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Because they spoof numbers outside of their network.

You'll note that this new system doesn't mention anything about verifying the caller ID data being sent by the call originator, it only mentions verifying the networks the call traverses.

No, this article doesn't mention it. AT&T's own press release does.
https://about.att.com/story/20...

Your average consumer likely isn't rocking a 100Mbps+ connection

I would bet the majority of Stadia customers will have 100Mb+ connections in the US. People get hung up on average connection speeds in the US but some of that is people choosing lower speeds than the maximum available and most of these customers will be kids in relatively urban areas where DOCSIS 3.1 and fiber are routinely available. 300-500Mb/s cable modems are pretty normal these days, even in third tier cities. I used to live in a city of 50k people and the local cable provider offered 300Mb/s for $70/mo and fiber from AT&T starting at $50. At work we deploy broadband service al over the south east using local providers for direct internet access for VPN backup and we see anything from 300-500Mb/s as the standard these days from the local cable MSO. Now I live in a second tier citiy of about 600k people and I have three different gigabit options (AT&T, Google and Comcast). Neither AT&T nor Google Fiber have caps on their 1Gb service. (see here for AT&T under the "Internet 1000" plan - "No internet usage data caps").

So while the average consumer in the US might not have 100Mb/s, that does not really matter. What matters is the connection speed of Stadia customers.

Your average consumer likely isn't rocking a 100Mbps+ connection

I would bet the majority of Stadia customers will have 100Mb+ connections in the US. People get hung up on average connection speeds in the US but some of that is people choosing lower speeds than the maximum available and most of these customers will be kids in relatively urban areas where DOCSIS 3.1 and fiber are routinely available. 300-500Mb/s cable modems are pretty normal these days, even in third tier cities. I used to live in a city of 50k people and the local cable provider offered 300Mb/s for $70/mo and fiber from AT&T starting at $50. At work we deploy broadband service al over the south east using local providers for direct internet access for VPN backup and we see anything from 300-500Mb/s as the standard these days from the local cable MSO. Now I live in a second tier citiy of about 600k people and I have three different gigabit options (AT&T, Google and Comcast). Neither AT&T nor Google Fiber have caps on their 1Gb service. (see here for AT&T under the "Internet 1000" plan - "No internet usage data caps").

So while the average consumer in the US might not have 100Mb/s, that does not really matter. What matters is the connection speed of Stadia customers.

They got it recently, so it's not grandfathered. This was a special offer for rural areas that they got when subscribing to https://www.att.com/internet/f... - it's normally $200 but with a phone and other stuff they got a significant discount.

I'm not sure about what VZW is doing. I would assume that they are confused about everything as always.

The problem we've seen with AT&T is that any members of our text groups that have AT&T lines can't reply to group text messages with more than 10 people. Their phones truncate the group to 10 - so now you have another group and have to figure out who didn't get the reply. Primitive guys - up your game. That's enough to prevent me from bringing your promotion to our fire department.

https://forums.att.com/t5/Data...

I expect AT&T has some sort of terms of service that limits or disclaims their liability.

Yup, it's in the TOS that no one ever reads.

Of course, if you have any sense to understand what you're getting into, you don't keep $23 million dollars worth of cryptocoins on an unregulated, uninsured crypto exchange either.

You mean this? AT&T Promised Lower Prices After Time Warner Merger -- It's Raising Them Instead. Is not that some sort of breach of agreement?

Technically, AT&T did lower prices. They now offer a streaming tv service called WatchTV that's $15 per month or free if you have an AT&T wireless unlimited plan. They didn't offer this prior to the merger.

This was a result of the merger.

When you look at the Debt service providers have : https://investors.att.com/~/me... I can understand why. Total Debt is sitting at $163 B.

Here's your chance to cancel. You have 30 days to notify AT&T from when they notify you of the fee change. Section 1.3 of the user agreement states you will be charged no early termination fee and can keep any promotional device you received. https://www.att.com/legal/term...

Over 200k people got bonuses (and also lower taxes), that's much better than a few thousand being laid off.

It also does not detract from the many other companies that gave bonuses also...

Meanwhile AT&T is also hiring into new positions, why is that not factored in? Some jobs will always be lost, and others gained. That has nothing to do with the tax bill - they will ramp up hiring as they already said: "Every $1 billion in capital invested in the telecom industry creates about 7,000 jobs for American workers, research shows.". It's still a net gain of workers in the end.

