Now this, is awesome. Sprint and Google have just announced that they have worked together to give practically all Sprint wireless subscribers the ability to start using Google Voice immediately without any effort. It will literally be as simple as entering your number into your Google Voice account; the system will recognize that it’s a Sprint number and ask you if you’d like to use it as your Google Voice number. The best part? Google Voice apps aren’t needed anymore, and this works with practically any phone and OS. Android, BlackBerry, feature phones — it doesn’t matter. Any calls or text messages you send from your phone will appear in your Google Voice account, and you’ll be able to place calls or send texts from your Google Voice account online as well. What’s even cooler is that when you make international calls, it will automatically use Google Voice, thus affording deep discounts compared to standard international calling.

In response to last week’s tsunami, AT&T has announced that its wireless customers, in the United States and Puerto Rico, can call or text Japan for free through March 31st. AT&T has also said it will not charge its wireless postpaid customers for international long distance calls or texts to Japan that were placed after March 11th.  Similarly, AT&T wireline customers can seek credit for up to 60 minutes of direct calls placed to Japan during the March 11th to March 31st time period. Anyone who wishes to donate $10 to the Red Cross can do so by texting “redcross” to 90999.

DALLAS, March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T* today announced it has implemented international calling and texting support efforts for U.S. residential wireless and wireline consumers trying to connect with loved ones in Japan, following last week’s tragic earthquake and tsunami.

Effective beginning last week, March 11, and continuing through March 31, AT&T wireless postpaid customers will not be charged for:

• International long distance usage from the United States and Puerto Rico to Japan
• Text messages to Japan, originated from a U.S. wireless number

In addition, and also effective March 11 through March 31, residential wireline customers can seek credits for up to 60 minutes of direct dial calling to Japan:

• Upon receiving their wireline bill, customers may call AT&T to receive adjusted calling for up to 60 minutes. In other words, no charges for up to 60 minutes of call time from the United States to Japan between March 11 and March 31.

For any of the above activity, customers will either see no charges reflected on their monthly statement, or they will see a full credit applied to their statement for activity between March 11 and March 31.

“We want to help our customers connect with loved ones in Japan in anyway we can,” said Mark Collins, senior vice president, Voice and Data Products, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Connecting with family and friends is most important at times like this— we want to make it as easy and worry free as possible for our customers.”

Still available, AT&T wireless customers can text “redcross” to 90999 to give a $10 donation to help the Red Cross with disaster support efforts in the area.  No text message fees apply.

And, TV Japan – the 24 hour Japanese news channel – is available for free through March 17 to all U-verse® TV subscribers, allowing viewers to follow the news and recovery efforts. TV Japan can be found on channel 3680.

*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.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. A leader in mobile broadband, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries.  It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com.  This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT. Find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ATT to discover more about our consumer and wireless services or at www.Facebook.com/ATTSmallBiz to discover more about our small business services.

© 2011 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. Mobile broadband not available in all areas. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies.

SOURCE AT&T Inc.

The FCC today announced that it will hold an auction on July 19, 2011 for sixteen licenses in the 700MHz spectrum. The government agency has two licenses that operate in the 698-704MHz and 728-734MHz frequencies (Block A) along with fourteen licenses that operate in the 704-710MHz and 734-740MHz frequencies (Block B); all sixteen licenses have a 2 x 6MHz pairing and 12MHz of bandwidth. The 700MHz spectrum is currently what wireless providers AT&T and Verizon Wireless are using to build out their 4G, LTE networks in the United States. The proceeding has been designated with the name “Auction 92.”

[Via Phone Scoop]

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You know we love us some Sonos gear around these parts, and Sonos’ latest announcement definitely caught our attention. Today at CEDIA, Sonos introduced the Sonos Wireless Dock. Its purpose? To let you inject all of your tunes from your iPod or iPhone seamlessly into your existing Sonos wireless network. This means regardless of however many zones you have set up, all of your music will be instantly, and of course wirelessly accessible. While there’s a good chance you’d have most of the music you’d want to play from your iPod already on your computer, and your computer already hooked up to the Sonos network, the product makes sense if you’re a notebook type of guy (something not always connected), or if you have a bunch of guests that come over. Just plug in their iPod and you’re rockin’ out. It launches “by the end of October” for $119.

