By Jeff Baumgartner; Light Reading ~ Nov 25, 2019

Following an initial trial in ten US markets, AT&T has extended the trial of its new AT&T TV service to four major cities — New York, Miami, Minneapolis and Seattle.

Those new markets, spotted late last week by Multichannel News and now referenced on the AT&T TV website, build on an initial batch of test markets that included Orange County and Riverside, Calif.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Topeka and Wichita, Kan.; St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; and in Corpus Christi, El Paso, and Odessa, Texas. The most current list of AT&T TV markets also includes Tacoma, Wash., and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Introduced in pilot form in August, AT&T TV is an OTT-delivered pay-TV service that runs on a 4K-capable Android TV box and features a cloud DVR and a handful of service tiers.

AT&T TV, which allows for up to three concurrent streams, works with any broadband connection, though AT&T recommends bundling it with its own high-speed service and a service level that provides speeds of at least 8 Mbit/s for “optimal viewing.” AT&T is currently backing the bundling idea with a $100 reward card and $20 per month off the video streaming service for the first year when customers combine AT&T TV with the company’s Internet service.

By Mike Dano; Light Reading ~ Nov 22, 2019

AT&T said it will not charge extra for customers to access the lowband 5G service it’s planning to launch across millions of customers this year.

That’s probably because AT&T’s lowband 5G network isn’t going to be much faster than its existing 4G network, the company says. “Data speeds on AT&T’s 5G network are initially expected to be comparable to 5G Evolution speeds at the time of launch, while speeds on the 5G+ network are faster (but with very limited coverage),” the operator explained in response to questions from Light Reading. (See below to decipher what all this means.)

Further, AT&T also confirmed it will not charge extra for customers to access its highband 5G network. That’s different than what Verizon plans to do.

The issue is critical for AT&T, Verizon and other operators because it will determine exactly how they will actually make money from deploying 5G services.

By Aaron Pressman; Fortune ~ Nov 22, 2019

AT&T announced plans on Friday for a broader rollout of super-fast 5G mobile phone service for consumers, reaching parts of 15 cities within the next few months. AT&T was the fourth of the four major carriers to reveal its initial plans for 5G phone service, allowing customers to weigh the various options for getting connectivity that could be 10 to 50 times faster than the average 4G download speed.

AT&T said its new 5G service would start in parts of Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester, and San Diego. By February, the service would also encompass parts of Boston, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, New York City, San Francisco, Birmingham, Ala., Bridgeport, Conn., Buffalo, N.Y., Louisville, Ky., and San Jose. The limited rollout is similar to Sprint and Verizon, while T-Mobile has said it’s looking at a near-nationwide 5G offering starting on Dec. 6.

The base will use tech to “maintain its globally competitive edge in defending our freedoms,” AT&T says.

By Corinne Reichert; CNET ~  Nov 21, 2019

AT&T says it’ll switch on its 5G network at Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle in early 2020. By combining the new network with connected devices, augmented reality, virtual reality, cloud and its dedicated first responder network FirstNet, AT&T is creating a “smart base of the future” for the US Air Force, the company said on Thursday.

Tyndall, which suffered damage during 2018’s Hurricane Michael, is being completely rebuilt and modernized by AT&T tech. During the hurricane, AT&T said, Tyndall used FirstNet to reestablish comms within a few hours.

“The Air Force and AT&T share a vision for the smart base of the future … to help our military maintain its globally competitive edge in defending our freedoms,” said Xavier Williams, president of AT&T’s Global Public Sector.

5G, the next-generation mobile technology, provides faster speeds, more capacity and lower latency — the time it takes a stream or download to begin once you’ve requested it.

An influential Wall Street analyst has some doubts about the company’s recently released guidance.

By Lou Whiteman; The Motley Fool ~ Nov 19, 2019

What Happened

Shares of AT&T (NYSE:T) fell 5% on Tuesday after influential research analyst Craig Moffett downgraded the stock to a sell, warning that the telecom giant’s businesses are all under pressure and predicting that AT&T will struggle to hit the guidance it recently released.

