We don’t have too much information, but here is what we do know… one of our Motorola sources has confirmed to us that AT&T will be getting one of the hottest devices out of Schaumburg, IL in a little while. We have been told the Motorola Olympus (we’re assuming that is the code name) will be a 4″ tablet style Android device but use a display that is “beautiful,” and will “step it up in resolution.” The phone is also “powered by NVidia.”

Our source promises it’s the finest Android handset to hit AT&T, and from the limited specs we have received, we’re inclined to believe them.

Recently, AT&T announced new Pay-As-You-Go international data packages for netbook and laptop users. The new, 30-day plans start at 20MB for $24.99 and go all the way up to 200MB for $199.99. “Data sessions may be purchased using a credit card or a debit card. Customers can also bill the charges to their wireless bill provided the postpaid wireless account has been active more than 90 days and has no past due charges,” reads the press release. The company will also allow users to schedule when the 30-day pass begins to take effect. The four announced plans are as follows:

DataConnect Pass Global 20MB for $24.99

DataConnect Pass Global 50MB for $59.99

DataConnect Pass Global 100MB for $119.99

DataConnect Pass Global 200MB for $199.99

Although expensive, it seems like a pretty good way to prevent scary international overages. Hit the jump for the full press release.

AT&T Introduces Pay-As-You-Go International Data Packages for Laptops and Netbook

Customers Benefit from More Flexibility, More Choice; More Ways to Manage Data Needs Abroad

DALLAS, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* today announced the launch of AT&T DataConnect Pass Global — a lineup of international pay-as-you-go data packages now available on AT&T-certified laptops and netbooks. The announcement expands AT&T’s portfolio of pay-as-you-go data services, providing domestic and now international data passes designed to meet individual needs and budgets without a long-term commitment.

Ideal for international business travelers and vacationers alike, the passes provide data coverage in more than 100 countries, including Canada, Mexico, countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Available in 30-day session increments, packages can help travelers better manage their data usage abroad and at rates significantly lower than pay-per-use service. Data packages include:

• DataConnect Pass Global 20MB for $24.99
• DataConnect Pass Global 50MB for $59.99
• DataConnect Pass Global 100MB for $119.99
• DataConnect Pass Global 200MB for $199.99

Data sessions may be purchased at Buy an AT&T DataConnect Pass Session, using a credit card or a debit card. Customers can also bill the charges to their wireless bill provided the postpaid wireless account has been active more than 90 days and has no past due charges. Set up is easy: customers create a username and password, provide their laptop or netbook SIM card and device serial numbers, complete the billing information and select the desired data package.

Once purchased, customers have the flexibility to specify when they want the 30-day session to begin, based on their travel itinerary. As a helpful reminder, customers will receive a courtesy text and email when their plan is close to expiring or when they are close to depleting the amount of data available with their session.

International packages are available to existing AT&T netbook or laptop customers. For complete details, visit AT&T DataConnect Pass Sessions.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

Restrictions apply. Time begins expiring immediately upon activation whether you are using the service or not. Once you consume your allotted data or your time expires, whichever occurs first, your data access will cease. Plans should be purchased before traveling outside the U.S., Puerto Rico or the U.S.V.I. For available countries and carriers, see DataConnect Legal Documents. Availability, quality of coverage while roaming are not guaranteed. Plans must begin within 365 days of purchase. Fees are non-refundable. For complete terms and conditions see DataConnect Pass/iPad™/Session-Based Wireless Data Services Agreement on Wireless Legal Documents.

DataConnect Pass Global packages are available to customers with an AT&T enabled LaptopConnect Card, embedded Laptop Card or netbook that have a domestic AT&T Laptop Connect plan currently. Customers that already have their own AT&T compatible device, but do not currently subscribe to a domestic Laptop Connect Plan, may need to purchase a new SIM card to activate service.