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According to recent survey, New Yorkers literally don’t have time to talk on their cell phones. In terms of rank, New York is #15 in the nation for total number of calls, yet almost dead last in terms of actual call durations. If you’re from New York, you’re probably shaking your head in agreement as we’re most likely to take a call while doing seven hundred other things; say what we have to say, and jump off. What state would you guess holds the title for most prolific cellphone users? That would be Georgia. Because everyone is friendly in Georgia. Some more quick data from the study: teens send almost 3,000 text messages a month, and women talk on the phone 22% more than men. Though I doubt anyone is surprised by those last figures…

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If there’s one thing T-Mobile USA is known for, it’s solid customer service. J.D. Power and Associates found this out as well, as they have just announced that T-Mobile USA is the sole highest-ranking wireless provider in “Overall Customer Care Performance.” Congrats, T-Mobile. Now if you could only expand coverage and launch some kick-ass devices…

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One of our reliable Apple sources has just filled us in on some of the company’s iTunes plans, and they’re exciting. We have been told iTunes will be getting a huge cloud capability that many people have been asking for (and logically thought would happen sooner or later). These new capabilities are broken down into three groups:

1. Streaming music and movies from Apple’s servers to your computers, devices, etc.
2. Streaming music and movies from your home computers to your other computers, remote devices, etc.
3. Wireless iTunes syncing with devices

For the first point, we have been told that this will work pretty much like you’d expect it to… pretty much any Apple device with wireless capability will have te ability to stream purchased content directly from Apple’s servers, thus eliminating the need for a lot of local storage. With the second point, Apple will reportedly let you be the content distributor to your own computers and devices, as any purchased content that’s locally on your computer will be able to be streamed using your internet connection out to your devices. Lastly, yes, wireless syncing of iTunes for devices.

For wireless syncing, we are told it will work pretty seamlessly. Any apps you buy for instance on your iPhone will immediately sync to your computer, changes to your calendar, or notes, or contacts will also automatically update on your computer as well. What good would all these new features be without some new devices? Apple’s traditional fall event (or maybe even before it) should bring at least “two new devices with camera/camcorder capabilities.” Well, there you have it!

Thanks, Lindsey S.!

The AP reports that U.S. President Barack Obama will “double the available amount of wireless communications spectrum over the next 10 years in an effort to keep up with the ever-growing demand for high-speed video and data transmission to cell phones, laptops and other mobile devices.” The plan, which will call for the auctioning off of 500 MHz of federally owned spectrum, will be put into a Presidential Memorandum to be signed today. The White House, in an official statement said: “This initiative will catalyze private sector investment, contribute to economic growth and help to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.” The AP went onto report that revenue generated from the auction would go to “public safety, infrastructure investments and deficit reduction.”

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Tiered data plans have been part of RIM’s long term strategy, and we safely assume the boys and girls in Waterloo are pretty happy at the news this morning. RIM let us know that:

These new pricing plans will translate to savings for BlackBerry customers due to the industry-leading efficiency of the BlackBerry platform. Thanks to RIM’s longstanding focus on wireless data efficiency and investment in related technologies and infrastructure, the BlackBerry platform is significantly more efficient than other mobile platforms and this leads to a major advantage for users with tiered pricing plans

Additionally, to put this in perspective, BlackBerry consumers use about 54 MB of (compressed/optimized) data per month on average (compared to data usage averages that are 3-5 times higher for other brands) according to Consumer Reports, “which suggests that the large majority of BlackBerry consumers will now qualify to use the $15/month data plan.”

Mr. Jim Balsillie chimed in with a quote as well:

“AT&T’s strategic pricing move is great news for BlackBerry smartphone customers,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “We envision a day when all mobile phones are smartphones and we believe AT&T’s new service plans, together with RIM’s leading portfolio of BlackBerry products and services, will help attract a much broader range of consumers.”

We were initially told that these new data plans didn’t affect BlackBerry plans yet, but it seems they do in fact cover every AT&T smartphone. We’ve reached out to RIM to find out more information about the Enterprise BlackBerry data feature.

