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They do throttle, but the threshold is 5GB. http://www.att.com/esupport/da...

They also claim to only reduce speeds during network congestion (deprioritizing your traffic, essentially). In practice, I haven't noticed any slowdown. YMMV.

furthermore, they could one sidedly change the encapsulation to have gigabytes of padding for no reason at all.

They sure could. Additionally, if you read the T&C, they could do just about anything else they wanted, too (section 10.d, emphasis mine):

http://www.att.com/shop/intern...

d. Network Management. AT&T reserves the right to engage in reasonable network management practices, to protect its broadband network from harm, compromised capacity, degradation in network performance or service levels, or uses of the Service which may adversely impact access to or the use of the Service by other customers. Reasonable network management practices that AT&T may adopt include, but are not limited to, the following: (i) a cap on data usage; (ii) a modification of a customer’s serving facility or service technology, and/or (iii) a modification of or a limitation on a customer’s data throughput speed or data consumption.

Furthermore, the customer agreed to go through arbitration for all "all disputes and claims". This sure sounds like a dispute to me, therefore, what the submitter should be looking for is an arbitrator.

Just don't use that device anywhere public. Or on a public network because they can snoop on you that way.

Yes, I'll just go home and surf. I'm sure I'll be perfectly safe from spying there.

After all, I trust my ISP so much that I don't even consider them a "public" network anymore. They gave me a custom home page that goes right to THEIR website, so it must be private, right? And look here, this systray icon even has their logo! I am so loved I'm practically an employee.

Mine too! https://room614a.att.com/ . It's SSL, so I know I can trust it!

You are either lying are did not go to an official AT&T store. http://www.att.com/shop/wirele...

I don't know why you had such a problem. There are many GSM carriers that offer SIM/pre-pay, and have for as long as I can recall.

Agreed. He doesn't say exactly when his last trip to the US was, but AT&T and T-Mobile had prepaid SIMs "a few years ago". I don't know if there are any airport shops that sell them (seems like there would be), but as you say, they're readily available in various stores outside the airport.

However, AT&T's prepaid plans suck for tourists... if you have a smartphone (and seeing that this is /., I bet OP does), AT&T will make you get a "smartphone" plan, which starts at $25 for a month of service, and doesn't actually include any data--that's an extra $5 for a measly 50MB. T-Mobile has prepaid plans that I think would work better for a short-term visitor, e.g., perhaps their $3/day unlimited plan.

But I think the best prepaid plans in the US for visitors come from "MVNO"s--basically companies that resell access to either AT&T's or T-Mobile's network, such as Airvoice or Ultra. Unfortunately, their SIMs tend not to be available in actual physical stores, which makes buying their service impractical for a visitor.

How long before someone releases a tool that would have a Linux-running computer or device with a WiFi card masquerading as an official Comcast WiFi hotspot an collecting the usernames & passwords of the users trying to connect ?

That was possible before and it's still possible now. And not just with Comcast but also with Boingo, AT&T Portal, etc. Only solution: ban all WiFi hotspots!

HTC ONE MINI 4G - LTE:

        EMEA: 800/1800/2600 MHz
        Asia: 900/1800/2100/2600 MHz
        AT&T: 700/850/AWS/1900 MHz

So AT&T is the only option.

http://www.att.com/att/global/...

And Scotland has AT&T coverage in LTE.

Well done, the first actual phone recommended in this thread that would do what the OP requested help with.
Basically any AT&T phone on an international plan should work.

If you spent HALF that on your network you'd crush your competition! What a crock of shit.

Again with the "I know how to run a billion dollar business!" nonsense. You've no idea what you're talking about.

If they spent 24 billion on their network, what could they do at best? Their entire revenue from residential customers is $5.7 billion. http://about.att.com/story/att...
even if they'd have to increase their customers by 500% just to get revenue close to that kind of money. That's not even including all the added cost to support it. Residential broadband is not profitable. No one wants to expand it because it's just bad business sense. All the money is in services and commercial products. Residential networks are just a liability they have to take on to get first shot at the commercial customers.

