Technoblog

Monday, 21 March 2011

AT&T agrees to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion (update)
Topic: Mobile

Wowzers! AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in cash and stocks. The combined customer base of this upcoming behemoth will be 130 million humans, though the agreed deal will have to pass the usual regulatory and closing hurdles before becoming complete. The two companies estimate it'll take them 12 months to get through all the bureaucracy -- if they get through, the proposed network merger will create a de facto GSM monopoly within the United States -- but we don't have to wait that long to start discussing life with only three major US carriers. AT&T envisions it as a rosy garden of "straightforward synergies" thanks to a set of "complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations."

One of the other big benefits AT&T is claiming here is a significantly expanded LTE footprint -- 95 percent of Americans, or 294 million pops -- which works out to 46.5 million more than AT&T was claiming had it gone LTE alone. Of course, T-Mobile has never put forth a clear strategy for migrating to LTE, suggesting that AT&T plans on using the company's AWS spectrum to complement its own 700MHz licenses as it moves to 4G. You might be groaning at the thought of yet another LTE band, but it's not as bad as you might think: MetroPCS already has a live LTE network functioning on AWS, so there's precedent for it. For further details, hit up the gallery below, the Mobilize Everything site, or the official press release after the break.

In the event of the deal failing to receive regulatory approval, AT&T will be on the hook for $3 billion to T-Mobile -- a breakup fee, they call it -- along with transferring over some AWS spectrum it doesn't need for its LTE rollout, and granting T-Mo a roaming agreement at a value agreeable to both parties.

Update: TmoNews obtained a copy of Deutsche Telekom's press release regarding the deal -- it looks like the German company will be getting $25 billion in cash and $14 billion in stock, giving it an 8 percent stake in AT&T when all is said and done. Read the full document after the break.

AT&T / T-Mobile LTE buildout slides

Show full PR text

Bonn/ Dallas, March 20th 2011

Deutsche Telekom: US Deal accelerates own transformation

Deutsche Telekom to receive 39 billion USD for US-business  Deutsche Telekom to have up to 8 percent stake in the leading US

telecommunications company

AT&T takes over US mobile business from Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom will receive 25 billion USD in cash and 14 billion USD in AT&T shares
Attractive multiple of 7.1 times 2010 adjusted EBITDA
Deutsche Telekom plans to use approximately 5 billion EUR for sharebuybacks
Deutsche Telekom net debt is planned to be reduced by approximately 13 billion EUR or 31 percent

Deutsche Telekom will take an approximately 8 percent stake in US telecommunication company AT&T. At the same time Deutsche Telekom will hand over 100 percent ownership of T-Mobile USA to AT&T. This has been agreed by the boards of the two companies today. AT&T will pay 25 billion USD in cash for T- Mobile USA, in addition to 14 billion USD in AT&T shares. AT&T has the right to increase the portion of the purchase price paid in cash by up to 4.2 billion USD with a corresponding reduction in the stock component. The value of the transaction will be 39 billion USD. This will amount to an attractive multiple of approximately 7 times 2010 adjusted EBITDA. The merger still needs US regulatory approval. The closing of the transaction is expected to be completed in first half of 2012.

1René Obermann, CEO Deutsche Telekom: "We have achieved the best solution for our company, our customers and shareholders. This will strengthen our position in Europe, whilst we are still participating in the rapidly growing business of mobile data. We will be able to focus more on the opportunities of a modern infrastructure in Germany and Europe, as well as in Internet products that accompanies to our strategy "fix, transform and innovate". Following our initiatives of finding a solution for our activities both in the United Kingdom and Poland, we have with this transaction nearly accomplished the "fix" part of our strategy. We will now focus our resources more on the "transform" and "innovate" blocks of our strategy in order to accelerate the transformation of Deutsche Telekom."

Timotheus Höttges, CFO Deutsche Telekom: "As the biggest single share holder of AT&T we will also significantly benefit from their strong dividend. With the excellent result of this transaction we will be able to continue to develop our company. At the same time we will be able to reduce our debts and initiate one of the biggest share buy back programs in both Germany as well as in the European telecommunication industry."

