A little while ago I wrote a post on one of my pet subjects, Operator Innovation. I decried the total lack of innovation in messaging. I was particularly annoyed that, on the whole, operators hadn’t bothered doing anything with text messages and voicemail. Why is it LIMITED to my sodding handset and your rubbish voicemail system, I remember asking.

Why can’t I get my SMS on whatever phone I want? Why can’t I see my MMS online or wherever I wish?

Well, I’m delighted to report that AT&T has taken my screams to heart and actually implemented AT&T Messages. Yes, they’ve done it.

Do not adjust your sets.

Seriously.

Chris over at TechCrunch wrote about this yesterday (“AT&T Messages moves your conversations to the cloud“).

Quite simply, AT&T has taken your text messages, picture messages, voicemail and missed call register and stuck it all in an online portal.

It looks ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!

Let me stick in some pictures to get the juices flowing…

You can use the online portal, or of course you can use the app. Right now it’s only available on Android but Craig reports the iOS version is coming shortly. There will also be a tablet version by the ‘fall of 2011′. So, sometime soon.

Here’s a bit of text from the service FAQ:

AT&T Messages is an application that lets you view, send, and receive texts, calls, voicemail messages, and voice text messages from a single inbox. Messages seamlessly sync in the cloud and are easily accessed from your Android smartphone, Android tablet, or computer. All your communications are organized by person and sorted by when you receive them. Messages sent from AT&T Messages will appear on the Web or on your tablet as if they were sent from your Android smartphone.

AT&T Messages integrates with AT&T Address Book so that all your contacts are available to your phone and your computer. AT&T Address Book may not be available for all devices.

Genius. This is enough to definitely get me to change operator. I bet you react in a similar way. I particularly like this observation from Chris’ Techcrunch post:

Their cloud communications concept sounds quite a bit like the messaging half of Google Voice, but AT&T Messages has a few distinct advantages. One big one is the fact that it integrates with your existing AT&T phone number without any extra legwork. Any message sent to an existing AT&T number gets pushed into the cloud, where it’s viewable from any other compatible device.

It’s all about the phone number, still.

This is a key USP for the operator. Still.

Utterly brilliant.

I’m delighted to see a good level of innovation from AT&T. It really does kick the shit out of the bollocks offerings from the mobile operators here in Europe. Vodafone? Where are you?

I know the team at o2 Innovation have some stuff in the bag. Come on guys — forward this to the dithering executive in charge of holding things back and tell him or her to either resign or get off the sodding fence and let you get the stuff out to market.

Interestingly, I think France Telecom are nicely positioned — through their Orange Vallee efforts — to deliver a response to this. I can very much see the Life Is Better On team (given appropriate access to the right FT APIs) deliver a beta version of this within weeks. Imagine ON: Voicefeed with your SMS, missed calls and MMS integrated beautifully? Nice.

But dear me Vodafone, come on!

You can find out more about the AT&T Foundry (their developer operation) here.

And you can read the official announcement on ‘Encore and AT&T Messages’ here.

I’m very excited to see what else the Foundry can deliver to market.

Bring it on!

For all the talk about 4G and LTE and genius amazing whiz-bang gizmos, the basic reality is that when I hit ‘dial’, I expect my call to be connected. I am intolerant of any exception.

In Michael’s example, he explains how the utterly brilliant black-cab taxi service Uber, highly popular in San Francisco and New York, failed to meet his needs — because AT&T couldn’t connect a call:

Yesterday I requested a car and even though the app showed the car as arrived and on top of me on the map, it was nowhere to be found. I called the driver (a handy feature in the app), but our connection was so bad that we couldn’t communicate. So I hit “cancel” (a $10 charge to me) and walked to my destination instead.

via Uber To Dump Hundreds of AT&T iPhones, Switch To Verizon.

The CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanik reckons that they may well make a total switch from iPhones running AT&T to iPhones running on Verizon. Just to get proper connectivity when their drivers need it.

Ridiculous.