The kind of money it would cost to improve our countries network to the standards you likely want would NEVER be profitable. Ever. They'd be bankrupt in a few years.

You CAN take it to Sprint or AT&T, but you'll pay the same monthly charge as someone who didn't bring their own device ...

With AT&T at least that is no longer true; you get a $15/mo. discount ($25/mo. for the 10-50 GB plans) for bringing your own device or buying it in installments via their AT&T Next program, compared to the price with a 2-year contract. Source

I don't know about Verizon, but people on Neo900's "compatible carriers" forum thread came into conclusion that there shouldn't be any problem with Neo900 compatibility on AT&T network, citing AT&T itself: http://www.att.com/shop/wirele...

So is AT&T lying on this page? You know, I'm one of the people working on Neo900, so I'd be grateful for some proof in case it's true, so we can properly warn our users :P

AT&T is only worth $189 billion as of today. So what did they do with that $200 billion they supposedly got?

The "AT&T" whose stock you are looking at now didn't exist in the same form when these subsidies were handed out. SBC and the other bells used the savings from those billions in tax subsidies starting in the 90's and went on an acquisition spree, culminating in AT&T and SBC's merger in 2005.

TL;DR: they gave it to shareholders of Pacific Telesis, Ameritech, New England Telecom, TCI, MediaOne, and themselves.

You mean like AT&T or T-Mobile? http://www.att.com/shop/wirele... http://www.t-mobile.com/bring-...

The 2wire/pace (3600,3800,etc) all have TCP port 3479 open to the internet.This is what you are forced to use if you have AT&T U-verse. There is no way to block it and AT&T says its for "updates and trouble shooting".
http://forums.att.com/t5/forum...

I wonder what great backdoors are in these gateways?

While I find that's pretty infuriating, I do think that if you're forced to have U-Verse (e.g.: alternatives suck speed wise), then it's probably recommended to have another (non-vulnerable) router between you and the 2-wire and to turn off the wifi radio.

The 2wire/pace (3600,3800,etc) all have TCP port 3479 open to the internet.This is what you are forced to use if you have AT&T U-verse. There is no way to block it and AT&T says its for "updates and trouble shooting".
http://forums.att.com/t5/forum...

I wonder what great backdoors are in these gateways?

So if multiple people living under one roof share a phone, such as a POTS phone or a wireless home phone, how are they all supposed to get verified?

Because of the discounts offered by the networks (in exchange for locking you into a contract), you are a very small minority.

These discounts for not bringing your own device are on their way out. Instead, the U.S. model has begun to shift toward the European model where the phone and plan are itemized as separate purchases. Instead of $20 per month subsidy spread over 24 months of a $70 per month contract, there's a $20 line item for the financed hardware and a $50 line item for the service. MVNOs were first to bring this model to the States, followed by T-Mobile, and three months ago even AT&T cut the price for BYOD and expired-contract customers to keep T-Mobile and the MVNOs from eating its proverbial lunch.

AT&T has wifi only and low data plans on GoPhone prepaid for Smartphones. http://www.att.com/shop/wirele... The prepaid landscape is changing pretty rapidly in the US, which is nice for those of us who like to buy our own phones.

As someone who went to GSM seminars, and AIN for cell networks they can
just follow the tower hand offs.

For awhile ppl could get antennas that glowed when they transmitted, and one
of my co-workers on the SS7 let me know he could watch the tower hand offs
as he moved from "cell zone" to "cell zone".

https://forums.att.com/t5/3G-M...

If I could get reliable cell coverage in my home, I'd pay $200-300 for that

You can already do that today, that's what femtocells are all about. AT&T version here, Verizon version here. I'm sure most other carriers have similar options... no fancy new technologies required.

Lets look at the report actually means.