Deutsche Telekom is planning to reduce its debt by approximately 13 billion EUR. Approximately 5 billion EUR are planned to be used for share buybacks after closing and required resolutions in accordance with the legal requirements .

Randall Stephenson, CEO and Chairman AT&T: "This transaction delivers significant customer, shareowner and public benefits that are available at this level only from the combination of these two companies with complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations. We are confident in our ability to execute a seamless integration, and with additional spectrum and network capabilities, we can better meet our customers' current demands, build for the future and help achieve the President's goals for a high-speed wirelessly connected America."

For Deutsche Telekom the transaction after closure will provide amongst others a consolidation of the balance sheet. Pro forma the ratio for net debt to adjusted EBITDA in 2010 will be reduced to 1.9x from 2.2x, a reduction of 31 percent.

2

There will be no change regarding the shareholder remuneration policy which has been set for three years. As has been provided within the legal guidelines, Deutsche Telekom will continue with its plans to pay out 3.4 billion EUR on an annual basis consisting of a minimum dividend of 70 cents plus share-buybacks. The share buybacks amounting to approximately 5 billion EUR, which are planned after the closure of the transaction, will come on top of this.

The Guidance for 2011 remains unchanged. For the financial year 2011 Deutsche Telekom expects an adjusted EBITDA of around 19.1 billion EUR. The free cash flow is expected to be stable to slightly growing from the 2010 level of 6.5 billion EUR.

Deutsche Telekom is to receive one seat on AT&T's Board of Directors.

Morgan Stanley acted as lead financial advisor and issued a fairness opinion to the supervisory board of Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse acted as financial advisors for Deutsche Telekom.

Deutsche Telekom was advised by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (M & A, N.Y.C) as well as Cleary Gottlieb and Wiley Rein (antitrust and regulatory law, Washington D.C.).

About Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 129 million mobile customers, approximately 36 million fixed- network lines and more than 16 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2010). The Group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in over 50 countries and has around 247,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 62.4 billion in the 2010 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2010). For further information on Deutsche Telekom, please visit www.telekom.com/media

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T │DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com

Posted by misteriosnuevaenergia at 10:07 AM EDT

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Friday, 11 March 2011

AT&T says it's testing HSUPA on Atrix 4G, will turn it on eventually
Topic: Mobile

A communique from a "Customer Appeals Manager" at AT&T in response to a Better Business Bureau complaint regarding slow uploads on the Atrix 4G has surfaced over on xda-developers, and it looks to more or less confirm what we've suspected: the hardware's totally capable of pushing HSUPA speeds, it's just being held back for the moment. The rep says that the carrier's currently "performing the testing and preparations necessary to ensure that, when [they] turn this feature on, you will continue to have a world class experience," which would suggest that there might be some lingering network concerns. AT&T's in the midst of a backhaul upgrade as part of its HSPA+ based "4G" network, so it might merely be a matter of waiting for that to go through before flipping the switch.

Posted by misteriosnuevaenergia at 8:24 PM EST

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Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Facebook to share your phone number, address
Topic: Internet

Facebook is the slowly-warming pot of water and we, my friends, are the frog. By the time we noticed our peeling skin, another hunk of our privacy is long gone.

"Facebook will be moving forward with a controversial plan to give third-party developers and external web sites the ability to access users' home addresses and cell phone numbers in the face of criticism from privacy experts, users, and even congressmen," the Wall Street Journal reports.

Is anybody surprised? Really?

This is how Facebook rolls: Strip away a huge chunk of your privacy, cry "Our bad!" and roll it back when users and/or privacy advocates complain. Then wait awhile, and do whatever it is Facebook planned to do anyway.

Voila! Boiled frog.

"We expect that, once the feature is re-enabled, Facebook will again permit users to authorize applications to obtain their contact information," Marne Levine, Facebook vice president of global public policy, wrote. "However, we are currently evaluating methods to further enhance user control in this area."

The statement is a response to a Feb. 2 letter from U.S. Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass. and Joe Barton, R-Texas, who objected to the latest chunk of user info offered up to Facebook’s third-party developers.