I understand Kalanik’s perspective, but goodness me, when things get that bad with AT&T, it really does demonstrate that no amount of 4G marketing magic can hide the continued failure to deliver basic connectivity in these geographies. Whenever I’m in NY or San Francisco, I definitely, definitely do not even think of using AT&T. It’s Verizon or Sprint all the way for data (through a MiFi or dongle) and T-Mobile to enable my GSM calls for my European devices.

Although Google makes the Android mobile operating system, the search giant’s chief competitor, Yahoo, will be the default provider on AT&T’s first Android-powered handset, due to be released March 7.

Great.

Talk about fragmentation on the Android platform.

Yes, you bought a ‘Google Phone’. But, no, the reason your search isn’t that good is because Yahoo is powering it. Sorry, I mean Bing. Yahoo doesn’t actually do search any more. While Bing does have some very good qualities — it’s search results aren’t quite there yet.

But what the hell are AT&T’s executives thinking?

Apparently there is a ‘long-standing relationship’ between AT&T and Yahoo for search partnerships. And this means that they’ve decided to screw about with the inner-workings of the device and really piss off consumers at the same time.

This is precisely why mobile operators need to be shot. In a nice way, you understand.

Some executive from AT&T and some executive from Yahoo have got together. They’ve both gone for very expensive martinis (on expenses) and discussed each others’ aims and objectives. They’ve nodded along with each other, they’ve got to know each other, they’ve — dare I say it — bonded with each other. After a few more martinis, the Yahoo guy confesses that they’re completely irrelevant ‘in mobil’ (it’s important to do the accent).

Nodding along, the AT&T guy, chest swelling, explains, “Well, you know Pierce, I can help…Yes, another round of martinis please…”

Pierce — the Yahoo Guy — sits back, with a slight frown, “How, Giles?”

“Well Pierce, we have eighty-five million subscribers…”

Giles takes a moment. He just loves flopping his subscriber number out on the table for the lads to look at.

Giles continues, “We have eighty-FIVE million subscribers, I’m sure we could put a bit of traffic your way…”

You just know it. Something like that happened, at some point, between Yahoo and AT&T.

They hatched a plan.

They thought it would be ‘super-fantastic’ to change the default search.

It’ll get folk chattering. It’ll show we’re with-it. It’ll let AT&T pretend to have a bit of relevance for 20 seconds during the initial announcement. It’ll breathe useless life into the decomposing carcass that is Yahoo’s ‘mobil’ strategy.

Not once has anyone thought about delivering the best possible user experience. No — that was traded away as soon as possible. That’s the thing with mobile operators. If there’s an opportunity to screw things up, to do the wrong thing (or the slightly wrong, annoying thing), they will. Especially if there’s a shite small amount of potential revenue in it.

Witness, for example, the carrier-deck b0llocks strategies that permeated the globe for much of the last half-decade.

Ridiculous.

Absolutely 100% ridiculous.

Would AT&T please get back into’s it box and fix their shitter-than-shit data network?

Would Yahoo please just get bought by somebody and put out of it’s misery?

I thank you.

That there is a Nokia E71x — the AT&T version of the uber popular QWERTY Nokia handset.

Yup — the E71 is coming to America.

It’s being offered at a hugely attractive $99 (”after mail-in $50 rebate”) on a 2-year contract.

I remember last year standing at a Nokia PR event in San Francisco whilst the Nokia America CEO got up on stage and told everyone he was immensely proud of what they’d achieved that year.

I think you could probably hear my guffaws from behind the camera — as I was filming it — I couldn’t believe I was hearing such rubbish. Convincing a few operators to buy some 2600 series handsets is not, in any way, an ‘achievement’.

Getting AT&T to market the E71 is.

I wonder how America’s Great Unwashed will react. It’s a solid, brilliantly conceived handset — the E71x is a nice shade of sleek black goodness. And if you’ve been after an ‘official’ S60 experience from the US operators, AT&T is ready to deliver.

They’ve filled it full of ‘the AT&T shit’ (as one chap close to both Nokia and AT&T described it), but it’s still a regular piece of joy to use.

