AT&T

Isis, a joint venture company conjointly owned by AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, announced the new partnership with Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express — all four of the major US payments networks.

"Isis' relationships with all four payment networks means that with Isis-enabled phones and payment terminals in place, merchants and consumers will have ubiquity and freedom of choice when it comes to payment network acceptance," says the company.

AT&T announced Monday that it is launching its HTC Status smartphone this week on July 17. The phone with a dedicated Facebook share button will go on sale in AT&T stores for just $50. The smartphone is mostly targeted at young consumers who spend a lot of time browsing social networking services.

In a move to fend off the online piracy companies united to launch a set of rules to slow or restrict the Internet access to consumers found illegally downloading copyrighted films, music or TV shows.

Verizon Communications Inc, Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp and AT&T Inc agreed to alert customers, up to six times, when it appears their account is used for illegal downloading. Warnings will come as e-mails or pop-up messages.

As it tries to soften the public stress over its hacked database Sony demonstrated its new PlayStation Vita handheld games device at a Lost Angeles event this week.

Starting the holiday season the new PlayStation Vita will be retailed for $249, or $299 for a 3G mobile version, said the company executive Kazuo Hirai.

Sony said that it would work with AT&T as exclusive carrier for the Vita.
 

An in-depth investigation will be conducted by the Justice Department to learn whether AT&T's plan to buy of T-Mobile USA break anti-trust laws, says the source familiar with the case.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona declined to confirm that the antitrust division had deepened its probe. "Our investigation is ongoing," she added.

This week HTC unveiled its first Windows Phone 7 handset for AT&T. The phone is dedicated for entertainment and comes with a 4.3 inch screen.

The mobile device features Dolby Mobile and SRS WOW HD surround audio and is integrated with Xbox LIVE and Zune. There is a G-Sensor for gaming and a kickstand to allow you to sit and watch video. The screen is Super-LCD WVGA.

Apart from these, the phone also has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of ROM and 16GB of internal storage. Besides, it is equipped with 576MB of RAM. No 4G or WiMAX.

Google has found at least its partner to make Google Voice service working on a large mobile network. The company has partnered with Sprint to integrate mobile phones with the Internet telephony to let users attach a single number to multiple phones and further turn voicemail messages into emails, send free texts, make free domestic calls, and dial international numbers at lower prices.

AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for an approximate price of $39 billion. AT&T is the largest wireless network in the United States having nearly 95.5 million subscribers, while T-Mobile runs the fourth largest, with 23 million. Both networks use the same GSM technology and thus the merger will leave America with only one GSM provider.

Verizon, the second largest mobile network, and Sprint, the third, use the CDMA standard.

The US Supreme Court ruled this week that AT&T as well as other corporations have no protection of privacy rights against disclosure of federal government records about them.

The decision of the justices was unanimous against a ruling by a U.S. appeals court for the telecommunications company that corporations can assert personal privacy in claiming the records should be exempt from disclosure.

Some new details about the next generation iPad have been reported by the Wall Street Journal, who cited people with the knowledge of the matter. Meantime, Apple has made no announcement yet.

The report in the Journal says that the next iPad will be available through both AT&T and Verizon, and will be thinner, lighter, and will have at least one camera on the front. The new tablet will also feature more memory and a more powerful graphics processor.

According to an outlook of R.W. Baird & Co. analyst William Power the number of iPhones to be sold by Verizon in 2011 may account for 25 million, reports All Things Digital.

The analyst believes that Verizon could sell 23.8 million iPhones to its subscribers this year. That figure, combined with the 5.6 percent of AT&T iPhone users who, Baird says, will switch to Verizon in 2011, and you've got a sales number that approaches 25 million, which is more than twice as predicted by other analysts who forecast 9 to 12 million.

Motorola Mobility Holdings makes a dull forecast for its sales in this quarter impacted by the next Apple iPhone that comes with Verizon Wireless. The company expects unusual drop and has already already noticed a decline in smartphone sales, Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said on Wednesday.

Motorola first-quarter phone sales typically fall 7 percent to 10 percent from the fourth quarter shopping season.

Nokia has recalled its plans to launch a smartphone for the US No 2 mobile carrier AT&T some time before the device should have been announced according to the sources familiar with the situation.

Supposed to be called as the X7 the touchscreen phone could have helped Nokia in its move to gain market in North America where it is strongly challenged by Apple, Research in Motion and Motorola.

"This was Nokia's decision," said the person who asked not to be named because the companies have not made a public announcement.

While many people are getting excited over the launch of Verizon iPhone 4 it may be so that they shouldn’t hasten to acquire a current model. Consumer Reports graded Verizon's CDMA iPhone 4 a "middle-aged device" and said buyers would be wise to wait for a newer model.

Apple, AT&T, Target, and Best Buy have reduced prices for the 8GB iPhone 3GS to $49 (with a two-year contract).

The price cut is permanent and reflects Apple’s move to compete with low cost smartphones offered by some mobile operators. Verizon, for instance, sells pre-owned original Droid phones for $50 on contract. Motorola's Backflip also sells for $50 with AT&T.

Apple's iPhone 3GS product page says the phone "starts at an amazing new price" and "takes advantage of all the great features of iOS 4."