AT&T kills the 300-page iPhone bill
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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.
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(InfoWorld) - Now that Apple's iPhone is finally on sale, the race is on to see who can unlock it. Locked phones can only be used with cellular service from one carrier, a move designed to guarantee carriers recover the cost of subsidizing a handset through monthly service charges. But the cost of the iPhone, which is priced at either US$499 or $599 depending on the model, is not subsidized by AT&T. Users must pay full price for the handset and sign a two-year contract, which requires them to pay from $59.99 to $99.99 per month for cellular service. Unlocking the iPhone will enable the handset to be used with any cellular provider with a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) network, not just AT&T's network. That's an attractive proposition for users who already have a cellular contract with another carrier, or users outside the U.S. who can't wait to get their hands on Apple's new handset. Efforts to unlock the iPhone are being tracked on several Web sites, including Hackint0sh and the iPhone Dev Wiki. Initial signs look promising, although the iPhone remained locked at the time of writing. Like other GSM phones, the iPhone uses a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, a removable smart card that contains a user's phone number as well as limited storage space for contacts and messages. SIM cards are designed to be swapped between phones, allowing users to change handsets while using their cellular service. They can also be switched when users travel, allowing them to avoid international roaming charges with the purchase of a prepaid, local SIM card. A removable SIM card is a good sign for hackers, because it indicates the phone is locked using firmware, which can likely be cracked. Of course, unlocking the iPhone requires more than simply changing the SIM card. Swapping the AT&T SIM card used with the iPhone for a SIM card from another carrier results in an error message that reads, "Incorrect SIM. This iPhone must be used with an approved SIM." To unlock the iPhone, hackers must first circumvent the handset's activation process. New iPhone users are required to activate their handset using the latest version of iTunes, released on Friday, before they can use the phone. Without activation, which requires users to sign up for an AT&T service plan, none of the iPhone's functions, including the camera and music player, can be accessed. If hackers can circumvent the activation process, the next challenge will be to unlock the SIM card itself. That could happen as soon as Monday. By Sunday night, U.S. time, hackers had made progress towards circumventing the iPhone activation process, gaining access to key system files and finding two passwords used with the phone, according to the iPhone Dev Wiki. "I think by the end of tomorrow we'll have an activation crack," one user wrote on the site.
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Cingular Wireless on Tuesday closed  its $41 billion cash purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.  AWE.N, creating the biggest U.S. mobile telecom service with  more than 46 million customers.
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AT&amp;T has lowered the price of its CallVantage telephone service to $29.99 per month. It includes unlimited local and long distance calling within the US and Canada.
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AT&amp;T Corp. on Thursday said it is reducing one fifth of its workforce this year and will record a non-cash charge of approximately $11.
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Blog: AT&T has released pricing information for the new iPhone, with plans starting at $60 per month.
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AT&amp;T Corp. swung to a third-quarter loss of $7.12 billion after recording huge charges related to the company&#39;s retreat from traditional telephone services, which has included at least 7,500 more job cuts
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AT&T Corp.  will cut about 7,000 jobs and reduce the value of its assets by &#36;11.4 billion due to its retreat from traditional consumer telephone services, the company said on Thursday.
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According to Saul Hansell at the NY Times, Apple intends to break phones that have been unlocked.  But Francine Hardaway and Patrick Scoble both updated this afternoon, and bad things happened. Hardaway's phone was "fried," she needed a new phone, and Scoble lost all his data. Hardaway: "Trust me, I didn't hack it." Jeff Clavier: "This effing piece of s..t is bricked." Robert Scoble, Patrick's dad, updated successfully, and got the new features. Spaley's iPhone is "a useless piece of crap." Looks like Josh Bancroft's iPhone was hosed too. I would hold off on the update until we find out what's going wrong.  Sugar Attack: "It wasn't until I saw a friend tweet about the new iPhone firmware upgrade that I realized I could now access the iTunes WiFi store."
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Blog: Buying an iPhone was the easy part. After nine hours, AT&T has yet to activate my iPhone, and it can't be used even for playing music or movies until that happens.
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AT&T Corp. T.N, the No. 3 U.S.  telephone company, on Thursday reported a $7.1 billion  third-quarter loss due to $12.5 billion in charges for cutting  asset values and jobs as it retreats from consumer services.
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AT&T Inc , the exclusive U.S.  carrier for Apple Inc's  iPhone said on Thursday it  ended 2007 with "just at or slightly under 2 million iPhone  customers."
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WASHINGTON -- Sprint and AT&amp;T will be paying a total of $1.5 million to settle with federal regulators. The government charges the phone giants failed to inform potential customers of their rights under federal credit law, after they were denied service.
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AT&T Corp. T.N will cut about  7,000 jobs and reduce the value of its assets by $11.4 billion  due to its retreat from traditional consumer telephone  services, the company said on Thursday.
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Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc. today unveiled three new service plans for the iPhone; all offer unlimited data transfers and range in price from $60 to $100 a month.
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Blog: AT&T and Apple are both banking on the iPhone, but will people switch subscribers to get it?
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AT&amp;T Corp. is trimming the price of its new Internet-based telephone service for the second time in six months, prompting a top rival to follow suit.