"Facebook needs to protect the personal information of its users to ensure that Facebook doesn’t become Phonebook," said Rep. Markey wrote. "That’s why I am requesting responses to these questions to better understand Facebook’s practices regarding possible access to users’ personal information by third parties. This is sensitive data and needs to be protected.”

Facebook points out in its response that prior to activating a third-party application on Facebook (FarmVille, birthday notes, quizzes, etc.), users are presented with a prompt that describes the information they agree to share by using the app, and can choose not to authorize that app if they don’t want to share — that’s pretty much how it’s worked for a while, though true enough, many don’t read that for comprehension.

Minors especially don’t care about fine print, and to that end, Facebook stated that it’s considering "whether to enable applications to request contact information from minors at all. Further, "Facebook’s terms prohibit use of the service by minors under 13, and we employ various technical measures to implement that prohibition."

In a 29-page letter sent to the Federal Trade Commission last month,Facebook asked the FTC to consider consumers’ changing attitudes towards online privacy — increasingly "whatevs" attitudes the social network has had a large part in pushing for via its bit-by-bit dissolution of the privacy it once offered users and the "No biggie! We don’t care about monetizing your personal info! This is what’s best for you! We love you!" face it shows its users.

Last week, Facebook posted a draft of its simplified privacy policy to appease ongoing complaints about the counterintuitive and ever-changing mess privacy advocates have complained about for years. It’s pretty much the same policy that continues to push the boundaries of your privacy-sharing standards, but written in a way that’s much easier to understand.

"It is very good for companies to actually be making privacy policies easier to understand," Nicole Ozer, a policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California told the Wall Street Journal. "But users should be looking for privacy policies that are not only readable, but actually protect their privacy."

Helen A.S. Popkin is always going "blah blah blah" about online privacy, then she asks you to follow her on Facebook and/or Twitter … because that's how she rolls.

Posted by misteriosnuevaenergia at 10:32 AM EST

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Facebook Acquires Messaging Company Beluga
Topic: Internet

Facebook has acquired the mobile messaging company Beluga, according to a note on Beluga's website. Financial details were not disclosed.

Beluga's application allows groups of friends to communicate in private using their smartphones. A user can create a so-called pods, to which friends can be invited.

Within a pod, users can send messages and share images and locations, according to Beluga's website. The free application is available for Apple's iPhone and Android-based smartphones.

For now, Beluga's application will continue to function as it does today. Existing accounts and data will not be lost, the company writes.

Recently, Facebook has stepped up its smartphone push. The company has, for example, worked with HTC and INQ on smartphones with tighter Facebook integration. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a video message to HTC's news conference at the Mobile World Congress last month -- where it launched the Salsa and the ChaCha -- to say users can expect many more phones with much deeper integration with Facebook to arrive this year.

Today, there are more than 200 million active users accessing Facebook via their mobile devices.

What Facebook's plans are for Beluga and its three founders -- all of whom have at one time worked at Google -- remains to be seen, but more details will be released in the coming weeks, according to Beluga.

Posted by misteriosnuevaenergia at 10:31 AM EST

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Saturday, 26 February 2011

HTC Freestyle for AT&T hands-on
Topic: Mobile

Last time we checked in with the Freestyle back at CES, we couldn't turn it on -- but things are a little different here at our luxe meetup in San Francisco this evening. Honestly, the phone looks and feels great, doing a great job hiding its Brew MP-based, not-quite-smartphone underpinnings; pricing is still a concern, but the month-to-month dumbphone data is a bonus, and you've still got a full HTML browser plus a capacitive display at your disposal. Check shots below -- video after the break!

