
93525
(InfoWorld) - The iPhone won't be just for customers living in the big cities. On the day it is introducing the hugely hyped cell phone, AT&T announced it will acquire wireless provider Dobson Communications for $2.8 billion in cash. Dobson, which markets its service under the Cellular One brand, provides cellular services mainly to rural and suburban areas. Its network covers 17 states and has the potential to serve 13 million people. Along with the network, AT&T will get Dobson's 1.7 million customers. The companies say their networks overlap only minimally. The two carriers have had a relationship since 1990, when Dobson began offering roaming services to AT&T. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, and Dobson's majority stockholder has also approved it. AT&T said the deal will help it realize significant annual savings in reduced roaming expenses. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. Because there is little network overlap, AT&T expects to obtain approval by the end of this year. AT&T is only just digesting its acquisition of Cingular Wireless, one of the biggest operators in the nation. Adding Dobson's customers to its ranks of subscribers, AT&T will have 63.9 million subscribers.
82796
Blog: AT&T's wireless data subscribers complained of outages and a slow network Monday, but the company says it wasn't due to the iPhone.
751680
Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc. said on  Tuesday they will offer three price plans, starting at $59.99  per month, for the widely anticipated iPhone that is set to go  on sale this week.
702947
(InfoWorld) - After standing in line for hours on Friday to buy the new Apple iPhone, some users were forced to wait even longer to activate the phones, while others found the store shelves empty and will have to wait another week for their phones to arrive in the mail. On Monday, staff at an AT&T store in Boston said they had run out of iPhones on Friday night while a line of customers still snaked out the door. People at the back of the line purchased their phones through "direct fulfillment" and will receive their phones through the mail in three to seven days, the store said. AT&T declined to release sales figures but said that virtually all of its stores have sold out of iPhones. Over the weekend, AT&T referred disappointed customers to the Apple Web site but now says it plans to begin selling iPhones through its online store as well, said AT&T spokesman Michael Coe. He did not give a date. AT&T downplayed the reported activation delays. "The vast majority of iPhone customers have completed the activation process in just a few minutes as planned," Coe said. "Only a very small number of customers who purchased an iPhone this weekend are experiencing issues with activation, and all our energies are focused on clearing up these difficulties just as quickly as possible." Apple did not return calls for comment. Some analysts blamed the delays on heavy user traffic. "AT&T's servers were slow due to the mass number of sign-ups in the first few hours with credit checks. This may have delayed some purchasing of iPhones," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research, in his Monday report to investors. Other customers experienced delays when they tried to switch to AT&T from other carriers, he said. Still, Wu upgraded his stock estimate for the company and predicted that the iPhone would become the fastest-selling product in Apple's history. Within three years, Apple could become one of the top smartphone vendors, changing the competitive landscape of that industry. Even customers who took their iPhones home on Friday faced potential delays in activating them. Users who registered their phones on the iTunes Web site saw a warning that the process could take between 24 and 48 hours, said Craig Henry, a 32-year-old IT administrator at a law firm in Massachusetts. Henry's wait lasted for three hours when he received an e-mail confirmation that his phone was activated. However, he soon faced another challenge when he tried to transfer his address book to the iPhone. "The hardest part for me was transferring my phone numbers because I was on Verizon and didn't have the software to keep the numbers on my PC. So I spent an hour typing in about 150 numbers," he said. He also had to get accustomed to the touchscreen interface, which relies completely on finger drags, flicks, and pinches instead of using hard keys. "It takes a little bit of getting used to. But the typing works fine; I was sending text messages all day on Saturday," Henry said. "When you're in the contacts sheet, you run your finger across the screen -- kind of like flicking a marble -- and it scrolls really fast, or you can drag it and scroll slowly." Many users were concerned about iPhone battery life, an issue that Apple tried to address on June 18 by upgrading the original battery before the product even launched. Still, Henry visited an Apple store on Saturday to buy a second charger so that he could power his iPhone both in his home and his office. Despite the hurdles of learning to use his new gadget, Henry said he suffered no buyer's remorse. "I was out on Saturday night, and everybody knew I had it and wanted to touch it," Henry said. "They made a little fun of me for waiting in line so long, but I don't think the wait was too bad. When people see it, they're amazed by it."