Now here’s the crux. Are we going to see a whole host of Nokia E and N series devices appearing on AT&T in the next few months? If so, Nokia’s got a future in the States. Indeed it might well be worth Nokia taking a bath on some of their top rated handsets to get them in the door and get a look-in here in the States.

You can’t escape the Silicon-Valleyness here. Everyone and their dog is focused on the iPhone. Because almost everyone in the Valley either owns an iPhone, a G1 or (almost) a Palm Pre.

Nokia is very much regarded as ‘that European company’ and written off before anyone can say ‘but they’re shipping 10 million phones a day?’

The Silicon Valley behemoth is not at home to Nokia at the moment. That might change when the Ovi store is live and available on 50m handsets by December — AND knocking back 100m app downloads a week. (We can only hope).

The introduction of the E71x is a coup for Nokia. I hope it’s the next-step in a vast upward trend for them. Let’s wait and see.

Meantime I am willing to bet Jeb Brilliant (who was at the Nokia dinner last night) will be heading out to an AT&T store to buy an E71x asap.

Despite being offered a test unit from the team there, Jeb was quite clear, saying:

“No, no — I am going to buy one. I am going to show my support in the best way possible. I’m going to show AT&T that they’ve made a good decision.”

Good on you Jeb.

And should I base myself in the Valley over the next few months (discussions are on-going) I may well do the same.

Original post by admin and software by Elliott Back

According to BGR, one of their loyal readers received a friendly email from AT&T, which goes like this.

Subject: Important information regarding your iPhone 3G

The new AT&T – Your world. Delivered.

Our service records indicate that you are using an iPhone 3G with a data plan designed for other devices.

To avoid unexpected data overage charges and enable Visual Voicemail, please contact your telecom manager, or an AT&T representative at 1-800-331-0500.

Thank you for choosing wireless from AT&T. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
AT&T Customer Service

BGR suspects that pretty soon, AT&T will make sure that all users who are using the iPhone with non-iPhone plans will need to pay as much as the iPhone-specific plan subscribers do.

Now, the quality of the 3G service provided by AT&T is a totally different story, but this story does seem to raise a lot of concerns.

If AT&T starts doing this in the USA, other carriers in the other countries won’t wait too long to crackdown on the iPhones being used on their networks. I’m not sure if Apple is/will participate in this, but if the carriers get hold of the IMEI numbers of all the iPhone in the market, it shouldn’t be difficult to find those defaulters.

I doubt this will result in a crackdown of the unlocked iPhones, but carriers can definitely stop servicing those who are not on the iPhone specific plans. Luckily, a few markets where the iPhone has been launched, such as India, the users are free to use any available plans on their iPhone, but provided that the iPhone has been purchased officially from the carrier itself.

Is this the beginning of the end?

AT&T will offer access to Yahoo’s Onesearch web-based services to approximately 70 million of its total userbase through the provider’s mobile internet portal. The services will include website keyword search along with links to news stories, weather forecasts and flickr photos. 

According to Yahoo, its Onesearch services currently cater to almost 800 million mobile phone users, spread across 60 carriers in Britain, Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific.

Google, on the other hand, is currently in talks with Verizon to power the Search for the second largest carrier in the US. 

Could this be the push Yahoo was looking for? Even if it is, Yahoo’s happy days won’t last too long. If Google starts powering Verizon searches and Verizon gets the regulatory nod to buy Alltel, it is all set to become the largest carrier in the USA.

Phone home. For most U.S. troops stationed overseas, it’s at the top of their to-do list. To help keep them connected with loved ones and celebrate Independence Day, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is donating 10,000 prepaid phone cards. This is the second installment of more than 30,000 prepaid phone cards that AT&T will give to U.S. service men and women in 2008. With a retail value of more than $200,000, the 2008 donation builds on more than 85 years of AT&T support for U.S. military families and a 20-year partnership with the USO, which will distribute the cards.

I suppose if you’re stationed in Germany with next to no immediate danger of getting blown up, this is perfectly fine.

I have a real problem with offering serving men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan ‘free’ calls to celebrate Independence Day when, really, this sort of thing should be free, right? I mean entirely free. You want to phone home? You’re defending the US? No problem at all. AT&T is your pal. It’s free. Surely this is the sort of thing that patriotic businesses in the States do?