HTC Freestyle for AT&T hands-on

Posted by misteriosnuevaenergia at 10:12 AM EST

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Sprint HTC Arrive with Windows Phone 7 copy and paste first hands-on! (video)
Topic: Mobile

HTC also brought along a Sprint-branded Arrive to our San Francisco reader meetup, and while we're already familiar with this Windows Phone 7 slider from our time with the HTC 7 Pro it's still nice to see a CDMA WP7 device in the flesh. Oh, and the keyboard is pretty fantastic -- not only does it feel great, but the dedicated number row alone is reason for keyboard fans to give this thing a look. The best part? The demo unit was loaded up with the Windows Phone 7 copy and paste update, which is the first time we've seen it in the wild. The system worked well, but we noticed that you once you paste out of the clipboard your text is gone, so you can't multiple paste. It's a little odd -- we'll have a video up shortly.

Update: The video is up -- check it below!

Update 2: Okay, so you can multiple paste! The paste icon just disappears after the first paste, which is super confusing. You can just swipe to the right to bring it back, though. We'd suggest Microsoft re-think this implementation a little for an update, since it wasn't clear to anyone here at first glance.

HTC Arrive hands-on!

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The basics

With the amount of buzz this device has endured, you might think that it's the obvious choice over its AT&T counterpart. Well, that's not exactly true: turns out there are compelling reasons to buy both versions -- or an entirely different device altogether. Your circumstances will vary, of course; something as simple as wireless coverage in your neighborhood might be the ultimate deciding factor, for example, but in this guide we're hoping to break down some of the key reasons why you might be leaning Red or Blue in this smartphone election cycle.

As you might expect, the iPhone 4 on Verizon is very similar to the iPhone 4 that's already been deployed around the world since last June: same overall design, same gorgeous display, same fast processor, same memory, same storage capacity options, and same color choices (which, for the moment, is still just black). There are a few key exceptions, however. The biggest change is that the Verizon model uses a CDMA cellular radio in place of the existing handset's GSM radio, which means you can use it on Verizon's nationwide 3G network along with a few slivers of legacy 2G coverage here and there. Verizon's 2G network isn't great -- calls you receive will go straight to voicemail while you're using data services, for example, and it's very slow for a device like the iPhone that thrives on high-bandwidth connections -- but the good news is that you should very rarely encounter it. The carrier frequently touts the overwhelming size of its 3G footprint, and the claims are pretty legitimate:

In this map, only the pink and dark gray areas are 2G, while the bright red areas are 3G. If you live in a rural area or you do a lot of highway travel, that means that you're far more likely to stay in high-speed coverage than you would on AT&T, whose coverage map looks like this in the continental 48 states:

In this case, the dark blue areas are 3G; every other blue area is either EDGE or GPRS, which you can think of as "slow data" and "really slow data," respectively. As you can see, AT&T's got a considerably smaller 3G footprint than its red rival -- something Verizon has been quick and frequent to attack over the past couple years -- but it's not quite that cut and dried. Let's take a closer look.

GSM versus CDMA: does it really matter?

Thought the iOS-versus-Android battle was entrenched? Well, the GSM-versus-CDMA battle goes back nearly twenty years, and we have no chance of bringing it to a peaceful conclusion here. Don't worry, we're not going to try! Using very broad strokes, we can say that 3G GSM is more technologically advanced than 3G CDMA. On the 2G side, 2G CDMA has some key technical advantages for carriers over 2G GSM, but the consumer experience is basically neck-and-neck (check out our wireless primer for a little more detail on this stuff).

Of course, the level of technological sophistication built in to the network doesn't necessarily translate to the kind of experience you'll have with your iPhone, so let's talk specifics. As we pointed out in our review of the Verizon iPhone, the carrier's 3G data is consistently slower than AT&T's, so in a way, you're trading some speed for ubiquity. If all's well, you'll still regularly see download rates of 1Mbps or more, but AT&T's HSPA network can consistently deliver real-world speeds of over 3Mbps in some places.