The first part of the report refers to National Security Letters and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests. Most people seem to assume that all these requests are submitted as counter terrorism related. That is not true. Both of these types of requests existed before 911 and were used to investigate foreign intelligence operations. What changed is that they are now able to use them to investigate individuals not associated with a country but a terrorist organization instead. There are still counterespionage investigations going on and that would account for some if the requests. I would like a breakdown between the two categories but I doubt that will ever happen.

The next section refers to "Total U.S. Criminal & Civil Litigation Demands". These requests can come from many sources including local police. They could be related to crimes such as murder, drug dealing, racketeering, etc. For example,when a police officer is investigating a murder suspect and they dump the phone that is one request. The civil cases could include things like divorces where one party is trying to prove infidelity. These requests are most likely unrelated to terrorism.

precious, taxpayer-funded taxpayer money from job creators is being "wasted"!

Radio research for the Deaf is pretty much the poster child of wasted money. Sort of like braille highway signs for blind drivers.

Nearly all deaf people carry smartphones. The ones that don't, certainly don't carry radios, or any other device capable of receiving radio texts.

There are scads of Apps in the Google market for the deaf. Most free. Deaf people can negotiate plans with zero minutes from almost all the carriers.

NPR is looking at every problem as if it were a nail, because the only tool they have is a hammer.
So, yeah. Pretty much a waste of money.

Where, if I may ask? I thought U-Verse was available most places Roadrunner is. Can check here.

There might not be "enough bandwidth" in part because they're advertising OC-48 and OC192 as being fast - http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Service/network-services/internet-connectivity/managed-internet-service/ - which it would be... if it were the late 90s.

And a backbone of "up to OC768" (although not in any areas that need it) http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Family/network-services/internet-connectivity/

Then again, they seem to double-dip everywhere: at 10 to 100mbit levels the pricing is apparently somewhat reasonable but over and above 100mbit/s the price per mbit/s goes up (!!), and in both cases I have to pay once for the port commitment and once again for the access.

I got a quote the other day for fiber connections at 4 different locations in KS, MO and MI (these are all 100k+ cities, not the middle of nowhere), but all of which just *happen* to have AT&T as the LEC, and the price at each location worked out to $31/mbit all inclusive (Verizon wanted $39/mbit). By contrast, the CLEC in Southern IL charges me about $10/mbit - inclusive of pretty much everything except tax. And they gave me free installation at 2 locations (and had to install conduit at both), whereas AT&T wants me to confirm that there is existing conduit at all locations otherwise they simply won't bother. ...I'd be *very* interested in any company that could offer me a similar deal to the aforementioned CLEC.

There might not be "enough bandwidth" in part because they're advertising OC-48 and OC192 as being fast - http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Service/network-services/internet-connectivity/managed-internet-service/ - which it would be... if it were the late 90s.

And a backbone of "up to OC768" (although not in any areas that need it) http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Family/network-services/internet-connectivity/

Then again, they seem to double-dip everywhere: at 10 to 100mbit levels the pricing is apparently somewhat reasonable but over and above 100mbit/s the price per mbit/s goes up (!!), and in both cases I have to pay once for the port commitment and once again for the access.

I got a quote the other day for fiber connections at 4 different locations in KS, MO and MI (these are all 100k+ cities, not the middle of nowhere), but all of which just *happen* to have AT&T as the LEC, and the price at each location worked out to $31/mbit all inclusive (Verizon wanted $39/mbit). By contrast, the CLEC in Southern IL charges me about $10/mbit - inclusive of pretty much everything except tax. And they gave me free installation at 2 locations (and had to install conduit at both), whereas AT&T wants me to confirm that there is existing conduit at all locations otherwise they simply won't bother. ...I'd be *very* interested in any company that could offer me a similar deal to the aforementioned CLEC.

Interesting interpretation of the word "lost" you've got there. Right in the headline of the article you linked to it says "AT&T lost $3.9 billion in Q4 2012, earned $7.3 billion profit for the year".

