AT&T saying 'new devices and updates to existing models' will be HSUPA-ready

Our digging revealed that the Inspire 4G and other devices in AT&T's current stable are more than capable at the hardware level of using HSUPA for high-speed upstream connections, but for whatever reason, the carrier seems to currently require that most handsets handshake with the network using an old protocol stack that doesn't include HSUPA. The result? Glacial uploads, which especially suck when you're trying to tether. Though there's no resolution yet, AT&T's now circulating a mildly hopeful statement: "...we have a number of HSUPA devices today and we will have more HSUPA-enabled devices in the future-new devices and updates to existing models." We're hoping that means we'll see a bunch of firmware updates in the next few months that flip the switch on HSUPA, especially for owners of phones like the Inspire and the Atrix, both of which have a shaky "4G" tacked on to the ends of their names.

J.D. Power: Verizon has best call quality nationwide, T-Mobile consistently belowing average

J.D. Power, that well known arbiter of human opinion in the United States, has just released its latest study on customer satisfaction with wireless carriers. It addresses such things as (the lack of) dropped calls, failures to connect, voice distortion, echoes, static, and late-arriving text messages, and ultimately churns out a rating out of five stars relative to the regional average and other carriers. In testing done between July and December last year, Verizon had the best or tied for the best satisfaction ratings in five of the six studied areas, while AT&T and Sprint traded blows for second and T-Mobile had to admit defeat as the laggard of the top four. US Cellular managed to score highest in the North Central region, but J.D. Power's overall assessment isn't very rosy for any of the carriers -- the stats collector says growing smartphone usage, heavy texting and more indoor calls are collectively causing call quality to stagnate, and even warns that "increased adoption of smartphones and wireless tablets may continue to compromise the quality of network service." 

AT&T going to offer mobile hotspot on iPhone 4 starting March 11th, requires usual $45 data plan

Though it was kind of implied during the iPad 2 event yesterday when we learned that the GSM (that is, non-Verizon) version of the iPhone 4 would be getting iOS 4.3 with mobile hotspot capability on March 11th, we've doubly confirmed with AT&T today that the carrier will be offering the feature right out of the gate -- a departure from the tethering delay of days gone by. Naturally, you'll need the tethering feature added to your account, a $20 surcharge over the standard 2GB DataPro plan for a grand total of $45 with a 4GB bucket. Makes the extra coin a little easier to swallow over cabled and Bluetooth tethering alone, we suppose.

AT&T will get iPhone Personal Hotspot with iOS 4.3 on March 11

AT&T on Wednesday night confirmed with Electronista that it would start supporting the Personal Hotspot feature in sync with the launch of iOS 4.3. Subscribers will have the same support as Verizon customers when the update pushes out to the GSM iPhone 4 on March 11. Pricing should stay the same as for basic tethering and will need its new DataPro hotspot/tethering plan, which combines 4GB of total data with connection sharing for $45.

The pricing puts it on par with Verizon's own combined strategy except for flexibility. Verizon's plan has unlimited data on-device, but users can't draw more than 2GB while in hotspot or tethered mode without an overage. AT&T's plan is capped on all devices, but those who tether or use the hotspot often will have up to twice as much room. International carriers are still offering better deals, and Canadians will get free hotspot creation on plans that already included tethering at no extra charge.

Adopting the hotspot so quickly is a contrast with AT&T's initial approach to direct tethering. The carrier promised tethering would come to its version of the iPhone soon after iOS 3.0 brought it about but didn't make it available until a year later, after many carriers in other countries had already enabled it. Lingering concerns about the 3G network's ability to handle the load were considered the driving factor, but its then-unlimited plans may have played their own role.

Gogo Inflight Internet app making flying sign-ins a snap

If you're one of those people who spends way too much time in airplane seats, you've probably been thrilled with Gogo Inflight Internet. The company provides Internet service on all AirTran and Virgin America flights, and has service on some flights on Air Canada, Alaska, American, Delta, United, and US Airways flights. They're expanding to more aircraft and airlines in 2011, so being able to send TwitPics of your seatmate or video of dancing flight attendants will become entirely too commonplace.