GSM also has an advantage in its acceptance as a global standard, which makes life a little easier if you do a lot of international travel. For its part, Verizon points out that roaming CDMA service is available in over 40 countries and territories:

Aruba	India	St. Croix
Bahamas	Indonesia	St. John
Bangladesh	Israel	St. Maarten
Barbados	Jamaica	St. Thomas
Belize	Japan	Taiwan
Bermuda	Macau	Thailand
Bonaire	Mexico	Trinidad and Tobago
Canada	Netherlands Antilles	Turks and Caicos Islands
Cayman Islands	New Zealand	Ukraine
China	Northern Mariana Islands	Venezuela
Curacao	Palestinian Authority	Vietnam
Dominican Republic	Peru	Virgin Islands, British
Ecuador	Philippines	Virgin Islands, US
Guam	Puerto Rico	Yemen
Hong Kong	South Korea

But that number pales in comparison to GSM, which is available in some capacity in nearly every country on the face of the planet. Notably, Europe is completely missing from the CDMA list (it was the European Union that had originally pushed for GSM's creation as a harmonized standard), so frequent visitors to the UK, France, Germany, or anywhere else in the Old World are probably going to want to avoid the Verizon iPhone altogether right now. We wouldn't be surprised if the next iPhone to land on Verizon did have GSM capability for world travelers -- many of the carrier's other handsets do this, like the Droid Pro and Droid 2 Global -- but for now, no dice.

For what it's worth, Verizon does offer a GSM handset rental program so that you can pick up a different phone that'll work pretty much anywhere overseas and have the roaming charges go to your regular bill. Unless you're only traveling once in a blue moon, though, it's not a great solution -- after all, you've got to give up the use of your regular phone (and with it, all of your apps and contacts) and still deal with the exorbitant roaming charges that domestic carriers levy when you're in strange foreign lands. It's kind of a lose-lose scenario. AT&T, on the other hand, offers voice roaming with your iPhone in more than 220 countries out of the box (data, too, in over 195), and you also have the option of unlocking your phone -- if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty -- which allows you to use a prepaid SIM from one of your destination's local carriers and save big money on roaming costs. You won't be swapping SIMs on the Verizon model, since there's no SIM slot in the first place.

There's also an issue of reliability to consider. In our testing, we encountered significantly fewer dropped calls with the Verizon model than with AT&T's, where call connection issues have plagued the iPhone 4 and its predecessors for some time. AT&T consistently defends its dropped call rates with its own statistics and those of third-party firms that suggest it's doing no worse than any other carrier in most areas of the country, but we've got piles of circumstantial evidence with our own iPhones in New York and Chicago that suggest otherwise -- and the problem appears to be worse on the iPhone than on other AT&T devices. If you spend very little time actually calling people on your phone (and many modern smartphone users don't), it shouldn't influence your decision one way or another since you've got plenty of other factors to consider that are probably more important in your situation. Texting works perfectly fine on both networks, after all, and dropped connections aren't as big of a deal with data; web browsing, for example, doesn't require an always-on connection. And evidence suggests that dropped calls are less of a problem in uncongested rural and suburban areas, so this might be more of a deciding factor for you if you're in a city.

One of the hottest topics in this arena that AT&T's been using to differentiate itself is the ability to use voice and data services simultaneously on its 3G GSM network (technically, there's a new standard for CDMA networks that allows the same functionality and you'll start to see it on some devices this year, but the Verizon iPhone doesn't support it). The practical value in this is obviously questionable; very rarely do most people need to be browsing the web or working on email while they're on a call, though when you are and you do, the pain point suddenly becomes very real and very annoying. Frequent Bluetooth headset and car kit users are certain to run into this more than anyone. The good news is that Verizon's model will still let you use voice and data simultaneously when you're connected to a WiFi network, so that's something.

Interestingly, neither the Verizon iPhone nor the AT&T iPhone support their carriers' latest, greatest, and fastest networks. Verizon is in the midst of deploying LTE, while AT&T is deploying HSPA+ currently and LTE later this year; all three networks are described by their respective carriers as "4G" and can deliver speeds of well over 10Mbps in all cases. The existing AT&T iPhone is limited to 7.2Mbps HSPA, though as we noted above, you'll see real-world speeds well below that -- 3Mbps or so if you're in a good area. Verizon, meanwhile, uses a technology called EV-DO Rev. A that can theoretically hit around 3Mbps but hovers around the 1Mbps range in practice. Both carriers will be offering smartphones that support these new, faster networks throughout 2011 -- so if speed is priority one, the iPhone 4 isn't a great choice for you, regardless of carrier.