But I suppose you could be referring to $7.3 billion profit for the year as 3+ billion per quarter if you're bad at dividing by four.

Nevertheless, according to page 30 of AT&T's annual report http://www.att.com/Investor/ATT_Annual/2012/downloads/ar2012_annual_report.pdf the dollar amounts (in millions of dollars) for "Construction and capital expenditures" for the past few years are:
2012 19,728
2011 20,272
2010 20,302
2009 17,294
2008 20,290

So 17-20 billion dollars per year in construction and capital improvements. If you've got evidence to show that AT&T is NOT investing tens of billions of dollars per year in improving the network you should maybe contact the SEC or FCC. Otherwise, it's not really polite to imply that AT&T isn't investing in infrastructure without evidence to support your claims.

Disclaimer: I work for AT&T but not in wireless or in finance. But I'm well aware of AT&T's public communications of how much the company is investing.

My POTS is much more reliable than the electric power - can't remember the last time, if ever, that it was down. It even continued working when a large tree fell on the line. However, if the power is out, the only phone that works with it is my rotary phone. That thing is even more indestructible than POTS and will survive any natural disaster.

However, I'm still waiting for the Picturephone, http://www.corp.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeline/70picture.html

Agreed. It's sad that our movements, our preferences and our communications are subject to the whims of some corporate fat cat who wants to find new ways of maximizing shareholder value. They'll do anything with the data you entrust to them and all it takes is a policy shift because the terms of service you agreed to gives them the right to do this, even without a judge ordering them to turn the data over. Right now there's only a few voices out there who are yelling loudly about this in Congress and we need to get a piece of comprehensive legislation in place that genuinely protects our privacy. Unfortunately I don't see the current administration doing anything about it because they're too busy sniffing our in-boxes. Besides I'm still waiting for Guantanamo Bay to close.

Since the TFA is talking about overseas operations, it's interesting to look at their policies/TOS in the US since this call data can get you wrapped up in some government investigation because you have a friends in "those foreign places, not in 'Merica."

AT&T has multiple privacy policies but this one is of particular interest.

• We will protect your privacy and keep your personal information safe. We use encryption and other security safeguards to protect customer data.
• We will not sell your personal information to anyone, for any purpose. Period.

It says safe, not confidential but the second line seems to be in conflict however again, this is "overseas" stuff right? So they'll sell it to the feds because they also state...

Assist in the prevention and investigation of illegal activities and violations of our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policies.

So they've given themselves a moral way out because if you're doing naughty things or harming their network, they'll do whatever they want to keep their good name intact.

AT&T to Deliver the First All Fiber 1 Gigabit Broadband Network to Austin
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=24841&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=37036&mapcode=consumer|financial

AT&T* (NYSE:T) announced today it has begun deployment of a 100 percent fiber Internet broadband network in Austin that will deliver speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second.

when I'm going to be paying for a carrier contract anyway

Because the math has changed recently and pre-pay is now cheaper than post-pay, unless you have some special use case. The only network where you can use your "free" 5C is on Sprint.

Wrong;

AT&T: http://www.att.com/wireless/iphone/#fbid=Z0dbgc1cUkn
T-Mobile: http://www.tmonews.com/2013/09/t-mobile-stores-to-open-at-8am-local-time-friday-for-iphone-5s5c-launch/

As of last Friday. Verizon has offered to match this, but has yet to update their pre-order website, which requires $99 or a monthly bill roll-in to cover the $99.

But yes, you are correct that the US model economics differ from the European model. The US model is to sell you a two year contract, give you a "free" phone, and then dangle a new "free" phone 6 months before the 2 year contract is up in order to get you to re-up for another 2 year contract.