So what

AT&T is a company in transition, having paid $67 billion to acquire DirecTV in 2015 and $85 billion to buy Time Warner last year in an attempt to transform itself into an entertainment giant. The acquisitions have piled debt onto the balance sheet and attracted the scrutiny of activists.

Via News Wire Feed; Light Reading ~ Nov 14, 2019

MUNICH — AT&T and Nokia are delivering a new Munich-based innovation studio to support the growing global adoption of current and next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.

From connected cars and factories to video analytics and future 5G-enabled applications, the dedicated space will demonstrate both current capabilities and the future of global connected solutions.

The studio will allow companies to see first-hand how IoT solutions can solve global business problems. For example, they can experience how technology can improve asset management and tracking, as well as offer predictive maintenance for equipment and connected fleets. Customers can also learn about the latest in connected car innovation, alongside an interactive experience using Augmented Reality to bring some of Munich’s most famous landmarks to life.

By Mike Dano; Light Reading ~ Nov 13, 2019

T-Mobile last week announced plans to launch lowband 5G on Dec. 6 with two phones. This week, AT&T reiterated that it too plans to launch lowband 5G with at least one device sometime before the end of this year.

The positioning indicates that the two operators are roughly neck and neck in their race to build out 5G. But their approaches are much different. For example, T-Mobile held a major “uncarrier” media event last week in part to announce its 5G launch plans, while AT&T’s Igal Elbaz reiterated the operator’s own launch plans in offhand comments this week at an investor event in Barcelona, Spain.

And that isn’t the only difference between the operators’ efforts:

AT&T stock is having its best year since 2006 and the party isn’t over yet

From Luke Lango; InvestorPlace ~  Nov 12, 2019

Earlier this year, I gave four big reasons why investors should buy AT&T (NYSE:T) stock for 2019 and 2020. Those four reasons were very simple. The wireless competition headwind was moderating, the 5G boom was coming, HBO Max would spark a rebound in the video business and the valuation on AT&T stock was simply too cheap to ignore.

Fast forward to present day. We are now less than two months from the end of 2019, and AT&T stock is up an impressive 40% year-to-date. Even if shares went sideways over the next two months, 2019 would mark the best annual performance for the stock since 2006.

The big question now — can AT&T stock stay in rally mode?

AT&T adds 15GB “bonus” to older plans but raises price $10.

By Jon Brodkin; Ars Technica ~  Nov 08, 2019

AT&T is adding $10 to the monthly bills of customers with certain grandfathered mobile-data plans and not letting them switch back to their older packages. AT&T is pitching the change as a “bonus” because it’s also adding 15GB to the customers’ monthly data allotments.

“Enjoy more data,” AT&T says in a support document. “Starting with your October 2019 bill, you’ll get an additional 15GB of data on your Mobile Share plan. This bonus data comes with a $10 price increase.”

Paying an extra $10 for another 15GB isn’t a bad deal as far as US wireless prices go, but that’s only true if you actually need the extra data. The plans getting the data-and-price increases already had between 20GB and 60GB of data per month at prices that ranged from $100 to $225. Now those plans have 35GB to 75GB and cost $110 to $235. (The data allotments can be shared among multiple people on the same family plan.)

By Chris Morris; Fortune ~ Nov 01, 2019

AT&T is doubling down on its robocall protections for customers.

The carrier announced Friday it would add three new features to its automatic fraud call blocking service at no additional cost to customers.

Starting immediately, customers can arrange for calls from anyone not in their address book or contact list to immediately be sent to voicemail. And calls from unknown callers can be identified as a “spam risk” and automatically blocked.

In addition, iPhone users will be able to block calls using Siri shortcuts, such as “Hey Siri, block the last call.”

“Our customers deserve more ways to combat nuisance calls and we are excited to provide more free tools to help them do just that,” said Kevin Petersen, senior vice president of postpaid wireless products at AT&T in a statement.