Earlier this year, AT&T was selected to be the broadband provider for First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) to build and manage the first broadband network dedicated to America’s police, firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS). The FirstNet network will cover all 50 states, 5 U.S. territories and the District of Columbia, including rural communities and tribal lands in those states and territories.
http://about.att.com/story/fir...

It's this: https://www.att.com/cellphones... OFF is OFF and YES the battery comes out. Do you really think I'm that dumb?

    15Gb in 4 days? You shouldn't watch so much video from your home connection. Does AT&T have service there?
"GoPhone customer. Starting today, AT&T GoPhone customers can get unlimited data for only $60 a month after they sign up for AutoPay"
I tether off my go-phone wifi hotspot no problem. http://about.att.com/story/att...

Verizon, ATT, Sprint and T-Mobile still offer them. Typical cost is $0.99 per month for the service plus $1.99 per year for each ringback tone.

Also, doesn't POTS still work when the power goes out?

Most cell phones have a built-in battery backup, which still works as long as the tower also has battery backup.

And elderly tend to stick with what they know, the learning curve from an old landline to a cellphone (even a dumb phone) could be too steep or daunting for the elderly, not to mention ergonomically difficult.

Here in the USA, both Verizon and AT&T offer cellular radios into which the subscriber plugs a POTS phone (source; source). (I haven't used them and can't speak for their quality, ability to handle extensions, or ability to run off batteries in a power outage.) In addition, GreatCall offers Jitterbug phones with large buttons and large display specifically for seniors.

I _think_ T-Mobile is planning to drop 2G GSM

It's AT&T that's shutting down EDGE (aka "2G") service in the near future (it may have already happened, as the link says "by the end of 2016"). T-Mobile, OTOH, has committed to keeping its EDGE service going through at least 2020, ostensibly to support gadgets with cellular-data connections that aren't easily updated to newer standards.

I was AT&T since before they sold off wireless to Cingular

That only sort of happened. AT&T Wireless was already spun off from AT&T when it was sold to SBC/Bellsouth (Cingular). Then SBC bought AT&T and renamed itself AT&T. Then bought Bellsouth and renamed Cingular to AT&T.

Chart form: https://www.att.com/Common/mer...
Video explanation: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/vid... (Sorry, no longer on Youtube)

Look at this. https://www.att.com/cellphones...
It is the best replacement for a smart phone since sliced bread.

You are eligible for unlimited home Internet data if you have a combined bill for Internet and TV services, you purchase the up to 1Gbps speed tier, or you purchase the unlimited data usage option.

Source: AT&T Terms

Weird then that ATT provides instructions on how to use your own router,

https://www.att.com/maps/wirel...
https://www.t-mobile.com/cover...
https://vzwmap.verizonwireless...
https://coverage.sprint.com/IM...

What are you talking about? The only service with spotty coverage in PA is Sprint. Everyone else has coverage over most of the state, excepting the mountains in the north central portion of the state.

This is the way trademark law works. You must defend the trademark or risk losing it.

Citibank's trademark is for a reward points program. Their beef is with an AT&T Thanks program which, like the Citibank program, rewards loyal customers. So that aspect of trademark infringement (that the two names are for a similar product or service which could be confused) is satisfied. This isn't because AT&T is just saying "Thanks" as TFS claims.

At that point, even if Citibank thinks the lawsuit is silly, they still have to file it. Once the court decides there is no infringement, both sides are safe. AT&T is free to call their program AT&T Thanks. And Citibank's ThankYou trademark is safe because they defended it

If they didn't file a lawsuit, someone else could start another rewards program named "Thanks" or maybe "[company_name] Thanks You." When Citibank sued them, they could point to Citibank's failure to defend their trademark against AT&T. The court could decide that that constituted Citibank abandoning the trademark.. Even though the possibility of that is extremely small, the fact that it's not zero means the trademark holder is going to play it safe and file a lawsuit against anything which could be considered a trademark violation.

Which comes at the end of this year. https://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Portfolio/internet-of-things/cd2migration/page=addl-info/

But, in telecom do they capitalize it?

Verizon doesn't:
http://www.verizon.com/home/fi...