This is one of the reasons none of the U.S. carriers are interested in pushing Android updates: if you get the most recent Android OS without the new phone they are dangling in front of you, what's your incentive to not go month-to-month? If the carriers have no incentive to push an update, then the device manufacturers have no incentive to even develop the update in the first place, and so you have this multitude of Android phones with a multitude of versions and a multitude of vendor specific porting changes to get it to run on the device. Hence no standard application market for Android, like the Apple App Store, and the smaller vendor markets and Google's market never get more than a fraction of the number of applications you see in the App Store.

Also US consumers are generally not pre-pay for anything: everything is about buying on credit. This goes for phones, but it also goes for mid ticket items which Europeans save up for then buy outright, like cars. Europeans grudgingly do the mortgage thing on houses.

If you are buying the iPhone outright to avoid the carrier entanglements: good for you, but in that case, unless you plan to live without Apps, iPhones are not a fungible commodity, or you'd be buying a fire sale Win8 phone from a doomed vendor, like the Nokia Lumia. So you aren't price sensitive at that point, you're just kvetching that the rest of the industry won't change its business model to suit the way you personally, as an insignificant fraction of their market, like to buy things. In fact, I would have to say that their target market doesn't include you at all, since their target market is "people who pay more than they have to when all costs are amortized and totaled because of carrier lock-in".

Sure, until the next week when phone companies start subsidizing iPhone 5's at 99 cents.

For one thing, subsidies are a U.S. thing, and 95 percent of the world's population lives outside the U.S. For another, if you're a carrier trying to convert feature phone customers to smartphone customers, good luck fighting the sticker shock when they see the price of the cheapest subsidized plan. This page claims that 450 minutes, 300 MB, and SMS would cost $1,920 plus taxes and fees over the course of a 24-month contract.

For another, it would cost hundreds of dollars more per year for a dumbphone user to switch to a phone that plays MP3s.

Most feature-phones DO play mp3's these days:

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/att/Z431-black-prepaid.html

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/att/z222-black-prepaid.html

AT&T is known to "cram" a data plan onto a dumbphone SIM if it is ever inserted into a smartphone.

No. You can use a non-smartphone plan on a smartphone on AT&T using at least two methods.

1. Transfer a sim from a feature phone....you won't have data but you won't get a smartphone plan crammed on you.

2. Get a go-phone smartphone, and activate the phone online...not via the phone itself.

For another, it would cost hundreds of dollars more per year for a dumbphone user to switch to a phone that plays MP3s.

Most feature-phones DO play mp3's these days:

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/att/Z431-black-prepaid.html

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/att/z222-black-prepaid.html

AT&T is known to "cram" a data plan onto a dumbphone SIM if it is ever inserted into a smartphone.

No. You can use a non-smartphone plan on a smartphone on AT&T using at least two methods.

1. Transfer a sim from a feature phone....you won't have data but you won't get a smartphone plan crammed on you.

2. Get a go-phone smartphone, and activate the phone online...not via the phone itself.

Also worth noting... most carriers will unlock your phone after the 2 year contract period for the subsidized phone expires.

For example here is AT&T Unlock Support

. If you search the websites or call sutomer service, the other major carriers do the same.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/samsung/galaxy-s-4-active-urban-gray.html

I couldn't log in through the proffered http://www.att.com/cmpchoice link.

Another way in is through the standard payments portal. Once logged in there, you can go to Profile -> Account & User Information -> Marketing Preferences. This lets you opt out of direct marketing that they send to you. (Might as well take care of that while you're in there.) At the very bottom, below the buttons, is a link to "Update your privacy choices for External Marketing & Analytics reports" (which is the same cmpchoice link as above). Clicking it bypasses the login page since you're already authenticated.

I couldn't log in through the proffered http://www.att.com/cmpchoice link.

Another way in is through the standard payments portal. Once logged in there, you can go to Profile -> Account & User Information -> Marketing Preferences. This lets you opt out of direct marketing that they send to you. (Might as well take care of that while you're in there.) At the very bottom, below the buttons, is a link to "Update your privacy choices for External Marketing & Analytics reports" (which is the same cmpchoice link as above). Clicking it bypasses the login page since you're already authenticated.