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We just received a shot of an internal AT&T memo detailing the carrier’s intention to start transitioning to LTE-capable SIM cards. AT&T has started preparing employees for a new SIM card that will be used for LTE handsets and devices, all except the iPhone 4 since that uses a microSIM card. AT&T tells employees to verify the SIM card is correct by checking the SKU on the card even though the new LTE cards are visibly different, just to be safe we’re assuming. It also appears there will be up to “eight different SIMs” during the transition, so verifying the SKU might be the only way to go. Well, it’s a start, no?

AT&T reported a huge quarter Thursday morning, once again propelled by the success of Apple’s iPhone. The nation’s second largest wireless carrier activated a record 5.2 million iPhone units during Q3 2010 — a huge leap from its previous record of 3.2 million in a single quarter. 24% of those iPhone activations were new customers.

More highlights from the quarter include:

• Record 2.6 million net subscriber additions (30% increase year-over-year)
• 745,000 net postpaid subscriber additions
• 321,000 net prepaid subscriber additions
• 92.8 million total wireless subscribers
• Record-low churn of 1.32% (down 0.10% year-over-year)
• Consolidated revenue up 2.8% year-over-year to 31.6 billion
• Operating income was up $100 million year-over-year but operating expenses were up $700 million

The real takeaway from AT&T’s impressive Q3 is unfortunately a negative one, even in the short term: the iPhone makes up a massive amount of AT&T’s business. Should the carrier lose iPhone exclusivity next year, which looks increasingly likely, the results could be disastrous.

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Microsoft announced last week that it would be giving away free 3-month Zune Passes to customers who sign up for Windows Phone 7 pre-order notifications and then go on to place pre-orders. AT&T apparently wants in on the action as well, as the carrier plans to give away a free “Entertainment Pack” with each Windows Phone 7 device purchase. The pack consists of a 1-month Zune Pass with 10 free song downloads, a month of U-verse Mobile service and a free copy of the 3-D puzzle game ilomilo. The deal sounds pretty sweet, though takers should note that unless the service is canceled, they will automatically get charged a $10 monthly subscription fee after their free 30-day U-verse Mobile trials expire. Ahhh… nothing like a good old fashioned Columbia House scam to welcome people to the new Windows Phone 7 family.

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Friendly reminder, folks… RIM’s latest candybar device and lower cost QWERTY 3G handset are now available for purchase from your friendly AT&T store. If you need a refresh on the products, here we go:

BlackBerry Pearl 9100

• SureType keyboard
• 3G
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• 1150mAh battery
• $149 with 2 year agreement

BlackBerry Curve 9300

• QWERTY keyboard
• 3G
• Wi-Fi b,g,n
• GPS
• 2 megapixel camera
• $99 with 2 year agreement

If you’re in the market for a BlackBerry handset from AT&T which one are you going to go for? Or do you think you’ll hold out for the BlackBerry Bold 9780?

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Android fans on AT&T have gotten the short end of the stick more times than we can count. It took far too long for AT&T to hop on board the Android bus and now that the wheels are going round and round, AT&T subscribers are still forced to deal with a less-than-stellar handset selection compared to the competition. In an effort to make amends, AT&T today announced the availability of its U-verse mobile app for Android handsets. The app gives Android users the ability to schedule recordings on their DVR boxes remotely. U-verse mobile can also download and play TV shows and movies that have already been recorded on a user’s DVR. AT&T’s U-verse app for Android is available immediately for the Samsung Captivate and HTC Aria, with versions for the Motorola FLIPSIDE and Motorola BRAVO set to follow soon. Unfortunately, the app is not available for the ancient OS build still residing on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Hit the jump for the full press release.

AT&T Expands U-verse Mobile to Android Devices

U-verse Mobile Now Available for U-verse TV Customers with the Samsung Captivate, HTC Aria; Coming to the Motorola BRAVO, Motorola FLIPSIDE

DALLAS, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* today launched AT&T U-verse® Mobile for several Android devices(TM), including the Samsung Captivate(TM), HTC Aria, and coming soon, the Motorola BRAVO™ and Motorola FLIPSIDE™. U-verse Mobile is available today for AT&T Mobility customers on Android Market(TM), and is another example of how AT&T is delivering more TV content to customers across multiple devices and platforms.