Gogo wants to make it even easier for you to get online while you're airborne. The free Gogo Inflight Internet app is designed to detect if your flight is equipped with the Gogo network, and if it is (and provided that you've also signed up with the company ahead of the flight) you can get online with a tap of a button.

For those of us who still haven't been on a Wi-Fi equipped aircraft and need to sign up for a Gogo account, there's even a button to let you do that while in the app. Unlike the very stupid or naive person who left a 1-star review of the app in the App Store griping that the Gogo service was not free, I think most TUAW readers are bright enough to understand that this app simply signs you into the service -- you still have to pay for the privilege, which can run anywhere from US$4.95 for a short flight to $34.95 for a month of unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi. The app works on any iOS device, although it's really designed for an iPhone or iPod touch.

The TUAW crew is used to seeing fearless leader Victor Agreda wandering the virtual newsroom while on Gogo-equipped flights. I'm just waiting for the opportunity to use Gogo's service to do the first inflight episode of TUAW TV Live... after the airplane reached 10,000 feet and the crew has given us the OK to use approved electronic devices, of course.

Study: 'death grip' hits all phones, cases don't always help

The University of Bristol in a study issued Monday simultaneously supported and criticized Apple in arguments over the affects of the human hand on phone antenna. It saw a "100-fold" drop in the reception a signal on a test device's antenna when covered either by a thumb or by a material simulating the effect. Putting a plastic insulator such as a phone surface or a case didn't necessarily restore the signal, the discoverers Beach, Gibbins and Webb found.

They cautioned that phone makers could control how likely it was to happen. The position of the antenna could make obstruction more common.

The research helped support Apple's view that signal drops weren't limited to the iPhone 4. After receiving criticism on the AT&T launch, it attempted to minimize the impact by singling out phones like the Droid X that could suffer the same symptoms, even when their manufacturers claimed they were immune. Many users began looking for the problems themselves and found them in the HD7 and others.

Critics have noted that Apple's design is still an exception since it moves the antenna to the outer frame and has an easily blocked gap that bridges the cellular antenna with others, cutting off the signal much more rapidly. It only usually has an impact for those whose hold naturally covers the gap and who live in areas with low reception, where a tight grip could cut off data and voice altogether.

Doubts have existed over the exact reasons, but the iPhone antenna issue may have led to Mark Papermaster's ouster after the iPhone 4 design tarnished Apple's public image.

iPads and other Connected Devices Now Driving New Subscriber Growth at Carriers

Wireless carriers like AT&T (NYSE: T) are adding more new customers through tablet sales than smartphones, according to a new report.

Chetan Sharma’s report makes clear what was already pretty well known: interest in tablets, e-readers and other so-called “connected devices,” is growing each quarter and is even outpacing growth in smartphones, the darling of the mobile community the last several years. While it’s often easy for a new product to grow faster than a more established one, AT&T added more new customers in the fourth quarter because of tablet sales compared to smartphone sales for the fifth straight quarter, according to Sharma’s report.

And most of that is on the back of a single device: the iPad. Connected devices now make up 10 percent of AT&T’s subscription base, slightly more than the 9 percent connected-device share among Verizon’s subscribers. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has a distinct advantage over the competition when it comes to distribution, Sharma wrote: it doesn’t have to depend on carriers to sell its tablets, with a huge network of stores and retail partners giving it more control.

Competition is heating up with the release of Google’s Honeycomb Android software, the first version of Android designed specifically for tablets. But devices like Motorola’s Xoom are just now hitting the market, whereas Apple is expected to introduce its second-generation iPad Wednesday in San Francisco. “We expect iPad to dominate the space in 2011 as competitors will find it hard to compete across all dimensions - price, performance, ecosystem, distribution, and brand power,” Sharma wrote.

Lest anyone think the smartphone era is over already, Sharma notes that 48 percent of all phones sold in the U.S. during the fourth quarter were smartphones, as opposed to 25 percent of phones sold internationally. And those smartphones are chewing through a lot more data, up 132 percent in 2010 as compared to the previous year.