I couldn't log in through the proffered http://www.att.com/cmpchoice link.

Another way in is through the standard payments portal. Once logged in there, you can go to Profile -> Account & User Information -> Marketing Preferences. This lets you opt out of direct marketing that they send to you. (Might as well take care of that while you're in there.) At the very bottom, below the buttons, is a link to "Update your privacy choices for External Marketing & Analytics reports" (which is the same cmpchoice link as above). Clicking it bypasses the login page since you're already authenticated.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB410692&cv=820#fbid=X5Yfnrwu8Fd

AT&T has several wireless devices that are WEA capable, including new 4G LTE devices. WEA capable devices will display the following logo on the packaging and in the device instruction manual:

Wireless Emergency Alerts Capable Logo

The following AT&T devices are WEA capable*:

• Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-i337)
• Samsung Galaxy SII (SGH-i777)
• Samsung Captivate Glide (SGH-i927)
• Samsung Galaxy Appeal (SGH-i827)
• LG Optimus G Pro (E980)
• BlackBerry 9360, 9810, 9860, 9900
• Motorola Atrix 2 (mb865)
• AT&T Fusion 2 (Huawei U8665)
• Alcatel 510A
• Alcatel 871A

http://www.slashgear.com/google-now-update-brings-emergency-alerts-to-android-4-1-jelly-bean-30244815/

There are three new features to note in this Google Now update: ... Support for emergency messages has been added in this update as well, giving you severe weather warnings and other emergency alerts right on your Now page. This will undoubtedly come in handy for the more turbulent areas of the world, and it could potentially save a few lives, so it’s good to have it along.

Thanks for the info. I would guess that paying an early term fee would count as "fully satisfying contractual obligations." Or maybe T-Mo can unlock it for you. Now that I've had time to look at it, their site says "If you need to unlock your phone, contact your carrier or visit a smartphone unlocking website" and a link to www.releasemycode.com . Fine print says "Check your warranty and contract with your carrier to see what conditions apply to unlocking your device. T-Mobile is not affiliated with and does not endorse releasemycode.com. Use at your own risk."

Probably, it depends on who you talk to. If you walk into an AT&T store, you might get a cool guy who will unlock it for you with no hassle, or you might get a guy who won't unlock it no matter what documentation you shove in his face. And an early term fee will be at least $95 from AT&T, and that's if you only have one month left: "$325 minus $10 for each full month of completed Service Commitment" -- so 23 months in you'd still owe ($325 - $230) = $95.

I'm on T-mobile and was looking this up for my fiancé who is on AT&T.

1) The iPhone will work on T-Mobile once it has been unlocked. You have to contact AT&T to unlock the phone, but it seems like it will be pretty simple, as long as "all contractual obligations ... have been fully satisfied." See here.

2) Coverage in Orlando was fine for me. I didn't run any speed tests there, but I live in Gainesville, FL and have seen up to 19 Mbps download. It averages around 12 Mbps down, and 1.5 Mbps for upload. I'm not sure about the SF Bay area.

One thing I want to know is how easy it would be to end the contract early, and pay the early termination fee (it shouldn't be much, as her contract ends this summer). Would they unlock the phone after that without any hassle?

Name one of those four that would do so using Ubuntu. IBM and HP both have their own solutions, and Dell is a RHEL reseller. That leaves you AT&T... would you like to call them or should I?

Name one? How about all four:

HP
IBM
Dell
AT&T (although AT&T don't mention it themselves, but their cloud does run on Ubuntu: "Ubuntu and OpenStack are also powering clouds at the likes of HP, AT&T, Rackspace and Dell.")

It is in the wireless customer agreement. http://www.att.com/shop/en/legalterms.html?toskey=wirelessCustomerAgreement#whatDataMsgServicesOffer Section 6.3.

