Carrier News

AT&T and Vizible have quietly entered the browser wars after launching a beta Firefox-based browser with ads called Pogo. It has visual tabbed browsing and is structured into collections that organize and tag your favorites. Pogo has a search feature to keep track of your results and flexibility to provide as many home pages as you want.

In an interview with prolific blogger Robert Scoble, Todd Finch, president and CEO of Toronto-based Vizible, said, “We’re trying to improve the way people find, collect, organize and manage info on the Web,” said. “Humans are visual, and Pogo adds a visual layer to the browsing experience that’s intuitive to use.” According to executives from both AT&T and Vizible, the goal is not to start a browser war, but to create a three-dimensional browser experience.

According to their auto-response email, AT&T Pogo is currently in a ‘Limited Beta’, and, “over the coming weeks, we will let you know about our progress as we move from a limited beta to a closed public beta and finally to an open beta release.”

Pogo’s tagline is: “It’s your internet - do it your way.” Has the browser truly evolved? Can I really manage all my media with one browser?

Wirefly is pleased to announce the availability on Wirefly.com of AT&T’s new & improved GPS navigation service, called AT&T Navigator. Powered by TeleNav, a leader in consumer navigation tools, the AT&T Navigator service is GPS-driven and is only available on certain AT&T devices.

Thanks to advanced GPS navigation technology, AT&T Navigator offers turn-by-turn driving directions with automatic rerouting, full-color moving maps and audio prompts. Avoid traffic jams with real-time alerts on devices compatible with TeleNav Traffic. Also find restaurants, cafés, hotels, the lowest priced gas and more from over 10 million Points Of Interest (POIs) nationwide.

A similar TeleNav-powered service has been available on certain Nextel, Sprint and Verizon devices for some time, but for AT&T customers the wait is over.

To sign up for the service, order a compatible device on Wirefly.com and then just add the AT&T Navigator feature to your shopping cart. AT&T Navigator is available at $9.99 per month for unlimited routes (recommended) or you can purchase a $2.99 “Day Pass�? directly through your device. Fees are charged directly to your cell phone bill, so there’s no need to provide your credit card information.

Here, by the way, is the list of compatible devices:

*BlackBerry Curve 8310, BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry 8820
*Motorola Q, Motorola Z9
*Samsung BlackJack II
*AT&T Tilt

Good news for AT&T customers – the carrier is about to begin an upgrade to its 3G network that’s expected to be complete by the middle of this year.

AT&T Wireless’ 3G network currently delivers downlink speeds between 600 Kbps and 1.3 Mbps, with related uplink capabilities. The new technology – called HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) – will boost those speeds while leaving room for even greater improvement down the road.

The upgraded data speeds will help AT&T deliver new, data-heavy applications like its Video Share feature.
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Shop for free cell phones at Wirefly.com.

Earlier this week, AT&T announced a partnership with Napster geared towards making the most of the rapidly growing mobile entertainment business. The arrangement brings the nation’s biggest cellular carrier together with one of the best known distributors of digital content to – according to hopeful executives – complement traditional song downloads and generate a new stream of revenue.

The service allows AT&T customers to download songs directly, and wirelessly, to a cell phone. Napster’s catalog of over 5 million songs is the big consumer draw here; in addition, the company has experience managing music distribution, and will presumably provide an attractive user interface. Pricing is already established: $1.99 per individual song, or $7.49 for a month-long subscription good for five songs.

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AT&T wireless store locations in the Northeast are now drop-off points for the Cell Phones for Soldiers charity founded by two Massachusetts teenagers. The proceeds from recycling are used to purchase prepaid phone cards and distribute them to soldiers serving overseas, allowing them to stay in touch with their families.

The teens, siblings from Norwell, MA, started the organization with $21 after hearing a report on the news about how much soldiers were spending to call home. Since they started in 2004, they have raised over $1 million and distributed over 75,000 phone cards to soldiers.

By the Fourth of July, all AT&T wireless store locations will be accepting cell phones for recycling. In addition, AT&T is donating 30,000 prepaid phone cards as well as volume discount pricing to the organization.

More information on donating and/or recycling your cell phone is available at Wirefly.org.

AT&T announced today that its new cell phone “shared video” service is now available in three U.S. cities. Subscribers in San Antonio, Atlanta and Dallas are able to essentially broadcast a live video feed from their phone, share that video with a friend, and carry on a conversation at the same time. The program, called Video Share, is best summed up as “I see what you see.”

Right now, only three cell phone models support AT&T’s Video Share – the Samsung a707, Samsung Sync, and LG CU500v – and in order for the service to work, both the sender and receiver must own the correct phone and subscribe to the Video Share program. Still, though, this sure sounds cool. Video Share costs a modest $4.99 a month for 25 minutes of video feeds, or $9.99 for a full hour.

Best of all, an AT&T spokeswoman says Video Share will be made available to AT&T’s entire 3G network, from coast to coast, by next month.

Over the last few years, I’ve sent a lot of text messages to friends, family and colleagues abroad. The reason is obvious — the cost of international texting is lower than placing international calls, so it’s a great way to communicate. The major cell phone carriers are working on providing data plans specifically for customers like me, who do a lot of international messaging, and, this summer, AT&T is launching theirs.

If you’re like me, one of AT&T’s new international SMS packages – as an add-on to any existing cell phone plan — could cut your international text messaging costs in half. The new option is $9.99 per month for one-hundred international text messages, essentially slicing the cost per message from twenty cents to ten.

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