AT&T's Motorola WX450 showing its rugged self in FCC filing

Motorola has a fairly sterling reputation for concealing interesting tidbits of information in its FCC filings -- but every so often, one slips through. Take this WX450, for instance, which you might mistake for an iDEN handset at first -- it looks a little bit like the i465 Clutch, after all -- but it turns out this puppy has 850 / 1900MHz WCDMA 3G (along with GSM) for use on AT&T... which would explain the AT&T logo button to the lower left of the d-pad. The giant screw on the back is indicative of the fact that this is a water-resistant device, backed up with what appears to be a thick non-slip, shock-absorbing rubber cover; Motorola already sells the rugged Tundra on the carrier, so there's certainly precedent for this sort of thing. Sadly, judging from the user's manual, it doesn't look like it'll be running the samewacky build of Android as the i886, which is a crying shame if you ask us.

Upgrading old Pres, Pre Pluses to webOS 2.1 slightly easier, fraught with less danger thanking to new scripts

Let's be honest, Palm user: in all likelihood, your days with your Pre or Pre Plus are numbered. At this point, you've got the Pre 2 available, the Pre 3and Veer in the pipeline, and countless awesome assaults from other platforms in constant danger of stealing you away. Might as well have a little fun, right? Maybe try your hand at an unauthorized upgrade to webOS 2.1, for example? WebOS Internals has thrown together some scripts that make updating a variety of Pre and Pre Plus versions from Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, Telcel, and Bell -- devices that HP recently decided wouldn't get webOS 2.0 -- relatively painless, though they're quick to note that any number of absolutely awful things could still happen to your device or your Palm Profile. It's not for the faint of heart... but then again, carrying around a Pre these days shows a level of platform defiance that isn't for the faint of heart, either, so you're no stranger to bravery.

HTC Aria for AT&T getting official Froyo update

AT&T had just said in the past few days that the Aria's Android 2.2 update was in the labs... and, well, here it is. That was a pretty painless wait, right (assuming you don't count the wait since Asia got it)? The download is up on HTC's site right now, weighing in at 165MB and warning that it'll delete your text messages and your downloaded email, wipe your apps, and scare your children... so proceed with the same level of caution that you would any firmware upgrade.

AT&T's brewing HSUPA-gate: the inside story

Though it really came to a head with the recently-launched Inspire 4G, users have noticed that there really aren't many phones in AT&T's stable that deliver stellar upload speeds -- the Atrix 4G is suffering the same sub-megabit performance, as are older devices that should seemingly support HSUPA like the Samsung Captivate.

We've chatted in the past few days with a source who offers an interesting explanation: AT&T currently requires that all handsets that it sells "handshake" with the network as 3GPP Release 5 devices, the last official set of 3G specifications that lacked support for HSUPA. That feature -- also known as EDCH, or FDD Enhanced Uplink -- was added in Release 6. Though AT&T is apparently working on permitting the bulk of its handsets to handshake Release 6, presently only the iPhone 4 (and presumably all of its recent data devices like USB modems, which may also use Release 7) are allowed. Neither we, nor our source, know why this is. Our source believes that the Release 6 certification may happen within a "month or two," which would explain why some AT&T sales reps in live HSPA+ areas are telling customers that the "4G network" isn't live yet.

You can form your own conclusions as to why AT&T might be imposing this arbitrary limitation, but we do know that "enhanced" backhaul figures prominently into the company's 4G story; there may be concerns that flipping on HSUPA for everyone right now would overwhelm its legacy infrastructure. At any rate, it sounds like this could all be solved soon through a combination of network changes and possibly firmware updates for individual devices, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Wirefly now dropping AT&T sales next month for reasons unknown

Wirefly -- one of the largest independent wireless retailers around -- has made waves in a post by CEO Andy Zeinfeld saying that they'll no longer be offering AT&T devices and contracts as of next month. The reasons for the move are unclear; Zeinfeld says that "circumstances prevent [them] from being able to deliver" on the company's customer service principles -- and considering that it's probably in Wirefly's best interest to offer as many carriers as it can in all but the most extenuating situations, there must be some serious drama going on here behind the scenes. We figure it could be a disagreement on commissions or the terms of Wirefly's contracts with its customers, but whatever the case, the company assures existing buyers that the terms of its guarantee still apply and that it "will work with AT&T toward the goal of offering their products and services again in the future."