With the Android device launches, U-verse Mobile is available on four mobile operating systems and will continue to expand to more devices in the future. U-verse Mobile is an app that lets U-verse TV subscribers browse the U-verse TV program guide, schedule and manage their DVR recordings, and for subscribers with qualifying TV plans, download hit TV shows over any Wi-Fi connection, and watch them on their qualifying smartphone from anywhere.

“We continue to innovate and integrate across devices, and we’re proud to bring the popular U-verse Mobile app to Android users,” said Jeff Weber, vice president of video services, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We’re already ahead of our competitors in delivering TV content across screens, and we’ll keep focusing on bringing content to customers in new ways.”

To enjoy U-verse Mobile content, you can browse or search a library of downloadable shows, and select which series or specific episode you want to download. The content is downloaded to your mobile phone over a Wi-Fi connection. All AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet customers have home Wi-Fi installed as part of their service and get access to AT&T’s entire national Wi-Fi network at no additional cost.

The app is available to all U-verse TV customers, and the ability to download and watch select content is available for customers that subscribe to the U300 package or higher. U-verse customers can upgrade their TV packages at any time with the Account Manager app on channel 9910 or at AT&T U-verse.

AT&T continues to expand TV watching to the devices that matter most to you, with hit TV shows available on U-verse TV, U-verse Online, U-verse TV on Xbox 360, and several smartphones with U-verse Mobile.

U-verse Mobile is the latest way that AT&T is mobilizing everything that’s important to customers — their favorite content, apps, entertainment and social networks. AT&T today delivers the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network as well as the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network.

AT&T U-verse TV is the only 100 percent Internet Protocol-based television (IPTV) service offered by a national service provider, making AT&T U-verse one of the most dynamic and feature-rich services available today. AT&T U-verse TV ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction in the North Central, South and West Regions,” according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Studies(SM). For additional information on AT&T U-verse — or to find out if it’s available in your area — visit AT&T U-verse.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

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One of our solid Apple sources has just let us know some pretty interesting (and exciting) information surrounding Apple’s upcoming iPhone devices. For starters, we have been told that iPhone model 3,2 — what everyone is assuming to be the Verizon (or at least CDMA-compatible) phone — just hit the “AP” testing stage. This is the very last stage before retail release; final hardware, almost final software. Here is the odd thing, though… the iPhone 3,2 unit, we have been exclusively told, contains a SIM card slot. This is interesting for a multitude of reasons, and presents several different scenarios:

• The iPhone 3,2 could be the mythical CDMA + GSM/HSPA device that would support Verizon, AT&T, and the other current worldwide iPhone 4 carriers frequencies. The mid-cycle refresh would bring an updated antenna design for the current iPhone 4 and bring CDMA-compatibility; essentially, Verizon Wireless subscribers would have the same device as AT&T subscribers.
• The iPhone 3,2 could be a CDMA-capable iPhone that houses a SIM card for global roaming capabilities; though that certainly seems more complicated than just having one single glove that would fit both hands.
• One last possibility that the iPhone model 3,2 would simply be a slightly different design that doesn’t suffer from the same antenna attenuation as the current model; though that would be a little disappointing.

As far as the next generation iPhone 5, our source has also indicated to us that device has hit the “EVT” stage in the development cycle. The “EVT” stage is the engineering verification test phase, before the “DVT” phase.

Today, via a press release, AT&T announced that beginning on October 28 the nation’s second largest wireless provider will be selling all six iPad models directly to businesses. The company quipped that the move is “part of an initiative to help companies increase productivity and flexibility.” Michael Antieri, AT&T’s president of Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions, had this to say: “iPad is a great fit for our enterprise customers across a wide range of industries who are looking for ways to increase business productivity and offer greater flexibility. This new offer further strengthens AT&T’s commitment to provide businesses with the tools they need to accelerate mobility-led productivity.” Hit the jump for the full press release

AT&T to Sell Apple’s iPad to Businesses of All Sizes

iPad Available Directly Through AT&T for Corporate Users to Help Accelerate Business Productivity

Dallas, Texas, October 15, 2010

AT&T* announced today that the company will sell all three iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models directly to business customers as part of an initiative to help companies increase productivity and flexibility. AT&T will offer attractive post-paid mobile broadband price plans for the iPad which will be available through AT&T business account representatives beginning Thursday, October 28. This new offer is available for customers whose AT&T wireless bills are paid for by their employer.