6.3 What Are The Voice And Data Plan Requirements?

A voice plan is required on all voice-capable Devices, unless specifically noted otherwise in the terms governing your plan.

An eligible tiered pricing data plan is required for certain Devices, including iPhones and other designated Smartphones. Eligible voice and tiered pricing data plans cover voice and data usage in the U.S. and do not cover International voice and data usage and charges. If it is determined that you are using a voice-capable Device without a voice plan, or that you are using an iPhone or designated Smartphone without an eligible voice and tiered data plan, AT&T reserves the right to switch you to the required plan or plans and bill you the appropriate monthly fees. In the case of the tiered data plan, you will be placed on the data plan which provides you with the greatest monthly data usage allowance. If you determine that you do not require that much data usage in a month, you may request a lower data tier at a lower monthly recurring fee.

That being said, just because it's in a contract that doesn't mean it's legal. AT&T's arbitration clause prohibits customers from joining class action suits, but allows small claims actions. Last year a California man won against AT&T over throttling on his unlimited data package, but I don't know anyone has sued over this clause in small claims court. Any arbitration results would most likely be kept secret.

Cell phones are just two-way radios; those existed in 1960.

Mobile phones existed in 1946.

Have you looked at plans designed for this? From AT&T "AT&T is pleased to offer our Text Accessibility Plans (TAP). TAP was developed for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have difficulty speaking." http://relayservices.att.com/content/225/Text_Accessibility_Plan_TAP.html

AT&T's coverage map includes all circles of hell! That is because their secret shadow universal headquarters are located there.

No, that's no secret. It says right on their Investor Relations page that their headquarters are in Dallas.

...what - like the 8GB iPhone 4 that AT&T is selling for less than a dollar? http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/apple/iphone/4-8gb-black.html?WT.srch=1&cagpspn=pla#fbid=Ws5HZMfg-KR

Thank you for your concern. At at&t(R), our commitment(tm) to rebuilding the nation's largest 4G network this year with your input has not wavered. However, our cozy government relationship requires us to install multiple backdoors, electronic and otherwise, and our Security budget was beginning to cut into our Invite Government Representatives Into Boardroom For Lobbying And Slash Or Trophywife Swapping budget.

As such, we have decided to retain the mandatory backdoors but leave them open to these minor vulnerabilities. The occasional permanent loss of an antenna, your Facebook account's integrity, or that one guy in Customer Service who decides to blow a whistle on us does not preclude your required payment of the 2012 Nation's Largest 4G Network Improvements Fee, or the upcoming 2013 Nation's Largest 4G Network Improvements Fee (which we hereby announce in this sentence, as double the 2012 version in all cases), even though both would be entirely too small to buy such high-value targets and high-class lays in such high volume.

Thank you again for choosing at&t(R), now with the nation's tallest paperweights. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or let us track you to your house through any other method imaginable.

Large companies are complicated. AT&T for example recently posted $3.64 billion profit on $31.46 billion in revenue. Compared with the quarter before where profit was $3.62 billion (slightly lower) on $31.48 billion (slightly higher) in revenue. Two things to note. First is that cost in each quarter was different by about $40 million. Second is profit went up when revenue went down. New customers cost more so slow customer growth meant decreasing revenue but increasing profits. To make matters more complicated this is all while carrying $64.5 billion in debt.

I've been using this since the iPad first came out a couple years ago and doing so on my iPhone 3GS and now 4/4S. You can use Skype/Facetime/Mumble or whatever you want all over the cell connection.

But yes, you do pay for an 'open internet access plan'. They don't block any sites or services - but they're trying to do just that with FaceTime and should (probably will) be smacked back by the FCC.

From AT&T iPhone

FaceTime over Cellular
To enable FaceTime over cellular on this account, contact AT&T at 611 or visit http://www.att.com/mywireless

I you re-watch 2001 Space Odyssey, I think that pops up just shortly before he talks on the phone to his daughter on her birthday. No?