LetsTalk following Wirefly's lead, kills off AT&T sales starting next month

It's not just Wirefly that's killing off its relationship with AT&T: LetsTalk is the next to fall, which suggests that the carrier is doing something to its third-party retail partners that are making them very, very sad indeed. Though we still don't know exactly what's going on, a recent note to LetsTalk affiliates stated that "the primary reasons given for this change in AT&T's business strategy were centered around AT&T cost savings and retrenchment," so it's possible they're reducing commissions paid out to third parties to the point where it's no longer economically viable. We've also heard rumors that AT&T is requiring its partners not to undercut first-party pricing on devices anymore, though that seems downright crazy and somewhat difficult to believe -- it utterly defeats theraison d'être for the likes of Wirefly and LetsTalk and prevents them from offering any value in exchange for the secondary ETFs they levy. At any rate, yeah... unless these guys can get their business relationships patched over in a hurry, don't look for AT&T gear from 'em starting in a few days. No word yet on what this might mean for other web-based mobile retailers -- notably Amazon Wireless -- but we'll likely know soon.

Huzzah! Android 2.2 Coming To AT&T Captivates Tomorrow

Excuses have been made, and delays explained away, but it seems that AT&T’s variant of the Galaxy S will be getting Froyo tomorrow. AT&T updated their Facebook page, saying that instructions will be posted tomorrow to Facebook. There are final builds floating around right now, but I think after waiting all these months, you poor guys can wait one more day.

LetsTalk follows Wirefly's lead, killing off AT&T sales starting next month

It's not just Wirefly that's killing off its relationship with AT&T: LetsTalk is the next to fall, which suggests that the carrier is doing something to its third-party retail partners that are making them very, very sad indeed. Though we still don't know exactly what's going on, a recent note to LetsTalk affiliates stated that "the primary reasons given for this change in AT&T's business strategy were centered around AT&T cost savings and retrenchment," so it's possible they're reducing commissions paid out to third parties to the point where it's no longer economically viable. We've also heard rumors that AT&T is requiring its partners not to undercut first-party pricing on devices anymore, though that seems downright crazy and somewhat difficult to believe -- it utterly defeats theraison d'être for the likes of Wirefly and LetsTalk and prevents them from offering any value in exchange for the secondary ETFs they levy. At any rate, yeah... unless these guys can get their business relationships patched over in a hurry, don't look for AT&T gear from 'em starting in a few days. No word yet on what this might mean for other web-based mobile retailers -- notably AmazonWireless -- but we'll likely know soon.

AT&T Motorola Atrix 4G now going on sale, $149.99 at Amazon or RadioShack (update: $129.99 at Walmart)

The hotly reviewed and already rooted Atrix 4G is now on sale at AT&T. As expected, the privilege of buying direct from the carrier will set you back $199.99 with a two-year contract in the range of $39.99 per month for the Nation 450 on up to $69.99 for the Nation Unlimited with another $15 per month for a 200MB DataPlus plan or $45 per month for a Data Pro 4GB + tethering plan. Or shop on over to Amazon (or RadioShack) who lists the same HSPA+ device for $50 less with a 24-hour ship time. Remember, if you just have to have the laptop dock then you'd best do it now while it's offered with the handset in a $499 bundle (after $100 mail-in rebate and purchase of the Data Pro plan with tethering add-on) -- the same laptop dock purchased separately will cost you $499.99. No, really.

Update: Walmart is offering the Atrix 4G handset for a measly $129.99 for those of you activating a new account before Thursday.