AT&T doesn't:
https://www.att.com/internet/

So, who uses B when they should use b?

It'll probably cost double what the Echo does, and you'll have to buy a new one once a year.

Yes, because every single Apple machine turns into a pile of dust one year after it's bought.

You might choose to buy a new one every year because you get excited by the Apple event where the new one is introduced, but you don't have to do that. (I have to buy a new iPhone this year, but that's because next year it becomes an iPod touch with an extra useless radio. It still works, and is actually still mostly usable on the Intertubes.)

The UVerse 45 Mbps plan is $65/mo with a 600 GB/mo cap. 600 GB/mo is 1.22% of the above 49 TB/mo. And 1.22% of $8000/mo is $97.60/mo. So AT&T is actually giving you a helluva deal for what's effectively a partial OC3 metered based on usage.

To top it off, if you do want to sit at your max bandwidth 24/7, AT&T will remove the cap if you pay an extra $30/mo, or subscribe to a combo Internet + TV + phone package plan. This is by far the most generous Internet service I've seen, period, of any cable company, DSL company, or dedicated service company. You can get the equivalent of an OC1 (for download purposes) for just $95/month!

Don't forget to pay attention to the balls. AT&T will tap you on the head when it's ready.

Nobody except filesharers use their bandwidth that way. The vast majority of users' usage is bursty, hitting the cap for a fraction of a second, then dropping to zero for several minutes. Even sustained usage like Netflix tops out at about 5 Mbps per 1080p stream. So it's meaningless to break down usage into "approximately 60 or 70 hours" unless you're a filesharer who's always maxing out their bandwidth.

For some REAL perspective, bandwidth without caps requires a dedicated connection. An OC3 costs about $8000/mo - that's a dedicated 155 Mbps line, or about 149 Mbps of data (rest is overhead). That's how much you should be paying if you plan to sit at your max bandwidth all month. That's 49 TB/mo.

The UVerse 45 Mbps plan is $65/mo with a 600 GB/mo cap. 600 GB/mo is 1.22% of the above 49 TB/mo. And 1.22% of $8000/mo is $97.60/mo. So AT&T is actually giving you a helluva deal for what's effectively a partial OC3 metered based on usage.

To top it off, if you do want to sit at your max bandwidth 24/7, AT&T will remove the cap if you pay an extra $30/mo, or subscribe to a combo Internet + TV + phone package plan. This is by far the most generous Internet service I've seen, period, of any cable company, DSL company, or dedicated service company. You can get the equivalent of an OC1 (for download purposes) for just $95/month!

I checked AT&T's corporate site to see how dire their cash situation is. If this company is asking the taxpayers to foot the bill for upgrading their network then they must be in serious trouble.

According to AT&T's press release dated October 22, 2015, AT&T had $39.1 billion in consolidated revenue, up 19% from the previous period (primarily due to the DirecTV purchase).

They also had $10.8 billion in cash from operations and $5 billion in free cash flow.

Apparently making a few billion dollars in a single quarter equates to not being able to spend $100 million to upgrade their own equipment. Who would have thought?

Eventually it will be as easy as Amazon one-click. Bioweapons are going to be the worse of the bunch.

Open architectures and consumer autonomous products will enable it all. Add the fact that data sabotage is on the rise will make it nearly impossible to identify these things after an incident.

There's always a cap: http://www.att.com/esupport/ar... Ranges from 150GB to 1TB (for gigabit service) (which is interesting because at full speed you'd blow the cap in 2 hours) Also, some people, like myself, use mobile hotspot tethering to stream to their television which Binge-On also claims to support.

Since you decided to pick on that one detail, allow me to put minimal effort into it:

https://www.att.com/shop/digit... http://www.bce.ca/news-and-med...

Perhaps those cameras that you have 'experience' with use 100BaseTX Ethernet as physical medium. That doesn't mean that they are using the full bandwidth (pretty much guaranteed by design), nor that video cannot stream over the Internet (cell phone video streaming and Netflix). I'm not saying that everything is stored all the time, but the client doesn't necessarily control it. Further, this one just one example of how ubiquitous cameras have become. Cross it off the list, it changes nothing.

To keep things in context, this statement: "Does any of that really work when massive facial recognition systems exist and cameras are everywhere."