UPDATE: One of our AT&T guys tells us the $45 AT&T Enterprise BlackBerry plan drops to $40/mo. So much for a 200MB Enterprise plan for $20/month…

In a press release issued early Wednesday morning, T-Mobile announced that its current CEO Robert Dotson will be stepping down after 15 years with the company. Citing a desire to spend more time with his family, Dotson will pass the reigns of the company to CEO-designate Philip Humm on July 1st. Humm, who served as CEO of T-Mobile Deutschland from 2005 to 2008 and is currently the CRO of sales and services in Europe for Deutsch Telekom, will officially be given the role of CEO in February.  Dotson will stay on board with T-Mobile as a non-executive board member until May of 2011.

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The Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance have been working diligently on the next generation of high-speed, consumer Wi-Fi…and its name is WiGig. WiGig, which will run on the 60 GHz  (yes, Gigahertz) spectrum, can reportedly reach speeds of up to 7 gigabits per second. In all likelihood the 60 GHz band will be used for short-range, extremely fast transfers within a local network, while the more familiar 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels (802.11 g/n) will be used for backwards compatibility, improved Wi-Fi range, and connection stability.  “We have practically all of the Wi-Fi chip manufacturers on board,” boasted WiGig Alliance President and Chairman Ali Sadri. The Alliances hope to see the new hardware in routers and computers within the next one to two years.

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Sick of Apple iPad news yet? Here’s one more we couldn’t resist… It’s not a secret that both the regular Wi-Fi iPad and now iPad Wi-Fi + 3G are jailbroken, but what’s really interesting is that the world-famous iPhone Dev Team has managed to get the native SMS application from the iPhone working on the iPad. Oh, it’s viciously transplanted for now, but be honest, if they can get this going properly, who wouldn’t want an SMS app on their new iPad? Whether you can actually send or receive messages on AT&T in general is another story. Video is after the jump!

Bluetooth SIG announced on Tuesday that the much anticipated v4.0 update to the Bluetooth protocol will be finalized and sent to manufacturers by the end of June 2010. The next iteration of the mobile connectivity protocol will feature ultra-low power consumption that could theoretically be powered for years by a coin-celled battery, faster transfer rates, and an increased range that can extend up to 200 feet and beyond. These features could expand the practical usage of this technology to a new range of devices including sports and fitness products, personal health products, security products, and home entertainment systems. Look for Bluetooth v4.0-enabled devices to hit the retail market in late 2010 or early 2011.

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Big news coming out of the NY/NJ/CT tri-state cable companies, and it’s downright exciting. Cablevision, Time Warner, and Comcast have all teamed up to announce a roaming agreement that will allow their subscribers to freely roam on any of the companies Wi-Fi networks. Think about that for a second… as long as you are a Cablevision, Time Warner, or Comcast customer, you can get free Wi-Fi access at practically limitless locations (thousands) all across the NY metro area from all three providers, and connect to any of their networks from your computer, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry — whatever. According to the press release, authentication for this to happen is already in place starting today, so if you were just sticking to your own cable provider’s magic hotspot, fell free to mosey on over to one of the partner networks. Just try not to make Verizon too jealous, ok?

I’m a shipping freak. I love tracking packages, and I love knowing what happens when a package is sent. I have a pretty good understanding of how everything works — when and why packages are delayed, even when FedEx and UPS internally aren’t even so sure why. Everyone knows Apple’s iPads are due to be received (and available in stores) this Saturday, the 3rd. So, of course, Apple doesn’t want a single person getting an iPad early. Well, how do you completely control that? You request a block on delivery with your shipper of choice until the actual delivery date comes up.

But that doesn’t always do it. Sometimes there’s a mistake made, sometimes the local hub doesn’t care, or the package is there and no one notices and it gets sent out on the delivery truck. How do you completely fix this? You do what Apple is doing now. Shipments of iPads are due to reach the U.S. tomorrow and the next day, and if this was a normal shipment, the packages would be delivered on April 1st, not April 3rd. But, they can’t pass through Louisville, KY (UPS’ main hub) before passing through customs clearance. Since it’s an international shipment, there’s no way around that. Because Apple is shipping these things in bulk (yes, bulk), the easiest way to do this is to have the merchandise pre-cleared when it leaves China with UPS’s service WorldEase. The interesting thing though, is that U.S. Customs has not received any clearance papers yet — a surefire way to completely control the shipments until the actual delivery date and 100% bypass any possible shipper mistakes.

So. Smart.