AT&T's HTC Inspire 4G can do HSUPA, has it disabled for some mysterious reason

There's a story going around the past couple days that HTC's Inspire 4G for AT&T -- a phone that you would assume to be wicked fast on both uploads and downloads in light of the name -- doesn't support HSUPA, a critical element to offering reasonable uplink speeds. Turns out it's not quite that simple. Here's what we're hearing from trusted sources:

• Contrary to AT&T's official line -- which is flatly that the Inspire's specs don't include HSUPA -- the hardware most certainly doessupport it.
• For some reason, HSUPA has been disabled in the current firmware, but could be easily enabled in a future update if HTC and AT&T were to agree to do so. For what it's worth, we're not even aware of an HSPA+ chipset that lacks support for HSUPA, so that definitely sounds right.
• We've also been told that AT&T's network may simply have HSUPA disabled in 4G areas. That doesn't necessarily make sense since other HSUPA-compliant devices on AT&T (like the iPhone 4, to name an obvious example) can regularly hit HSUPA uplink speeds, but we suppose it's possible that there's some specific incompatibility between the infrastructure and the chipset used by the Inspire. An eerily-similar incident has happened in the past, after all.

We'll keep our ear to the ground as we get more on this situation, but the bottom line is that hope is not lost for heavy uploaders with Inspires -- we just need to find out what it's going to take to get HTC to push an update.

Wirefly will dropp AT&T sales next month for reasons unknown

Wirefly -- one of the largest independent wireless retailers around -- has made waves in a post by CEO Andy Zeinfeld saying that they'll no longer be offering AT&T devices and contracts as of next month. The reasons for the move are unclear; Zeinfeld says that "circumstances prevent [them] from being able to deliver" on the company's customer service principles -- and considering that it's probably in Wirefly's best interest to offer as many carriers as it can in all but the most extenuating situations, there must be some serious drama going on here behind the scenes. We figure it could be a disagreement on commissions or the terms of Wirefly's contracts with its customers, but whatever the case, the company assures existing buyers that the terms of its guarantee still apply and that it "will work with AT&T toward the goal of offering their products and services again in the future."

iPhone testing faster on AT&T than Verizon, Israel the fastest

Ookla founder and Speedtest.net creator Doug Suttles has run tests that show the AT&T iPhone holding the 3G performance lead in the US but still trailing well behind much of the world. In step with AT&T's use of 7.2Mbps HSPA for its 3G versus Verizon's 3.1Mbps EVDO Revision A, the original iPhone carrier was benchmarked roughly twice as fast on average, pulling roughly 1.7Mbps downstream and 712Kbps upstream compared to Verizon's 804Kbps and 502Kbps. The testing is consistent with early reviews and was reflective of the apparent tradeoff in the US, where Verizon users trade speed for reliability.

"I think the story is quality versus throughput," Suttles told Wired about the test. "What are you after?"

The benchmarks notably didn't include instances in which the test failed or was impossible to properly complete. AT&T iPhone users in some cities, primarily those in the San Francisco Bay Area, have regularly had problems where 3G data was either slow or non-existent. Coverage areas also weren't addressed, as Verizon has a larger overall coverage map but also occasionally has reduced coverage or none at all versus AT&T.

Both US providers, however, were well behind some international providers in additionaltests. Israel's Pelephone was roughly twice as fast, managing 3.3Mbps down and almost 1.3Mbps up. Austria's A1 was just behind at 3.1Mbps downstream but just as fast upstream as Pelephone.

Canadian carriers were also close. Bell and Telus were fastest in downloads and uploads respectively; the former reached 2.9Mbps in downloads and 1.3Mbps in uploads, while the latter was lower at 2.8Mbps for the downlink but managed 1.5Mbps up.

A number of factors can play into download speeds that aren't necessarily in the control of the carrier, such as population density or the preference for a particular phone. However, many of the carriers have had months or years to either prepare for or compensate for the effect of Apple's data-heavy device on their networks.

Samsung Captivate on AT&T gets Android 2.2, all that Froyo hasn't melted yet (new update: it's gone!)

It took about two months for Samsung to roll out the much-needed GPS fix for the Captivate, and now, a mere seven months after Google pulled a handle on the machine and twirled up a big cone of Froyo, that phone is finally getting a spoonful. Samsung has released an Android 2.2 update and the full instructions plus the download are on the other end of the source link below. Hopefully it isn't too frostbitten after all this time.

Update: Well now, we've just received a flurry of tips indicating that it's been pulled and, indeed, the page on the other end of the source link is now gone. We'll try to figure out what went wrong here.