Was replied to by: "..most of the cameras are privately owned to watch over someone's property.."

[CITATION NEEDED] ? Seriously.

http://www.verizonwireless.com...

http://www.att.com/cellphones/...

http://shop.sprint.com/mysprin...

Not according to their unlock page where it says "The device must be active for at least six months of paid service." Considering Go_Phone is $50 a month and my service is $21-$27? 6 months of Go Phone service would cost MORE than if I had just bought the Blu.

So I'm glad you were able to find somebody at your local shop willing to unlock it but AT&Ts own TOS says you gotta pay them for 6 months before switching.

Nothing wrong with Google Books but wouldn't it be easier to just look up SNRC and AT&T? AT&T is kind enough to provide us with their complete list of acronyms.

https://www.corp.att.com/gov/c...

Pretty soon it will be smarter to have a "land line" format phone that actually connects to a local cell tower (no lines to maintain, install, etc.).

ATT has been doing exactly that for quite some time now.

I want something as close to a smart phone as possible that The phone company will not force me to get a data plan for

You can get that.

ATT, Verizon, and others have a policy that you cannot use certain phones on their network without a data plan. They will automatically upgrade you to a data plan, even if you would rather use your phone with WiFi.

That's possible with AT&T at least. Head to your local big box store, pick up one of AT&T's Android Go phones. While the phone's quick start card says to "enable" the phone via the phone, if you do it that way it automatically signs the phone up for a smartphone plan...you don't want that.

  What you do is enable the phone online at the go phone website. Doing it that way lets you choose a non-smartphone plan even with your smartphone.

Frankly, I would like an Android device with no non-Wifi data functionality, that the phone companies would classify as a dumb phone.

I use one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/AT-Z998-...

In EXACTLY the way you describe with THIS plan:

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

Basically I buy a $25 card every 3 months.

From AT&T's page:

Some examples of who we share your Personal Information with:
With other companies and entities, to:
Comply with court orders and other legal process

Some examples of who we share your Personal Information with:
From AT&T's page:

Some examples of who we share your Personal Information with:
With other companies and entities, to:
Comply with court orders and other legal process

the oft discussed "fast lane" has yet to actually happen

Tell that to Sprint and T-Mobile and AT&T and the other carriers who announced plans to do exactly that, not to mention the numerous examples already in effect worldwide.

Only exist on paper? What the fuck. I seriously don't know what rock you're living under.

Are you sure it's not just a reference to a 144k Modem? If so, then AT&T is the only road to salvation!

I appreciate the entusiasm, but http://www.att.com/shop/wirele...

Who cares when your artificially and ridiculously low data cap is exceeded in 5 minutes?

At 800 Gbps you would blow through AT&T's most expensive ($375/mo) shared data plan of 100GB of data in one second.

Well, to be fair, it would probably take longer than that due to other constraints. On a mobile phone, it's not uncommon for my LTE signal to be faster than the write speed of my MicroSD card. No hard disk or SSD could write data that fast; even RAM would be a bit of a challenge to get to write all 800gbits in one second because the bus speeds on the motherboards don't usually shuffle data around that fast.

Yes, we're dealing with theoreticals here, but let's at least give credit to the fact that if it were possible that AT&T could get us 800gbits/sec, we'd be thanking the hardware companies for making sure that it took longer for us to hit the limit.

Who cares when your artificially and ridiculously low data cap is exceeded in 5 minutes?

At 800 Gbps you would blow through AT&T's most expensive ($375/mo) shared data plan of 100GB of data in one second.

See, that's the problem you get into with people complaining you're raising the bar. The mouse maze was one the earliest demonstrations of AI.

Now you'll say, "that's not what I meant!", and you will be right, but then people will complain that you're moving the goal posts.

Up to $0.25 per Mb in overage fees or $256 per GB.

That sounds like you're talking about subscribers with no data plan, the most expensive overage fee for data plans is $59.96 per GB (not GiB as you mistakenly gave the price for).
However for most of the dataplans it is $10 per GB as per
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/dataplans.html
Elsewhere on their site (burried in http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html It looks like they may be going up to $15 per GB. All of these prices, even the highest of $59.96 per gb are far lower than your listed $256 per GB(sic)

Up to $0.25 per Mb in overage fees or $256 per GB.