“iPad is a great fit for our enterprise customers across a wide range of industries who are looking for ways to increase business productivity and offer greater flexibility,” said Michael Antieri, President, Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. “This new offer further strengthens AT&T’s commitment to provide businesses with the tools they need to accelerate mobility-led productivity.”

“We are getting many requests for help on iPad strategies for the enterprise,” writes Ted Schadler, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester Research, Inc. in the July 2010 Forrester blog posting, How Are You Using iPad For Business?. “iPads are a tremendously empowering technology that any employee can buy.”

Today’s announcement is the newest offer from AT&T’s Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions Group, which is focused on helping to enable business model transformation through mobile applications, machine-to-machine solutions and mobile services. The group complements AT&T’s Emerging Devices Organization which focuses on wirelessly enabling devices for consumers.

iPad will be available for corporate purchase with a corporate service subscription from AT&T.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

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Engadget has just published information on the availability of several handsets coming to Best Buy. First, for those of you that enjoy pale phones: the Samsung Fascinate, for Verizon Wireless, and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, for AT&T, will both be available — in white — on October 24th. Also seen in the above image is the HTC Surround Windows Phone 7 handset with an availability date of November 8 and the Dell Streak with an availability date of October 24. All four handsets can be reserved today with a $50 deposit. This did get us thinking… do you prefer mobile devices in white? Hit the jump to vote in our poll.

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Today, HP announced that AT&T’s Palm Pixi Plus would — finally — be getting the webOS 1.4.5 update. The new bits add several new bug fixes and, most notably, add support for Palm’s Plug-in Developer Kit (PDK). Hit the “Updates” application on your AT&T Pixi to manually grab the new code.

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Today, AT&T announced AT&T Encrypted Mobile Voice; “the first carrier-provided two factor encryption service for calls on the AT&T network.” The service, which will be available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices, combines KoolSpan’s TrustChip and SRA International’s One Vault Voice. As the press release explains:

TrustChip is a fully hardened, self-contained crypto engine inserted into the smartphone’s microSD slot. Embedded with AT&T TrustGroup, the KoolSpan TrustChip offers the strength of additional hardware authentication, enables encrypted calling interoperability with a defined group of other AT&T TrustGroup users and can be managed over-the-air. [...] SRA’s One Vault Voice integrates the security functions of the TrustChip with a feature rich application that provides an intuitive user interface. This powerful combination allows users to easily place and receive encrypted calls by integrating with the mobile phone’s standard operation and address book to provide a user friendly and seamless security option.

Probably not something you are going to be using, but pretty cool nonetheless. Hit the read link for the full press release.

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Here is what we have just found out… AT&T recently modified their early upgrade program for smartphones, and due to smartphones becoming “increasingly more sophisticated” — and the cost of the devices increasing — AT&T has increased their $75 early upgrade fee to $200. That means a BlackBerry Bold 9700 that would have cost you $275 will now cost you $399. Quick messaging and basic phones are not subjected to the new change. AT&T told employees that, “This change to our exception pricing is necessary to maintain our ability to provide customers with the best selection of devices and maintain our leadership in the Smartphone category.” And hey, with Verizon charging a $350 ETF for advanced devices, it was only a matter of time before AT&T started exploring their options.

Last week, we told you about wireless-carrier Sprint releasing the rough and rugged Motorola ES400S; an enterprise device certified for MIL-STD 810G, a 4-foot drop, and IP42 sealing specifications. Today, AT&T announced that it too would be offering the ES400 to its business customers. The device, which runs the Windows Embedded Handheld platform, has a 3-inch VGA touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi a/b/g, 1 GB ROM, 256 MB RAM, GPS, and a 1540 mAh battery. Pricing and availability were not specified in AT&T’s press release; Sprint will be selling the device for $499 on-contract.

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