Hardware and software

If you take a quick glance at the two iPhone 4 models, they seem to be identical -- but the devil is in the details. It turns out that Apple has had to change the location of the creases in the metal edge (which doubles as an antenna), but the company is emphatic that it's done so simply to accommodate the change in radio technology -- not to attempt to fix the signal attenuation issue (the so-called "death grip") that the GSM version has had. For what it's worth, we did notice some some signal drop in weak areas with the right grip on the Verizon model, so it would seem that claim is accurate, but regardless it didn't have a sufficiently pronounced effect to avoid buying the phone.

As we alluded to before, the Verizon model lacks a SIM slot because US CDMA networks don't use SIMs. The most notable hardware difference, though, is a very slight repositioning of the mute and volume controls (pictured above) that will render most bumpers and cases designed for the AT&T iPhone 4 unusable. If you're just getting into an iPhone for the first time, that doesn't matter since you presumably don't own any accessories -- but if you're considering switching from an AT&T model, bear in mind that you'll probably have to shell out a few additional dollars for a replacement case (unless you like to live dangerously and go case-free). The glass front and back carry over from the AT&T model unchanged, so bear in mind that a sharp drop has just as much chance of shattering something. The good news is that Apple has recently updated its bumpers to be universally compatible, so we shouldn't run into this nonsense in the future; third party cases, though, will be on a case-by-case basis (pun intended).

On the software side, Apple is really driving home the fact that the user experience is identical, regardless of what network you choose. For you -- the customer -- that's a good thing, because it means you can pretty much take the phone itself out of the equation and make your decision purely on which carrier works better for you.

AT&T

Verizon

Early upgrades available at launch	Yes	Yes
Global roaming capability	Yes	No
Simultaneous voice / data on 3G	Yes	No
WiFi mobile hotspot option	Coming soon	Yes
4G data (HSPA+ / LTE)	No	No
Rated talk time	2G voice: 14 hours 3G voice: 7 hours 3G web: 6 hours WiFi web: 10 hours	2G voice: Not available 3G voice: 7 hours 3G web: 6 hours WiFi web: 10 hours

Pricing

Pricing is one of those things that's often best communicated with a chart, so let's have a look:

AT&T

Verizon

Price (on contract)	$199 16GB, $299 32GB	$199 16GB, $299 32GB
Price (off contract)	$599 16GB, $699 32GB	$649 16GB, $749 32GB
Activation fees	$36	$35
Smallest data plan	$15 for 250MB	$29.99 unlimited
Largest data plan	$45 for 4GB with tethering	$29.99 unlimited
Best price per GB	$11.25	N/A (unlimited)
Hotspot / tethering	$20, includes 4GB total data	$20, includes 2GB hotspot data
Two-year cost (not including phone)	$1,320 - $3,240	$1,680 - $3,360

If you need unlimited data, your one and only option is Verizon -- and you probably want to act fast, because the company has indicated that it won't be sticking around forever. If your net payout over the life of the phone is your top concern, though, AT&T becomes a little more compelling simply because they're continuing to offer a "lite" data tier of $15 a month for 250MB -- a tier Verizon just abandoned to push the $30 option instead. Over the course of two years, it all adds up to a difference of over $300 between AT&T's cheapest and Verizon's cheapest options.

AT&T's lack of an unlimited data option is a little less painful than you might think because the carrier includes access to its fairly expansive network of WiFi hotspots at no additional charge, though 3G data is obviously more ubiquitous than WiFi could ever be -- and Starbucks' hotspots are free now, anyway.

Also, bear in mind that Verizon has just announced that it's reserving to throttle the speed of data services for its heaviest users, so "unlimited" might quickly turn into "technically unlimited, but painful to use" in the event that the iPhone (in cahoots with its Android-powered cousins) conspires to soak Verizon's bandwidth dry.

So let's summarize. If you...