Or at least, I’d hope it is. I doubt it though.

The filing says: “Apple will not receive follow-on revenue generating payments from carriers for the new iPhone 3G beyond the purchase of the device by carriers or a commission on sales of the device by Apple. Apple will continue to receive payments from cellular network providers related to first-generation iPhones as long as they remain active on authorized networks.”

The filing does say, however, that the end to revenue sharing is only “under the vast majority of these agreements” so there must be some carriers out there still getting milked by Apple. Rumour has it AT&T is no longer one of them – so who’s the unlucky operator still handing over bundles of cash?

AT&T says the downlink will rise to between 700 Kbps and 1.7 Mbps from 600 Kbps to 1.4 Mbps and uplink will rise to between 500 Kbps and 1.2 Mbps, from 500 to 800 Kbps.

Rather hilariously, it refers to the last iteration of its network as a “blazing-fast 3G (third-generation) mobile broadband network”. Blazing fast?! I guess in the US maybe it is – after all T-Mobile USA only switched on its 3G network last month. Still, any speed bump will be good for all those browsing-hungry iPhone users.

The Post reports that Vodafone and AT&T are both interested in buying a 50 percent stake in the company, as are private equity firms Blackstone, TPG, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Vodafone has been dabbling with Huawei handsets, which it sells as white label devices for a while now. If it’s thinking of buying itself a kit maker, is this a signal that it wants cheaper data cards and mobiles – or a hint that it wants to see a bit more customisation from its suppliers?

The service, based on Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, will go live in 58 cities, with the usual mix of broadcasters from the likes of CNN, Comedy Central, MTV and Fox, with the usual mix of movies, news, comedy, and music content being promised.

At least now we get a chance to see the pricing: and it’s $15 a month, which seems rather ambitious on AT&T’s part. How long before it switches to an advertising (free content in return for ads) or bundled (all the data you can eat and mobile TV thrown in for good measure) model?

I’m still not altogether convinced that the iPhone is the BlackBerry killer that some lazy headline-jockeys have painted it as – can you see any company apart from the most showy, cash-rich bunch giving out hundreds of iPhones to its sales fleet? – but when it comes to the consumer market, it’s a different game, with both Apple and RIM still relative newbies. Delaying the launch for PR’s sake alone is a wise move: who wants to be locked in a column inches battle with the iPhone? But delaying it for any other technical reason is a far smarter move – that said, it doesn’t bode well if the company really is discovering technical glitches a couple of months before the device is meant to get into the hands of users.

“In the future, AT&T’s 700 MHz spectrum holdings will provide the foundation for deployment of next-generation wireless broadband platforms such as HSPA+ and LTE. While standards for emerging technologies such as LTE are still being developed, these technologies could enable peak broadband speeds of 100 Mbps or more,” said AT&T, while Verizon Wireless is heavier on the facts, saying: “Verizon Wireless plans to launch its LTE network in the 700 MHz spectrum in the 2010 timeframe”.

It’s so good to hear some real numbers being put on LTE rollout dates, but the word timeframe makes me a little nervous – sounds like Verizon Wireless is giving itself a little wriggle room for delays, while AT&T is giving itself all the time in the world.

AT&T said the service will feature two exclusive TV channels, but didn’t give any more information on their content. The operator did say however that it will offer full-length television content and sporting events and programming from leading entertainment brands CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, MTV, NBC 2GO, NBC News2Go and Nickelodeon.

While there still seems to be a lot of skepticism from several quarters on whether mobile TV is a goer, the networks at least seem to be convinced. I can’t help but think that AT&T will need to add a lot more devices to its line up before too long if it wants to take mobile TV anywhere beyond a niche product.

AT&T has already created some applications based on Universal Design, including Mobile Speak, a screen reader with Braille support, and Mobile Magnifier, a magnification application that supports low- and high-resolution screens, which it says are now open to the broadest range of handsets.

If any budding developers want to take a look at Unvirsal Design, the documents are available here. There are already some incredibly smart apps out there for disabled users – hopefully this will add to that number.