That sounds like you're talking about subscribers with no data plan, the most expensive overage fee for data plans is $59.96 per GB (not GiB as you mistakenly gave the price for).
However for most of the dataplans it is $10 per GB as per
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/dataplans.html
Elsewhere on their site (burried in http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html It looks like they may be going up to $15 per GB. All of these prices, even the highest of $59.96 per gb are far lower than your listed $256 per GB(sic)

Your contract's already over after the agreed upon time (which is generally a year or two years.) After that yes, you're automatically in a month-to-month agreement, and your explicit consent to the terms of that agreement is indicated by continuing to pay your bill. Those terms may be different from what you originally agreed to. I'll refer you to the terms listed in their Service Agreement:

Term of Service. Your Agreement begins on the day we activate your Service(s) and continues through the Term of Service, typically a 12 month or 24 month period (“Service Commitment”), specified on your Customer Service Summary. At the end of your service commitment, this Agreement will automatically continue on a month-to-month basis. If your Agreement has no Service Commitment, it is a month-to-month Agreement.

- - - -

After your Service Commitment ends and you are on a month-to-month Agreement, AT&T may terminate your Agreement at any time with 30 days notice.

1.3 Can AT&T Change My Terms And Rates?

We may change any terms, conditions, rates, fees, expenses, or charges regarding your Services at any time. We will provide you with notice of material changes (other than changes to governmental fees, proportional charges for governmental mandates, roaming rates or administrative charges) either in your monthly bill or separately. You understand and agree that State and Federal Universal Service Fees and other governmentally imposed fees, whether or not assessed directly upon you, may be increased based upon the government's or our calculations.

IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUMMARY, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE’LL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR OTHERWISE), AND YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE.

- - - -

Unlimited Data Customers. If you are a grandfathered AT&T unlimited plan data service customer, you agree that “unlimited” means you pay a fixed monthly charge for wireless data service regardless of how much data you use. You further agree that “unlimited” does not mean that you can use AT&T’s wireless data service in any way that you choose or for any prohibited activities, and that if you use your unlimited data plan in any manner that is prohibited, AT&T can limit, restrict, suspend or terminate your data service or switch you to a tiered data plan.

I'm not advocating in favor of AT&T. I agree with gurps_npc. Hopefully, the FCC will snag them for their unorthodox use of the term "unlimited," which is not how a normal person would interpret that word. They should be required to call it something else other than unlimited. But let's not pretend the contract is different from what it is. Basically the contract amounts to, "we the corporation can do whatever we like, whenever we like, and if you don't like it, you may leave."

You ignorant dickhead, they didn't buy part of the company.

They purchased, on the secondary market, a voting share. What do they vote on? Mostly who makes up the Board. And the Board decides who is CEO.

Shareholders are not owners of the company. Not part owners. They vote.

And frequently, shareholders file a lawsuit against the CxO and/or Board of Directors for doing something like making materially false statements which overvalued the future of the stock, leading to major losses. How did it happen if shareholders are the ones in charge? And how is it a separate issue?

Also, do you have a 401(k)? You probably never voted, and don't have voting rights because your holdings are proxied to the fund manager, but you are a stockholder of ATT, almost guaranteed. Even if you don't care about retirement, are such people innocent or guilty?

The latest ATT dividend was $.46 per share. A small fine won't matter, but a big fine eats into profit, which eats into dividends. A one-time charge looks bad for people who buy stock, and people wanting to sell will have to either eat the loss or hold on to stock.

http://www.att.com/gen/investo...

I think you are going to have to say how the shareholders are not innocent. Very specifically.

Most US providers charge $5-10 for a SIM. They often waive it with the purchase of a new phone and, less commonly, with a new contract, but that doesn't mean they don't charge for them. That's beside the point, though; for T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint on the current-gen iPads, it's Apple SIM or bust, and you're buying that from Apple, not your carrier; the only carrier-specific SIMs that will work in the current iPads are for carriers not participating in the Apple SIM program, AFAIK. So yes, that AT&T would essentially brick the SIM for other carriers is outrageous.

Furthermore, buying SIMs is fairly common.

Meanwhile, AT&T will be shutting down it's 2G network by the end of 2016.

http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Family/mobility-services/machine-to-machine/m2m-applications/cd2migration/page=addl-info/