...do a lot of international travel: AT&T
...make a lot of voice calls: Verizon
...do a lot of interstate travel: Verizon
...live in a rural area: Verizon
...want the fastest data available on an iPhone today: AT&T
...use a ton of data: Verizon

Of course -- and seriously, we can't emphasize this enough -- your mileage can and will vary from the norm. Before purchasing either iPhone, you should be familiar with how well AT&T and Verizon work in your home and office. Verizon offers a 14 day return policy with a $35 restocking fee if you want to give it a test drive, while AT&T offers 30 days with a 10 percent restocking fee. See Verizon's full return policy here, and AT&T's here.

Smart alternatives for every carrier

Hey, look, the iPhone is one of the greatest all-around smartphones ever made, regardless of carrier. But maybe it's just not for you. Maybe you've decided you need something that'll work internationally, and an AT&T iPhone isn't up you alley. Maybe you're worried -- despite its assurances -- that Verizon won't be able to deal with the influx of new iPhone subscribers on its network, data speeds will grind to a halt, and they'll start suffering AT&T-style dropped call woes. Maybe you just want something with 4G compatibility. We understand! Let's have a look at a few of the best iPhone alternatives that are out there today (or will be coming shortly).

AT&T

Motorola's Atrix 4G is, for lack of a better phrase, the most powerful smartphone ever announced (we suspect that title is going to change hands many, many times over the course of 2011, but for now, it belongs to this bad boy). Amazingly, it's not the 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, the 1GB of DDR2 RAM, or the WVGA-beating 960 x 540 display that put it up top, though: it's the optional HD and Laptop Docks that transform the phone into a serviceable smartbook with its own Linux distribution and access to a full implementation of Firefox and all of your Android apps on the same desktop. Launches March 6th for $200 on contract.

Sprint

The most impressive thing about the HTC EVO 4G, really, is that it's managed to stay very near the top of the American smartphone food chain for well over half a year. It's got a 4.3-inch display -- far roomier than the iPhone 4's little 3.5-inch screen -- along with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon core, Android 2.2, and access to Sprint's WiMAX network. It currently sells for $200 on a new contract.

T-Mobile

Samsung's Galaxy S series of high-end smartphones took the Android world by storm in 2010, and T-Mobile's Vibrant was one of the better versions to hit the market. They're back for round two this month with the launch of the Galaxy S 4G, essentially a massaged version of the original Vibrant with compatibility for the carrier's high-speed HSPA+ network added in -- and that means you could see real-world speeds as high as 10Mbps or so in some places. The exact launch date and pricing haven't yet been announced, but it'll definitely hit in February for $200 or less.

Verizon

Considering how much we like the EVO 4G, you couldn't possibly go wrong with a Verizon version that includes LTE, a better screen, and a nicer kickstand, right? Indeed, the Thunderbolt shares screen dimensions with its Sprint-backed doppelganger but uses a newer LCD technology that'll lead to brighter images with better viewing angles. We're expecting it in the middle of February, likely for $250 or less.

How, where, and when to buy

Verizon iPhone review

iPhone 4 review (AT&T)

Verizon iPhone will go on general sale at 7AM on February 10th, you can reserve one on February 9th

A brief and anecdotal history of the Verizon iPhone 4 deal

The Verizon iPhone

Official pre-orders for the Verizon iPhone 4 began (and ended) on February 3rd, but there will be plenty of other ways to get in on the action. Here are some of your options:

Best Buy: February 10th; first-come, first-serve. We hear that some locations will open at 7AM, but call your local store for details.
Apple Store website: February 9th.
Apple Store retail locations: February 10th at 7AM local time. Line up early! Additionally, you can reserve a phone for in-store pickup on the 10th starting on the 9th on Apple's website.
Verizon website: February 9th at 3:01AM ET.
Verizon stores: February 10th at 7AM local time.

And if you've purchased a Verizon device recently, not all hope is lost -- the company is running a limited-time offer that allows you to trade in your device after your iPhone 4 purchase by filling out a form and sending it in; if you bought the hardware between November 26th and January 10th, you can get $75 for your dumbphone or $200 for your smartphone. Get the details on the offer here.

Source : engadget.com

Posted by misteriosnuevaenergia at 11:43 AM EST

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